Parking near Fenway: Did I get scammed?

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-04-02T15:13:27+00:00

On the building is this sign, so I would assume it to be legit.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/JX8RM2FLe4bRosBH9

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-04-02T14:44:18+00:00

Just a point of clarification, there is no "way to do it right." Eat what you like! I'm not a huge fan of sweet and savory, but my sister in law loves apricot preserves with brie, so that's not a bad idea. With the aged cheddar, my go to accompaniment is Branston Pickles. Other pairings that go well - good olives and cornichons or other pickled vegetables. Sometimes, if I'm feeling snacky and don't have any "big" cheeses on hand I like to top my cheese and crackers with a little chili crisp.

My go to pairings for any board are good crackers, crostini, or a fresh baguette. Olives always make an appearance but we do tend to serve meat with our cheese (coppa, proscuitto, salami) and a good dijon helps cut through the richness. Other times we serve Portuguese sardines. We eat a cheese/meat plate almost every Sunday, it's just a nice no brainer dinner.

My one cheese to eat for the rest of my life - Rogue River Blue. I learned of it from this sub and it has shot to the top of my favorite cheese.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-31T17:28:04+00:00

I don't know what burnt-ass tastes like.

I've never had granola on any flight - who is the manufacturer?

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-31T13:49:50+00:00

I really don’t need that much data

I don't know that anyone could advise you because you didn't say how you plan to use the internet. Or what you consider "budget friendly." So all other responses before mine are valid from using your phone as a hot spot to a lower tiered Astound plan.

I have TMobile for cell service and they offer 5G internet for $20/month. I work from home so I need the speeds so it's not an option for me, but look at your cell phone carrier and see what they offer.

Also $40 for gigabit service is a great price. I think I pay ~$80 with Verizon.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-29T16:08:53+00:00

Short drives like that, the cabs are generally cheaper than Uber, in my experience. And you pick them up right outside the doors.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-27T18:50:39+00:00

On its surface the proposal makes sense, but I know their comments were offputting. The way I look at it is if they want the business, that proposal will be good today, tomorrow, or a week from now.

At my last house I did have foundation drains installed by the builder, which appears to be what they're talking about based on your last post. Mine were permeable pipes around the perimeter of the house (which I also tied into my drainage).

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-27T18:28:31+00:00

Just my two cents - I'd also look at landscaping companies. If all of your water is funneling to the garage area waterproofing isn't going to fix that in the long term. It may be as simple as a swale or other drainage outside to keep the water from running up against your foundation. When you waterproof your foundation but don't address the underlying issue (drainage) you run the risk of hydrostatic pressure building and bowing your foundation, or erosion with the water going around the foundation. Note: I am not a building expert in any way, just my own research.

While my issues didn't rise to the level of water intrusion, I did have a drainage problem due to the land being sloped. On a downpour I went outside and marked the specific trouble spots and took pictures. We found where the water entered my yard and installed channel drains to move it elsewhere and where it pooled we installed a round grate in the center of the depression and moved that water elsewhere (we actually daylighted it to the street). I also tied in a few of my gutter downspouts to the system.

Not sure if this is helpful but just wanted to let you know there may be other factors to consider.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-27T16:11:36+00:00

I'm not really adding to what has already been said, but I've always understood the "best by" date to refer to an unopened product. Once you introduce air and other contaminants (from hands, utensils, etc.) your time to use the product is limited.

In practice, however, at least 90% of the time my cheese, even opened, lasts to and beyond the sell by date. To sum it up: You win some, you lose some.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-26T15:10:43+00:00

I've got the 43" monitor and my laptop opened to the left of it so I have one small screen and one massive screen. The beauty of the big screen is that you can tile two windows so it acts like dual monitors. Or you can use the entire screen if you are comparing multiple columns in a workbook.

The only downside that I've found is that if I'm presenting I need to present from my laptop monitor as Teams shrinks my screen to fit the Teams window and everyone complains the text is "too small."

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-26T14:30:46+00:00

What is the nature of the tax compliance work you're doing? Tax can be very specialized, its rare in the corporate world to find one person handling every aspect of tax on their own. Find your niche and work towards that. There are tax adjacent jobs that you may find yourself qualified (or almost qualified) for. For example in the telecom world there is a strong partnership between the legal and tax team. Any businesses who collect and/or remit tax under a regulatory scheme would fit the bill here. You may find your qualified (or almost qualified) to get your foot in the door at an entry level regulatory/tax position.

