It is a sickness. I don't know how this happened to me. There was a time when I could drink normal coffee.

My dd competed at the highest level of her sport in early high school and was told by coaches and observers that she showed a lot of promise. She loves her sport and was very much in the driver's seat since dh and I are not athletic at all. A combination of things converged in mid-high school that took her out of the highest levels. Her final growth spurt was a challenge and it is very common for girls in this sport. Some bounce back and others don't. Dd didn't. It happened to coincide with a coaching change (out of our control) and her own choice to temporarily sacrifice some training time to pursue another interest. She knew the latter was a risk and still chose that with our full support. Although, if I am being honest, I don't think she would have bounced back even under the best of circumstances. There is only so much one can do about genetics. And as someone posted earlier, when your birthday falls within the age categories can make all the difference. Dd's happen to be at about the worst time of year for her sport. I am so very glad that what could have become her "identity" did not. In early high school, we were told that she would likely be able to pursue D1 or D2 level in college. That was not to be. She was still 4th in the state her senior year and very much could have gone D3 but chose a school based on other considerations. The school she goes to does have a very active club team (in addition to their high level NCAA team) so she is continuing to train and compete but without the time commitment or pressure. She also has the time to give lessons, which she really enjoys. I think it is the best of both worlds. We did have to say no to some things related to her sport due to time and/or money. She did not have the very best gear (or to be honest, even adequate gear) and she had to forgo some of the very best training and competition opportunities. I don't know that it would have made a difference but I have zero regrets either way. Dd's best teammate friend did overcome her mid-high school growth spurt and is now one of the top athletes in the country. She is truly amazing and is also in love with the sport. Her family as able to afford the time and cash for her to pursue every opportunity. And she did end up with a full-ride scholarship. I bring her up because she did not specialize until high school. She was still playing multiple sports until then and I feel it probably was to her benefit. She was and still is grounded and has many interests outside of her sport. She was, and still is, a great role model for dd. They still occasionally will train together for fun. I feel like the two girls that were told all the same things by the same people had very different but right-for-them outcomes....meaning you really never know.

Huh. Dd had a PayPal account before she was 18. The only issue she ran into is that PayPal would not transfer money to her bank account until she turned 18. I have no idea why. She had to have them mail a check, which was a huge pain. Maybe the rules have changed over time. She just turned 18 a few months ago but got her PayPal account when she was 16.

Dh and I are huge coffee snobs. It is a serious problem and I really wish it weren't so. We have an insanely expensive and ridiculous espresso machine at home. I cannot even justify it. I am a frugal frugal person. This is out of my normal character that it is almost a dirty secret. Unless we are visiting with people we know to also be huge coffee snobs, we bring our own supplies. Drip coffee is an abomination. Instant? Nope. Tea-bag style? Big nope. And amateur use of a French press is also a big nope. My poor MIL, who does not drink coffee, has been in a weird passive-aggressive coffee war with us for 10+ years. She makes terrible coffee. Just terrible. Like, I don't even know what she does to make it so terrible. She knows we bring our own stuff. She makes a game out of getting out of bed before us and making a HUGE pot of nasty coffee and then we are in the awkward position of going coffee-less, choking down the swill, or being very rude by making our own. I think she enjoys watching us squirm. She has had the same bag of pre-ground coffee for years. Years. We usually have some sort of "errand" to run every morning where we sneak out to pound coffee from a local shop. One time when she visited us she "helped us out" by grinding all of the coffee beans in the house!!!!! Who does that? Anyway, I would assess the level of coffee snobbery of your guests. If they are normal people and not freaks like me, I'd get a couple of pour over cones and filters (cheap and easy to store), then pick up a small amount of decent coffee right before they visit. Let them actually make the coffee themselves so they can choose ratios and such. If they are total snobs, tell them to bring their own supplies and equipment. That is their problem, not yours.

