As a fellow WA resident, I hear you on both those points. Add in the fact that in my own city, people elected (yet another) TV personality with absolutely no political experience over someone with a solid political background and I’m basically bracing myself for what’s likely to come next year. It’s showing me that…

I use Monthly Info - it’s super simple, can add notes if you want to indicate any particularly heavy bleeding or cramping. It’ll send out either email or text reminders if you want, and overall, it’s just pretty easy to use

Given that she said no without asking, sounds like it was largely baby blinders. Depending on what everyone does, there could be some problem’s with the activity needs of a 10-month-old as well. That’s a fairly active age, where they’re crawling/scooting, getting into things, and need some pretty extensive…

Olive Garden used to have an absolutely awesome chocolate lasagna - pretty simple, as it’s basically just chocolate cake and buttercream layered, with some chocolate chips sprinkled on top, but it’s very tasty. I found a good copycat recipe here, and now I’m gonna have to try it later this week, as well!

Speaking for myself, vaping’s not just merely annoying. It causes migraines and has set off asthma attacks on a few memorable occasions. Now, to be fair, so does smoking and strong perfumes, so vapers aren’t the only people that have me sometimes shooting a brief side-eye at them. But I think a lot of the vaping…

My go-to response for that is “So I can assume you’re willing to pay the ambulance and ER bill if your ‘water vapor’ sends me into an asthma attack, then?” Strangely enough, they always seem to find a reason to put it away at that point...

I’m intimately familiar with that terror. When I discovered I was pregnant at 22 (too late to abort) I spent about a month just frozen in it. Like you, I had an abusive mother who left me with a boatload of issues and I didn’t want to become her. I seriously considered giving the kid up for adoption, particularly when…

Kidlet and I were going to Atlanta for Dragoncon about five years ago. Now, Mom loves the IDEA of travel, but she really doesn’t go anywhere beyond the very occasional day trip to some local town. However, she’s always wanted to go back to Atlanta, so she and I came up with the idea of her coming on the trip as well.…

Mom and I actually convinced Kidlet that our car couldn’t make left turns. We kept it going through a change of cars, telling him that the ones that turned left were extra expensive, and we went out of our way to keep it up, going around blocks and such for probably 4-5 years, until he was about 9, when it just got to…

So far as the linoleum goes, have you considered shoes? I highly recommend these from Ruffwear, which my SDiT uses when he’s out in public, to protect his feet from any nasty sharp things that might be lying around in stores. They’ve got great traction on the bottom, and the velcro fasteners means they don’t come off.…

While I understand your reluctance to head straight for the unresolvable confrontation, perhaps you could let them know that you’re aware of the detour and ask them to give you an itinerary for future trips so you can sign off on where they’re going? 

Thanks! The ear infection’s mine, actually - my PCP says she has a suspicion it’s fungal, since none of the antibiotic ear drops we tried have worked. But she doesn’t have the diagnostic scopes ‘n’ such she’d need to verify, so that’s why she had to refer to a specialist.

Kidlet has a job offer! The company that laid him off three months ago is hiring for a minimum six-month term, and they’ve asked him back. He’s agreed, although he’s hoping that the job he interviewed for earlier this week comes through before the start date late next month. In any case, one way or another, he’ll be…

That’s gotta be the only time Clippy’s actually been helpful!

Very true! (And I can’t believe I missed those, given how 3 of the 4 are on my list of Women I Love in History - and now I’m off to read up on the 4th!)

I spent some 20 years without a driver’s license after my CA license expired because WA has parallel parking on the driver’s test and I CAN. NOT. parallel park. (Seriously, I actually bumped into an ex-boyfriend who tried to teach me how in college.) But my mom had a stroke in the last few years, and while we lucked…

Yay for Eleanor! That was always a favorite of mine, since Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of my heroines when I was growing up. As far as middle names go, maybe Anne? Several queens, plus Anne Shirley...

I let out a happy little meep when you mentioned Vivien Leigh - she’s one of my top actresses, and I think so often overlooked when people talk about that era of Hollywood. For a bio, I can recommend “Vivien Leigh” by Anne Edwards, if you haven’t read it already. It treats her manic-depression respectively but still…

It’s been one HELL of a week around here. Last weekend saw the pupper vomiting and me developing swimmer’s ear, which quickly turned into the Mother of All Ear Infections. By Tuesday, my entire inner ear was bright pink, my lymph node on that side was swollen, tender, and hot to the touch, and I was lucky if I got…

Have you told him about how you feel when he asks you to talk more? It sounds like y’all need to sit down and have a serious conversation about what you’re each looking for and where things aren’t working for both of you.