These two are my favorites: https://www.amazon.com/VBQ_The-Ultimate-Vegan-Barbecue-Cookbook/dp/1615194568/ref=sr_1_1?crid=38KFE5QWD2820&keywords=vbq+the+ultimate+vegan+barbecue+cookbook&qid=1682626383&sprefix=vbq%2Caps%2C448&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/Vegetables-Fire-Vegetable-Centered-Meals-Grill/dp/145215824X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2P1RLAONPP3V5&keywords=vegetables+on+fire&qid=1682626454&sprefix=vegetables+on+fire%2Caps%2C138&sr=8-1

Ranger Rick. Grrrr..... I bought a subscription as a gift for a family member. I made sure to put in my calendar the date to cancel the renewal. Then discovered how difficult they make it to cancel.

I have made these in the air fryer and in cast iron on the stove. They are good but not the same as grilled.

That was me! And we also start with chickpeas every time we grill! We still have snow on the ground but I think we will drag out the Weber this weekend.

We are vegetarian and grill a LOT every summer. First, we are purists and propane just does not cut it. While food certainly never tastes like propane, you do lose the charcoal flavor, which we really like. We like to smoke veggies as well, so charcoal it is. We often will add apple wood or other things to enhance flavor. Just last summer, I bit the bullet and bought 4 vegetarian grilling cookbooks and we have been going to town. Before that, we still did a lot of grilling. Grilled pizza if a favorite here but we grilled all sorts of other things outside of the standard veggie dogs. Mostly vegetables like asparagus, sweet potato, zucchini, winter squash, anything in a kabob form, etc.... We also like to marinate and grill veggies to make into pasta or quiche. But with the new books, we have expanded so that grilled chickpeas, various mushrooms, smoked beet hummus, all kinds of tofu dishes, and even things like grilled jalapeño poppers are summer staples. I highly recommend getting your hands on some good books. There is no limit to veggie grilling fun. As someone else already mentioned, I would keep the weber grill and focus your investment on tools. We have various grill baskets that make smaller foods much easier to handle. I have two cast iron flat pans that I use regularly. And we often bury foil-wrapped items (beets are or favorite) in the coals to slow cook while making other foods. This requires more robust tongs and gloves. If you don't have one, a chimney for the starting the charcoal is great.

We play a lot of card games. Cribbage is the most common. We both play music, but not together. However, we have a family-wide hobby of regularly finding and sharing new music finds. This can be as simple as sending the Spotify link to a new (to us) artist or song. We have a giant all-family playlist in which we all contribute and edit. Dh and I step it up by taking turns playing new stuff while we are actually together. Even better if we can find videos on YouTube. At least once a week, this fills a weeknight. Going to watch live music and attending music festivals. I am very into fitness while dh is less so. But we do enjoy working out together if the activity of choice is agreeable to dh at that moment. Typically running or skiing. Hiking, snowshoeing, canoeing, camping, and backpacking.

Yes. The campsite we will be staying at is inland. It has a creek nearby but it is usually dry by mid-August. So we can't count on it. We will likely plan to have a hearty cooked meal for breakfast before setting off, be as conservative as possible that day and overnight. We should be at a water source again by lunch the next day. We are actually hoping to bypass that site and carry on to the next campsite (which has water access) but that will mean a much longer hike and we are not sure we can all manage it so need to be prepared to stay. There are actually a handful of campsites on the island that do not have a reliable water source at times.

We're going in August and staying on the west end of the island. There is a 30-ish mile loop on that end that will be the base of our trip with a possible excursion up to the north end. I could borrow some lighter gear but we know we will be traveling heavy because there is one night in which we won't have access to water so we have to carry enough for two days. And I have to balance weight with familiarity. Luckily I do have a very light tent. I have packed 40+ pounds many times so it should be OK. 20 years ago I packed across IR in late October so I was more like 50# with heavier clothing and a lot more food and fuel. It snowed for half the trip! I would not try that now!

I was going to ask about your footwear! I am doing Isle Royale this summer with some girlfriends. We all have extensive backpacking experience but I confess that my gear is OLD and therefore quite heavy. I will be at about 40#, maybe more, which is about double the recommended percentage for my body weight, but that is what I have been carrying for years. My last pair of hiking boots blew out a couple of years ago. I did a short trip last year (30ish miles over four days) wearing just hiking shoes and I really liked it. Those have also worn out and I need to buy and break in something. I was debating between traditional boots, hiking shoes, or trail runners. I was leaning towards the trail runners but got nervous with the rocky terrain and heavy load. I also have a pair of inexpensive Columbia hiking boots that seem super light, likely because they are not very traditionally "sturdy" but could be a good compromise. I just don't know! It's not like I can bring a variety so I need to figure this out!

We've been using the Tru Earth brand for about a year now and have been happy with it. I have not noticed any change in effectiveness over our prior detergent (BioKleen). And I LOVE the reduced waste!

