The tux is no problem IMO. If someone is crashing though uninvited, those in charge should be warned so they can decide whether to kick them out of the reception or not. If the wedding itself is a church wedding, it is a public event, and anyone can come, but the reception is by invitation only. If it’s not a church wedding, the same rule would apply to the ceremony itself. If someone is planning to attend without RSVPing, they should be encouraged to RSVP, and also it would be a kindness to let the inviter know of their plans yourself.

Right, particularly blood pressure medications. This is because grapefruit slows metabolizing these, and so they build up to potentially toxic levels in your body over time. It’s gradual so it’s easy to miss but it’s very important to prevent this.

I never know what to do with preserved lemons. Mine are Meyers and they hold on the trees well, so I just bring them in when I need them. However, my mom used to freeze lemon juice in ice cube trays, and then pop it out into a freezer bag, and so she always had chunks of lemon juice ice to use as needed. Also she would peel just the outer yellow skin in curls, and immerse it in granulated sugar. The sugar would dry the skins out and also stick to them. This was a fantastic little sweet/sour snack.

Oh gosh, I love pancit. I lived in a big women’s coop in college, and the 3-4 Filipina women made pancit and lumpia for dinner one night. I was so hooked that I got them to teach me how. But my husband is low carb now, so I don’t make it anymore.

Not that one; I hate peas beyond all reason, and hard boiled eggs even more. What I think of as 7 layer dip, though, is the Mexican one, and I like that a lot, except when I make it (which is rarely) I make 6 layers by skipping the olives, which are iffy with the kids in our circle. Mine has taco seasoned ground beef, beans, sour cream, guacamole, chopped tomatoes or cucumbers, and salsa. Wait, no, the chopped veggies are a sub if I don’t have salsa. That last layer was actually chopped green onions. I’ve seen it with corn chips on top, but that strikes me as weird, and then you can’t really reheat it. I have another bean dip that I like even better now, though, so I haven’t made 6-7 layer in a long time. Mine new one is mostly Mexican beans, grated cheeses, and mild canned diced jalapeños. It’s good hot, room temp, or cool from the fridge, and it freezes well. It doubles as a vegetarian tamale filling.

Hangs head. Sighs. I still have my old Golden Book children’s encyclopedias from like 1960 or something. That’s where I learned about chickle, doncha know. And also ‘A Picturesque tale of Progress’ series.

I have a Med Massage that cured my persistent plantar fascitis. It’s amazing what heavy vibration can do. I stopped using it after I recovered, but based on some of this information might dust it off and use it for ‘maintenance’ sometimes. Mine is in a slant position so is only used sitting down. I got it at Costco some years back. And I think I’ll be investing in a vibration plate that I can use standing up also. Seems like a pretty small investment with potentially big rewards.

I have that kind of foot. My go tos are: Teva water sandals for summer. I like that they don’t have a strap between my toes, and they are truly all terrain and hold up well. I even hike on granite in them. Altra running shoes, especially the Lone Peak line, which has slim heels and very wide toe boxes. These are also zero drop, which is super healthy for my feet. For dressy shoes, I go to a local store that carries European brands and try things on. In order to have enough room for my toes to spread out laterally I go up a half size from their measurements. My current ones are Naot booties and Earthies flats (ballet slipper style, no heels). For warm footwear this time of the year, I wear big clumping knock off flat boots from Costco that are lined with fleece. The fleece keeps them warm and prevents me from walking out of them, and the wide toe box is great for my toes to spread out. I recently tried some black Sorrel boots that were on special at Costco and they fit me really well and are pretty comfortable, which is surprising because they are also really stiff. I only plan to use those for technical snow conditions—shoveling snow or MAYBE snowshoeing. I had a big refund from REI this year and used it to try a nicer looking but still casual pair of warm boots that look like mukluks, from a Canadian company called Manitobah. They were quite expensive but ‘free’, and wow, are they comfortable—the soles are downright springy, and the boots are super warm and very cute. I love them! Overall, my best move was going up a half size once my toes started to be free to spread out laterally. My Altras are where this process started, and I’m so much more well balanced and comfortable now. But, if I have a PF flare up I fully intend to revert to my shoes with arch support if needed—Dansko sandals, or Abeo dressy sandals, or (milder) Fit Flops. I’m hoping I won’t need to anymore though.