I have been a vegetarian for almost 30 years and have been vegan for significant portions of that time. I will not be trying the nuggets. I've never had KFC so have no craving or nostalgia for it and there is not one within 2 hours of my house anyway. But I get why people might. One thing that still very much sucks about being vegetarian when everyone we know and socialize with is not is trying to eat out. Most places now have at least something veggie on the menu but I hate having a special "night out" involve me paying top dollar for yet another round of bland pasta or a sad veggie burger while everyone else is enjoying gourmet food. KFC hardly falls into this category but again, if you have that one vegetarian in the crowd, knowing there is *something* for them to eat means that whole group is more likely to be customers for that meal. I live in an area where the restaurants generally do not put any effort into vegetarian options. We have disposable cash and like to eat out (in non-pandemic times, anyway). But we almost never do unless it is to fulfill a social or work obligation. They are missing not only our patronage but that of our friends too as we usually do meals outside of restaurants due to our not having many options. Smart businesses recognize this. KFC is just looking at their bottom line. We do occasionally buy meat substitutes. We go camping a lot and a huge part of our social culture involves cookouts, bonfires, and picnics. It is just *easier* to grab a package of not dogs or veggie burgers rather than come up with an alternative that is sure to be more complicated to deal with. I make killer homemade veggie burgers that are healthy but it is time consuming process. Very. So, when we get that "BBQ in one hour" call from a friend, I am likely going to grab some veggie burgers on the drive over. We don't even really like them. I also agree and am appalled with Beyond Burgers packaging. There is no reason for that!

I feel for you all. I also work at a university but am now staff after 13 years of teaching. So, I am shielded from much of the exposure. However, my dd is a student here and we also have no vaccine mandate and are full on in-person. We do have mask mandates and the students have been very good about it. Testing is very limited and what little is being done shows that infections are rampant. Dd has so many known exposures, she is just assuming she will get it. Faculty are allowed to go remote at their discretion. Some have. Dd has two classes that went remote right away but at least one plans to go in person again once Omicron settles. Most classes also allow students to go remote as needed as well.

On a similar note, we have a lot of the lab supplies and I'd hate to see them just go to waste. I'd be happy to send to someone for free. You just pay postage.

I have it and was diagnosed as a teen. The clue that tipped off the doctor was that my kneecaps turned freakishly blue when even a little chilled....like while wearing a thin little gown during an annual physical in an air conditioned medical building. I had always assumed everyone got numb fingers and toes when cold until my doctor questioned me. I don't know that having a diagnosis is helpful other than being on your record in case it is a clue to other problems. In my case, there has been no relation to anything else so it is just "information." One thing I have read and tried to be careful about is that it is supposed to get worse the more times you flare. I live in a very cold climate so this means taking careful prevention measures whenever possible. It has indeed gotten worse over time and I also flare up when anxious or stressed. Since I live in a cold climate, in a very old house, it is not possible to keep the heat higher than 65 in the day. My furnace simply will not do better than that on the coldest days and even if it could, we would go broke. So, I have had to adapt by wearing layers, wool, slippers, scarves, hats, and even wrist warmers indoors. I drink tea or hot water all day. When I leave the house, I make sure my mittens are on before I open the door and have learned to do just about everything with mittened hands so I never have to take them off. Gloves are not even a thing for me. Not warm enough. On the colder days, I add hand warmers to mittens and boots.* If I will be standing in one place for long periods of time (this is a thing for me as I volunteer and spectate for a winter sport), I bring a square of foam to stand on. I invest in the highest quality winter outerwear. *I buy these by the case. This can get expensive. Each one should last 8-10 hours and it was frustrating to use them for an hour or two and just toss them. Then I learned you can stop the reaction to use them later. I just put them in a ziplock snack bag to stop the reaction. I can get 3-4 uses out of each which has cut down on the expense and waste....which means I am more likely to use them when I should. I now have a system where I reuse the same set of bags. Each is labeled as 1x, 2x, 3x so I know how many times the warmers in the bags have already been used. I use brand new warmers when I know I will need them for a long period of time and the 3x ones when I just need them for a short period of time. I keep extra bags in my purse and glove box.

Fingers crossed for you too! Under normal circumstances, I would not even consider going on a leisure trip right now, let alone overseas. We have done no "vacationing" since Covid started other than camping in our own camper (which we have admittedly done a LOT). Just thinking about getting on a plane, not to mention THREE each way, makes me very nervous. But this kid lost so much due to Covid. Just like everyone else. And there is no getting back her childhood. It is a risk I am willing to take assuming the laws allow.

