I am a "good morning" and "thanks" emailer for work stuff. I have to be careful about greetings that include the name of the recipient because I work in a job in which the titles of most of the people I email are tricky to navigate. As in, I have an informal enough relationship with some/most to use first names, rather than their official title, but there are a handful in which that may or may not be appropriate and I am never for sure who I am going to tick off. Like some would get ruffled if I used their formal title and others will get ruffled if I don't and there is no predicting. It took a while for me to get used to that. I don't at all mind "I hope this email finds you well" or other vague references to well wishes.

One does need to file taxes if they make $600+, be it self-employed or otherwise. Although, I'd guess most people who made $600+ babysitting, mowing lawns, or anything else where no one filed a 1099 for them are not filing at age 17. My dd is/was self-employed and did have to file as she is a gig musician and some venues and most festivals did file 1099s for her. And is was far over $600, so appropriate. It is a pain, but it is what it is. If your ds is on the line, I would not bother as I imagine his students are not filing 1099s.

My dd attends a school that encourages/supports but does not require coops/internships. Her experience has been that anyone who wants one can easily get one. Her school does have a lot of supports and relationships with companies that seek students. Dd was offered multiple internships her very first summer. She learned of these via emails from her department advisor and the annual job fair. She took one and learned a lot. She is currently mulling three offers already for next summer.....two of which were unsolicited and came to her via word of mouth from last summer's internship. The third was again from the annual job fair that the university sponsors. And frankly, she is kind of hard to place due to her major and specific research interests. I really thought finding internships would be far more difficult for her. My overall point being that even if it is not required, you can learn a lot about a school's coop relationships by inquiring about support and stats.

I also think involving the RA now is the right move. I would also prepare her for the possibility of moving rooms as I suspect this will not be resolved and might only escalate. My own dd won the roommate jackpot last year and they are now best friends but she knew many others that had trouble. None got better with time. Honestly, if it were me, I'd encourage a room change now. No point in marring a significant portion of freshman year with memories of roommate problems.

I have never lived without indoor plumbing. But we have very close friends that own a "camp" with no indoor plumbing. We spend a couple of weeks at a time there, year round. The owners *did* live in it for a year before they had kids and more recently lived in it for 1-2 months at a time due to home renovations. You get used to the outhouse but they do have an indoor chamber pot that they will use (for #1 only) in the worst weather and when their elderly parents are staying there. In an effort to be a good guest one winter visit, I had to shovel the snow on the way to the outhouse in the middle of the night. That was quite a vision....me in my PJs and winter coat, with a head lamp on, shoveling a path though three feet of snow! Bathing is not a problem. Jump in the lake in the summer or take a bucket bath in the wood-fired sauna in the winter. We always keep a metal bucket of water on top of the woodstove in winter for hand washing. Cold water is fine in winter. The biggest pain is that there is no potable water available on site. We do use lake water for dishes and bathing, but must drive to the community center to fill up jugs for cooking and drinking. It all takes more work, but our friends report that they got used to it when living there. We all lived like that before modern plumbing was common. I personally will always choose to live in a place with indoor plumbing but if push came to shove, I would manage just fine.

I have introduced by dh in that way. It really just depends on the context. As in, what is it most important for the audience to know, his relationship with me or with our dc? In that scenario, another family taking my dc somewhere, I would think it would be most important to know that he was the father as that is more relevant to any situation that might arise during the time the dc spends with that family. But as others have said, that does not matter in this case. No matter how you introduced him, the reaction is WAY inappropriate.

In a mild climate and with water/sewer worked out, why not? I am sure they know the basics...that it will be small, might be chilly, etc.... I find cooking in an RV to be challenging just due to space and compromised sink geometry so if they are foodies or not into simple meals, you might have some company in your kitchen frequently. I would say the biggest question is your own comfort level having them that close. If that is not an issue, it might be a great way to save up.

Not sure what the confusion is here..... I don't recall ever hearing that the vaccine itself was going to have impact on transmission other than the obvious: If you are not infected, you can't transmit it. The vaccine does lower infection rates as well as lessen the severity of infection. The first is going to ultimately lower transmission rates and the second helps keep the medical care burden down. What else is there to talk about?

My Vitamix is 10 years old, used almost daily, including to make nut butters, with no issues. It was a refurbished one to begin with so I was expecting the worst but so far, so good.

