I think a key part of these conversations is also communicating not just salary but also expenses, especially when talking to parents who are either retired or live in a less costly part of the country.

I keep showercaps in a kitchen drawer to cover the smoke alarm when I cook steak. I know there is a risk that I’ll forget to take it off, but after two different incidents involving the fire department arriving for no other reason than perfectly cooked ribeyeI’ve decided its worth the risk.

Haha - thanks man. I’m honestly excited because it definitely seems like my oldest could get into it. I thought it was pretty obvious that when I say it is a critical issue I’m using hyperbole but apparently that was lost on some. Would love to know just what in the hell their parents forced on them growing up that…

Relax dipshit. I’m not forcing anyone to do anything, star wars is a fun and entertaining story that I think my kids would enjoy. There will be plenty of things I’m into that they won’t be, and I imagine a few things where we’ll share an interest. If one of those things happens to be star wars, great. If not? Also…

I don’t know. I got tired of golf and decided to take up something new.

Thats awesome - yeah my plan is basically to not force (!) anything and introduce elements of the series when it makes sense.

why can’t I do both?

This is a critical issue for me in raising my daughters. I have to tread lightly because if I push anything too hard they will very easily pick up on, and run with, my wife’s disdain for the whole genre.

The last time I commented on one of your blogs was because you were tackling an issue that I had dealt with the night before. I thought that was coincidental, but this morning I had to cut the nails of both of my kids AND NOW THIS IS SCARY. Or still just coincidental.

The timeliness of the posts on offspring blows me away sometimes. Seriously, last night I was wondering when I should start working on grip with my 3 1/2 year old.

So this happened to my work team at a restaurant in Utah several years ago while on a business trip. It was myself, another white colleague and a black first year associate. I’d been to this restaurant before and never had any issues. This was the first time with the new associate.

• Do you have a go-to “I’m sickly” soup? As soon as I even get the sense that someone in the family is getting sick I make my go-to chicken soup. It’s based on a Cooks Illustrated homestyle chicken and dumpling stew (i skip the dumplings entirely and more broth, carrots, onions, and celery). I make the soup and then to…

Wow, honestly my comment doesn’t deserve a response this thoughtful but I appreciate it. And, I think you’re right about TWD being about far more than ZOMBIES! For me, that was what initially grabbed my interest because I’m not a fan at all of gore (why soooo many intestines?) but unfortunately I just didn’t enjoy the…

I think for me it was the girl in the barn thing, whenever the hell that was. But I’m pretty sure I mentally checked out after they made it clear that the zombies are attracted to sound and yet cross-bow guy rolls around on a fucking chopper.

Wow - I’m not getting the Bode hate at all. I raced, poorly, through college so maybe he’s not providing commentary that’s accessible to viewers that don’t know the sport? I hope Amanda Ruggeri weighs in for Deadspin on the job Miller has been doing because I’m curious to know what folks who cover alpine skiing think…

I didn’t know this was a thing until recently and I don’t doubt I’ve had this since at least high-school or even earlier. Luckily, at least as far as I remember, I don’t recall ever being in a test or learning environment where someone was eating loudly enough for it to give me a hard time.

I cook with beer for several recipes, chilli being the obvious one. The other two that I love are a sauce for bone-in porkchops that involves reducing half a can of lager with siracha and oven-roasted chicken thighs braised in a lager / habanero / agave combo.

My wife and I will introduce ourselves, and our kids, if we expect to come back to the restaurant. We also have a couple of regular places where if a new server introduces themselves we will definitely follow suit. One of our kids has celiacs, and shortly after the diagnosis we were at one of our go-to places and a…

I have a 3 1/2 year old and I can say the one thing I wish we had started earlier was the praising / positively encouraging good behavior when you see it. We took certain things for granted because the terrible 2's weren’t at all terrible for us and we just thought we had a really good kid and we were just awesome…

You can verbally praise kids as they get ready for the next activity...