There are quite a few women of my acquaintance who would never consider giving their child their surname for the simple reason that their original surnames were teasing magnets of the highest degree (such as Morehead and Megahead). I kept my surname and added my husband's without a hyphen—I only use one at a time,…

Heh. In some cases, ignorance really is bliss—my first kid was over two hours of pushing, and I actually had no idea it wasn't supposed to be that way, so I was in marathon mode and was surprised when they said they wanted to try suction (which worked.) Second kid, I knew better, but SHE didn't get stuck, so it was…

I think it also depends on the skill level of your anesthesiologist. The hospital I use has a high-volume birth center, so they have *lots* of experience, but if it's someplace with a low-level birth center, I'd consider doing without.

When I was in high school, my chemistry teacher had a baby and explained exactly what an epidural was. I figured that if a chemistry expert had no problem with it, I shouldn't—and the first one went perfectly. (The second one was basically too late due to insanely fast labor once it really got going, so I felt…

Also from Sac. I haven't been to Habit, myself, but considering that I really don't go out for burgers much that's not surprising. I'm a heretic because I don't find In & Out all that good (I actually prefer Carl's Jr.) and I don't think that Chik-Fil-A's sandwiches are actually very interesting.

I'm from California and *I* don't understand the In & Out love. I mean, it's a decent burger, but I much prefer the burgers from Good Times in Colorado or even the ones from Carl's Jr. (which is named that way because Carl used to have full-scale restaurants as well and this was the mini-version.) And the Carl's fries…

A friend of mine took a look-through of a house that had been notorious in the 1980s—a little old woman killing her renters for their Social Security checks and burying them in the backyard. It had been owned in the interim, but none of the owners had gotten rid of creepy details such as the trapdoor cut into the…

We bought a solid-front cabinet for our hardware and put together an infrared repeater set*. The TV itself sits on the nice deep mantlepiece over the (unused) fireplace; when we upgrade, we're going to get wall brackets. And with our current TV, the buttons are along the top, so we have the advantage of no little…

We bought a solid-front cabinet for our hardware and put together an infrared repeater set*. The TV itself sits on…

I have a friend who does this as her profession, though she generally works in non-fiction. She says she learns the most fascinating things in the process of research.

It's a high-fiber, seedy, totally organic bread. Just my luck that it is spiking. (They may put me on insulin anyway because of my FASTING levels... which have never in my life been below 90. But apparently they have narrower tolerances when you're pregnant, so I'm trying to get the one level I can't control under…

Part of the issue is that many of the health risks linked to being overweight happen to be identical to the health risks linked to dieting—which is very concerning, as it heavily implies that a lot of the correlations are to the very action that those posters are pushing people towards. There is nothing wrong with…

I have a somewhat different approach to food than a lot of women, because somehow (I'm thanking my mother here) I never ended up with a diet mentality. Of course, I also grew up in an agricultural powerhouse and my dad grew a fabulous summer garden, so my relationship with vegetables is one of strong enthusiasm—I…

That has since been proven to be the result of shoddy observation; the animals that died from infected Komodo Dragon bites were the type to go have a wallow in the mud for comfort. The danger of a Komodo Dragon bite is in its strength and depth, not from any especially noxious bacteria.

It's what I did, and you know what? It worked. (Though my soon-to-be sister-in-law did throw a bridal shower, which was mostly useful kitchen implements and that side of the family.) Hair and makeup was done by each individual, the bridal party made the bouquets (about $100 for flowers from Safeway), my family…

I had two bridesmaids and I gave them simple rules about the dresses—they had to be a certain (common) color, they had to be ankle-length, and they had to cover the shoulders. Both managed to score dresses on sale—I think the more expensive one was $60. And they looked like good, classy dresses, the kind you'd wear to…

This was back more than a decade ago, too, so Amazon was still mostly books at the time.

I worked at a bookstore and once got the question: "Do you sell groceries here?"

My usual take on that kind of interaction is to say, "No, you're thinking of [correct word]." For instance, I recently had a friend say, "I thought decoupage had to do with cleavage," and I replied, "You're thinking of décolletage." At least it had a similar sound.

I'm on the west coast (lived in all three states here) and honestly, I don't know how it happens. Maybe it's just that I tend to hang out with people who treat people as people, and once you get into one of those circles, you meet their friends, who also treat people like people, and so on. Plus I'm in a community…

Physically it's possible; I think you're referring to the difficulty of your understanding the mindset. Sometimes it's easier to just accept that there's sick and evil folk out there without trying to overthink it.