EDIT. This is sort of a double-post and ninja won’t let me delete it.

I used a pattern called KitKat Hat, which is free on Ravelry. It’s done in the round on double points or circulars. My local yarn store is collecting them to send to D.C. for the March.

That was my volunteer experience in Michigan, too.

I’m sorry you’re feeling this way. I got pregnant with my first child in Summer 2008 and was really freaked out about what sort of world I was bringing her into. She is kind and smart and funny, and though I’m pretty pissed that she’s going to enter pubescence with all these assholes in office, I’m hopeful that she…

I’m pretty sure the shoe lady in NYC was Mae Whitman (“Her?”) but I may have been hallucinating.

My husband and I have a “evidence-based treatments only” policy for managing our son’s autism; otherwise the choices we would need to make over which treatments he should get would be overwhelming. As it is, it was hard to fit feeding therapy into his already packed schedule this month (unlike you, he is profoundly…

Blocking Amazon is a good idea. My dad died less than a week before Father’s Day five years ago and those e-mails hurt. I also avoid social media that week, too, because a lot of friends and family post remembrances and they are hard, too.

I live in a pretty conservative area, too (but not so conservative that I’m worried my Hillary sign would get vandalized). It’s been very telling that more than a few Trump signs have come down since the tapes came out. I’m sure it was just the wind.

I showed this to my 7yo daughter who just started watching Pokémon on Netflix (the original episodes are now called Indigo League, I learned). She barely glanced at it and said “Oh yeah, that makes sense. There’s an episode where Pikachu loves ketchup, but then Scyther cuts the bottle in half and Pikachu is sad.” The…

I like cookie decorating videos, like these ones from Sweetambs. Just when you think she’s done, there’s another little detail to be filled in with a size 0 piping tip, or more pearl dust to be painted on. I don’t think I’ll ever see an intricate cookie like this in real life, much less eat one, but they’re…

Not sure what platform you use, but I’ve had in-app purchases in other games zero out and been able to get a refund from iTunes with no questions asked. Unless it’s changed, you go to your purchase history on the iTunes browser (on a desktop) and there’s a button to dispute individual purchases.

Our County Department of Community Mental Health recently put out a call in my daughter’s school newsletter for volunteers to provide respite foster care for families that are overwhelmed, maybe because one of their children has a developmental delay, for example. Usually, the caregiver watches the kids for a few days…

“Frodo is great-....who is that?!”

I learned when I was 25ish by watching YouTube tutorials. It’s such a rewarding hobby.

You’re right. I was too careful in my language above (I don’t know why). I'm sorry.

Yeah, I seem to recall that it was pulled after allegations surfaced about Stephen Collins: something about the actors who played the twins making an issue about losing out on royalties.

I grew up in Michigan (still live here) and do not recall having school nurses in our schools either. As far as I know, the school district in our town (with less than 10,000 students) still does not employ them. Vaccinations are verified by each elementary school’s administrative assistant through a state database,…

I do the same thing, because I enjoy crafty things and I like Christmasy stuff. We downplayed the surveillance part, and the elves (we have two*) in our house are more about spreading holiday cheer than reporting to Santa. I take photos every night and post them on Instagram, and when the elves leave on Christmas Eve,…

I am so proud of my autistic child and grateful that we live in a community which has been nothing but supportive, inclusive, and loving. He is a delight and I think it’s incredibly unfortunate that some people treat autism as if it were a boogeyman that will snatch their child away in the night. I really hope that…

My mom used to make me grilled peanut butter sandwiches instead of grilled cheese because I don’t eat cheese. I once got sick as a toddler and blamed it on the cheddar cubes my mom had given me as a snack, and made a solemn toddler vow that I would never eat cheese again. You know what? It stuck, and here I am as a…