Nine years later, I’m still very happy with my Lasik! The only thing I tell people now is that for me, it hurt A LOT for a day or so. I felt like someone had taken sand and rubbed it forcibly into my eyes (maybe that’s what you meant by sandman)? All in all, 100% worth it, though. I also went to the best doctor in my…

Honey, you might be done with your round of first weddings, but in not that many years you’ll be kicking off the next round by entering into your own second marriage, and your friends will soon be following suit. The good news is, weddings for second marriages are usually a lot more fun because nobody is pretending…

I’m pretty sure most people would have read that as a commentary about social plans. It’s a recognized phenomenon nowadays that people will tend to reply “maybe” to an invitation (especially in the days of evites and facebook invites where the entire guest list can see who has responded) because it’s seen as less of a…

That’s a lot if you don’t have children (and don’t plan to have them). For my partner and I, we just eyeballed what we would want the other person not to have to worry about if one of us died. The biggest issue for us was making the mortgage payments, which neither of us could afford to do alone. So we took out…

No, I’m not interested in screwing over everyone else for my own benefit. I’m a CA native and it’s very sad what Prop 13 has done to our school system and our state as a whole.

Part of my daily gratitude practice includes keeping a notebook on my nightstand, where, every night before bed, I write down at least 5 things I was grateful for that day. Can be something new that happened (I had a productive day at work) or just something I was reminded of to be particularly grateful for that day…

Same. In SF, we are paying what works out to more than A THOUSAND DOLLARS a month on our modest, 3-bedroom house. Californians can blame Prop. 13 for that one — new homebuyers end up paying way more than our fair share. Be sure you know what you’ll be out of pocket for taxes and figure it in to your budget.

Getting the loan funded after we had been approved. Because we live in SF, our very simple house was still expensive ($1M+), which apparently added extra layers of complication, but we were still presented with fire-drills just about every single day where the lender wanted us to dig up some obscure, additional piece…

Thank you! Maybe I’ll give it a shot.

I’ve had a copper IUD (Paragard) for 16 years now (on my 2nd one, obviously) and it’s amazing. For me the insertion was painful, so I wouldn’t want to do it more often than every 10 years! I prefer not to introduce synthetic hormones to my body unless they’re necessary, so it’s been a great choice for me. I haven’t…

I’d love to know how this differs from the Softcup, which I’ve tried (so many times! I really wanted it to work!) but that was a DISASTER. It would always end up sideways/unseated, spilling the contents, and I would suddenly end up with a deluge of blood flooding out of my vag, so I had to wear thick pads as a backup…

If you feel you need to lie to your “friends” because feeling superior about your disdain for the gluten-free fad is more important to you than erring on the side of safety to potentially protect their health (Celiac disease is not the only legitimate, diagnosable gluten allergy, BTW), then you need to do some…

I’m not an antitrust expert, but I remember from law school that this style of bundling is almost exactly what has previously set off antitrust red flags with regulators. Presumably AT&T has done the legal analysis, but I wonder if their reading of existing law might be a bit aggressive. Maybe someone who knows more…

On the topic of preventative screenings, interesting that you didn’t mention mammograms, about which there has been a ton of discussion and controversy lately— especially if you’re between the ages of 40 and 50. Do some research and talk to your doctor about whether you should be getting them regularly, and what the…

Same but I call it “Apple Spam” and put it on the last blank screen.

Better yet, I’ve gotten gift certificates for movie theater chains that do not have theaters in my state!

I wonder if she addresses what I think is my best de-cluttering rule: Don’t acquire stuff to begin with. I aggressively enforce a “please, please no gifts” rule for every occasion (especially things like knick-knacks from my mother), avoid buying anything new on impulse, and when I do buy something new, get rid of an…

I think the key takeaways for anyone reading this should be (1) we all have weird quirks and can be difficult to deal with at times and (2) it is each of our responsibility to manage those quirks in a way that minimizes the impact on our loved ones (not by expecting others to re-calibrate in a way that manages them…

The peace of mind from not having to worry about eviction is priceless, though. I live in San Francisco, and sold my house 7 years ago and moved to a rental (due to life changes, not financial reasons). I thought I’d be perfectly happy renting forever, but after seeing rents skyrocketing and friends evicted from homes…

I think this is a little too dismissive of quinoa being a complete protein — there aren’t that many foods that are complete proteins and are also free of animal products, which is what makes quinoa special. Chickpeas, black beans, and pistachios are a few others, but quinoa is a staple that I try to eat a couple times…