I actually really love it here, but I do dream about living in Hawaii. Particularly in the middle of winter. You do get used to the weather though, and summer is very nice.

I hear you. I was so exhausted with my then-job that it felt almost insurmountable to deal with it on a day-to-day basis and then have to search for / network / apply for a new job. I was barely hanging on by my fingernails. It was also excruciating going to interviews and having to respond to questions like “why are…

Is there any way you can try to be reassigned to someone else? If not, I think you should try to find another job. I was in a similar situation for most of 2015 - absolutely miserable at work, crying in the morning as I left, constantly fraught with anxiety, suicidal ideation, etc. It worked real damage on my…

We bought a ticket and I’m enjoying the dream right now. My husband says we should use the money to create a curling club in Maui. My grand dream is to move to Hawaii from Minnesota, he wants to be able to continue curling. Alas, lottery winnings appear necessary for such a plan to come to fruition.

The task force reviewing the matter also noted that MDHHS apparently had notice of elevated blood levels from children’s blood samples and *said nothing*!!! Complete and total regulatory failure it appears.

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Effectively a state-level version of the EPA.

Nope, you won’t look silly at all. Another option for non-snowy days is to look for some good winter sneakers. Adidas makes some pretty good ones - high tread and good grip. Also, you’ve picked a good winter to move here - not too bad so far!

Welcome to Minnesota! I hope it all goes well on Monday. Come winter, I wear my snow boots to work and switch into dressy shoes at work. The salt on the sidewalks kills the leather on any nice shoes, so even if it’s not snowy I don’t tend to wear nice shoes outside at all during the winter. As for boots, it depends on…

Not sure of any specific online knitting resources, but if you already know how to crochet, look up knitting videos for continental style knitting. It's somewhat closer to the crochet movement and much quicker than English style knitting.

You'll do fine. Have you been taking practice tests? I found that to be the most useful preparation when I took the LSAT. It's really a test of test-taking skills.

My now-husband and I met in grad school in Maine and dated for a little over a year. After school ended I moved to Iowa for law school and he went home to Ohio and the distance / timing thing didn't work for us, so we broke up. We didn't really keep in touch while I was in law school, but when Ohio State won the…

Co-rec sports are a great way to meet people if you're at all into any kind of sports (or if you can fake it). My husband moved here (the Twin Cities) from Cleveland and wanted to get to know new people and got the word out that he was interested in playing soccer, he subbed for a friend's boyfriend's team, stayed for…

One of my good friends is named Linus, so I like the name. His dad is a physicist, so he was named after Linus Pauling. I do think Peanuts is the more immediate reference for most people.

I know I'm a little late to this party, but I wanted to add a couple of stories from my own experience. A good friend dated a real loser for years - he was just really immature and definitely didn't seem like the settle-down type, but she just kept staying with him. They finally broke up when she was about 32 or so.…

Oh, and when Emma Thompson opens her Christmas present. Devastating. Particularly because she has to buck up and put on a smile for everyone right away.

The scenes of greetings at Heathrow in Love Actually make me cry every single damn time. You can just see the genuine emotion on everyone's faces. It also reminds me of being picked up by grandparents there when I would come to visit from Canada.

The episode that immediately came to mind for me was "The Son" from Friday Night Lights. It involves the funeral for the father of one of the main characters who was a fairly absent father even before he left the family to fight in Iraq. It's absolutely devastating all around. Zach Gilford (who plays the son - Matt…

At Costco they sometimes have these dark chocolate sea salt caramels that are to die for! Even my husband who doesn't really like sweets (how does that happen!) really likes them.

Thanks so much for the binder-clip tip. It drives me batty that my keyboard was so "low" even when I had put it on the highest tabs. Binder clips - the duct tape of the modern office.

The hubs and I used to make our late kitty surf to the Hawaii Five-O theme song as we meowed along the theme song. That's how we roll in the Flyover household...