Thank you so much for posting this!

I want this! This is exactly what I need at home! We have a gas stove that we can light with a match there. Where do you get them, and do you happen to have a link to a good one? I have never heard of this before!

One thing I have at home (doesn’t help at the cabin) is a Sun Oven. It’s great. So I can always warm up food in it safely, or even do a bit of cooking, unless it is actually raining out, which is sometimes the case. I have yet to use it in a power outage, and it would not have helped this last week in the atmostpheric river storms, but I know what it can do and it’s awesome for summer outages.

Our hand cranked can opener is by Oxo and very easy to use. My next prepper purchase is going to be a hand cranked coffee grinder from Lehman’s. Because we are SERIOUS about coffee.

The thing about refrigeration is that you might be able to keep your food from spoiling but only if you don’t open the fridge. Which is counterproductive, if, say, you want to fix dinner. We have a propane generator at our cabin in the mountains. When I was SIP up there during Covid, and several other times for various power shutdowns of up to three days, I used it, but sparingly. I would use it for a while in the evening, which would run the furnace to get the house nice and warm, keep the lights on, charge up phones and computers, heat up a tank of hot water, wash clothes if necessary, and cool down the fridge and freezer. Then I would turn the propane heat stove on and turn the generator off. (This would be outside in the dark, so it got a lot easier once I had a headlamp to wear to and from.). Basically I would get up in the morning, open all the shades and shutters to use natural light, and drink cold leftover coffee or a bottle of Frappuccino. I’d take a bath in the leftover hot water from the water heater, with natural and candle light. And I’d work on the computer and Ipad until I ran out of batteries. Then I’d go outside and turn the generator on for an hour or two to run the furnace, cool the fridge/freezers, and charge everything up. I’d also have better internet during that period because the Starlink would have power. (When it was off I would use my Verizon iPad as a hot spot.). I’d generally go through this in the late morning, and then again in the mid-afternoon. And then turn the generator back on for a more extended period in the evening. So, that’s an option—using it sparingly but intensely. It really wouldn’t have been possible to stay there without it, or else the pipes would have frozen. That time of the year we take all the water out of them when we leave so that if the power goes out while we are away they don’t freeze. However, we can’t do that if we are staying there. The heat stove only heats the living areas of the house, but the furnace has a register in the basement that is essential for the pipes down there. I’m so glad to have it, but I don’t leave it on automatic or run it round the clock. One other practice I have up there is I have lots and lots of very stable pillar candles here and there—the bathrooms, the great room, our bedroom, the dining room table—all the time. And I have 2-3 boxes of matches where I can find them by feel in the dark, including one secret stash that my husband does not know about so he can’t absent mindedly move them. Like he does. The candles look like decor but they are so that I can light up the house fast when the power goes out. And since they are fat pillars, they are not at all tippy. I count them as I light them so I don’t lose track of the flames, but also I put little plates under them (from Ikea) so that in the unlikely event that I forgot to blow one out and it burned all the way down, chances are it would put itself out rather than starting a fire. The thing that concerns me about forgetting one is that while they are obvious and visible when lights are off, once the power comes back on it’s possible to miss seeing them as clearly.

When I lived in Vermont I carried a sleeping back in my car at all times. I never had to use it but it was good to know it was there. Now when I am in the mountains where it gets cold and where it’s easy to get stranded in your car for a while, I always carry silk long underwear from LLBean, a puffy coat, and snow boots, from about November through the end of April or longer. And a big water bottle. You just never know.

This year I decided to try to go for a walk any day that it’s sunny out, no matter what the temperature. This is new, and it’s been amazing for my well being. I go in the middle of the day when the sun is brightest, not for very long, just 1/2 and hour or a little more. I am amazed at how great this has been.

I think I might know what insurance you are on, initials are CP. If so, you might call them. They have more options now than they used to, and there might be a lower priced one that would suit you that you don’t know about yet.

Praying right now!

Personally I don’t trust them.

