As a Chicagoan Alinea is on my list of dream meals. When the Alinea Baby article first came out I made the exact comment - some places are just for adults and there is nothing wrong with that! Oh man, the backlash I got. What is so bad with just wanting to go somewhere without babies? The sad thing is that I have to…

Unless you have one-click purchasing set up. It literally takes 1/2 a second. That shit is dangerous if you have a reading problem!

I have an MFA because I was young and listened to my college professors (note: never listen to academics about staying in academia). My mom is a teacher with a BA and my dad went to trade school for a year after the military, so to they encouraged me to go to grad school out of pride. Since graduation I've been…

I was talking to my trashy SIL about tattoos recently, and she informed that she has a friend who did tattoo parties if I was ever interested. Um, not thanks. I think I'll stick to the place that has a certificate from the health department on the wall, not your apartment filled with cheap vodka and cat hair. (My…

My search didn't come up with anything in the US, but apparently in the UK it is! http://www.ccwater.org.uk/waterissues/cu…

I agree! I make very little money, but I love traveling. I get an itch if I don't go somewhere new every few years. I have to blame grad school and getting the funding to go abroad for research. When I graduated I realized if I wanted to keep up on the travel I needed to pay for it myself. So, I've learned to save…

I'm 1982! Thanks for this new Cold Y term. I hate referring to myself as a millennial! I work in a college so that's the generation of a lot of our students. Any sort of staff development that we do constantly refers to the millennials and I just cringe because I do NOT want to be in the same category as my…

This is really interesting! I wonder how much of it has to do with the wars our parents and grandparents fought. I know that my grandfather had a pretty traumatic experience serving in WWII, so he never wanted to return to Europe (where he was) or the Pacific (where his brother had been stationed). The result was my…

I think I remember seeing this in a high school history class. At an all-girls school. The teacher basically just gave up that day.

Um, that tattoo means he murdered someone. Or given that it might be two droplets, he's murdered more than one person.

I started to write this last night and my internet went out. I know when I get all in a fluster I'm just adding to the mommy/not a mommy war that's out there on the interwebs, which I know is not a good thing. For me the "are you a parent?" question automatically puts me on the defensive. So thanks for hearing me…

Haha! My boyfriend thought I was nuts at first. I always talk in accents at home. Now he willingly participates. In fact, I think we speak in a Russian accent 60% of the time. But now that I type that I think I might have a problem. Oh well! Or as they say in Mother Russia, you don't have problem, problem has you.

I was just trying to be derogatory and for that I apologize. That was not my intention. I was actually referencing my own body and how I don't think I need to have produced kids to think my friends child is an absolute terror. Also, I get defensive with the "you aren't a parent" bit because it hurts. I do not have…

Can you please relay this story to the other commenter who thinks I'm a terrible person for judging my friend's parenting?

So many things to reply to! For starters, I can love my friends and think they are terrible parents. Hell, I think at times my mom was a terrible parent.

This is probably because my internal voice is always in a Russian accent. Sometimes it comes out at work and everyone looks at me like I lost my mind. :)

I totally agree. I wasn't disagreeing with anyone. In fact, I think it's worse that the kid is older and still behaves this way.

I fully agree with you! I was spanked as a child. My father was raised by immigrant parents during the depression, so his attitude on child-rearing was quite painful. My mother did not really get a say (that's another therapy session in itself). My brother and I would beat the crap out of each other, and I even…

A few years ago the same kid literally grabbed at the scarf I was wearing and tugged until I was unable to breathe. Her mom (my FRIEND!!) just laughed and was like, "Oh, she just LOVES scarves!"

My friends have a 4 1/2 year old who was aggressively hitting her father one evening when a bunch of us got together. She was the only child there, and thank god because I can't imagine how she would have been if other kids were around to steal her thunder. She was running around the house like bull, throwing fists…