RBWells

@RBWells@lemmy.world

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RBWells,

Our dryer does this to us:

Put clothes in, start it - it estimates 35 units of time. Come back in 15 minutes to check, it says 15 units left. Come back in 15 minutes, it now says 21 units left.

I am, like all of us, unsure of the fundamental nature of time. But the dryer even more so. The units are not one standard length, and they don’t move always in the same direction.

RBWells,

Make gumbo! Dark roux, mirepoix, okra, crab meat if you can get it, and spicy spices.

Duck pho is also lovely.

RBWells,

We have used heat pump for A/C and heat in Florida for, well, I don’t know how long but the house I bought in the early 90s had one, and it was old enough we had to replace it, and the replacement lasted 20 years, so it’s not a new technology.

Yes they make noise, especially when starting up, but as someone else noted, your windows are closed when you run it, it’s not that loud. Not as loud as window units were.

RBWells,

Panache is style, someone who can carry off a different look effortlessly - I had a coworker who wore the most ridiculous clothes but looked good in them, I think that is panache. A fashion sense that is individual and loud and still looks good.

Charisma I think of as magnetic personality, the person who draws your attention, does not demand it. Usually people who do thrive on attention. Stage presence is a form of charisma, I went to see Marcus King and he is not good looking and had on a most unflattering outfit but as soon as he started playing I forgot all about that, he was absolutely stunning and attractive in the way he moved, sung, and played guitar. He had charisma.

RBWells,

Not my weakness becoming a strength, but going away and now I am a different person, my inverse? But my strengths do not become weaknesses?

Disorganization is my bane, and a complete inability to multitask, so I guess I would either be obsessive/compulsive or would be able to be an executive assistant or politician.

RBWells,

I am hung up about weight like this. Spent so long on the far side of skinny that smack in the middle of healthy makes me feel I look fat. I do say I am fat, I know objectively that is not true but I miss being too skinny. Just venting really.

I think just say that she is built great now, and you like it, but it’s her body. She probably isn’t worried that YOU think she’s fat. She is bothered because SHE thinks she’s fat.

RBWells,

Strongly agree. Potatoes down here are never cheap. Same with apples. But I can often get pineapple for $2, bananas are cheap here too. And lots of the Latin American food is reasonable. A huge bag of rice is very cheap per lb here.

RBWells, (edited )

Lots of beans and rice. So many different meals with beans and rice.

A garden. Or knowing someone with a garden, at some point we all get an excess of something, I gave a big bag of jalapenos to our yard guys at the end of the summer, they were so abundant.

We do use the Too Good to Go app, but not many participating restaurants here, it’s more for a treat.

Working at a restaurant that feeds you, I used to work at a place you could come for supper (teatime) before the evening shift. Not a chain place.

Set aside some part of the weekly budget for oil, spices, seasonings, chili paste, condiments. With these you can build variety of flavor into a basic cheap diet and they last awhile, you don’t have to buy all of them each time, but always buy some.

ETA: planning the week of meals saves more money than trying to buy cheap foods, for me, but we still have kids at home so the calculation is a little different. I just don’t like to - so I make a loose framework, know about 4 of the 7 meals, and keep dry/canned beans and pasta and rice on hand, and there is usually some veg in the garden, so I can leave some room for improvisation. Even that level of planning does save money.

RBWells,

Don’t die.

I can’t fault my mom for falling apart when my dad died but it did mess us up, she withdrew and was lost and stupid for years after, and never really got her mind all back. I was 16 and got kicked out at 17, the other kids got more years of that. But all of us are ok now, and again, I really can’t blame her.

Nothing else really, she wasn’t a motherly kind of mom but never felt neglected or like she was not trying her best.

RBWells,

I remember my first brother coming home after being born. My mom said I could go in the room and look in the crib but not to say anything, he was sleeping. I leaned down and said his name - I was one and a half years old. I know this is a real memory as nobody was there, nobody told me this happened.

Then nothing I remember until my 3rd birthday, I remember the depressing zoo birthday, and then remember learning to read (sort of- I was 3 and memorized a short book, claimed I could read, but after that just could read, pretty much anything - so I don’t remember the actual learning, however it happened, just that book, pretending to read it and that felt like it magically unlocked all books, it was remarkable and memorable).

That’s about all my memories until 5 years old, but after 5 it’s still just a few memories, even now I’d say just a few memories per year just a whole lot more years.

RBWells,

I was driving one day, in the early 1990s, singing along with Elton John, “love I feel it in my hands, I can tell by the things I could do with another man…” as I had since I was a little kid, when I suddenly realized that probably wasn’t what he was saying. It still sounds like that is what he is saying.

I see quite a lot of Elton John in these answers, maybe he just didn’t enunciate.

RBWells,

Whatever you want! When I have free time alone (a scarce commodity) I like to read, maybe have one drink, listen to music.

If it’s not by choice and you don’t want to be alone, go out and have coffee or a drink, watch people.

If you are trying to make it meaningful, do a ritual. Like write down what you want to get rid of, what doesn’t serve you (anxiety, whatever troubles you) and burn it, let it go. A time that’s unusual is a good time to make changes that you want, to interrupt habits.

RBWells,

Sandwichshire?

Okrashire?

Cheeseshire? Oh, Quesoshire.

RBWells,

This is the only reason I will occasionally make butter. To make it from creme fraiche cultured with buttermilk. More flavor.

