I saw that! Really bad timing on my part. (Even sadder is she won’t be getting any new dogs because she knows they’ll outlive her... oof).

This reminds me of one of my tried and true simple travel tips — always sign up for all rewards points programs, even if you only use a place once and have no intention of using it again. While most of the time it’s just a thank you or a free bottle of water, a lot of times just being a member (which is always free)…

This reminds me of one of my tried and true simple travel tips — always sign up for all rewards points programs,…

I had never heard this and sense a rabbit hole of Internet research in my future!

Ha, thanks for clarifying, that felt really out of left field :) The idea sounds familiar so I’ve either heard of this person or heard references to him in pop culture.

.... wut?

I hope it’s to talk about Corgis!!

The volume of tea is much greater than the volume of milk, so pouring the tea on top of the milk helps to mix everything better / more efficiently. Also it doesn’t matter?

This. Smaller banks and credit unions especially tend to have these. Or sometimes they’ll just take a bucket of change and have the machine behind teh desk and will count and deposit / cash it out for you.

This is...dumb? I don’t have a dishwasher, and it’s just my wife and I (no kids), so we (I) wash dishes once a day (first thing in the morning) unless something egregious / smelly is in the sink. Soaking is a must for.. .most things? In reality you can soak for 5 minutes or 12 hours and it’s the same thing, but…

Aside from denial, what state are you in? If they’re following California’s standard, it’s because they choose to.

Tell me again how Republicans are the party of states’ rights?

The entire rest of the world has this. When I went to Canada a few years ago I learned this, and it was confirmed on a trip to Europe. As usual we’re light years behind, almost entirely due to stubbornness as far as I can tell.

Yes! Debit card was the key, because it’s a chip card that has a pin. None of my American credit cards are chip and pin so the pumps wouldn’t accept them.

I paid it right away (after verifying it was legitimate). They had a website so it was easy enough.

Everything I read after I got mine basically said if you don’t go back, nothing will happen. If you do, there’s a good chance you’ll get stopped at immigration / customs and have to pay significantly more than you would have. Not a huge deal either way.

We got it on our last day in the country, which was a shit show for a lot of reasons (it turned out to be a holiday so we couldn’t find an open gas station, when we did it wouldn’t accept my stupid American cards at the pump, etc) so there could have been a flashing neon sign written in English and I still probably…

For 60 or 80 bucks or whatever it ended up being, it was worth it to just pay to not deal with the possibility of issues next time I’m in Italy.

After some research to confirm its legitimacy, yes. Iplan on going back sooner than later, would rather not be stopped at the airport for something that silly.

Also, if you drive in Europe, don’t be surprised to get a ticket in the mail many months after you return home. Wife and I took a road trip from Florence, up through the Alps into Switzerland and France and then back around along the coast. We got back in late May, and some time in September I got a registered letter…

My dad owned one of these for a few years, maybe 2008-2012 or something along those lines. He absolutely loved it but it started to have some rust issues in the cab that he wasn’t prepared to deal with.