Don’t make the kids any part of your reason for staying. Speaking as someone whose parents should have divorced a decade before they did (and my life, and my brother’s, would have been MUCH BETTER FOR IT) your kids will adapt. They will not be freaks in school, or stunted, or whatever.

Number one, you are never too young to start collecting cats. Cats are awesome, and they snore a LOT less than the men I’m involved with. (Or at least more cutely. Mr Signal sounds like a backhoe with a disco addiction, and my large main cat sounds tiny and cute.)

Wait till you move home if you think crying on planes is embarrassing! I had a hell of a leaving do when I left England after two years as a student, and I was a) still GETTING drunk when I got on the plane; b) broke down in unstoppable tears somewhere over Ireland, and basically cried all the way through to…

Swedish officially will still do abortions for medical necessity, but not for other circumstances. The physicians will provide direct referrals to the Planned Parenthood in one of the towers. That’s officially, though - there’s at least one case of someone being unable to get something (not sure if it was birth…

If someone wants to host a party, they pay the expenses. If I can’t afford a Chuck E Cheese party for my mythical 7 year old, I don’t host a party at Chuck E. Cheese, I host one that I CAN afford. You absolutely never, never, never, ever, not in a million years, devolve the cost of the party you want onto your guests.…

Expect things to take longer than they would for a young cat. I am now a month or so into the adventure of adopting a 17-year-old cat, and oh my god, he is … not my cup of cat, but there are signs that he wants to be. It’s just been much, much slower than adopting my younger other cat, who took about three days to…

Depends on how light you are going. I’m at platinum and have been for about 6 months; if you aren’t going that light, these will probably not work for you, but in case you are, I’ll give you all of them.

And yet, speaking as someone who used to actually work in fast food, <i>most people don’t eat milkshakes for breakfast.</i>

You’re missing the special magic of Republicanism since St. Reagan: “I will literally say I am doing this thing and then do exactly the opposite, but everyone heard me SAY what I was going to do, so that must be what happened.” It is this constant nightmare hellscape of promising thing X, doing thing Y, and having all…

Same as people who have to tell you that they’re not racist. Whatever happens next will directly disprove the previous claim.

Yeah, even with current Revolution (which I like because it acts on the hair rather than the skin, so wherever Apollo sheds, which is everywhere, would you like an embroidered rug with cat hair embroidered into it? is toxic to the fleas) I’ve noticed that Apollo’s doing some scratching, and he’s coming due for his…

Uuuuuuugh.

Exactly, that sounds ideal as far as coworking goes! I hope you have lots of opportunities - I don’t know Manchester at all, but here in Seattle (so … entirely not cognate? :)) there are both formal coworking spaces and also places like Kinko’s that do a specific rate for coworking, and then there are also a number of…

That is a huge flag for me any more. If you don’t value the people in the world around you (I mean, okay, I am never going to value Donald Trump, but you take my meaning) then how much can you value me? I am not special because we bump naughty bits, or I should not be, because it should be important to be courteous to…

If it is, I will report back when Apollo figures out how to be allergic to it! But I also have a chinchilla and he doesn’t have any problems with that dust, so I’m sure there’s just a chemical he’s not into.

Full disclosure: I am an asshole with trust and commitment issues, so my first inclination is usually to run. Mr. Signal, god bless and keep him, has figured out that my quarterly “breakup” isn’t serious.

My current cat has allergies to both fleas and flea treatment, so we have no fleas here. :) It’s one of the reasons I’m waiting to adopt Lucky and Milo, because they are very flea-y and I just don’t have the money to deal with much at the moment. But that’s a good suggestion - I was worried I’d have to get a…

That is a bit harder to answer. I’ve considered that, when I’ve considered going freelance (for other reasons, like I don’t want to, I haven’t done that seriously.) I think it would help; one thing I do know is that I had a book I was editing that was terrible - I rewrote it like 7 times, because each time I was like…

I got two new ones that are probably not actually for grown-ups (I think I saw something like what you mean at the store today: I was tempted, but I have colored 1/64th of one picture.) and new markers and I kind of wish I had more free time, but in my free time I’m embroidering a rug, so I don’t feel too bad. ONce…

Please tell me the gf broke up with Big Foot’s dad. Otherwise, there is no justice in this world. (My dad traded my mother’s 1957 Chevy Bel Air to his boss for a baby-shit-green 1970s Ford some time in the very early 80s … I still do not know how he legally got away with it, nor why she didn’t divorce him for another…