For a carry-on? Is that not what they are measuring in the image?

Hello, alligator!

I’ve put turtles in the car several times, to bring them to water. Birds, we’ve taken to the seabird rescue. I think that’s it.

What awful news. It’s always been 13 here since I had kids, the age you can go to the STD clinic at the county, and have limited medical privacy. I used to give my kids flyers for their friends so they would know. It does make for some odd effects (there are 5 years when we can’t use the online health portal at all because the kid is old enough that I can’t login and see their info but not old enough to have their own login.) but overall seems like the right age.

Presumably when you have kids you know you are growing them into adults, right? You can’t keep them children right up to 18 then suddenly expect them to be adult, nothing good can come from that.

I ride an electric bike instead of driving, gentle exercise but I’m sure it makes a difference. Pokemon go walks, yoga 4x a week at a group class, weightlifting less than once a week. Yardwork too, hauling things around. I got running shoes but have not deployed them yet, I’d like to run once a week only. I do move around a lot. I read somewhere that if you wanted to be fit after you are 50 you really need to exercise 3 hours a day, and it seems true. Not like lifting for 3 hours every day but if I was retired I’d do cardio every morning, lifting every noon, yoga every evening except one day totally off everything each week.

Also, keep a glass of water at your desk. Get up to fill it, drink, get up to pee, repeat. So that you aren’t sitting for too long.

Hmm.

Honestly John Rys Davies, based solely on Dominic Monaghan’s description of him ordering dinner when filming Lord of the Rings.

"John Rhys-Davies… took us to a restaurant. And it was when we’d only just started to get to know John. And we sat down at this huge, long table, and he said, “I think I will order the food for tonight.” And we said, “Oh, ok, on you go John.” And you know, we were having a conversation, and the waitress came over, and John ordered food that would probably have fed 35, maybe 40 people. And there were about 12 of us. And he just said, “We’ll have nine lobster and 15 shrimp, and 12 red snapper, 15 filet mignons, and some grilled mushrooms. I’ll have 12 onions and a wild boar…” You know? All this kind of stuff - just like, “Pheasants, and grouse, and - do you have partridge? Bring the partridge.”

Standing on the side of a road (a real road here in town) with a group, waiting for a bus, when the ground underneath us starts to rise - it’s not the ground, it’s a giant spider! And as it emerges and starts lumbering down the road we realize it is also our transportation, the bus stop was the bus.

I think that was the weirdest moment I have experienced.

Fontaines DC, the most recent album. Plus the cover Porter Robinson did of Favorite from that album.

That song with Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman, Right Back to It.

Nilufer Yanya album My Method Actor

Joshua Ray Walker, anything by him is so good.

I learned to be cool in hot temperature by being still, in the shade, with a breeze, it’s very hot and humid here but also windy usually.

Trees help so much. It is noticeably cooler at the park than in the city.

In the house when there is not air conditioning, roofed porches and opening the windows with fans pulling air through the house helps.

Yes, 65F for the winter or lower, I hate the heater, and yes, 78F in summer, the heat pump struggles and it’s plenty cool enough, feels cool compared to outside.

ETA I grew up in Florida without air conditioning. No central air until I was 24, sometimes window units. And at school no air conditioning till 7th grade and they kept it fucking FREEZING in that school so you would be going always from hot outside to so cold inside, it was worse than none.

People absolutely can adapt to the humidity and heat but buildings do not, they hold up so much better with the central air drying them out.

No and no.

Ponzi scheme or something like that? Yes, I would snitch. Bank robbery, please do not tell me. Cheating on taxes? I will judge you but no, not turn you in, if you get caught you get caught.

Like the lesbian necromancers in space? I can see that. I love the Kushiel books but can tell they’re written by a woman.

In sort of alternate history fantasy where I think there is no jarring gender stuff:

I’ve been reading the Katherine Kerr Deverry books, they are old but I think you might like those. The YA ones starting with The Thief of Attolia, if you haven’t read those, is delightful, and doesn’t take much time. Robin Hobb, but you already found her, and definitely Naomi Novik as recommended by others. I like most all the Django Wexler books, he’s a dude but writes from both men’s and women’s perspectives seamlessly. Katherine Kerr, Robin Hobb, and Naomi Novik write from the perspective of non-human characters too, that might be something to look for when you are looking for a writer who can change perspectives.

I’m in accounting and considering what I read in the news, it was surprising to me how honest it is in real, regular, non public companies. We get real audits that are trying to validate our records, we give them our real work to look at, try so hard to figure out the real cost and revenue each month and year, to allocate things correctly, nobody is pushing for some fake result, only for a clear picture.

Those companies with fraud? A lot of things have to go wrong, and someone has to be really trying hard to defraud, and needs to convince others to go along with that. Most companies hire accounting because they actually want to have a good picture of what’s going on financially.

Yes. Habit.

Please + thank you

Sil vous plait et Merci

Bitte + Danke

Por favor + Gracias

Shukran thanks in Arabic but I don’t know how to say please.

I’m reasonably good at surviving pregnancy and childbirth, and nursing. Think all my other skills are only useful after the agricultural revolution.

For me it was like being a teenager again but with less frustration because I got more sex. But that sex drive coming out of nowhere was startling - I think maybe your body thinks last chance for offspring, go go go! Like, I run hot usually but early 40s literally felt like 17-20 did.

It was when I learned I was able to have multiple O and also to get off from PIV.

And unless you are asking about age gap stuff, aren’t your partners going to be around your age?

I think you may also be underestimating what a hot commodity you are. I expected to have trouble but when I decided I might try dating more seriously, my handful of casual guys were so interested, I wasn’t because I didn’t like them in that way, but guess even they were fucking around because they hadn’t found someone to settle down with, not because they didn’t want to.

So enjoy yourself, and do not worry, so many guys see that age as hot.

Could you be more specific about which books did not resonate? I read pretty widely and don’t usually notice jarring differences. There are only a handful of men who I noticed really couldn’t write female characters, most modern authors can. In fantasy & sci-fi at least.

He’s out now, thank God.

3. English, Spanish, French.

I speak English and pidgin Spanish (like, if you really have NO English I can try, and I can read it ok, very slowly.) No French beyond ballet, food, and personal care products as those often come with French labels.