This is what I do as well. If it’s a trip where I won’t be doing laundry, I like to take an extra packing cube and repack the dirty clothes in the cube in the drawer (once they’ve dried out if it was workout clothing). Makes it super easy to repack when it’s time to go home and also unpack once I get home.

Yes! What I like is when I come home and discover something broke in my house or a headlight is out on my car when I started it up to go to work, I can research and buy the item from my desk at work during lunch. It arrives on my doorstep the next day (or maybe two). I make the repair/replacement my next free evening…

My ophthalmologist actually taught me this trick. Sitting in the chair, he had me lean my head back (no turning to the side) and close my eyes. He put the drops at the corners of my eyes and told me to open my eyes and blink a few times without moving my head. Drops went in without issue. When I do this to myself, I…

I’ve been in the situation a couple of times. First, it was friends from college after we all graduated. She was from the metro area I moved to and while it wasn’t actually the wedding, it was a reception for the couple in her hometown because a lot of people (including me) couldn’t travel to the actual wedding. I had…

My grandparents used to save junk mail letters they received and let us open them, use the return envelopes to play post office, scribble on the papers and have all sorts of fun. When we were older, I have fond memories of my grandmother teaching me some basic origami using junk mail flyers for paper.

I still like to use paper for my shopping lists. Particularly, I use junk mail envelopes. I write my list on the back and tuck any coupons inside. After I’ve done my shopping, I can put the receipt in the envelope and have everything one neat and tidy place. Also physically writing things down helps me remember them…

And that is why there are a lot of really bad low level managers. Good engineers (or sale people or designers or whatever) often don’t make very good managers. Promoting them to management, especially if they don’t really want the job is a lose-lose for everyone. The company loses a good engineer (or whatever) and the…

There are people who don’t break the noodles in half before cooking? I guess if you’re using a big stock pot to make the noodles. But, otherwise, with a regular pot, the noodles don’t fit if you don’t break them in half.

Why is there not some sort of Skype/Facetime/Video system for translations for medical professionals? The article does mention translators on speakerphone and how they can cause people to feel disconnected. And I get that, but wouldn’t video help that at least some? And why couldn’t medical professionals have an…

I take a picture of the license plate of my rental car. Hotels often want that information at check-in and this saves me from having to run back out to the car or hope that it’s on the rental car key tag.

One of my favorite pictures of my nephew is from when we flew up to my grandmother’s funeral. Little 2.5 year old cutie sitting in a business class seat (woo-hoo! for AirTran and whatever agreement they had with my company that got us free upgrades) wearing oversized headphones, watching a video on my sister’s tablet…

One of my favorite pictures of my nephew is from when we flew up to my grandmother’s funeral. Little 2.5 year old…

That’s how my mom handled complaints about boredom. If we told her we were bored, we got extra chores to do...or were occasionally told to go play tiddlywinks with manhole covers. We quickly learned that while we could be bored, complaining about it was a bad idea.

I wish more medical professionals would deal with adults this way too. Many times I’ve had medical professionals just do the thing, not explaining what they’re doing, why they’re doing it and what it’s likely to feel like. Most of the hygienists at my dentist are the worst about that. And that doesn’t work well for…

This can also work well in US cities. I spent a good hour wandering around an Asian market in the LA area marveling at all of the food I didn’t recognize, the entire aisle of instant noodles, the multitude of ways duck eggs were being sold. And then I took a chance and bought some snacks and a few things for dinner…

Or run on a treadmill and cycle on a stationary bike while watching Netflix. Not quite the same as running and cycling outside, but better than watching Netflix while lying on the couch.

Sounds like most of your road trips are through smaller states. Driving through Texas would require an exceedingly long stretch between prizes.

I was a high school freshman when I saw a CRC Mathematical Handbook at a garage sale. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but I knew about CRC handbooks from my chemistry teacher and knew I would be taking advanced mathematics in upcoming years. The seller charged me $0.25. It became known as my “magical green book”…

To add a few more things to your gym etiquette/being considerate list (which is really very good):
- Shower regularly, wear reasonably clean clothes and enough deodorant so that you don’t smell bad. Also not so much perfume/cologne so that you smell what you think might be good but what is likely smothering the person…

Or you could just meet my cat Nix. Nix loves people. All people. She is the most extroverted puppy version of a cat I have ever seen. She gets excited and runs to the door when the doorbell on tv rings. And then she’s sad that no one has come over to play with her. I had an HVAC guy come in once who was at the end of…

I like Levar Burton Reads. For me, there’s nothing better than have Geordi La Forge read me a bedtime story.