One more thing.... Running on a treadmill is very different from running on the ground. I find it soul sucking just because it is indoors and boring. But aside from that, I also find it painful. I don't know why there is such a difference but I just stopped trying. So if you try one way and find it does not work for you, try other ways before throwing in the towel. For me personally, trail running is best. Running on hard surfaces is much harder on my body. I still do it about half of the time, but much prefer trails or gravel. I seriously cannot run even one mile on a dreadmill but can knock out a half on demand on any other surface.

I started running in my late 30s and it has developed into a very important mental health exercise. I do race (half and full marathons and triathlons) which is another great boost....even if I come in last. I also walk, hike, road bike, lap swim, nordic ski, and do CF but in the 6 non-snow months of the year, running is my first go to. I run about 25 miles per week and the equivalent distance on skis when the snow makes running impossible here. Even in very heavy run years (like when I don't have a pool membership, for instance), I think I am somewhat protected by switching to a different activity entirely for winter. So if wear and tear is a concern, I'd say start with running twice a week and continue walking on other days. Or make the middle mile of your walk into a run. Whatever works for you. But I see no reason not to try!

Where did you get this? I thought it was pulled from the US market some time ago? To the OP, it is not woo but who knows what a doctor will say? I did not even bother bringing it up with mine since it would have to be controlled by my own actions anyway. I do have to say after more than a decade of suffering with this, I was just so relieved to have figured it out (which I think might have even happened from reading on this board) that I really didn't care if it was woo or not!

My dd does this too. She does not disclose her homeschooling history until she knows someone pretty well. Same with instructors. She gets the same reaction every time: "But, you're not weird!" Sigh.

We recognized right away that dd could have finished college in three years if she took a very prescribed path. I very much discouraged this and encouraged her to take less credits and/or take non-degree courses just to broaden her experience. She too has almost a full ride so there was little financial advantage to finishing a year early. Luckily, she did decide on the 4-year path after now having 1+ years of college under her belt, she is very happy to not shorten her time in school. She is taking at least one course every semester that is outside of her major and just following whatever rabbit trail appeals to her at registration time.

Dd's school requires we file a FAFSA in order to be considered for merit aid. We too do not qualify for any financial aid......at least not that we are willing to take. But I do have to file every year so dd's merit aid is renewed. It's a pain. That said, is is FAFSA time again already?!?! I feel like I *just* did this. Where is SpyCar? He is usually who reminds me!

I have a 2nd year college student that was homeschooled all the way through. She had a say in her schooling paths from about 6th grade and on. There were two years in which there was a serious discussion about going into PS.....6th grade for middle school and 9th grade for high school. In both cases she decided to stay home. While I am positive she could point to things about homeschooling she did not like, her current story is that she is glad she was homeschooled. She had interests that took up a great deal of time and homeschooling allowed far more immersion in those things than would have been possible in PS. She also had the best of both worlds as she was very much a part of a social group in the local PS. She had no homeschooled friends. Aside from not actually attending the PS, you would almost never know as she attended dances and athletic games, dated several different people, and did pretty much anything a regular PS student would have done except attend classes. Her friends even smuggled her into the athletic awards ceremony *during the school day* so that she could appear with her teammates (the sport was not affiliated with the school but is treated as such since most of the athletes attend that school). I half expected a call as this was very much breaking school rules but somehow nothing happened.

The "sensible shoes" thing is very real here and even extends into college. Dd went to a fraternity formal last weekend. She is not a girly girl and wears dresses only when 100% necessary. She dragged her feet about finding a dress and literally rooted through her housemate's closet just hours before the event. So I was pretty surprised to see her wearing a dress at all and even more surprised at how short it was and strapless! She did pair it with Dr. Marten's and group photos showed most girls in some sort of sneaker or boot. I see a lot of photos on SM and while I do acknowledge the dresses seems pretty skimpy these days, I don't have a problem with it.

This is my beef with Stitch Fix and the other subscription clothing services people rave about. I tried one and made it clear in my profile that I was only interested in WARM clothing. What they sent was not at all warm. Not even close. I tried the same service again a few years later because people assured me that they got better about matching to profile. Same thing. 3/4 sleeves or breezy blouses are just not going to cut it here. I can find things that work well via Duluth Trading Co and even Gap or Banana Republic, but nothing fancy....which suits me just fine. Seeing as whatever it is, it will be under a wool sweater, down vest, or insulated flannel, it really doesn't matter.

