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Have needle, will travel. A certified nursing assistant by training, Millie Ferguson charges $25 an hour to keep you in stitches. She'll bring her rolling sewing machine to your home or office to make alterations, mend, hem or replace buttons. And Ferguson's not reluctant to tackle big jobs, either, like making banners for corporate shindigs or creating outfits for those who can't get out to shop. For the past five years, she's proved that a stitch in time...beats coming unraveled.
Man does not live by bread alone -- he also needs a knife to cut it. That's where Rolling Stone Mobile Knife Sharpening comes in. Your doctor won't make house calls, but Daryl Hoffman will -- if you happen to be a chef at one of Colorado's finer restaurants or country clubs, that is. Hoffman keeps all the tools of the professional sharpener's trade in an 11.5-ton custom-made truck, which he drives right up to the qualifying kitchen's door. Talk about a cutting-edge profession.

Best Place to Fill Up on Falafel While Filling Up

Haji Babba

Fuel and falafel may seem like an odd pairing, but the owners of this gas station/convenience store/Middle Eastern restaurant may be on to something. Although patrons get the usual potato chips with their petroleum, they also have the option of fueling up on a decent meal. The dining side of Haji Babba serves pitas stuffed with falafel, baba ghanouj, tabouli, hummus, baklava and pita bread made at the Haji Babba Bakery on East Colfax Avenue. And since the walls are covered with picturesque travel posters of Lebanon, you can almost forget that you're eating exotic food in a Lakewood filling station.
Magnesium chloride may be great on snowy streets, but it's hell to get off your car; touch-free just doesn't cut it. For an honest-to-God hands-on wash and polish, cruise on over to Sharper Cars, that purple building with the turquoise trim on the edge of downtown. With a complete line of detail services and a basic Po-Boy wash for only $10, you're sure to make a clean getaway.
As long as you're washing your car, why not clean up some messy spots in your personal life? Waterworks Car Wash stocks the usual deodorizers, tapes, atlases and car accessories -- which do in a pinch as a quick gift for that forgotten birthday or anniversary. More important, Waterworks also stocks an impressive array of greeting cards that rise to just about every occasion. Now you can polish off that tardy correspondence while they polish your car.

We know: The most entertaining do-it-yourself car wash, and certainly the cheapest, is in one of Denver's city parks, where you can pull up to the side of the road and pretend to polish the chrome while you're really watching all those hard bodies run by. But if the pressure's on for a fast cleanup, point your dirty car in the direction of this Hi-Performance station. This do-it-yourself car wash may look like nothing special -- in fact, it looks abandoned, and doesn't have any phone number that we could find -- but that just means there's never a line. And this Hi-Performance is high on the most critical component for a good cleaning: very hot water, and lots of it. Drop in a quarter and it just keeps coming --long after other car washes would have dried up. Drought? What drought?

A friend in need, as they say. Discount Tire usually fixes flats for free, even if it's somebody else's tire or you picked up your puncture on the other side of town. (Particularly tricky jobs might cost $5.) Of course, you don't want to ride around on a patched tire forever, so when you decide to buy a new one, remember who helped you out when you were flat busted.

It's bad enough that you have to go to court, but it adds insult to injury when you discover there's no reasonably priced place -- or any place at all -- to park within a mile of the Denver City and County Building. Often overlooked, however, is a small parking lot directly in front of Denver Police headquarters on Fourteenth Avenue, kitty-corner from the courthouse. Although many of the spaces are designated for visiting law-enforcement officers and members of the press, there are usually a couple of spots available. But whatever you do, don't forget to feed the meter.
Here's a tip: Declare those tips! Through the first three months of this year, the IRS has been holding free workshops in Colorado's mountain gaming towns to help casino employees fill out their 1040s, properly accounting for all those fabulous cash gratuities bestowed upon by them by happy winners. The self-employed and those just starting a business have also benefited from free IRS expertise. They're here to help, really. Bet on it.

A joint venture of the Colorado Attorney General's Office and Better Business Bureaus of Colorado, the Colorado Consumer Line is designed to provide a quick response to consumer concerns. Callers have their choice of listening to recorded tips or live employees, who answer questions and take complaints in both English and Spanish. Talking to a real person has another benefit: Your complaint may be passed on to the AG's office for investigation or added to the Better Business Bureau's files on local scofflaws. So don't wait to be fleeced by some smooth operator: Get on the phone and talk to folks who know the score.

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