About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
Small win: The sun came out long enough for me to wash out the garbage bins this week. First time in months! Of course I have mud all over my shoes now but the bins don’t stink.
I do my best to give candid feedback for my teams. Whether or not it makes me comfortable, the most important thing is that they are learning from mistakes and having the chance to improve their performance.
Now that this particular transition is in the rearview mirror, I can breathe easy and be ever so grateful that we never had any trouble with reflux or transitioning JB from bottles to sippy cups to regular cups. (Ze still wanted zir sippy as recently as two months ago but just for fun, because rummaging through the cabinets gives zir nostalgia like it gives me, and has wholeheartedly embraced the late-introduced camelbak.)
A cousin is struggling with their kid’s transition away from bottles. They’re going on three and still refuses milk in anything but bottles and that reminded me that at least on that point, we were incredibly lucky. When I gave JB zir first couple of sippies just to play with around a year, ze chewed up the spout enthusiastically, then THERE IS WATER IN HERE. WHOA!
At around 14 months, I decided that traveling with bottles again sounded awful, so we were ditching the bottles. We started giving only water in bottles, and milk in sippies, then I started giving only water in sippies before naps because we were supposed to avoid teeth rotting from having milk before sleeping. Picky though ze was about many other things, this was a non issue. Within a week, the bottles were phased out entirely and the next time I heard a peep about bottles was when ze discovered the bottles stashed in the closet a year later and was Extremely Curious about what they were and why they were stashed. Thank goodness we had that bit easy.
Within a 6 mile radius, we have 6 food sources. There’s something good at ALL OF THEM. Every single one has things that the other stores don’t and it’s led to some real inefficiencies. Three stores in a week is too much. Costco
Things we buy and use in bulk: sliced cheese, bread, yogurt, my beloved white corn tortillas, green beans for 50 cents a can for the dogs, Trader Joe’s
Can’t get anywhere else: sardines and glucosamine for Seamus, $3/lb ground turkey, $4 cauliflower pizza crust Asian market
Can’t get anywhere else: very cheap specialty produce (snow peas, snap peas, peeled garlic), dried squid treats, my favorite rice crackers. Sprouts
Can’t get anywhere else: my probiotics, regular sales on frozen shrimp, bulk staples (flour, sugar, nuts, some grains) Safeway
Can’t get anywhere else: standard staples like generic soda flavors (used for cooking), egg noodles (which I guess doesn’t matter for me anymore since I can’t have them) Local produce shop
Can’t get anywhere else: The cheapest and freshest produce. (more…)
Three research-based ways to maximize the fun of leisure activities: “The key to enjoying your leisure activities is to live in the moment as much as possible. Be spontaneous and don’t live by the calendar”
They make a good point about not setting an end time but still, I think we do better when we have boundaries like start and stop times, and only one fun activity scheduled per day off. It lets us fully enjoy the thing we’re doing and still get enough rest so we’re not paying the price later. How do you schedule fun?
The Queer Art of Failing Better: “In 2018, Queer Eye is no longer necessarily “For The Straight Guy,” as it was in the aughts, but being a straight mainstream white guy now seems to come with an elevated risk of panic in the face of basic life-skills like learning to clean your room and deal with your childhood traumas. Up till now, this was the demographic that was always told that if they just hung on long enough, someone else would eventually do it for them. Probably a woman.”
“The work that the Fab Five are doing for the luckless, loveless men of Georgia is girlfriend work. It is emotional labor, domestic labor, the work that anyone who has ever dated a straight man will recognize.”
I always have about 200 drafts saved here, dating as far back as 2006, and hit an all time high at 237 drafts last week. I realized that I never go back more than ten posts to pick up the thread and finish up a half written snippet so I’m resolved to spend ten minutes a day, or 50 minutes at once, deleting them.
They’re a bit of a time capsule, though, so I saved a few bits.
Sipping the workaholism martini
“You’re like a 1950s American dad. All you do is work to take care of your family; all you worry about is how to support them.”
No fewer than three people who don’t know each other, who may or may not know I blog about money a lot, who only know me from various points in my life have said the above to me over the past couple of years. Passing judgment, perhaps? Maybe. But that doesn’t make it untrue, either.
In any case, I don’t really take it that way. All I know is that it’s not nearly as fun as it sounds, what with the current love for all things Mad Men. It just seems like life should be a lot more glamorous if that were the case. I kid, I kid. Life would not be better if I were making oodles, smoking cigars and drinking real martinis at the three-martini lunch. (…..)
Micro-income: Achievement. I’m participating in a chronic pain study and getting rewarded with points. Combined with my regular earnings, I cashed out a $10 Paypal reward this month.
Small win: Late addition because I couldn’t think of one for a while. I saved $40 on Seamus’s pain medication because he and I were prescribed the same meds, so I shared mine with him instead of getting a new bottle of pills from the vet.
I tackled the question of whether our investments were optimized for taxes but decided in the end that maximizing our income is more important than worrying over a tax haircut. Mr Tako’s approach is similar.
This Gail Simone thread is why I don’t trust people until they’ve proven themselves to be trustworthy, and won’t tell JB “never fight/hit” but rather “don’t hit people unless they start it with you”. Horrible racists look just like anyone else. I also don’t disapprove of what she did. Those kids were all awful and that kid that caught the jump rope was choosing to bully smaller, younger kids. If the bullied little kid fights back, you deserve every welt. I have never understood the “turn the other cheek” thing because I was a tiny target for many bullies and darned if I was willing to let them get in another shot if I had any say about it. I mean, I do wish she’d been able to beat the crap out of the high schoolers who did hurt her and Dana but this kid was vile too.
I always have about 200 drafts saved here, dating as far back as 2006, and hit an all time high at 237 drafts last week. I realized that I never go back more than ten posts to pick up the thread and finish up a half written snippet so I’m resolved to spend ten minutes a day, or 50 minutes at once, deleting them.