Keep in mind that there are some rides where you straddle the seat. As long as your skirt can accommodate that you should be fine.

Maybe that’s part of it. My family randomly breaks into song a lot. (My oldest sing-narrates his math.) Makes it less weird to me.

Mine makes a perfectly smooth purée from frozen fruit. We use it for smoothies all the time. Slushes from ice cubes too. You just have to make sure you don’t get a wimpy immersion blender.

I have one of these chef-built immersion blenders and 2 quart and 4 quart measuring pitchers all from the restaurant supply store. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a standard blender.

I’m sorry, but if you are separated and he has legally mandated visitation this is no longer your decision to make. He gets to decide if it’s too risky to expose his grandfather, not you. That’s one of the sucky things about divorce/separation with kids.

If you don’t want to see her, don’t. But it sounds to me that a big part of this is you don’t want her friend to think she’s a more involved grandma than she is, and that I would just let go. It doesn’t matter what her friend thinks. You’re under no obligation to lie for her or help her put on a show for her friend, but you’re also under no obligation to make sure her friend doesn’t think higher of her than she deserves. You have no responsibility for informing the world about the truth of your mother’s character. Don’t worry about it.

If your COVID test is negative and you haven’t vomited or had a fever for multiple days you are fine to cook on Saturday. I’m on the cautious end of the spectrum and that would give me no qualms at all.

I’ve known several couples who attend different churches, including Catholics married to Protestant pastors and, of course, clergy couples who are both ordained and appointed to different churches. One thing that seems to help is attending events at each other’s churches, and occasionally worshipping together at each church. So if Sunday morning services are at different times you could both go to both once a month. Or if the timing doesn’t work out for that then once a month you could worship together alternating which church you go to. This only works if the congregations and pastors aren’t going to kick up a fuss about it, obviously. If people at the church you’re leaving are going to berate you for leaving if you visit occasionally then don’t go back.

Spam reported.

There are assets that have known links to crimes that haven’t been seized in the past for diplomatic reasons. The diplomatic pressures are now reversed, and part of that is the hope that it will put pressure on Putin.

There are two levels of this — freezing and seizing. When assets (like bank accounts) are frozen they will be released after the sanctions are lifted. If something like a yacht is frozen then the owner still has it but can’t sell trade or transfer it in any market affected by the freeze. Assets can be seized if they are linked to a crime. The seizure can be challenged, but “linked” has been interpreted pretty broadly by US courts. A lot of the property located in Europe and the US owned by Russian oligarchs can probably be linked to money laundering.

Same. The way I like to cook and we like to eat isn’t really conducive to long-term storage, so I made a plan for what we could eat and cook in an emergency and then rotate by donating the things I don’t normally use before they expire. In March 2020 I rethought it based on “what if we’re too sick to cook” and added a lot of instant and easy to digest things like instant noodle soups, instant mashed potatoes, and jello. Also a flat of Gatorade.

I would think more local than just “American.” Is your region famous for any particular food? I’m from Minnesota, so I would bring wild rice.

All of my grandparents died at home. For three of them I was old enough to be involved in the discussions. One thing their doctors emphasized was do NOT call 911 when they die. Notify their primary care doctor and then call the funeral home. (Obviously these were expected deaths, not sudden or unexplained.)

My parents did their first round of advance medical directives when they were in their 30s. My name was added as alternate decision maker when they updated it in their 50s. The phrasing I quoted does a nice job of summarizing the difference between when they would want a DNR and when they wouldn’t. Right now it falls very clearly on the wouldn’t side and based on family history I expect that to be true for many more years.

Thank you for this phrasing. I’m the designated health care decision maker for my parents, and this perfectly sums up what my dad wants in terms of intervention in a lot less words than it took us to get there. (Not just for cpr, but ventilators, feeding tubes, etc)

Facebooks algorithms are random and capricious. I’m half convinced they’re preemptively defending against accusations of patterns of discrimination by having no patterns at all.

Bad idea. You are currently dealing with severe overspending on books and curriculum as a symptom of something else. Take a breath. You don’t need the book today. It may be misplaced and turn up later. If not, you can buy it later.

The Dijon is being used to stick the dry toppings to the fish. Lemon juice and garlic is not going to work for that.

So because he’s doing well you want to hold him back. That’s about the biggest de-motivator I can think of. (I get it . . . you now think he could do more than you had thought and it hurts not to get him there. But you really can’t punish him for improving by delaying his graduation a year.)

There is no way our studio would ever do something like that. Both because it is cruel to the dancers and because unless they manage to embarrass them enough that they drop out it will look weird at the recital.

I think some discernment is necessary to recognize whether a particular situation calls for hearing a variety of diverse voices or specifically listening to people that have experienced overt discrimination.

That would be a game changer. We have four heavy cast iron grates that have to be lifted out and stacked somewhere. I dislike cooking on induction stoves when visiting or vacationing, but they are sure easier to clean. Hinged grates seem like a nice midpoint.

I would be happy if I could convince anyone else in the household to not think the dishes are done when there is still a puddle of soapy water and food crumbs on the counter. Part of me thinks it shouldn’t be a big deal for me to go in and wipe the counter after someone else has cleaned the truly mountainous pile of dishes, but I just don’t understand it. It’s like scaling Everest and them stopping two feet from the top. How do you go through all that work and then walk away leaving the tiny step that would actually make the kitchen look clean undone?

?? I do this with my kids at home too. Don’t most people have their kids potty before getting into the car or putting on snowsuits or pulling out the finger paints? Learning to think ahead and go at a break instead of having to urgently go in the middle of something is an appropriate skill to be teaching at that age.