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Laurel

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Everything posted by Laurel

  1. If it's the same place I know of - one side of the sign is spelled properly, and then it's spelled LOBESTER on the other side. It still bothers me when I see it, but I have resigned myself to the idea that it might be intentional, because the sign has definitely been updated/reprinted at some point, so you'd think it would have been fixed then.
  2. Are there any family heirloom recipes, or your personal specialties, that you can add? If I were creating a cookbook for someone (especially for something like a wedding gift), those are the kinds of recipes that should be included, the ones you CAN'T get just off the internet.
  3. Are there any Teaching Company lectures you would like to listen to? I just finished listening to Neil Patrick Harris' Choose Your Own Autobiography, which I really enjoyed. If you like NPH, I'd highly recommend it. I am currently listening to I Am Malala. Very good narrator. I tend toward light nonfiction for audiobooks (memoirs, Malcolm Gladwell, AJ Jacobs), and don't do a lot of fiction. I enjoyed Kate Morton's The Secret Keeper enough to get another by her (though I haven't listened to it yet). Ender's Game is a well-done audio, as is the book about Bean (Ender's Shadow?).
  4. I use mason jars as well. As long as I leave plenty of room for expansion, I haven't had any problems with jars breaking. (I do better with pint jars; I always seem to try to fill quart and half-gallon jars too full, but I know the right stop line for my pint jars.)
  5. Where would you want to do your masters? Can you talk to the faculty there about what prerequisites you should have before applying?
  6. I've really enjoyed Fresh20 when I've used it. (Enough that I've purchased it more than once, though I don't have a subscription right now.) They do have a gluten-free plan. Fresh20 is the only one I've seen that comes even close to how I cook normally - focus on whole foods, lots of veggies, and seasonal.
  7. Washing baseboards and/or walls Cleaning the oven Cleaning the fridge (taking everything out and wiping it down) Scrubbing the kitchen sink w baking soda and washing the dish drainer Vacuuming and cleaning the inside of the car Organizing cupboards Cleaning out the back porch/shed etc. Generally, things that are more like "projects" that only need to be done once in a while. I often ask for help with normal daily/weekly housecleaning tasks (bathrooms, sweeping/mopping/vacuuming), but that's part of living in a household together, not worthy of being paid extra.
  8. When I am ambitious and organized, I try to keep muffins, baked oatmeal cups, and egg cups (frittata, but I bake it in silicone muffin cups) in the freezer. Easy to pull out as needed and reheat in the oven in the morning. Can you do a sort of rotation so everyone can eat different things, but you are only making one thing a day, relying on leftovers? So perhaps you make french toast, but the child who doesn't like it can have yogurt, and you make sure you have some leftover french toast for the next day (it reheats pretty well in a toaster or toaster oven), when you will make eggs, for example. Adjust as needed based on who will eat what. Also can you work with your kids so each one has an acceptable alternative breakfast that they can make themselves, or with limited help, when they don't like what's on the menu. Yogurt, cold cereal, toast, etc. Even if it's just small steps to make it easier for you - put the fruit and yogurt in the blender for the smoothie, or crack and whisk the eggs for scrambled eggs.
  9. (Hugs) Christmas is hard. There's always so much hype and excitement, and it's very rare that the day can live up to those crazy expectations. You certainly didn't mess up Christmas. Even if there was a bit of a low first thing, it sounds like you all had a lovely day afterwards.
  10. A hippopotamus! My sister made my Christmas by getting that for me (a plastic toy one), even though her boyfriend thought it was dumb. My mom went way overboard, and I got a couple pairs of shoes from her, as well as a Swiss Army knife from my dad, puzzles from dp, and chocolates from dss.
  11. A couple thoughts: First, the child is no longer three. John is 8 (?). So it's no longer the request of a 3 year old who is still figuring out gender, but an 8 year old, who is approaching puberty, and possibly not feeling at home in his body. And five years (someone mentioned 8 years old, I don't care enough to google to verify) is an awful long "phase." Secondly, I recognize that I may just be arguing semantics, but it's not a matter of "deciding" to be the opposite gender, or of "wanting" to be a boy vs a girl. It's not a choice; it's part of who you are. I think many (some?) trans people, at least in the beginning, may wish they felt like their biological sex. Life would certainly be a lot easier if what you felt inside matched your outward appearance and sex organs.
  12. Cat food (The cat food we buy is generally $40+ a bag locally. Amazon's regular price is under $30, and with S&S it is generally $22 or so...) Personal care items (especially Burt's bees items) Laundry detergent (do check prices) Fish food and other stuff for fish tank maintenance Toilet paper I manage my subscriptions every month to make sure I always have 5 items so I get the 15% discount. There are some eligible items (such as hand soap) that are only a dollar or two, that I will add if I need another subscription to push me over.
