Dude and dudettes, timeouts are so much better. You get the relief of hearing them cry when they’re being little a-holes and the satisfaction of knowing you didn’t hit your kid in a fit of rage. My kids HATE timeouts. I LOVE them. Hell, 95% of the time, all I have to do is threaten a TO (see below). 1 minute per year…

My mom told me that the first day I was in first grade and got home she asked me “What did you do today in school?” so I told her. She asked again the next day and the next. And on all three days it was the same things. Pledge of Allegiance, recess, coloring, alphabet, leave for home. On the fourth day I lost it and…

The principal at my kid’s school is a nice guy, sure, with a bald head that looks like a deodorant roll-on, sure, but that doesn’t mean I want him applied to me.

Talk about a hot topic.

That last point is really good. We learned a long time ago that it was better to reward good behavior than punish bad behavior. My son is almost 15 now and when I see other children his age, I just can’t believe how great he really is. He is compassionate, well-behaved, and is thoughtful of others. I myself was raised …

I was a hotel bartender for years. I recognized that my bar had it’s limitations, you’d pop in to start the night, but I didn’t expect you to spend all night there. So the key to good tips was to know what the customer wanted. Fine dining? Casual bar food? A surprisingly high number of travelers wanted to know where a…

We made a pork soup last week using 3 pounds of pork leg bones, some salt, and a thumb of ginger. I did blanch the bones in a separate pot prior to pressure cooking to get the blood foam out, but in a nutshell: after 3 hours at high pressure, we got a super silky pork broth that was a perfect base for noodles. It was…

maybe milk...but sugar??

Good advice overall.

Where does “I write stuff down I’ve already done so I can cross something off right away” fit on there?

My dad was always one of those ticklers who wouldn’t stop. When my daughter was old enough to understand, we told her (in front of him) “when Grandpa tickles you and you want him to stop, say ‘Stop.’ If he doesn’t stop, you have permission to hit, bite or kick him as hard as you can until he stops.” She never had to…

Maybe just go ahead and amend your CV to add “increased body fat percentage of loyal readers by an average of 8% over less than six months”.

We regret to inform you the duck is racist.

I live in an olive-growing region, I get my extra virgin by taking a growler down to my friend’s place and filling up on her fresh-pressed, and STILL the best olives I’ve ever tasted were in Morocco.

This was a great tragedy and I hope you are healing.

I want to put it out there.

Don’t underestimate the power of presentation / arrangement / containers.

Get the right containers. I prefer the glass / pyrex type. Snap and Pyrex made some with Snap lids and pyrex body.

I prefer glass because unlike tupperware, you don’t get that hazy weird old look which kind of kills the…

Pardon me for being pedantic, but don’t you have to... boil... peanuts for them to be boiled peanuts?

This is basically the correct response to every question. Worst case scenario: you have beignets.

...oh let’s remember to make the deep-fried butter for the Packers party...

Thank you, Patrick. This was informative.