‘Easy’ and ‘simple’ are two very different things. (It took me a while to understand the difference.) Saying ‘no’ is simple, but not necessarily easy. It depends a lot on circumstances, especially if there’s executive function issues or past trauma involved.

If it’s alright, I’d like to recommend a book on realistic special-effects wounds and injuries by one of my friends. He’s done special effects for local horror movie productions, and decided to write a book to share what he’s learned with others: https://www.amazon.com/Special-Effects-Guide-Wounds-Injuries/dp/197764205…

You should really note that this is completely different than Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI), which the lender applies to your down payment is less than 20% of the purchase price. PMI protects the lender if you default on your loan, it doesn’t protect you.

Usually when someone asks whether my husband and I have kids, I answer “no kids, but we do have three cats!” And then the conversation moves on to pets, hobbies, etc. It seems like most people that ask are just making small talk, and rarely follow up with ‘but why?” If they do ask, I just say it’s because we don’t…

I used to run cross-country and track in high school, but I haven’t really run for over a decade now. My coaches always told us to run at a ‘conversation pace,’ but of course when you’re in high school you always want to go faster. I never really enjoyed running races because the faster pace left me feeling like I was…

If anyone is interested, my husband made a web app that helps you track your writing. He started it before the NaNo tools were available year-round. He’s a web developer who also writes sci-fi/fantasy, and this is one of his hobby projects. He keeps it updated regularly, and is working on a big update. It’s free, no…

So far, we have donated a portion of the money we had saved for two separate trips that are no longer happening. The first went to our local food bank in March, and the second went to a local aggregate-giving event this week, split up among a number of different causes. We are lucky that we are both gainfully…

I just planted some horseradish this year! I may have to try this! 😁

I see what you did there...

This reminds me of that video where the parents are trying to teach their kid how to thank people for gifts by having him unwrap an avocado. He is just the cutest thing, saying ‘Oh, an avocado!’

We have the iced tea pitchers, which are almost exactly the same, and absolutely love them.

We have the iced tea pitchers, which are almost exactly the same, and absolutely love them.

If you need to warm multiple plates and don’t want to waste as much water, put the plates in a clean plastic tub, then run the hot water into the tub to cover the plates. Let them sit in the water for a minute or so, then dry.

I would think you could use the same trick that people use to pick up dog poop for kleenex: turn a plastic shopping bag inside out over your hand, pick up the kleenex, and invert around the kleenex. Then toss the whole thing.

I grew up on Ragu, but nowadays I make my own seasoned tomato sauce and can it for later. I usually use Classico Alfredo sauce from a jar, though, which gets a good pile of shaky cheese on top. If I’m feeling fancy, I’ll sautee some mushrooms and add a bit of cream to the jarred sauce.

I was halfway kidding with the meal planning while hungry thing.

This is where meal planning comes in, though. If you know what you’re going to be cooking for the next few days, you know what to pick up. Make a list of the things you will need.

I like to call it shaky-cheese. We usually put it on any kind of pasta sauce that comes out of a jar. Fancier pasta gets nice shredded parm.

I definitely agree that there are situations where zipper merging is not the best way to do it, such as at high speeds or where there is plenty of open space between cars. In fact, most state DOTs recommend not zipper merging in these situations. https://dot.nebraska.gov/news-media/transportation-tidbits/zipper-merge/

That’s the problem with the zipper merge issue, though! People are all trying to be nice and not cut in line, and it is creating this awful situation. They are inadvertently being dicks.

The tomato paste in the tube is more concentrated than the stuff in the can, so you can use less of it, if that helps your calculations.