Congrats on the pregnancy. Mine are 4 and 6 but the marketing for the cord blood storage drove me nuts while I was pregnant. I don’t see it anymore, but I also haven’t been pregnant in a while. So my PSA to you is that you can donate your cord blood for research and that might help everyone instead of paying crazy…

So I was born in Royal Oak a long, long time ago and my family moved out of MI when I was 10. We had a cute small brick house. Is Royal Oak fancy pants now? I can’t picture Ben Affleck or any celebrity living there.

I think this article should have scoped this better - couples who are not trying but not preventing pregnancy to me is still a planned pregnancy in the sense that everyone is aware of possible outcomes. There can be a lot of pressure involved with “trying” to get pregnant so this laid back attitude makes sense to me,…

I also don’t like that this feed the annoying narrative of women *trying* to trap someone. If you are feeling ambivalent about possibly getting pregnant, make sure your partner is on board.

It sounds like you are still young, but it is much easier for men to get a vasectomy than for a woman to get her tubes tied. We went that route, but we are older and already have kids. You could also look into tracking your temp so you avoid sex or use a condom during the window when you can get pregnant.

I agree. My other question is why has no radical group come forward to claim credit? My understanding of the situation in Syria is tenuous at best, but I thought SA is anti-ISIS (but pro Al Queda) and the Pakistani connection would point to Taliban/Al Queda as well? Wanting to understand motivation is normal to help…

As a sidenote, there are conflicting reports on the trip to Saudi Arabia. I am seeing that his wife and accomplice is from Saudi Arabia - they have been married for two years and have a 6 month old. But the only trip I see to SA is in relation to them meeting online and him travelling to meet and marry her. So that…

I had a coworker who I worked with at two separate companies. Due to one being a gov’t contractor that required clearances, he went with his original legal name, but at the smaller firm where I first met him, he went with an Anglicized version. I was so confused for the first year when other people would talk about…

I was told by a couple looking into foster adoption that the term special needs was applied to all non-white babies. It was being told in the context of how totally insane a label that is to anyone outside of the foster care world- they were open to actual special needs children (i.e. a medical or developmental issue)…

If you live in the mid-atlantic region, my stylist is very reasonably priced and never talks unless you ask a direct question. This is my longest stylist relationship ever!

I always feel worse about my wrinkles when I put on my glasses and look in the mirror.

Well, it’s awkward to have to tell you this over the internet, but we are married to the same man.

No, it is reduced so that your body doesn’t attack the fetus. My doctor recommended taking tylenol (advil is a no-no when pregnant) if you had a high fever as there is some (unproven at this point) concern that core temperature rising can be damaging to the fetus.

I had friends who were on vacation in Cabo many (10+)years back and said the same. She bought everyone at the bar drinks and no reports of obnoxiousness, just chatting with all the non-famous people.

J.Crew still does this once a month at their HQ in VA and I used to go to the Prana factory sales in San Diego. But the making clothes specific for the “outlet” line has been a thing since early 2000s. I assumed everyone knew this, but I guess some stores are more upfront and don’t put bogus tags indicating it would…

I am totally enjoying your list enumeration schema and wondering if kinja is selling that to MS to incorporate in future versions of word.

I had to go look it up and it turns out there were two big groups operating there in the 90s (I was there summer of ‘95) and there is still a presence, but not as big as it once was. I had never heard much about these groups (or the anti-govt groups) before I lived out there:

I think several white power/survivalist groups were located there back in the 80/90s? I spend a summer in Montana and there were “urban legend” type stories of cars breaking down on 4th of July Pass in Idaho. I don’t think any of them were true, but Northern Idaho definitely had a reputation in the mid-90s.

I have to admit, when a pregnant woman dies, I immediately am suspicious of the father (and I was in this case too). I don’t think I wear a tinfoil hat, but I definitely watch too many “true crime” stories. So glad it was not the case here and that the 15 month old still has his Daddy. Such an awful and pointless…

Starred for the naivete. I had a similar (but thankfully not as bad) story. When I started my first job out of college, my workplace was ~85% male and I was the only woman on my team and I did not work with any other females on the technical side of things for my job. I was 21, and a married 42-yr old began to come…