You are coming here for work?

Please have your job get you a new laptop, and sensitive patient data is stored on secure servers, yes? Having it with data they can’t see puts you in an impossible position. If your job is sponsoring you, you are safer, in a better category so less likely to see trouble.

With phone, if you’re aren’t super political online just open it if they ask. Wiping it or having a burner just looks more suspicious. No they don’t all go through everyone’s phone, it’s not as bad as the alarmist media sells it BUT it is unusually bad right now, and there are believable reports of people being made to unlock so they can browse your Facebook or whatever. I hate to give that advice, but your goal is to fly under the radar. You are absolutely legal. Don’t borrow trouble. Your work brings you here, you know when you are leaving, all your paperwork is good, you are not a risk. Assume everything will be smooth. The customs guys at airports are not the same as the ones bounty hunting immigrants. They are local people in a bad situation right now too, at least half of them don’t like what is going on.

My favorite is in the opposite direction - Porter Robinson covering Fontaines DC “favorite” in a 90s pop rock style. Such a good version of such a good song, and it’s worth reading the interview where he talks about recording it.

I am a mom and don’t like having a million pictures. My mom gave me some and it feels oppressive to have to hold on to them, honestly. One year my kids helped me by organizing the ones taken in their lifetime into bags by year. I used to take a roll of pictures, get them developed, but then only buy one or two, and was never a prolific photographer yet somehow ended up with hundreds of pictures I am not good at organizing or preserving.

I don’t care if the ones I have are lost. There is plenty enough documentation for people to know how things were.

I had a coworker who came in one day and said he made guacamole and had never bought an avocado before - he said he boiled the avocado. He got it and it was hard, so he figured like a potato you cook them so they get soft. Apparently it worked and he made the guacamole, and was shocked when we told him no, you just wait and they get soft enough.

I feel like if you are still friends, saying “ooh I had such a crush on you when we were younger” is ok, I’ve been on the receiving end of that and it was flattering and surprising because I absolutely did not feel attractive when young. And it was not threatening because he was in a happy relationship. Since you are so out of touch with her you don’t even know if she’s in a relationship, no, I would find that weird.

I think it depends on what % of your body mass that 20lb is. I weigh about 150, if my target was 130 I would take a year to get there. Someone 350lb, maybe yeah a month. The first few lb always faster than the last few, so if all you have to lose is a few pounds it can be slower.

This is so individual, but I still get off at least once a day by some means, we do have sex each day and sometimes I will still do me. And I am not twice your age but close.

ETA my 30s were literally the lowest point in my sex drive, so far. And like you I started early & am very quick usually, very glad I am not a man.

See below

My dad died when I was 16, it sucked so bad. We were close and I was not so close to my mom. It just gets smaller and smaller until it’s manageable. Grief is one thing that there is no way out but through, you shouldn’t wallow but you have to feel it or it will be worse.

My mom died when she was old and I was more ready for that, and think she was too. That didn’t hurt as much at all because I had more time to know it was coming, so I guess the emotional work happened beforehand.

I peel them, it’s easy? Cut in quarters, peel off the skin. I dislike the “scoop it out”, it leaves avocado behind and you can’t get nice slices. It’s never been a problem, the skin usually comes right off in one piece.

I worked with a lady who had an Akita that did this - she got a call at work one day that her dog had attacked the neighbor’s dog. Had busted through the screen door, jumped OVER the pool, busted through the pool screen, jumped over the fence, and attacked the neighbor’s dog, because she could see it in the neighbor’s yard.

We had a Pit & another mutt - yes the pit bull was good natured and polite, gentle under normal circumstances, easy to train to be obedient to me - but she was strong as fuck, and if another dog, including our other dog, wanted to fight, she was all in, I do think they are bred to fight. Thankfully she moved out when my daughter moved down the street from us, we would have kept her or the other dog but not both of them. We still get to see her & my kid gets to see the mutt, they are practically next door, but it’s better with them living in separate houses.

All that to say - yes they are just dogs, trainable and sweet. But so so strong and willing to fight, you have to be able to redirect them quickly if they see another dog get aggressive.

ETA: we never once saw her START a fight. She was a little anxious about men but not at all naturally aggressive, liked other dogs; and we trained her to accept people better. It was my other dog who would snap at her. But once it started both of them lost their damn minds. We didn’t plan for two dogs, one was left chained on our porch by I don’t even know who. One dog two cats is the ideal pet situation.

As someone else said: Pierogi!

Gnocchi is pasta made with potatoes.

Not pasta but I’ve put potatoes and rosemary and swiss cheese on a pizza and it was amazing.

Little cubes of sweet potato in cold pasta salad is good too.

I think you are more right, but I would not, like, mix spaghetti into mashed potatoes.

Very lightly buzzed feels good. Can think normally, would not drive but it is a pleasant feeling.

Drunk to me feels annoying, and I feel stupid. That is also how pot feels to me. I don’t feel out of control, no. Just dumbed-down.

So my limit is 2 drinks, I don’t over-drink because I have learned that one more does not make it better.

I agree. I like it (the spelling often shows the history of the word, relationships between words) but for an allegedly phonetic system it’s nonsense. Not sure it’s worse than French, but Spanish is so phonetic I can read aloud stuff I don’t even understand!

I learned to read as I was learning to talk, more like a language than a skill - kids learning in school are taught phonics, and I would despair if that was how I was taught.

Once. Really? The word Wonss is spelled Once?

Same. I kept trying stronger antiperspirant, thinking the sweat was the stink but it turned out it was the combination of antiperspirant and sweat that smelled bad. Deodorant without antiperspirant works so much better for me.

I don’t wear antiperspirant, just deodorant, so haven’t tried it. But my guess is that it’s the only thing that dissolves the waxy stuff that is holding the stains on the pits without dissolving the fabric. If acids don’t work, sometimes a base will.

She didn’t smell like ammonia so the scent must come out in the wash.

I work out in sleeveless tops.

Had a friend who swore by ammonia for armpit stains on shirts, maybe try that?

I don’t know! It’s so much more fun to watch. Games are shorter, action, the silly scrimmage. It seems perfectly geared to our short attention span.

I do like doing my hair, and to some extent curly is easier (at least it always does something, I can just scrunch it) but occasionally it’s nice to go let the stylist blow it out straight - that will hold for a week.

And I wanted to comment on the brushing - I used to have SUCH tangly hair that “tangled” was my hair type. If I looked from one side to the other, it would tangle. These ladies on the old Naturallycurly site kept telling me to stop brushing it, just detangle with a wide tooth comb in the shower and then it would not be so tangly. I thought they were out of their minds, that my hair was just different - it wasn’t damaged, no split ends, nothing, just tangly. Well I tried it and guess what? Once I had a crop of never brushed hair, it was not tangly. Ever since putting down the brush it is so much easier. No big detangling sessions. Just wash, can comb the shampoo through it. Condition, some styling products, and go. It doesn’t dry as fast as yours but if I wash in the morning, diffuser a few minutes, it’s dry by lunchtime.