Moats were cool until I learned that toileting holes were often positioned such that the urine and feces wash down into the moat. I'm gonna have to take a pass on that lazy river....
Moats were cool until I learned that toileting holes were often positioned such that the urine and feces wash down into the moat. I'm gonna have to take a pass on that lazy river....
It makes me crazy that we're even talking about this and it's more than a year away. Our election cycles in the US are too damn long.
As an avid cloak lover, I can attest that the reasons others state about practicality are pretty much spot on. That said, my 3/4 round wool cloak with a cotton liner is the warmest and coziest winter garment I have ever owned. I have three of them, and a lighter blue velvet one for dressy occasions in spring/fall.
Getting into a car with a big cloak though is tougher than with a normal coat. Once you get the hang of it, it's not a problem, but it does take some practice! I do love my cloaks and I would love to see them make a comeback though!
I'm of the opinion we just need to stop focusing so hard on raising the birthrate and focus more on taking care of the people and population we have. We don't need more people on the planet - 8 billion humans is plenty. We need to figure out successful economic strategies that don't require perpetual population growth rather than trying to breed our way into economic security.
My company is based in CA, and employs me remotely from the Midwest. They pay me above average for my area, but less than they would have to if I lived in the Bay area where they are based. I feel like this works out for both of us! They even go so far as looking at the zip code of every employee when considering raises, and thus far (3 years) I have received an annual raise which is higher than the cost of living increase for my area.
In my situation at least, me working remotely benefits both myself and my company. I just can't understand why so many larger companies are so adamant about return to office, especially ones in larger coastal cities.
It physically hurts me how true this is.
I refuse to be part of that group. I'm a democrat living in KS and I vote in every single election I can. My candidate may not win, but damnit they will count my vote and know that I dissent.
Dog training/sports.
Here I am thinking "I need to get more active and it'll be fun to do stuff with my best bud Link" (Link is a 4 year old golden retriever)
Starts with basic training obedience classes, no biggy. Then they offer Rally classes, which is basically obedience plus some fun stuff, cool, I'll take that class. Oh, I can get a cool title for him? Sure, we already trained him, why not! Ok he needs 3 successful runs, and each run attempt is $25...? k...
Rally Novice acquired...fun but... Was that really worth 150 for the class + $75 for the three runs? ...sure whatever
Ooooo agility sounds fun! Let's do that! $150 for a 6 week session, that's not bad! 6 months and many sessions later + buying practice equipment... I'm officially poor. My dog is a happy boy, and I'm more active, but FML this is a rabbit hole lol
We're having a lot of fun, and my dog is a happier more obedient boy, but man was I not expecting the crazy expense. Those people with the dogs that have a bazillion titles and letters after their names? They've spent a literal fortune on that dog. It's absolutely mind boggling.
Absolutely. My 2006 car is in the shop right now getting fixed and will ultimately end up costing me around $3.5k. They were a bit surprised I told them to fix it, but I don't WANT a new car. I like my car, it has all the features I want, is a manual, doesn't connect to the internet, and most importantly, has physical buttons and dials to control everything! Overall it's in great condition as well.
I love my car, and like you will be keeping it until it becomes prohibitively expensive to repair vs buy something else, or I can no longer get parts. Hopefully by then something will be done about the privacy and touchscreen situations.
As ridiculous as this sounds, spending time with my dogs. I didn't grow up with dogs, but got my first as an adult, and it's been a revelation. When I want to go run an errand, go out to eat, go take a walk, whatever...they're always up for it. The best part though is that when I'm done, they're happy to follow me in being done too. Outings last exactly as long as I want, they're always silly and fun, and when I get home I have a tired cuddle buddy for a nap.
I have a very healthy social life with friends I see every week, a husband, and family I love...but spending time with my dogs just scratches an itch I didn't know I had. They're just the least complicated and demanding relationships in my life, and I really value that. Taking my golden out for pancakes and a trip to the park on a Saturday morning is one of my greatest joys in life. It's simple stress-free joy, and if life gets busy and interferes with my dog time I'm just cranky and unhappy.
