Some reading stats from WaPo (gifted link)

South Carolina, not North Carolina.

I haven't heard anything about it. When I do a Google search of "cat vaccine shortage usa" all the hits I get are in Australia. The US FDA site doesn't list any shortage of vaccines under "current animal drug shortage" but IDK if vaccines are included in that list. I'd think they would be?

Oh, we traveled (domestically) an absolute ton while I was a kid. But almost all of it was related to my parents' business. But there were very few vacations, and I'm sure the idea of taking us skating or bowling or anything like that simply for entertainment never crossed their minds.

I believe under the ACA 30 hours a week is considered full time and requires employer provided health insurance. But I could be wrong.

Same. I can count on one hand the times I can remember an adult doing anything for the sole purpose of entertaining kids. Mostly those times were my aunt taking her kids, my brother and me to a movie. I can't say that other families didn't do more because I don't have any memory of that. But I know mine didn't. Yep. I remember quite a few kids getting into quite a lot of trouble, and in hindsight I feel sure boredom played a big part in that. Kids will figure out something to do when they're bored, but it won't always be something productive or positive. Of course some of that comes back to supervision or lack thereof. I was raised when kids were pretty much left to their own devices in most every way--no expectation of parental entertaining, but also very little supervision.

We've had YouTubeTV for (I think) about six years. No complaints. I have a vague memory that we had one glitch a few years ago, but that it didn't last very long at all. But my memory on that is very vague. I'd say it's totally non-glitchy, really. I don't know how the price compares to traditional cable TV now, but when we first signed on it was considerably less expensive. They go up a little every year.

I’m so very sorry.

FWIW—I have wide, flat, arthritic feet and the pair of Hokas I tried were horrible. I got wide width, but it definitely wasn’t wide enough, and there were other things going on that I couldn’t figure out. But the end result was that they were very painful for my feet. But their return/refund policy is great.

I'm pretty sure she's misconstruing (or perhaps she legitimately misunderstood) the thread where inheriting was discussed. As I recall some of us pointed out that it's not exactly unusual for people to inherit something from their parents or grandparents. I don't recall anyone insisting that "most" people had done so. As most of us understand, there's a lot of territory between "not unusual" and "most." But I'm also going on my own recollection, which I admit could be wrong.

I'm older than most on here. Most of my childhood years were before cable television was available. We were rural and my mom didn't drive. There were a very small handful of kids near my age who lived close to us. We spent a lot of time riding bikes and playing in the woods and along a creek, but . . yes, there was a LOT of boredom. Books were what saved me. I do think a little boredom is a good thing, that it fosters creativity and allows for contemplation and thinking deep(er) thoughts. But I also don't believe that screens are bad.

It was close to 25 years ago, so I've forgotten most of them. Yeast and carrots I remember. The carrots were a biggie, and had been something he loved as treats and got almost daily. When we finally gave up and had him tested he turned out to be allergic to close to fifty things. We started desensitization shots and avoiding all the foods he was allergic to, and within a few months he was like an entirely different dog.

What Katie said -- environmental allergies are hugely more common than food allergies. And IME it's very unusual for a dog to have a food allergy(ies) but not also have environmental allergies (although OTOH it's very common to go the other way -- for a dog to have environmental allergies and not have food allergies). Testing can be done, either via a blood draw or skin testing. For foods an elimination diet can be done, but it's time consuming and tedious to do it right. I've only ever done it with one dog, and I hope to never have to do it again. But that one had a massive number of allergies (both environmental and foods), and his food allergies weren't ones that are relatively easy to figure out like chicken or grain.

I keep a list of books read but try not to engage in any kind of number counting or stats or goals, as I've found that doing any of those means a huge net loss of reading enjoyment for me. And above all else I read for enjoyment. That said, this year's list contains a lot of non-fiction, and (as others have mentioned) those tend to slow me down quite a lot. My library hold of Democracy Awakening just became available, so I suppose I'll continue my trend and end this year (and likely begin the new year) with more non-fiction.

I have a family member who gets one of their cat's medications through a Canadian pharmacy, too. Their vet was the one who recommended they do so, but I don't know which one it is.

We just try to go with whatever appeals to the sick/recovering person. In our experience that almost always works best. Sniffing rubbing alcohol will help nausea sometimes. We always have those little individual alcohol wipes around, so that's the first thing we try.

My first thought was that the stomach issues sound like gastritis. But I know someone who had diagnosed (via endoscopy) with gastritis and then got Covid (confirmed only via home test) a couple of weeks later. So . . was it a weird, slowly developing case of Covid, or were the two unrelated? I tend to think unrelated given the time gap. But it seemed maybe relevant, so I thought I'd share. FWIW, their gastritis symptoms were exactly what you describe.

I've only worn Bombas for years, but I buy when they're having their Black Friday sale.

Carolina style (Wikipedia) -- coleslaw, chili, onions The same term is used for hot dogs and hamburgers.

Is it? I see advertisements here for group trips, and it seems like many of them include total group travel, as in we leave from X airport on this flight, and return on this date on this flight. So I'm wondering how easy it would be to go on a group trip like that but change the travel dates? But I totally understand being hurt, especially w/o any reason or excuse being given for not arranging a visit.

I think it should be safe, especially if it's going to be prepared and consumed today.

Merry Christmas, Hive!

I'm pretty sure NORAD's . . . capabilities . . . aren't diminished by tracking Santa. I'm sure they have extremely sophisticated equipment that can differentiate between Santa and reindeer and naughty things. 😉

Hugs, Ginevra.

I don't know if it's true or not, but I tell myself the same thing.