We went through something similar. Dd showed a lot of "promise" in a sport at a young age and was even competing at the national level. Then a series of unrelated events and just plain growing changed her trajectory. This is not at all uncommon in the sport in question so no one was surprised. We were careful in how we talked about her sport, both during the high times and the more average times. Mostly "I love to watch you ____," or "You looked really solid at _____ point." Our goal was to instill a lifelong love of being active and that seems to have worked. As an adult, she still does this activity, and others, on a regular basis. Her best friend from her team years is on an athletic scholarship for the same sport at the same school dd attends and they are still friends. She sees how HARD it is and is very glad she is not trying to balance athletic pressures while completing a difficult degree program. And they still sometimes even train together anyway. Best of both worlds. So in your case, OP, I would focus on the love of running and not worry at all about speed or results.

@ktgrok I really appreciate the insight into the struggles vets deal with. I had not really considered that some people would be offended or upset by being counseled about euthanasia. I have written down your suggested wording and will use it! I especially appreciate the "does not tolerate being handled" bit. This has always been a challenge with this cat when a vet suggests we do something that I know 100% will not fly. I feel kind of like a wimp but there are some things this cat will not allow and others that I could force but would decrease her (and my) quality of life. Unfortunately there are no mobile vet services of any kind in my area. Not even for euthanasia, aside from large farm animals. We very much wanted this for our last cat as she was in a lot of pain, it was raging winter, and she is terrified of the car. On top of allowing her to live in pain for much longer than we should have, I also live with the guilt that her last hour was total terror and misery for her....having to go from house to car, then car to vet office in a raging blizzard, yowling in the car the entire drive, seeing dogs (AKA the scariest thing ever) in the waiting room, and finally strangers manhandling her. It was awful and certainly not peaceful. It still makes me tear up. I would have paid the entire day's worth of appointments to allow her to pass in her own comfortable home. But that was not an option. We have a big shortage of vet services in our area and the only reason I got an appointment one week from now was that a a friend offered to give me her slot that was for a non-emergency visit. Otherwise, it would be weeks, in not months, for me to even get her in. When our kitten had an eye infection that was going from bad to worse, I was told the first available appointment was 6 weeks away and if that was too long we should consider driving to the closest mid-sized city, two hours away, to have her seen. We live in a geographical oddity that makes access to all kinds of things abnormal. So I feel very lucky to get in at all and know I have one shot to get all of my questions answered.

Luckily (or not), one gets to the mentally-prepared point any time a cat lives past 20 years. That is why I am a little miffed at our vet after the 22yo cat experience. It's not like we thought a 22yo cat was going to have a whole lot of time under any circumstances. Any rational person is going to understand that there would be no magic cures. I just didn't have the experience or words to make clear that we were only interested in hospice measures. Nor did I understand that the vet was recommending we do things that were not purely palliative. Which is why I want to be better informed before we go this time. Other than the water-drinking and pee-increase, she does not seem unhealthy or uncomfortable at all right now. She is jumping up on things, getting into trouble, drawing blood for fun, begging for people-food treats, sunning herself, and generally being 100% normal. She just bit me (again) because I had to put the lid on her catnip wall-ball thing and she seemed to really enjoy it. So I think we have time. Knowing what I have learned so far, I would not even go to the vet other than to just be sure it is CKD rather than something else that could be more addressable.

Thanks everyone! I feel like I am well-prepared of the vet visit. It appears that the raw cat food company we use does have a low-phosphorous kidney-health version available with a prescription. That might be a possibility and I will bring it up with my vet. I don't know that my cat would tolerate even that type of switch but it is worth a try. The way we feed the cats makes it impossible to make 100% sure cats are not eating each others' food. Anyone know if low-phosphorous food would be harmful to a healthy cat? All this assuming it is indeed CKD. It seems pretty classic and while I cannot rule out diabetes, the cat is not overweight so it seems unlikely.

Lol! I cannot imagine trying that with my half-feral demon cat!

Honey is my go to for burns. Dd burned her arms very badly on a remote camping trip. We were hours from a hospital. Like many burns, they did not look terrible at first and I did the standard cleaning, anti-bacterial cream, "non-stick" pads, and wrapped it up. The next morning, they were much worse and the weeping made the pads stick. It was terrible. A woman from a neighboring campsite came over and offered some raw honey and told us it would prevent the sticking because of the high-osmolarity properties as well as protect from infection due to the antibiotic properties. She was right! No more sticking and the burns were so healed by the time we got home that her doctor was shocked. We use it for all burns and minor wounds now.

I even mentally battled with taking her to the vet at all but feel I should at least verify it is indeed CKD and not something that could be easily treated. I wrote down "hospice situation" as a talking point. I don't even want super invasive tests but I believe they can confirm CKD with a blood test and we can go from there. There is no collecting urine with this cat either. She will simply not pee in anything that is not her normal litter. last time we tried the plastic bead things, she peed next to the box and never in it....after holding her pee in protest for 2 days Sigh. I appreciate hearing that others in this situation did not force the prescription food. I am not even sure I would attempt to try it given her usual reaction to anything not-her-normal-food at her age. I also appreciate knowing what to look for when we get closer to the end. Right now, you would have no idea anything is wrong with her other than the drinking and peeing. She is currently up high on a shelf attempting to destroy a plant while occasionally shooting me looks of disapproval.....both of which are her usual happy-space activities.