The whole issue of teacher pay is fraught, IMO. What I think about education is that former homeschooling parents and other community members should go help teachers in schools everywhere, and especially in neighborhoods where it is difficult to attract neighborhood volunteers for whatever reason. And that they should build up the local teachers and have drives to get them supplies and gifts. And that teachers should be respected and valued. This would truly uplift education.

Kassia, I get this kind of thing, and over time have figured out the triggers for me. They are: Standing in one place for too long, especially when overheated and/or dehydrated Tensing my diaphragm too much for too long (I almost fainted off a stage doing the Hallelujah Chorus once. Had to walk off dizzy and lie down on a pew.) Altitude increases Generally hot and dehydrated So for me, I need to figure out a place to lie down, even if I’m out, say, at a store, and drink some water. This can be embarrassing but I have never fully fainted because I embrace the need to do this at times to prevent it. I’ve become very careful to have water available whenever I go up in altitude, and to be ready to pull over, drink water, cool off, and lay back if I’m driving up to the heights. I’ve also learned how to sing well without tensing my diaphragm so much, which has been extremely helpful. My most recent incident was while watching a Christmas parade outside for over 2 hours. All that standing! When I started to get weird I staggered into a shop that was open and had a little coffee bar, and my husband grabbed me a cold apple juice and a water. I drank the apple juice first and felt so much better so fast that I think I’m going to switch to keeping that on hand in addition to the water. It was way more helpful than water, and thankfully I never did have to lie down, just sit at the bar with my head down. But you know, to avoid actually fainting I would totally have lain down on the floor. I am aware that this can be caused by multiple things, and it’s concerning, but I did wear an in the moment heart monitor for one month, which found nothing of note, and the preventative stuff I have been doing has stopped this from happening much any more, so I’m guardedly optimistic.

Whenever I make an appointment at the doctor’s office, I ask them to send me both an email and a text with all the information on it. That usually works for me, one way or another.

I use my work Outlook calendar for everything scheduled. I can’t put confidential stuff onto a personal online calendar, and I like the ease of being able to schedule recurring events and change my commitments when they move that is so much easier and more certain on an online calendar than a paper one. I feel strongly that I need to have one and only one main calendar or else stuff falls off my plate. However, I also keep a customized Leuchtterm blank notebook for journalling, tracking things, creativity, insights, quotes/reading, and gratitude. I started something like this last year, and honed it, and now I have a set up that I really like. The only real drawback to the work calendar is that I’m going to lose it when I retire. But when I had paper calendar books, I rarely looked back at them, so I think that by putting notable events and thoughts into the Leuchtterm, I will preserve the most interesting memories and the ones I am most likely to want to review.

I used to try to establish habits, and have accountability, and all the things. All it ever did was annoy the stuffing out of me, and also make me beat myself up and feel inadequate every time I failed to keep a supposed commitment to myself. And also, it made me hesitant to start anything good for fear that I would not keep it up—I would actually wait until I felt I could hope to generate ‘a streak’, which did more harm than good. But this year instead of doing that at the beginning of the year, I set up 10 by 10 grids in my big journal notebook, one for each of a handful of good or healthy habits that I’d like to increase. And I color in a box every time I nail one. They are pretty simple—a certain number of steps or length of continuous exercise in a day, hours outside, books finished, etc. Not all of them are about health. Some are more about enjoying life or self care. This has been wonderful. I feel a little lift every time I color in a stupid box, but also I don’t beat myself up when I don’t have one to color in. Maybe some variation of this would be helpful for you.

FYI, accupuncture works for my vertigo. One treatment and I’m fine for about a year. It’s quite remarkable.

Sigh. We do. Our washer is one we badly want to keep. It is about 30 years old, a heavy duty mechanical Kenmore. DH has a theory as to why we are getting a little water on the floor now, and an idea for how to fix it, but it strikes me as risking the function of the whole machine, so instead we are going to get a deepish catch basin to put under it and never run it when we are leaving the house. We’ll be keeping track of whether the leak increases over time, and if not we will call it good for now. We can’t buy the replacement parts it needs anymore, so DH was going to kludge one. I’m glad I talked him out of it.