I wouldn’t have called my father “woke” at the time, but he was definitely better than a lot of men. He did expect women to take care of the house while he slept on the couch, but he was a bachelor and could take care of himself if he had to. One thing that was great was that he made sure my sister and I learned…

LOL Hope her bubble of enthusiasm doesn’t burst!

LOL It’s all relative!

My goodness, that’s a booming metropolis!

Are we both from the vicinity of Assiniboia, SK, perchance? :)

Pho Mx. There will be two locations by the time you get here.

My parents split up when I was 8 and I took over household management for my dad. Things were generally split very evenly -- whomever cooked, cleaned and whomever spent the day cleaning didn’t have to cook, etc. I sometimes I had to remind him that being a woman didn’t mean I should be doing the lion’s share of the…

We must have the same mother. A mother like that is why I was a huge slob for half of my adult life. I just could not be bothered to keep a home to those standards. Now that I know that it’s okay to have other standards, it’s so much easier to keep a tidy home. I’m not going to wash a cup or a plate after I use it. I…

I live in Mexico, so tacos are a given as being awesome leftovers! If I’m too lazy to go out to a taquería, I order in my tacos and always get an “order” of them, which is enough for at least two meals for about 3-4USD depending on what I’m getting. I eat my fill for supper, then the meat and tortillas get a pass in a…

My town (Mérida, Mexico) has a surprisingly good Vietnamese restaurant that recently got a busload of Vietnamese tourists’ seal of approval. The other day, it was less than 20 minutes between my requesting an Uber and my bowl of steaming hot fresh beef pho being placed in front of me. It’s pricey for these parts…

It’s hard to prioritise sleep in a society that demonizes it and has a sleep is for the weak and lazy attitude. It was in college that I finally told society’s attitude to go to hell and began to make getting as much sleep as I could a priority. It was life-changing and 20 years later, I still refuse to do what I…

That’s a good question. I’m a native French speaker, so Spanish was super easy for me. I took a few years of weekly night classes 20 years ago and now that I’m immersed (I live in Mexico), fluency came fast. I learned English very young, so I don’t remember it being difficult (thank you, plastic childhood brain!). I…

Best car “negotiation” I ever had was for my current truck. I’d done a ton of online research and finally found IT on website of small certified pre-owned dealership. Called them up and asked if they still had it. Which is when they made a fatal mistake by replying, “We do, but you don’t want it. It’s a standard.”…

“Preferably day old.” Please don’t make this with fresh bread unless you want a soggy mess. It’s best made with bread that has practically turned into croutons and then you can it it for several days.

I’ve tried everything to help me fall and stay asleep — sleep masks to block out light, ear plugs, white noise. Nothing worked until I found the life-changing solution a couple of weeks ago. Now, it doesn’t matter if or the mechanic next door is working under a flood light until the wee hours of the morning, I…

Two seconds put me on anxious high alert!

Ditto, plus I live in the tropics. Even unopened in the packaging, everything goes soft quickly.

Living in Mexico (and many other countries) has taught me just how distorted the view of food is in the US and Canada (where I’m from). It’s taken a lot to break through that conditioning and accept that beef is not supposed to be bright red by the time it gets home and it’s perfectly fine if chicken is yellow and…

Last time I visited my parents, they asked me to drive them to the airport in their car. I have almost zero experience driving an automatic. First corner we got to, I hit both the brake and the gas at the same time and almost threw my mother through the windshield. Good times!

I left my truck at a Walmart in Montana once for an oil change and got a call 15 minutes later asking me if I could move it into their bay since no one on staff could drive stick. Whaaaaaaat?!