Does your phone have the Alexa app? Because you can talk to your phone and add items to your list in the car. You might need to turn on a setting in the Alexa app to listen for for the voice prompt.

I know many photographers who rent extra camera bodies and lens, either to test them out before a purchase or if they need an extra body for an event. It's a great idea to play around with the camera before purchasing. I've only rented lenses before but that's just 'cause I like my camera body. If you're looking for an SLR, I'd recommend to check out the used market. With so many photogs switching to mirrorless, you can find top of the line SLR's for great prices and in great condition.

Yup. My sister-in-law and her family. They also don't believe that any of the Mars missions are real and believe many covid-based conspiracies. Her parents were both big hippies in the 1960s but she had a really normal education, even went to a decent college. After I learned this about her, it apparently really affected me for a few weeks. I was astounded that she has a pretty large media platform and so many people trust what she says; I don't feel I would ever be able to trust what she says if she's wrong on such a simple to prove issue.

I had a phase in college where it felt like I kept messing up and getting in trouble. So I made the shortest goal possible before work one day. My goal was simply to Not Get in Trouble for 1 Day. It wasn't to be the best cafeteria manager or to make the best donuts. Simply to not get in trouble. After a week or two of meeting that goal (Yay!) I expanded it. Even today, decades later, I still remind myself that "Making Mistakes are Simply Another Way of Doing Things." Hopefully your son can come up with some extremely short-term, quantifiable objective that he is sure to succeed at. And then he can add another one of that new list of successes.

I installed a timer on the faucet when my kids were young. It automatically shut off at my pre-determined time. Found it on amazon.

Can't you turn off two factor authentication?

My 13yo daughter has been writing short stories and a novel for years. She shows it on her phone to friends at school but is wanting to share it more efficiently and to a wider audience. Does this exist? Her desires: share and connect with like-minded writers My needs: The ability to moderate and heavily protect her (she is still a tween after all). Would a personal blog, Wattpad app, Archive of Our Own, Writefreely (I could figure out how to set up an invite-only instance maybe), or something else work?

Things to think about with yarn: Though alpaca is one of the warmest yarns, it has very little elasticity, meaning it easily loses its shape. Same issue with Cashmere. To counteract that, these yarns are often combined with wool to bring in some of the necessary elasticity you want in hats (scarves/shawls don't really need much or any). If you wanted to commit to only using alpaca or cashmere, it's often recommended that you crochet/knit extra tight. Use smaller hooks/needles than you normally would at the whatever weight of yarn you're using. I made a 100% alpaca shawl and it's very warm, has wonderful drape, but has definitely grown or stretched out over time. Also, a hat I once made out of yak (before I knew of this tendencies of non-wool animal yarns) eventually stretched too much to be of any use.

Google News is good. You can select specific news sources.

It's is so very hard watching our loved ones act so stubbornly when you have what could be a safer living situation. However, we too, had to wait through several crisis' until my father-in-law was forced to move. He fell and broke his neck (but was not paralyzed) but that didn't get him to move. He crashed his car several times (didn't move but did consent to stop driving). He finally fell and broke his hip and since he had always refused to widen doorways or put in ramps, he physically couldn't live there anymore. It sounds like your parents have chosen to live in that house in those conditions. They will experience the consequences of that. And that is their choice. You can prepare for the eventual crisis. You can have numbers of assured living facilities, etc. But as an outsider, what I'm seeing is that you'll need to wait for them to be ready on their timeline.

Reporting in again after 6 weeks in my C25K plan. When I started on Sept 1, I just managed a 2 mile walk at a 17:11 pace. Today I finished 3.59 miles at a 13:59 pace! I originally could barely jog for 1 minute. Now, I'm actually running! And for 5-7 minutes at a time. I only start walking now because my route has taken me up yet another hill. I think the fact that I live in such a hilly town has helped. Yesterday's 4 mile jog was so hilly, my app noted that I had an elevation gain of 259 feet. Speaking of yesterday. I have a story... I was walking up my driveway after finishing my 4 mile jog. I reached for my house keys in my waistband pocket but they weren't there! After searching every pocket, I realized I must have accidentally knocked them out when I was getting a snack. So, I had to retrace my steps. After about 1/5 mile I found them on the side of the road. They had been run over but the car opener thingy wasn't broken. Silly me. So, I suppose it was a way to get some extra steps in. 😉

Feeling great here! I've successfully gone out for a run or walk every weekday this month. I'm trying to follow a C25K progression chart I found and am on week 3. Today I jogged for 2 minutes and walked for 30 seconds. Occasionally I would jog for 3 or 4 minutes instead. I know that I can walk a 5k at a leisurely pace but I want to be able to run for a solid 5k or even 10k without walking. As you can tell, today was the first day I completed that distance. Now, my goal is to keep making that distance but run more and walk less.

