I'm zone 8b. I have a star jasmine bush on the east side of the house. It may get a little more shade than what you describe but couldn't be sure, I'd have to track if it gets shade from nearby trees or not.

Well, I'm trying the buoy approach. Another 27 packs of cookies ought to do the trick, yes? I'll let you know how it works out. For science!

Thanks, But perhaps I should still learn how to swim, first...

Scarlett, I know you must be a better person than I, because if I ever got a divorce from DH, I think the last thing, the literal last thing, I would ever do is contact his mom, lol. I would probably swim across the Atlantic before I opened my address book. ...this is how I know I need to work on my personality some more... (eta: I am afraid of swimming)

He's just mad because he's been playing with a marked deck and the house just caught on. The security team you describe for this establishment sounds unforgiving. Shucks for him.

Glad you went with the law lay down! Because there is definitely argument to be had with "I'll get back to you." It's not coherent argument, but coherence has never been a pre-requisite in any argument I've had yet lol

Stick with me here just a mo': We don't freeze meat until it's been cooked into edible form. [Now, this may not work in this instance, because of the time crunch to buy enough meat for a while, but ] We do this because by the time the meat defrosts, I'm usually going to be late for dinner. Overnight in the fridge is hardly enough time for me for some reason. And, If I forget to start defrost it the night before, I can put it on the counter, but what if it still isn't done? What if we were supposed to eat earlier? What if I accidentally break a fork trying to pry the meat from it's container? I end up going out and buying another pack of fresh meat so I can cook today, and put the other one away "for next time." I also tried buying large packs and then portioning smaller so they'd defrost faster, but I hate touching meat, so usually would just chuck the whole package into the freezer anyway. So after that happening a few infinity times, we moved to the rule that meat must be bought and cooked into a dinner THEN frozen. Or, at least, prepped: so steaks can go into the freezer raw if they are in a marinade. I defrost the dinners on the counter usually. [In current circumstances, I do need to figure out if this is a rule I'm going to continue. I know my planning abilities need to get better, but wondering if having more freezer packs of dinners ready to go wouldn't help overall anyway. And just know that these next few weeks are going to be kitchen heavy. ]

Leftovers with meat get 3 months from date of packing. So if tonight I make chili and I have some for the freezer, it would be marked as Sept 8, 2020. Leftover with no meat get 6 months from date of packing. So if I make a spaghtetti sauce with no meat, just tomatoes and onions and herbs, it would be marked as Dec 8, 2020.

Don't have a full system, but one thing I do is for everything that goes into the freezer: I put an expiration date. Not the date I pack it. This helps me keep aware of what things need to be eaten sooner. Used to have a tally count of everything in the freezer, too, and then just erase a tally mark when I take something out. It was on the door on a white board so easy to erase at the same time.

So anyway, whenever my DH thinks I'm being a bit harsh with the kids, he usually chimes in with "Yes, Ms Havisham". So I feel personally attacked with this one, lol.

Is it...is it because we are still talking about tigers?? 😄 edit: Lions: "We are never going to felinely recover from this"

oh, oops.. it says that? Apparently I'm the person that takes a year to the open the box, AND doesn't read the directions....... 😱 Mine just..sits on the ground. no special anything.

YES! I tried the ones on FB, Popfit. Now have like 7 pairs. Love them. One pair is having a bit of a seam start to unravel, but I think I put it on the wrong wash cycle, and no others have had issues. These are my go-to wear, really all I wear if I can. eta: I'm also plus-size. They seem true to size, I'm a 3x and they fit comfortably. If you get a style that has mesh on the legs it doesn't stretch quite as much as their others but still totally wearable.

Just to kind of make you not feel alone, as a half-minority (is that even a thing?) I don't really know what to do either. I liked another commenter's idea from another thread to become more aware of my police force and involved with that, via social media or whatever way you can. But in my current small town this isn't a real issue/possibility. So, I figure that I can find ways to make sure that my already-charitable areas are not gate-kept away from minorities (eg child abuse help). I don't really know what this looks like yet: do I support specific charities that work with disadvantaged minority children? Do I make sure that dolls of different colors are bought for toy drives? Do I make sure books are donated that are mostly race-neutral characters or at least with better representation? Don't know yet exactly, but at least I have a starting point. edit: taking out basically half my post because I am too longwinded 🙂