  13. They might even have fond memories OF the bickering. My mom and I were reminiscing yesterday about going to pick out Christmas trees growing up. She remembers it every year as this long drawn out process where no one can agree. (And she's right.) But I remember it as this great yearly bonding experience with my sisters, and perhaps wouldn't have as many fond memories if it had been uneventful each year. (Hugs). I'm sorry you're feeling stressed.
  14. I absolutely adore my Fire, and while I would love an iPad (and I'm practically married to my iphone), if I had both I would probably use the Fire more. For everything amazon related (for me that is books, audiobooks, and streaming video, I use spotify rather than amazons streaming music), it is seamless and so easy to use. Shopping (either digital store or physical products) is also very easy, naturally. My wifi at home tends to be glitchy, but with amazon prime streaming, I can download things to my device and watch them at a high quality without having to wait for things to buffer. Other streaming video apps (Netflix and Hulu) are glitchier on the fire than on an iPad. The app selection for iPads is better than for the fire. I don't use the kindle often for surfing the web. I prefer my iphone, even with the tiny screen, for web browsing. And you can have much larger storage capacity with an iPad vs a fire. I do think reading is a better experience on an actual kindle than with the kindle app (which I have used on both iPads and iPhones), but the audible app works great in iOS and I'm sure the prime streaming app does as well. If you're looking at using amazons services, I think the kindle is the best option, considering the price. (And because I do a lot within amazon, I wouldn't personally consider any other android tablet.) But an iPad is a bit more versatile and functional (and expensive).
  15. Which activities on starfall would you like them to do? I don't have a subscription, but I use some of the free sample things on the free app, plus the ABC and the numbers apps. (I had lots of free amazon coins, so they didn't actually cost me anything.) I actually much prefer the user experience with the apps vs the computer.
  16. There is a starfall app for the fire that is designed to be used by subscription members. That app is free. There are also other apps with the ABCs etc that cost money.
  17. Go to the dr. It could be related to the nerve issues you're already having, or it could even be a side effect of the medicine. What would you do if this was one of your children in this much pain? Don't you deserve the same amount of consideration?
  18. But sometimes it is gray. This is commonly brought up when talking about white privilege, and (from my understanding, as a white female myself), it's not about one incident, it's about a pattern, the institutionalized racism. And it's one of the things that (again IMHO), makes it difficult to understand privilege. To understand, one asks for specific examples, i.e. being followed/watched closely in a store, or a rude cashier, or being pulled over by the police. And (partly bc it is human nature to identify with other people), you (original poster) can think, yes, I remember the time I dealt with the rude/unsocialized people at that store. And because it happened once, or relatively infrequently, you can tell yourself (rightly) that it wasn't about you. But what if it happened in EVERY store you went to? Would you still be able to rationalize that it wasn't about you? So, sure, in some of those instances it could just be rude people who are like that to everyone, but taken as a whole, looking at the pattern and frequency, the message is clear that racism is a factor.
  19. Thank you for this. I have smart wool socks that I've owned for years that are starting to get holes in them, and the replacements I bought this spring ALREADY have holes. Point6 socks are going on my Christmas list.
  20. I would keep all of those things, without a second thought. I'd smell the milk before using (and expect that it might go bad a day or so before the actual expiration date), but I'd use it up until it smelled off.
  21. If it's truly something you're worried about, I don't think marking the bottles would necessarily be sufficient. It's pretty easy to add water to a bottle to make it look like none is missing...
  22. And reading a lot (of good writing).
  23. I like kale (and I have a very strong aversion to all things bitter), but I don't think it's worth pushing if people don't like it. It's much better to enjoy spinach you've prepared rather than attempt to choke down a couple bites of kale. DSS13 adores kale chips, so he is always happy when we can get done kale from my mother's or aunt's garden. (Likewise, my father/uncle are also happy when we take kale away with us...) One thing I do like to do with greens is chop them up finely and add to ground beef as I'm cooking it. This may visually be too much for picky people, but I don't think it affects the taste. (I've done this in shepherds pie, or when I mix beef with salsa and cover with cheese for a "Mexican" meal.)
  24. Vegetables for breakfast: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/452370-vegetables-for-breakfast-how-do-you-prepare-them/
  25. If you want to get out of your rut of the same veggies over and over, I echo the suggestion of signing up for a CSA share. You have to have plenty of flexibility, but it will expose you to new veggies and force you to prepare them. And don't think you have to wait until next spring/summer. There are lots of farms that do winter shares. Root vegetables are very plentiful now and very easy to substitute for one another. I will be any roots I have (carrot, potato, rutabaga, parsnip, daikon) into beef stew. Roast them up mixed and they're delicious. You can mash them together with a variety of seasonings. There was also a wonderful thread a while back about eating more veggies at breakfast. It had such great ideas. I'll see if I can find it and link it.
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