Thanks for all of this! I am encouraged that you had such a good outcome. This kitty will not eat the prescription food, which is something I forgot to mention in the OP. She is quite set in her ways. She can tolerate a cat treat here and there, but rapidly throws up anything other than the food she regularly eats. She eats a raw food diet and I will need to see what that means as far as phosphorous. We have had a handful of times over the last few years in which we ran out of her regular food and tried to give her high-quality grain-free canned food and she instantly puked it up each time. And there is no way on earth I would even attempt to admin subcutaneous water. That was one of the things we did with our last cat, who as far more tolerant of being manhandled by us, and it was heart-breaking. I will not do that again.

I have a 20yo cat that is shockingly healthy for her age aside from being deaf. However, we recently noticed her drinking a LOT more water and therefore also urinating much larger volumes. It may have been going on for some time because different people clean the litter boxes, we have multiple cats, and there is a natural spring that runs through our basement that the cats typically drink so they almost never touch their actual water bowl. I spent the last few days following her every time she went into the basement to confirm that it was indeed her that was intaking so much more water. Anyway, I got her the first vet available appointment, which is a full week from now. I would like to be well-prepared when we go. I'd like to be very clear on what we are and are not willing to do. If it is indeed kidney disease/failure, it is probably pretty advanced given her age and that everything I've read says that by the time they are drinking that much water, it is likely advanced. What, if anything, can be done to treat at this stage? We had a pretty bad experience at the end of our last cat's life. She was also very old at 22 years. They did not actually know what was wrong with her, other than being 22, but had us doing all kinds of invasive things in what I now realize was a misguided attempt to appease us. It is clear that the vet we go to will assume that one wants to do anything possible to prolong life unless told otherwise. Whereas I (incorrectly) assumed that the vet would advise us as to when we should consider euthanasia. I regret that we prolonged that cat's misery. A less timid and sensitive cat might have been a good candidate for that path, but that cat was quite miserable with everything we were directed to do and I don't believe it was in her best interest. This cat is not at all timid and borders on feral. She was a stray and was not at all socialized when we ended up taking her in at about 3 years of age. She has mellowed to some degree over the years but she still hates to be picked up and only very rarely wants attention on her terms. We could not even pet her for the first 5 years we had her and her vet file has a caution sticker on it. She will bite and scratch at the slightest provocation. It takes three people to clip her nails and the last time she got vaccinations, we had to sedate her. All this meaning that there is very little she will "agree to" when it comes to "bugging her." We can probably get her to take meds inside treats but anything involving needles or manhandling will make her very unhappy. I do not want another situation in which we make the last days (or even years) of a pet's life miserable again. OTOH, if there are non-invasive ways to prolong discomfort and/or life, we are eager to do it. I just don't always feel like I get a clear message from our vet. Thoughts? Anyone been here? How can I be very clear when speaking with the vet?

Ok, I have to ask..... The husband sounds like the CAT or a PERSON in the story?

As others have said, there are free sites listed on the IRS website. And as was also mentioned, those are not free if there are 1099s, which is VERY annoying since many very young adults have very little income and relatively straight-forward taxes but also have 1099s. Add 1099s from multiple states and my own dd ended up paying far more in filing fees that she owed in taxes. So annoying. You can also still go old school paper, which is free, of course. We would have done that if it weren't for the fact that dd had to file in multiple states and it got too confusing WAY too fast.

Ugh. Sorry. I just call roadside assistance right off the bat. I know how to change a tire and have all the required equipment in my car, but the last time I did it roadside the lug wouldn't budge. I was jumping on the wrench. Someone stopped to help (jump and pull method) when we sheered the entire bolt off. And that was only the first one. I called a tow truck after that as I did not want to lose any more bolts!

I only mask now on mass transit (planes, trains, buses, including stations and airports), Uber/Lyfts, any medical building, and any time I think I (or another household member) might be sick. I also mask at any indoor space for the two weeks prior to visiting a family member who is in a facility and high risk. I do always have one with me so if I notice someone nearby displaying obvious illness symptoms, I will put it on. We masked religiously for the first two years of the pandemic and everyone in my household got it at least once. My case was bad and I still have some lingering effects 11 months later. I don't want it again but I live in an area where mask-wearers can be bullied, which HAS happened to me more times than I can count, so I am cutting my losses at this point and hoping for the best.

I think this is true for most people. But the other uses are compelling. They pack down so small, dry so quickly, and absorb a lot, they are perfect for the beach, car, boats, picnics, or as back-up towels.

That's it! They are very thin cotton that dries super fast. I can see that some people might not like them as bath towels as they are very casual looking. But in our humid summer climate, the quick drying is great. Far less risk of mildew. Even nicer at the beach where this type of towel draped over a lawn chair will dry in minutes. They take a few washes, like cloth diapers, to reach maximum absorbancy.