Ice cream I sometimes make by freezing a mix that includes some booze as antifreeze, then once completely frozen, cut into chunks and whir it in the food processor. Then back into the freezer. That stays pretty nice, is lovely. Started this because one of my (grown) kids is vegan and it works with coconut milk as the cream.

RBWells,

I’m American, and do use jarred sauce if I have it, but more often what I have is tomato paste, a half bottle of wine hanging out in the refrigerator and some garlic or olive oil and butter. Anchovies. Usually have canned peeled tomatoes too, but those do have to cook awhile to taste good.

I guess I don’t set out to replicate jarred sauce, generally speaking, but can quickly dress pasta for supper with something good.

RBWells,

That’s me! This has to be a fundamental difference in what we consider mashed potatoes. You are going for something textureless and processed like whipped potato porridge, I like them to be, well, mashed potatoes. Recognizably potatoes, mashed up and seasoned. The pressure cooked ones are fluffy as hell, they yield to a gentle fork smash.

RBWells,

Huh. I am the exact opposite, for a small amount I usually don’t want to drag out the mixer, so put metal bowl, whisk, and carton of cream in the freezer for a few minutes then whip some cream. It is a workout but somehow seems easier than mixer. Almost always whip cream by hand.

RBWells,

Paneer I only like homemade, but it’s so easy I hesitate to call it cheese. Pressed curds. Halloumi I don’t like, and what’s funny is I was just thinking today that now that I like swiss I like every cheese in existence but forgot about Halloumi.

How Many Streaming Services Do You Have?

I remember when it was just Hulu for $5 and Netflix for $8. Saved $50 a month from cable. Now it seems we spend more. I have four. Max, Peacock, Paramount and Hulu. Prime doesn’t count because it sucks balls. (Only paying Netflix when next Stranger Things and Squid Game is released). Curious to see what the average...

RBWells,

Netflix because my husband likes a lot of stuff on there. He’s watching star trek prodigy now.

YouTube for music streaming, and the kids & husband watch videos on there.

Disney/Hulu I like the Star Wars and Marvel spinoffs, Clone Wars and Andor were so, so good.

Amazon, if I didn’t have family I’d keep this only and I guess use it for music too, I don’t actually watch much TV at all but music I want every day, we do have a good community radio station here but if course nobody can enjoy everything they play. Amazon seems to have the most content, not all of it included in the annual cost but huge library.

So most of them are because we can justify with more people using the services, all are family plans with whatever the max number of accounts are allowed.

We do use HBO Max but one of the kids pays for that one.

I need a schedule - one of my coworkers does 2 months Netflix then 2 months Disney then 2 months Max, just loops through them, only paying for one at a time.

RBWells,

Ah ok. I really loved the Google Play Music app, it was the best. Google could tell me who was playing nearby - and unlike Spotify, Google (because Google is creepy) knows what I actually consider nearby, and did not just show bands I listened to, but those I might also like, and was right about that way more often than not. It had better recommendations, YouTube music is still not as good as all, but everyone else on the plan does look at YouTube videos too, so we are getting plenty of utility out of it.

RBWells,

Easier to just make them a lot smaller. Other primates nurse without the extra fat in the boobs. But I like the idea of much more resilient skin, it should bounce back endlessly. No reason for it to get fragile or lose tone, sagging achieves no purpose. Can we fix acne and rosacea with this patch, too?

RBWells, (edited )

We should not get our adult teeth at 7 then no more ever. We need at least one more set.

I don’t think balding is useful, agree that could go.

Fertility should be manageable without using all the devices, hormones, etc. Like it should be a positive choice not a default state we have to harm ourselves to avoid. And I don’t think we need menopause either. Just turn on fertility only to get pregnant.

(ETA- I also think sexually transmitted diseases should not exist at all, they seem like religious fundamentalist biological warfare, but not sure what change in a human body could accomplish this and leave the pleasure intact. )

RBWells,

My appetite is at least 90% based on calories needed, since I was around 25, I 'm over 50 now. My kids laugh at me when I sometimes say I’m still full 6 hours after eating, but sometimes I am. Or eat, then eat ten minutes later. And usually I stay at the same weight unless intentionally bulking or cutting.

One exception - I lose appetite when stressed, and rarely but but sometimes have anxiety around eating still. But most of the time, my appetite just follows my calorie expenditure. Can’t be the only person like that, it seems a normal state?

RBWells,

I am sorry, that sounds dreadful. Always you have had hunger? Eating does not cause satiation? I also can feel empty without being hungry sometimes, it’s honestly a good feeling and best state to fall asleep.

Yes the tuned appetite should be universal.

In the interest of full disclosure - I did reach it coming out of anorexia so not overweight but underweight, but it has settled out to keep me at a healthy size as an adult. Except for a few very stressful years in my early 40s I lost some but bounced back. I think more people, at least in the US, are coming from the other side and I don’t have experience with that.

RBWells, (edited )

Husband has irregular income. Like you I do a spreadsheet with the dollars all allocated for my income plus what he tells me he expects on average.

Then each month I compare to actual results, and use that information to get a better estimate for the next year.

The black hole is credit card repayment because it was spent on something but goes in as debt repayment but we are working on that.

ETA: also do forecasting bank balance by day in months when things are tight. We do have savings but most of it in retirement accounts.

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