The "This Might Be A Stupid Question, But...." Thread

[Outdoor Girl]

Do Americans have terraced houses, like this:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terraced_houses.jpg

?

Yes, San Francisco has them.  I'm sure they can be found in other hilly cities as well.

New Orleans has similar houses, but they aren't on a hill (it's flatter than a pancake there).  You can find rows of "shotgun" houses, so named because a bullet can travel from front to back in a straight line!

Thanks.  The "hill" isn't really the bit I meant, I just meant any row of connected houses.

They are called "row houses" in a lot of places here.

Also called townhouses in my area.

[Tea Drinker]

I'm used to those being called attached houses, and yes we have them.

Brownstones are also usually attached: "brownstone" refers to the material used, and generally to three- or four-story houses with a significant flight of stairs up from the street.

[Diane AKA Traska]

Rowhomes here.  I live in one.  NEVER again.

[Snooks]

I've started a thread to talk about house types here: http://www.etiquettehell.com/smf/index.php?topic=129820.0

[mbbored]

How does one start a gas-powered mower?

I'm house sitting and I've never used a gas-powered mower before (as a child chores were divided by gender and the only time I lived in a place with a lawn as an adult, I had a push power). I filled it up with gas, pushed the red button and pulled the cord but nothing happened. There's an extra handle as well: do I squeeze it or not?

There should be instructions on the machine.  I'm going to give you a general rundown; it may or may not work.

1. Make sure the gas is turned on.  Some mowers have a switch for this, some do not.  If there is no switch, you can assume the gas is on.
2.  The red button is the primer.  Push it 5-10 times in succession.
3.  Hold down the killswitch (the handle you're talking about) and pull the cord until the engine tries to turn over.
4.  Push the primer a few more times, hold down the handle, and pull the cord until the engine actually starts.  If you let go of that handle, the motor will stop.  If that does happen, you do not need to prime it again (you only do that when the motor has been off long enough to cool down), just hold the handle and pull the cord until it restarts.

If the machine has a choke, make sure it is open the first time you try to start it.  Once the motor starts running, slowly close it.  If the motor starts to sputter as you close it, stop until the motor runs solid, then start closing it again.  Repeat until it is closed and the motor is running smoothly.

One more thing to add: pull the cord as quickly and forcefully as you can. A slow pull will just make it cough at you in disgust. (Why no, I don't have trouble starting lawnmowers due to my weird arm strength, nooo...)

Thanks guys! It worked and I would've done a celebration dance but I was afraid I'd let go of the kill switch.

[Clockwork Banana]

And I'd like to thank the poster who confused the GF grill with cleaning the girly bits

I think this thread is ruined for me
[/quote
I am tickled pink to have been of service.  ;

[/b]

In my lurking  I somehow missed this thread for the last two years, and I am all of on page 39 or so.  But I could not let this one pass.

"Tickled pink".  I see what you did there!  Bwah!!

[Cherry91]

Mom uses Ivory - anything else left her hands torn up for years - that said, she still washes dishes for the two of them by hand instead of using the dishwasher......I don't know why.....but it's her house and her two plates, two forks, two spoons, etc. so she can do what she wants to.

Dad does dry them, I understand.

Personally - I'd rather run the dishwasher - but I'm the one with a sinus infection and on antibiotics for the next two weeks.

My MIL did the same.  I suspect a strong streak of OCPD there, since one time when they were visiting, I'd put the dishes in the machine and let it sit because it wasn't full.  MIL fussed and fretted all evening about how those dishes ought to bother me.  And why didn't I wash them before they went in the machine?  How did I know that they would be CLEAN?

I call my dishwasher the dirty dishes cupboard because it only gets run every three days or so.  I love my dishwasher.

When I was at university, not having a dishwasher drove me mad because it meant there was no where to put dirty dishes but the sink or the countertops, so they were constantly in the way if you weren't able to wash them the second you were done eating.

[Ser Lucien Liliane]

Here's another one.

When I was wee, I rather enjoyed a series of books. They were mystery books, and the main character/heroine was named Susan Sand. I remember in one book she was solving a mystery at a ski chalet, and she had a couple of good friends who always got into these messes with her. Does anyone know the name of the series and/or author?

[Ereine]

Is it this one http://www.series-books.com/susansand/susansand.html ?

[Ser Lucien Liliane]

Yes, that's it! Thank you so much, Ereine!

[Elfmama]

Would a vet require proof of ownership before performing 'debarking' surgery on a dog?  I was thinking today about the little yap-dog that the neighbors had when I was a kid.  They'd put it outside when they went to work, and it would yap constantly for 8 hours, one of those high-pitched glass-breaking yaps.  My parents told the neighbors that it was bothering them, and the neighbors* shrugged and said "It doesn't bother US."  This was a very small town in the 1960's, so there were no noise ordinances other than neighborhood disapproval.  I think if such surgery had been available, my mother would have been happy to put down cash for it.  Probably all the other neighbors, too.

*(Same neighbors also had a Perfect Child, who never did anything naughty like taking away the ladder that was the only access to our storage-room playhouse while we were playing in there... ) 

[WolfWay]

Would a vet require proof of ownership before performing 'debarking' surgery on a dog?  I was thinking today about the little yap-dog that the neighbors had when I was a kid.  They'd put it outside when they went to work, and it would yap constantly for 8 hours, one of those high-pitched glass-breaking yaps.  My parents told the neighbors that it was bothering them, and the neighbors* shrugged and said "It doesn't bother US."  This was a very small town in the 1960's, so there were no noise ordinances other than neighborhood disapproval.  I think if such surgery had been available, my mother would have been happy to put down cash for it.  Probably all the other neighbors, too.

*(Same neighbors also had a Perfect Child, who never did anything naughty like taking away the ladder that was the only access to our storage-room playhouse while we were playing in there... )

I've never needed to "prove" I own my pets when taking them in for surgery (not that I've had my cats debarked  ), as long as I was the one paying for the surgery and I put down the required deposit. How would one prove one owns a dog anyway? It's not like strays came with ownership papers.

[kherbert05]

There are a couple of coworkers that catch feral cats in their neighborhood and at the school. They have them vaccinated yearly and fixed as soon as they catch them. They don't have to prove ownership.


My question


How did I skin my knee without falling down? Came home from a LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGG day (Left house 5:00 am arrived home 8:00 pm because of open house). Getting undressed there is dried blood down my leg and my knee is skinned. It isn't a fissure from atopic - it is a typical skinned knee. I didn't fall down.

[Virg]

Elfmama wrote:

"This was a very small town in the 1960's, so there were no noise ordinances other than neighborhood disapproval.  I think if such surgery had been available, my mother would have been happy to put down cash for it.  Probably all the other neighbors, too."

In a small town in the '60s I'm a bit surprised that nobody fixed the problem themselves, to be honest.  In most such places that dog would have "run away" in short order.

kherbert05 wrote:

"How did I skin my knee without falling down?"

You could have abraded it against something while you were walking.  Do you recall stumbling against anything or banging into a cabinet or something?

Virg

[squeakers]

Would a vet require proof of ownership before performing 'debarking' surgery on a dog?

Dogs who are debarked still make noise. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6fgssaxJBQ

I don't know why people get pets and then leave them outside.  It's not fair to the animals and not fair to the neighbors.