No, absolutely not. It's rude to presume your taste/preference/style/whatever is so superior to someone else's that you must correct their faux pas in their own space. I would not include doing obvious chores - such as washing up dishes, folding a basket of laundry sitting there, and whatnot - in that, though. (Re-washing, or re-folding, would fall into the former category)

Under-caffeinated literacy at its finest. :D

Yes. Helpful: Go in to feed cats. Open dishwasher to put cat feeding related implement in, and realize the dishes are clean. Put dishes away, guessing where some of them go. Not helpful: Go in to feed cats. Go room to room looking for all the things the home owner does "wrong" so you can "fix". Understandable: Adjust the thermostat so you are more comfortable while feeding cats. Control issues: Change 28 settings on the thermostat ONE degree.

No kidding! How exasperatingly presumptuous. I would board pets before leaving her with a key to my house in the future. I am honestly shocked at what some people think is perfectly ok to do.

I'm sure your muscles should cool down more gradually, to avoid stiffening up, and there's probably something about your body being chilled when it's in the process of trying to cool your core... Not that it causes illness, but I'm sure that probably does stress the body.

Yup. Those little airplane bottles behind the counter are handy for that sort of thing. Rum extract will give you a rummier flavor, though, so you'll want to cut the measure if you use that.

We make them bring one if we're going somewhere, but if it's above 40, I can all but guarantee all of them are out playing in short sleeves, no coat. We do, too. This morning, I came in to hearing my husband saying "take off those socks. If I see them again, I'm burning them." Apparently, we now need to work on wearing *clean* socks.

Nope. I did it once when I was a kid and it ruined the whole Christmas morning thing. It's not that I'm so into surprises - my husband and I usually know exactly what we're getting because we have to confer with one another when we're buying - but it still sort of wrecks the opening if I peek.

There is a difference between being an introvert and being a hermit. (Though hermits would have to be introverts, I suppose) I'm an introvert and get on fine with people. I just don't like large groups of them. Getting together with another family we adore is awesome / going to the big work party is not. Large social gatherings have too much input, and just exhaust me. I didn't like to play with "other children" so much as a kid. Specific children, yes. I had a core group of friends whom I played with regularly, but I wouldn't be the kid who wanted to go to the playground to see who was there. Ditto partying in highschool. I'm not shy, or particularly quiet, and I'll talk to anyone, one on one. I think online communications are appealing to introverts because they are very one on one, even in a busy forum. Each post is read in its own order, so there's a singled threaded input. And, if it gets too "noisy", we can step away without worrying about being rude.

At our staff parties (Y), there is normally light meal type food: sub/sandwich/wrap platters, various salads, etc. Usually we (the staff) bring the salads, cookies, etc., and my boss orders the platters.

Wow. That's impressive. I have no suggestions, but I am amazed that you've gone through two Dysons... I've had mine for 10 years. It's fallen down stairs, sucked up all manner of junk, etc., and still just kept going. Maybe you should talk to a vac shop about your vacuuming habits so they can match you up with the right machine. (Or it could simply be that nothing is made to last anymore. Sigh)

Ah, yes. We have that same conversation at my dad's house. Fortunately, he has wall mounted LP lights from back in the days when he had a single, not so efficient panel, but it's still a bugger to have to go outside in the dark and start the generator.

I am not a kid person. There is not enough incentive in the world for me to work in daycare or any such thing. I didn't particularly like children when I was one. It has honestly never occurred to me to worry about what will happen when my kids start having their own. I spend pretty much 24 hrs a day with mine. I'm sure I would be just fine to have a grandchild around. Wouldn't I just care for them the same way I've cared for my children at various stages? It's not like I eat or kick other people's children or anything... Come to think of it, my dad is not a kid person, either. I cannot remember ever being related to as a child by him. He has a great time with my kids.

I was thinking along the same lines. Is she one who would like swaddling? The boys really liked being swaddled at that age. One or both of them (I can't remember) liked having one or both arms out, but still wrapped tightly. Otherwise, they would flail and wake themselves up.

A quote for life, right there. It looks like we're about 200% more likely (than what, I don't know) to divorce. Good thing I married a smart one this time, or we'd be done for! Snort.

I go around the house turning off lights all.day.long. The tree is decorative, though, so it can stay lit, though one of the boys unplugged it earlier. Now, if they would all learn to work a switch in the down direction. Which, now that I think of it, is also a problem that affects toilet operation...

Yup. I'm pretty sure the rule is this: #1 You feel like you'll neeeeeever get into maternity clothes. #2 You can't believe how soon you need to break out the maternity clothes. #3+ You can't re-button your pants while you're still waiting to see how many lines are on the stick. At least, that's how it went for me. :D

That made me flash back the the Everybody Loves Raymond episode about the fruit of the month gift. And then laugh right out loud. I think the audiobooks are a great idea.

I used to get Mary Lou Retton and Julia Louis-Dreyfus... I have no idea why. Other than being female, short, and having dark hair, there's just nothing.

Call me old fashioned, but I would think this would be a conversation to be had *before* my underwear made an appearance. If I need the reminder, maybe a note pinned to my shirt would be more functional. It seems that, finding myself without my clothes (presumably by some sort of consent), pausing to check my Magic 8 Ball thong for the answer as to whether we will proceed is rather toothless in the empowerment department. And, for the man bent on such an act of violation, I can't see how signage on my undies is going to make a difference.

I think that can be part of it, and certainly the tipping point. I'm 41, too. Having my low-normal thyroid supplemented helped. Going off gluten helped more. And, finally, starting with natural progesterone cream cleared out the rest of the fog and fatigue. It's nice, feeling like a sane, functioning person again.

For me it's the concept that the water must spray up and then, because we have that pesty gravity thing, fall back down. Along with whatever it has cleaned off your tuchas. Which means that the nozzle in a public tuchas cleaner has microscopic (God help me, i HOPE it's microscopic) foreign tuchas, um, "stuff" on it, and that is just skeeves me out. Yuck. We did see a bidet "attachment" in Home Depot recently and just laughed ourselves silly because I fashioned the same sort of thing for spraying diapers and, based on the blowback from that, I just can't imagine it would be a pleasant experience... You might lose some skin! (I sincerely hope they've done a better job on pressure regulation than I apparently did.)

Under. I'm another one who has about an inch between hip and rib (I'm 5' even), so "natural waist", even in petites ", would fasten somewhere mid-ribcage. Blech. If I am wearing a shirt that poses risk of ride-up (and, thus, plumber's crack), I use my handy dandy haramaki and close that gap decoratively.

Well, I think we should start kicking the illiterate - or high - among us and, to that end, will offer myself up. Because I SWEAR I thought item #1 from the OP was "have chicken" and it wasn't until I scrolled down to reply and ask for clarification that I saw my error. Go ahead. Kick. Good grief.

I agree. I am of the "if it is served to you, the only thing to do is eat it graciously" school of etiquette. Example: broccoli hurts my stomach. Like, doubled over, stabbing pains within a few minutes of eating it. If I was a guest in someone's home and they served broccoli, I would eat it, and excuse myself at some point to dig a (likely fuzzy and expired) Pepto tablet out of my purse. This supports a correlation I've seen in people who like or do not like stevia. Those who like or are neutral on licorice seem to like stevia just fine, and do not detect any licorice taste (other than tasting it on its own). Those who dislike licorice immediately detect the same taste in stevia, no matter how masked it is by other flavors. This has led me to believe that it's not so much about flavor as those who dislike licorice are actually detecting a compound there that is also present in stevia, which those of us who like or are neutral on licorice just don't detect at all.