I've seen several different schedules online that generally follow a 6 week or so progression of something like "walk 1 min, run 1 min" until you're running more than walking. I didn't know how to manage that derailed timekeeping in the midst of exercising so I'm just running until I can't, walking only long enough to catch my breath, and then doing that again. We'll see how it all goes. I'm also using mapmyrun to track some basic stats 'cause statistics are fun. I don't have a 5k in mind, but we'll see as time goes by. My main goal is to, over time, get a bit more fit and to feel more comfortable in my clothes.

Don't mind me. I'm just sneaking into this topic and will mainly hide against the wall. I decided this week to start a Couch to 5k and successfully jogged/walked on Thursday and Friday. I was planning to head out today but it was 80° and humid at 6am and it's headed up to 108° today. I don't really like announcing to my husband about plans like this because he'll get waaay too excited and encourage/nag me about it. So, just you invisible friends get to know for now. My plan so far: Sun, Tue, Thu, Fri Right after I drop kids off at school, I'll jog/walk until I can consistently run a solid 5k.

Used to be a university library director. Thinking of becoming a programmer someday.

I've got some petty for you. 😉 In our church, the previous ministry leader wrote a song that the congregation then sung frequently. It's generally a decent modern song about God's dependability. My beef with it is the lyric that goes "You haven't failed me yet." Yet! "Yet" implies that something might still happen. "I haven't gotten a raise yet." "I haven't been late to work yet." These all mean that these actions could still happen. This song spends so much time focused on the "yet" that I keep expecting to hear from the music guy about a time that God did indeed fail him. Like, God tried and all to be dependable but just couldn't. 🤷‍♀️ And! It'd be an easy fix to get rid of the "yet." So, I just fix it in my mind when that song comes up. But I also grumble in my heart. 😉

Nonegon glasses. I was drinking wonderful reverse osmosis water at my parents' house when I noticed the glass wouldn't line up with the lines in the tablecloth fabric. Counting the edges, I found only nine! Ikea apparently chose to embrace chaos the day they made these. My kids and I (correct usage here!) even learned the name of this rare shape due to these glasses.

I live in California and every school I ever attended and have sent my children to have individual classrooms that open to the outside. I have heard that other climates have larger buildings with corridors with classrooms branching off; likely to keep kids out of harsh winter weather. However, in the areas of California I've lived in, we don't build schools like that; we have lovely weather. But, doors aren't the solution we're looking for here.

I can find them in the next county over, about 5 minutes away but you're not supposed to bring them into our "quarantine area." 🤷🏼‍♀️

I couldn't get a lemon tree to plant in my yard. But that's due to some bug destroying citrus trees all over southern California leading to a quarantine of existing trees. Apparently there's a black market of citrus that some people resort to, but I'll just drive over to my father in law and pick the lemons he doesn't want.

Really been loving my Taos sneakers. I wear them for the longest days of walking and my feet still feel fine. The tend to run right at $100 but mine have lasted a long time.

I have a specific Gmail filter that looks for "survey" or "review" in the subject line and drops them in a folder to rot and fester for months until I delete them. Keeps them out of my inbox and doesn't automatically delete the very rare legitimate "survey" type email.

Yes. Email marketing companies have a variety of statistics they can gather, including if an email was deleted unread. They can also automate sending of new emails based on those responses. I recommend you unsubscribe or at least set up an automation in your email box that filters "newletters" into specific folders that you can look at or delete later when you feel like it. I unsubscribed from most companies junk mail. For the rest that I really did want to read (kids' school weekly newsletters, my favorite knitwear designer's newsletters), I made a folder for each one and have Gmail skip the inbox and whoosh those emails to their folders. I'll read them, or not, when I have time.

I heard stories about my grandfather my entire life and feel like I know him (and would love him) despite having never met him. He's one of the people I name whenever I'm asked "what person, dead or living, would you like to meet." I'm very grateful for my mother including him in her family stories and giving me a robust picture of a grandpa I never got to meet. I hope to do the same for my kids and their grandparents who have passed too early.

This is happening in our town as well.