That's so heartbreaking. We went through similar in the past year with our late lab and it crushed me every time because she clearly hated going in the house but couldn't help it.
quietly adds shampoo to the grocery list...
Last time I had to buy epipens, about 8 months ago or so, they were still $120. That still seems absurd to me. I am fortunate that my dog's insurance is better than most people's and I only paid $11 for them. In comparison, my vet could give me a half dozen syringes of epinephrine for about $15. The markup on epipens is crazy considering it's literally urgent life saving medication.
I recently had to roll back a windows 10 update because as soon as I installed it all of my startup programs stopped starting up at launch. As soon as I removed it, the problem went away.
No Microsoft, you cannot ruin my Win 10 experience to coerce me into migrating. It's gonna be a long annoying fight.
Who knows, by then Broadcom may drive VMware into the ground too, making the whole thing moot!
There is a book called Off To Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer that is basically this and it's hysterical.
You can do that in the US too, but if they give it to you in a hospital the line item charge is much higher.
Effectively yes, however numerous studies have shown that not all work hours are actually productive. The idea is that you remove some of those unproductive hours, which makes employees happier, and productivity, employee satisfaction and retention increases naturally as a result.
The large scale trial of a shortened work week in the UK resulted in great success and 92% of companies decided to keep the new hours after the trial ended, with 30% already having committed to making it permanent.
The benefits to the employees is fairly obvious, but the employer gains by having less retraining, employees are more focused and less mentally exhausted, employees require less time off. The end result is that companies did in fact see increased productivity during the trial, and most companies reported increased YoY revenue growth.
Seems counter intuitive, but 61 companies tried it, and most liked it!
I still have to have a checkbook because my dog groomer and my tree trimmer/gutter cleaner companies both refuse to accept cards. They are small businesses and don't want to deal with the fees. My options are go get cash every time, or keep a checkbook on hand to write checks. While I understand their reasoning, it's infuriating that checks even still exist.
I live in Kansas and it's freakin bizarre to look across the state line and realize I'm living in the less crazy state. Missouri just went straight off the rails in the past 20 years.
You know, from that perspective I can understand the point of it, but there should have been guard rails built in for women to escape abusive relationships. That was an extreme oversight.
Unfortunately that "oh but he's so cute I can't help it" crap bleeds over onto those of us responsible owners too. Golden puppies are adorable, and everyone wanted to let him jump on them when he was little. I would stop it at every turn, but it was a constant fight with him and other people trying to fix it. So what I'm saying is, screw those people. They make everyone's life with dogs hell. -_-
At one point my German husband was looking into becoming a US citizen, but just never got around to it. I stopped encouraging it years ago, because Germany has weird laws about dual citizenship and he would likely have to give his up to become a US citizen. As a result, we have a European exit plan. While I'd really like the US to get it's shit together, knowing we have options is nice.
I love dogs and think they're fantastic roommates, but I definitely get where you're coming from. Most of the negatives of dog ownership can be fixed with proper training, but most people are too damn lazy. I often find myself annoyed by other people's dogs as well. The only one of your listed problems I have to deal with is the personal space one (Golden retriever), and it's as simple as saying "Go to your place" to solve/prevent it.
All that said, no dog, no matter the size or temperament, should EVER be left unattended with a small child, let alone an infant! Even with zero aggression dogs can hurt small children by smothering them or knocking them over. It's as simple as buying baby gates to prevent it, and I just don't understand why people let things like this happen :(
I taught my dog weave poles and he loves them!
Many of the libraries in my area have all kinds of rental things you can check out! Books, audiobooks, music, video games and movies of course. But they also have a whole tools and homegoods section. Need a weirdly shaped pan for a 1-time birthday cake? Check it out and return it when you're done. Need a drill to hang shelves in your new apartment? Same thing. It's pretty awesome. For me personally I love to bake, but I simply do not have room for every type of pan. I only make angelfood cake once a year or so, and those pans are huge. I just use the library one and then I don't have to store the thing all year!