I am baffled too. I guess I learn something new every day. I have never had anything but cheap laminate and likely never will unless we win the lottery or something, but I always assumed quartz was indeed QUARTZ and for sure not plastic. What the heck? Everyone I know well enough to enter their homes also has laminate so I have zero experience here but until I read this thread, I would assume you could put anything on quartz (and granite for that matter!).

We are supposed to go to Europe in May. At this point, we are still planning it but who knows? This is a long promised and Covid-delayed trip for dd. If it does not happen this May, it probably never will as she is now an adult and getting that kind of time free will not be possible anymore. Even doing it when we plan was a compromise as we had to shorten the window to squeeze in between the semester ending and her summer job starting. Fingers crossed.

Dd's dorm room and hallways are carpeted. Mine was too. I think the building would be very noisy without it. That said, dd says there is at least one (maybe more) wing of one dorm that is carpet free for people with allergies.

Dd's university, where I also work, is going back full in person on Monday. There has never been a vaccine mandate and there still isn't. No surveillance testing or testing requirement to return. Testing in our local area is very scarce anyway. The university has its own very limited testing capabilities for symptomatic students and staff only. The only thing that will look different from 2019 is the university will continue its waste water monitoring and masking will remain required indoors, even in the dorms, unless actively eating a meal or inside their rooms with the door closed. The students have been very good about this so far but many are using ineffective masks or wearing them incorrectly. Dd reports that everyone she knows is vaccinated and most got boosted over break. But she also reports that some of her friends still got Covid over break so I suspect there will be a lot of active cases coming to campus. The majority of the local population comprises of Covid deniers. All schools are already back in session with no masking or other measures in place. It is very rare to see anyone masked in stores or other indoor spaces other than the university. Because there is almost no testing available our local cases are "going down! yay us!" However, suspiciously, the hospital is well past capacity and has been since delta hit. Th vaccination rate of adults is less than 40% and very few children have been vaccinated. I think coming back to school is far more of a risk to the students than anyone else.

We just did this last year. We had big plans for a very large indoor event (it can still be snowing here in May) but Covid changed all of that. So we ended up with a (very) cold outdoor event and a much smaller crowd. It turned out great but it was not what we had wanted really. Aside from the Covid complications, some things we did that might be useful: 1. We did open house style but as others warned, we did put a timeline on the invites so people knew when to come (or not) with regards to the "ceremony." 2. We did have a ceremony that lasted less than 20 minutes. I spoke for about 10 with a history of dd's education. Then dd spoke which was mostly thank you to her mentors. There was not a dry eye to be seen. Some of dd's musician friends surprised her with a bluegrass rendition of Pomp and Circumstance. They were serious troopers considering how cold it was. We did take a video.....which is my next suggestion. If you are outdoors, consider wind in recording and/or amplification. You can hear everything in our video if you try really hard but the wind really messed up the sound quality. 3. Egg salad sliders. No idea why but they seem to be a ridiculous hit. We had 75 with an additional 75 of two other types of sandwich. The egg salad ones were gone within 20 minutes. It was frightening. 4. Dd was not huge on tradition but did want a cap and gown. Rather than buy her own we just borrowed one from her best friend that was graduating from a local high school the following week. They thought it was kind of cool that the hat and gown graduated them both. I just thought it was kind of cool that dd did not get egg salad on any of it! And that we saved the money and waste. 5. If you are still grappling with Covid, add a half hour open zoom for before or after the party to have time with people that cannot attend due to quarantine and/or caution. We had ours after with the ceremony so we could play the recording. That way dd was not on the hook to "entertain" participants the entire time. 6. Our homeschool did not have a formal name or colors. We struggled to decide on decoration colors. We settled on using the colors of the college dd would be attending. The bonus is that we saved it all to use again if dd graduates from the school she is currently attending. And if she doesn't, it is local and we can pass it on to someone else. We did have a lot of hurt feelings as our original guest list would have been about 250 and we settled for 100 after cutting out anyone from out of town (most of our extended families) and less close local people in an attempt to keep it Covid safe. I don't know how else we could have done it. The family was understandably upset (and still is) but it was not just mixing people from all over the place in a single party but also trying to come up with safe lodging for everyone who normally would have stacked up on people's floors, campers, and guest rooms. Not to mention many are not well suited to an outdoor event in cold weather and there are deep divides within our families about Covid safety measures. I was not going to have some kind of war over masking at an already stressful time. It was also a very last minute event as the local Covid mandates were in constant flux. We had about two weeks to go from zero to party that was going to have to be in our small city yard which was not going to work with a very large event. So out of town people would not have had time to get off work or get plane tickets. So it was what it was.

