My doctor did a blood test for magnesium and potassium levels because of the terrible leg cramps I've been having off and on. The tests said that both are fine. I don't think my calcium levels are low either because I have enough in my diet, but I haven't had that tested. I suspect that dehydration may be contributing - one time they occurred just after flying to Europe and those long flights can be very dehydrating. But drinking a lot to stay hydrated doesn't seem to solve the problem. Barb, what is "the soap thing"? These really can be terribly painful. The worst for me is that I sometimes get them in opposing muscles at the same time, e.g. in the arch and the top of the foot or the shin and the calf at the same time, so I can't do a stretch. Heat is the only way I've found that works to relax the cramping muscles once it's happening.

First of all if you have an air handler thats 13 years old you may want to consider a replacement. Just not with that guy, thats all. A leak repair in a coil in an air handler can be a royal pain in the butt. The actual repair of the hole or crack can take less then 5 minutes but you can easily spend half a day taking the thing apart to the point where you can access where the leak is. So now you get a bill for all this labor etc. which will probably give you "poopy pants" and somewhere in the not to distant future another problem arises. Maybe the blower motor quits, or the drain pan has rusted out and water is leaking all over, if its an air handler in the attic you probably made a hell of a mess to your sheetrock ceiling and if its over a furnace who knows what damage it can do in there to cost you more bucks. And heres another scenario. That old unit was rusting out and the blower bracket lets go. You hear one hell of a racket coming out of your duct work, (oops, more poopy pants) and you find out the whole blower assembly has to be replaced. But the unit is so old getting the right parts are almost impossible. So its 95 degrees out and no relief in sight for days. The service tech appears to be sympathetic to your dilemma but inside he's saying "serves you right you cheap SOB, I wanted to replace that POS when you first started having problems" So you try to make a deal, you ask him if he would be interested in a can of freon as part of the deal for a new unit. You say you paid over 300 dollars for it and only used a few pounds. The guy says sure, I'll know off 50 bucks to take it off your hands and I'm doing you a favor, you're not supposed to have the stuff anyway! One of the interesting side bars of the heating and air conditioning trade is that you collect sooooo much money from some people whose original intention was to save themself a few bucks by doing it half as---!

Thanks Brooke! Argh: that link doesn't work either! It says "shared album" not available. Here are some photo ideas of how my panel is supposed to look. Thank goodness my cabinetmaker mentioned his ideas yesterday, because he misunderstood what I wanted. First, my inspiration photo (my dishwasher will have framing all around it like this one, but will have one door under the fake drawer, instead of two). However, none of the original drawers in my kitchen are inset--they are all overlay. And I want the fake DW drawer to be overlay. The cabinetmaker thought I wanted it inset. Here is an original drawer and cabinet combo on the other side of my kitchen. I want the DW panel to look exactly like this. Except not crooked and with fewer gaps! Ah--my poor old cabinets! He hesitated about this. I guess it is more work to do an overlay drawer piece and attach it to the panel. But he agreed to try it. Here is my drawing that I initially made for the kitchen. The DW panel will have hinges and a latch on the fake door part. I hope it works! I'm so stressed and nervous about all this. I'm going through the zantac like crazy! Francy

I love to cook. I like to prepare ingredients for cooking. I hate to clean up the mess I make while cooking! I don't mind polishing silver. I like to wash nice china. I hate to iron clothes, but I don't mind ironing table linens...I love using cloth napkins! I don't like to clean, pick up clutter, dust or scrub, although I know how to do all of the above. I love having pets. I don't like to clean up after them, but I cannot imagine life without a critter. I just noticed that I have four pairs of shoes on the floor. I would rather clean up dog vomit than maintain an orderly closet. I want an orderly closet, but I don't wanna maintain it. Come over for a visit...just don't go near the closets.