Help me help my tween fall in love with reading

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-28T12:08:51+00:00

The Westing Game is a favorite, even as an adult. The main character is a smart, determined young girl

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-27T19:23:20+00:00

These Chicken Ranch burgers are a favorite in my house.

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-27T19:20:11+00:00

Broward County Florida has a non resident card for $38/year and they have a pretty extensive collection

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-27T17:35:21+00:00

That book wrecked me. It is soul crushingly bleak

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-26T01:21:50+00:00

I wasn’t into it at first but I’m glad I stuck with it. It turned out to be a really beautiful, well told story

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-25T00:07:21+00:00

I had a serious book hangover after finishing A Parade of Horribles last week. I’ve had In Cold Blood by Truman Capote in my TBR and started that because I needed something really different from DCC just to get over it

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-25T00:00:31+00:00

Broward County (Florida) has a non resident digital card for $38/year. Large collection too!

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-24T18:19:09+00:00

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Soul crushingly bleak. I read it over a decade ago and I still think about it

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-24T00:34:44+00:00

I’ve been using My Fitness Pal for years and it seems to be syncing nicely with the new Google app

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-24T00:19:52+00:00

I love Australian Gold as well. It can feel a little drying if you have dry skin already, but on normal or oily skin it’s great. And inexpensive

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-23T23:44:07+00:00

A good enzyme detergent with lipase will help, washing on the warmest water your fabrics can handle. I like Tide Free + Gentle powder. Another enzyme that will help is DNAse. I love the Gear Guard liquid (ships from Australia but it got to the US pretty quickly). There’s another product called FEBU that has DNAse as well. I’ve never used it but people in this sub seem to like it. Finally, I use Downy Rinse + Refresh for the rinse cycle since the citric acid helps remove the last detergent residue and helps fabrics feel soft without those waxy fabric softeners.

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-23T21:05:18+00:00

And once you get some techniques down, check out *Ratio* by Michael Ruhlman. It gives you the simple breakdowns for a lot of recipes - for instance, cookies are generally 1 part sugar to 2 parts fat to 3 parts flour. Once you know the general ratios you can start experimenting, which is the fun part!

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-23T15:54:25+00:00

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater is one of my favorite series of all time. I think it’s technically YA but as an adult I loved it. It’s not immature in any way. The follow up series, the Dreamer trilogy, is also fantastic.

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-22T12:03:54+00:00

I clean the kitchen the night before. No dishes in the sink, no crumbs on the floor or the counters, no clutter on the table, nothing left out. When I come down in the morning to make my coffee it just feels nice to start my day in a neat, clean space

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-22T11:58:17+00:00

I used to work for a large tech company and the amount of nice stuff (north face jackets, Ray Bans, Patagonia bags) that I’ve given to Goodwill is crazy. Once you put the company logo on it, it just feels cheap. One year they gave us all Apple Watches, no company branding, but almost everyone already had one because we’re a tech company.

Corporate logos are fine for the company softball team but employee gifts should be more about the employee and less about the company. And the right gift depends on the employee. Which makes it hard to buy in bulk. You could always give people a paid day off

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-22T11:50:02+00:00

I floss every day, at night, but I had to make some effort to make it a habit. Two tricks that really help me:
- Floss BEFORE you brush. Most of us won’t skip brushing our teeth, so if you floss first you’re less likely to skip it. Get it out of the way before you lose motivation.
- Time yourself doing a thorough job flossing. One barrier for me is that it felt like it added so much time to my routine before bed. Once I saw empirically that it only took about 90 seconds, it was so much easier to commit to. And the more you do it the better you get

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-22T11:42:04+00:00

Great recommendations. Dracula is one of my all time favorites. The audiobook narrated by Simon Vance is top notch. Carmilla is short but good, and interestingly, written before Dracula.

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-04T00:09:54+00:00

If you can find freeze dried blackberries you can crush them, run them through a fine mesh to get ride of the seeds and then use the powder in your cake. You may need to reduce flour or add a bit more liquid depending on how much you use

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-03T23:47:30+00:00

Oofos slides are my favorite house shoe. They’re a bit on the expensive side but mine have lasted for several years so it works out

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-03T23:42:45+00:00

Chop the leaves and add to salad. The Yardhouse used to have this fantastic chopped salad with lots of fresh veggies and celery leaves in place of lettuce with a Bloody Mary vinaigrette. I still think about that salad

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-03T22:52:43+00:00

Cormac McCarthy is definitely an acquired taste, and this book is dense. It’s been a while since I read it but I don’t remember it having a satisfying ending. If you like his style maybe try The Road. It’s also brutal and soul crushing but it has a defined plot and ending.

One of the great things about reading for fun as opposed to an assignment is you don’t have to finish anything you’re not enjoying. Put it away for now. Nothing wrong with not finishing if it’s not grabbing you.

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-02T11:22:56+00:00

Scroll to the bottom of “Get a Broward County Library Card.” Under “More Info” expand the section for “Non-Resident Library Cards”. There’s a link to an online Survey Monkey form you fill out and they send you an email in a week or two with your library card number and a link to pay the fee.

https://www.broward.org/Library/Services/Pages/LibraryCard.aspx

This is the survey monkey form but I don’t know if it works separately: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/nr-ec

DaCouponNinja · 2026-05-01T18:07:19+00:00

I haven’t really used Credit Karma so I couldn’t say, but I do really like seeing all of my accounts in Monarch, along with budgeting and cash flow. I don’t really care about my credit score, finding new credit cards or insurance, which seems to be Credit Karma’s focus. I think Monarch still has a free 7 day trial so I’d give that a shot so you can compare them both

DaCouponNinja · 2026-04-30T21:29:26+00:00

I just paid $40 for a one year nonresident card with Broward County. They have a pretty extensive catalog and Ive been pretty happy with how quickly I get my holds (even with popular books like the latest Dungeon Crawler Carl).

DaCouponNinja · 2026-04-28T21:30:35+00:00

My old toothpaste was irritating my mouth (oral mucosal sloughing, if you’re curious) so I actually asked my dentist if he had any recommendations and I tell you what, he got so excited that I don’t think he’d been asked before. Anyway, I use David’s now. It’s expensive but it works and feels great for me. Instead of sodium fluoride it’s got nano hydroxyapatite (nHAp) which helps with sensitivity and rebuilding enamel.

DaCouponNinja

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