I live in a very cold climate and the local housing stock, ours included (130yo), tends to be very old. Houses are cold. They just are and there is not a whole lot that can be done about it. Even if heating costs were no object, my house will simply not hold above a certain temp. During the coldest months, even with the furnace running 24/7, 72 degrees is not a thing. We have modern windows (not everyone does) but short of stripping down to studs and replacing the now-dust newspaper "insulation," it is what it is. We set our thermostat to 62/50 (day/night) and depending on the outdoor temps/wind speed, that can mean that some parts of the house are much colder. It is an adjustment every year but we get used to it. It is routine here to wear hats, light scarves, longjohns, wristwarmers, and wool socks/slippers indoors all winter. I will bump the heat to 66 for an hour or two if I get super uncomfortable and I will attempt to heat the house at a higher temp when we host any houseguests that are willing to brave our winters. We have a few family members that cannot visit us in the winter because they require indoor temps that exceed what is possible in our home. I do feel for anyone that has a condition that makes this miserable and/or dangerous, but I somewhat agree that most people can, and probably should, learn to adapt to fluctuating indoor temps when facing the threat of climate change and fuel shortages. I actually have pretty severe Raynaud's, so I do understand. It takes an extra degree of care to maintain functioning hands and feet. But still quite doable. On the flip side, kids raised here, including my own, will run about with bare feet and princess dresses and not think anything of it.

My throw-it-together soup is 16 ounces of canned tomato, half a small onion, one carrot, one celery stalk, S&P, a sprinkle of basil and 1/2 cup half-n-half. Either Vitamix until hot or use a normal blender and heat after blending. This serves two. Scale up as needed. If I am missing the carrot and/or celery, no worries....I might add celery flakes. Same with half-n-half....sub in regular milk, non-dairy milk, a half block of silken tofu, or go without.

That would be a treat in my house. I don't do canned tomatoes soup (why is it SWEET?!?), but like others, I can make it just as quickly in my Vitamix with pantry staples. And the only bread we ever have in the house is 100% whole grain and homemade, so nearly a meal on its own. If I have veggies, salad, or fruit on hand, I would add it as a side but if not, no worries for a "sometimes meal."

In case anyone is wondering, they *do* still make salad spinners with drain holes: https://www.amazon.com/spinner-lettuce-draining-capacity-Essential/dp/B0B4NRB2KZ/ref=asc_df_B0B4NRB2KZ/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=619306654220&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9587399604199603794&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9017741&hvtargid=pla-1823380169207&th=1 This is pretty much the one I have. Apparently everyone hates these but I do like mine.

Am I the only one flabbergasted that RVs ever come with fireplaces?!?! Lol! Do they burn real wood? Or is it propane? We are on our second, tiny, cheap, and ancient used pop-up, so I can't give any advice. But now I want a fireplace. Or even a heater!

I just watched that video and I now remember the most important reason I still have my really crappy spinner! The base of mine is not a bowl. It has big drain holes on the bottom and sits up on short feet. It also has a water hole in the lid. I can run water directly into the spinner as it is spinning and it drains out the bottom holes. The downside for most people, I think, is this mean you must use it in the sink, which can be a pain if your sink is not empty. But I always keep my sink empty, so this is not a problem. And I wash a lot of REALLY dirty greens. Our CSA grows in sand as do many other local growers so I often run my greens through the spinner before the initial soak to get the bulk of the sand out. This would never work with a closed bowl. Even if I skipped the initial run, I would have to soak, spin, and empty multiple times to get everything clean whereas now, I can just run the tap through the spinner until I don't see any grit exiting the spinner. Anyone know of currently available spinners that are like this? I have not seen one, which is why I have not given up my current spinner....which is really terrible in every other way.

I actually know someone with a large CSA that does this! They have a cheap washing machine just for this purpose. I have the cheapest, flimsiest, most difficult-to-use garbage spinner than I bought for $10 about 20 years ago. I use it daily! I really REALLY should upgrade but this one happens to fit in a really handy space in my kitchen and it is all plastic, which I prefer to the glass bowl options. It is easier to see if the greens are still expelling any grit on the white background of plastic rather than the clear glass bowl. Any spinner is better than no spinner. I am completely baffled as to what people do without one. Whenever one of those "what 10 items could you get by with as a complete kitchen" games comes up, the spinner is on my list. I take it with me when we go camping, if that is any indication of how strongly I feel about them!