I'd like an invite!

We are all low risk, boosted, and have very modest holiday plans with a small number of also boosted people. In your case, I would cancel. I have about had it with people that will do nothing to protect others. We have now drawn the line with anyone that will not vaccinate and/or mask/test. this includes a much-loved branch of the family. I am sad about it but it is what it is. I am not for forcing people to vaccinate but if they won't and also will not mask (or allow others to mask in thier presence) and rapid test, we cannot spend time with them.

I bought a handful of rapid tests online from Walgreens late last week. They arrived the next day. I just checked and they still have them in stock for shipping and in our local store.

I think we will just go and hope for the best. Dd is a college student so rescheduling will be hard and if we are going to get sick, I guess better during break than later..... To be honest though, I am certain there are people who work in that office that are not vaccinated. We are only at 50% of adults. And as I said before, the masks they were wearing the last time we visited were not well-fitted. The building is from the 1960s and you feel like you are in the 1960s when inside it so I doubt they went to any additional effort to improve ventilation. Fingers crossed!

We have hardwood and started with an area rug or two but I found it too big of a pain to clean the rug and the wood, so we eventually got rid of them. Plus we live in a 130+ yo house and the floors have a lot of birdseye maple that is too pretty to cover up. Oddly, it was considered a "flaw" back then so is mostly on the edges but still cool to look at. We do not wear shoes in the house and we do keep small rag rugs in front of doors....which the cats enjoy rearranging.

My whole fully-boosted family has regular dentist appointments scheduled for next week. We have a shortage of dentists in the area. This means that if I cancel, we are going to be scheduled out 6+ more months. We ran into this during the initial months of Covid and we ended up going 16 months with no check up. I have some dental issues that really need a look during routine cleanings, so I don't want to cancel unless I really really should. Thoughts? When we last went, the dentist and hygienists were all masked but not fitted well. But that was also during the brief early-summer lull when mask mandates were being dropped. We live in an area with very low vaccination rates, low test access, and almost no masks in sight so I suspect Omicron could be running rampant and we would not even know. And obviously, we will not be able to mask during the exam/cleaning.

I have an 18yo that was always homeschooled but only had schooled friends due to an utter lack of high school homeschoolers in our area. She was part of a "friend group" at the local high school even though she did not attend school. She did attend dances, sporting events, and anything else her friends could smuggle her into. She has always had access to social media, with lessening levels of supervision as she got older. From what we talk about, being around when engaging with her friends, and just general observation, I don't find "teen culture" to be much different than it always has been. I think teens are typically more open and informed than we were. We know some teens that are glued to their phones and some who are not. Just like my own peers where some were glued to the TV, video games, etc.... and some that were not. Dd's group did a lot of engaging on social media but rarely was it what I consider to be unhealthy. She has had friends that struggled with mental health (as did I), she knows people that engage in activities or interests that might be harmful/unhealthy (as did I), and she talks about hard things with her friends (as did I). I don't know how old your teens are but I certainly did not help or hinder my dd's integration with other teens. I'm not even sure how I would do either, even if I wanted to. And what would be the point? They turn into adults and will be part of this culture one way or another.

I always have a large percentage of spritz cookies. It is so easy to make many different variations, colors, and decor. We do some chocolate, some almond, and some cream cheese, then vary the decor of all. My cookie shooter is a Hamilton Beach brand from the 1980s that I picked up at Goodwill in the 1990s. It is possessed. It sometimes will not turn off and you have to flip the battery lid to make it stop. Very festive! It makes such a mess! It just would not feel like Christmas if I went a bought a new one for a whopping $20. We also love thumbprint cookies. Easy and tasty.

What is this "ironing" thing you speak of? This will absolutely not be a problem for me! Ha ha!

I am all ears! I have some in a cart but just cannot seem to commit to the steep cost.

I think this is why I never took to using them. After eating too many meals of microwaved ham slabs and salmon patties, not to mention WAY overcooked veggies, I just assumed all microwaved food was terrible.