Recent content by Maenad

Another vote for let them go if they want to. When I was 5 my grandpa died suddenly of a heart attack, and while I remember being afraid of going up to the casket (and wasn't forced to), it wasn't traumatic, just really sad. My 10 y.o. brother had a harder time, but he had been there when...

I usually respond with a variation of MYOB, followed up with "we're done talking about this" and a topic change, followed if necessary by leaving/hanging up the phone/shooing them out of my house. They'll keep giving you grief as long as you let them. Disengage and remove yourself from their...

Our computers lost our printer as well. The first thing we did was to go into our router, actually, and change the wireless protocol - Xfinity had updated it and we needed to "downgrade" it so the printer could talk to the router. Second, we went through the printer setup process on our...

Ooh, thanks for the warning! We were going to expand our garage this year, but decided to put it off. I'm glad we did! I do have some contractor referrals for here in the Twin Cities from other people if you want to try a different contractor, just drop me a PM. Good luck getting this project done!

It very much depends on the personalities of the kids, but I can definitely advise not endangering your own financial goals in order to give your kids Economic Outpatient Care. DH and I had almost polar opposite experiences - my parents paid for my college education, gave DH (before we were...

Ugh, yes. I got fired once and put on PIPs twice before my doctor finally proposed that the cause of my issues may be depression. Started medication and turned my career around. I just wish I'd figured it out sooner (I was 32, so not too bad, but still). I still feel like **** about it, and have...

I think it's just a rebranding of the VIX, but I could be wrong.

Just to be clear, I don't blame Venmo for the scam - it's definitely not their fault. I do blame them for a FAQ that blithely tells you that if you receive money in error you should just send money to that person in return. It shows a disturbing naivete about the fake-check scam, which has been...

Yesterday my phone pinged to let me know that "Sarah Beth" paid me $10. Thing is, I don't know anyone of that name. So, off I trundle to Venmo Customer Service, whose FAQ tells me that if someone sends me money in error, I should just send the same amount back to them! :rofl: How naive are...

I have a bullet-journal-style planner in a discbound notebook with three types of two-page "spreads": One is for the whole year, broken down by month (and the back of the second page is left blank for anything in 2022 that I already know about). One is for the current month Four or five are...

I think that may have been the original post from 2014. Not sure if SBF has gotten a new computer, I've lost track of all these stories. :) I must say Scrabbler, your stories about your friend definitely provide an enlightening view of how the "other half" lives.

Much less, but I'm not sure if/when that will change. I retired in March, so between the "don't feel like talking about planning anymore" and "what's my retirement going to look like?" I haven't been active on my previous online haunts. Which I think is too bad for this site in particular, since...

I went in last week, they had similar protections others have mentioned - limited chairs in the waiting area, requests not to come in early, etc. I found out when I got there that my long-time hygienist had retired rather than come back after the spring lockdown, so I had someone new. My dentist...

I've gotten so distracted with futzing around in retirement I forgot to post an update! :laugh: We did indeed retire on March 13th. My last real day was the 12th, and I just called in to my exit interview on the morning of the 13th. After I'd handed in my laptop and was making my last rounds, I...

That is a good one. I like the emphasis on FI rather than RE, how it gives people options, etc. There was very little "present an 'extreme' story to get attention and eyeballs" going on. The couple was nicely "boring", just like most of us! ;D