If you haven't been to your local library in years, you should make a trip there. You might be surprised what they have these days!
I do actually. These are my favorite: https://www.tgertoggs.com/pages/cloaks_hats.shtml
I'm actually terrified of doing this in an automatic because I've been driving a manual so long. Nobody is making manuals anymore so I assume my next car will be an automatic and I'm going to need a strap for my left foot so I can't accidentally do this lol.
Last time I drove an automatic I put it in reverse when I got to a stop sign because my hand just went for it and pushed the same amount I would in my car to get to neutral. That was the day that I learned both that the button on automatic shifters means nothing, and that I must sit on my right hand when driving one.
That muscle memory is a hell of a thing
Yes but on the other hand, some dogs can and do regularly slip out of collars. My golden has always been very anxious and has slipped his collar a number of times because he gets scared and backs up unexpectedly and suddenly he's collarless. I use a slip lead now because he cannot back out of it. Animals are not dying because of vets using slip leads, this seems like a ridiculous reason for a regulation like this. Animals can choke themselves on a normal collar just as easily.
There is a veto-proof majority. Governor hasn't announced what she plans to do yet
Depends on the type of burrito and ingredients. For breakfast burritos I put cream cheese in them, and then smear a bit on the inside seam and it works well to glue it shut. For a texmex style burrito you could use a bit of refried beans, or sour cream. If you're wearing your burrito you can just sprinkle a bit of shredded cheese of any kind in the seam and when the cheese melts it'll hold it closed.
Ohhh that's good to know! We already live in the US though. I'll have to look at the new legislation. Thanks for the info!
There are reasons why a business might actually need or benefit from having a single family dwelling in a way that aligns with their business. For instance a local theatre company owns two large homes here so that when traveling cast come for shows they have somewhere to house them without spending exorbitantly on hotel rooms for weeks at a time, and the cast get a more comfortable stay. The homes are typically occupied at least a portion of each month, and everyone involved benefits.
It's reasons like these I wouldn't want to put a total and complete ban on businesses owning single family homes, but in my opinion there should be a reasonable business justification for it and it needs to be very limited.
For me it's services that I will pay by check for, not goods. My dog groomer took me a long time to find someone that would actually listen and not try to over-groom my dog. (Just bathe him, trim his paws and ears, and send his ass home! He's a golden, do not cut off his chest fur, or his pantaloons, or his arm feathers!) And our gutter/tree guy because he legit charges half what the other larger companies in the area charge, does good work and cleans up after. I would rather give him a check than pay twice as much (not kidding) to the big corpo place via card.
Not really. I haven't looked into why it caused the issue it did. Presumably it is not actually intentional by MS, and there is some conflict going on that's causing it. I'll eventually get around to trying to let it install that update again, but life has been busy :)
There's a bunch of smaller tech companies and ad agencies that do half day Fridays during Summer. (They call it Summer hours and it lasts from Memorial Day to Labor day.) A bunch of my friends work for companies that do this. As someone who works for a small IT company that does not, I am massively jealous every summer.
For me personally, the one and only reason I don't main Firefox is because it doesn't work with Chromecast and I use that a LOT. I would switch to FF tomorrow if I could easily and reliably cast with it.
The problem here is that hospitals do not remain under the same management consistently. Apparently I am responsible for knowing when each of the local hospitals changes administrations (because capitalism and they get bought out) and stops or begins accepting my insurance. When I first moved into my house the closest hospital did NOT accept my insurance, last I checked they do, but that was a few years ago, so who knows now. The hospital closest to me has changed names 3 times in the last 15 years.
It's ridiculous that in an emergency that "when was the last time we checked to make sure that hospital takes our insurance" is even a question.
My big wool cloak is my absolute favorite winter garment. It is unbelievably warm and cozy, blocks wind better than any other coat I own, and as an added bonus I can wrap someone else up in it with me to keep THEM warm.
I am unabashedly the cloak girl. Bring back cloaks!