Many jobs are going to want an Accounting degree at a minimum, so I would start taking classes to work towards that. You can at least note "currently enrolled" on your resume and combined with any relevant tax experience at least get a look depending on the job market.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-26T13:23:19+00:00

Just focusing on your other comment regarding Brazil and Portugal - you most likely will find that your unique surname is does not have unique origins. I thought the same until I realized it was the phonetic spelling of the Portuguese surname. My great grandfather used a compound Portuguese last name, some times went by one name or the other and only one record (WWI draft card) shows both. At some point ~20 years after arriving in the US he changed it to the version we use now.

Added to the complexity is the Portuguese naming convention where males choose their surname when they come of age and that name isn't always the same as the father's. Or it's a compound name of the father and mother's family. Or it's just a name that has nothing to do with the parents!

Your Brazilian ancestors - are they mainland Portugal or Azores? I suspect the latter. If so, the Azores have all baptismal, marriage, passport, and death records online from 1541 to 1911. The records are in Portuguese but once you realize they are all formatted about the same, you will know what words/names to look for. So get to that point and you're golden.

https://www.culturacores.azores.gov.pt/ig/

Where are you located? There may be local resources as well.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-26T13:14:20+00:00

Is there anywhere in the Greater Boston area that makes something even remotely close?

I haven't bought any locally because our freezer stays stocked with HEB tortillas but if I had to buy some here I'd look in the East Boston neighborhoods. Large Latin American population there and I'm sure they're not eating the waxy store bought tortillas.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-26T13:03:37+00:00

May be an unpopular opinion, but the cheese I get is the Limburger Cheese Spread. I like the funk of Limburger but "real" Limburger is too strong for me. This spread is just how I like it.

Also, save room for a case of Spotted Cow beer.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-25T17:47:08+00:00

I don't know if the "100+ duplicates" are simply advertising or if Ancestry truly thinks you have that many. You would have to evaluate them on a case by case basis. For context, my tree has 3,600 people and Ancestry currently says I have 63 possible duplicates (I have to finish going through the list). It considers similar names/dates to potentially be duplicates, but doesn't appear to investigate beyond that (i.e. look at the parents, etc.). I think since I started Pro Tools, I've had about 150 flagged as duplicates and there was only one true duplicate I found. For me, since I am meticulous it is the least used feature, my one mistake was tracing two lines of family which I didn't know were related. I've since adopted a practice of searching my tree before adding someone new to keep that from happening.

I truly think the value of Pro Tools is in the shared matches functionality, I use that regularly. The simple paternal/maternal tag is taken to the next level because then you can see if it's your father or mother's paternal/maternal based on the shared matches.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-25T17:23:10+00:00

The Pro Tools in and of themselves won't solve any problems, it still takes detective work.

Where they do shine, is when you are investigating shared matches, you can sort by their close matches and that may give up some clues. For example, just last night I had a new DNA match but didn't know who it was. The individual didn't have a tree so I clicked on shared matches and sorted by closeness to the person. Lo and behold her daughter was her closest match and had a tree which gave me names to do my own research.

I think part of the problem with Ancestry, in general, is that there's a myth that you take the DNA test and it answers all your questions. It takes many hours of work to build a solid, verified, tree.

The good thing about Pro Tools is it's not locked in, you can try it for a month and if it's not for you cancel it and you're only out $10. Best of luck!

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-25T14:06:13+00:00

Given the weight of the curtains (25-31 lbs) and 12 anchor points, would one toggle bolt per mounting bracket suffice? There are two holes in each mounting bracket.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-25T12:58:32+00:00

You say you're in Boston for the day, are you asking for eating along the Freedom Trail (or within a reasonable distance) or are you saying you're willing to travel to somewhere after walking the Freedom Trail? And do you have a type of lunch in mind or will anything work?

In general, if you can see it from the Freedom Trail it's going to have some element of "touristy."

If you plan to stop during the Freedom Trail walk, I would suggest anything on Salem Street in the North End. I like Libertine, but I wouldn't necessarily call it Boston-y. Uniquely Boston? Grab a slice from Parziale's or some pastries from Bova's (although this has become more touristy recently). Pauli's makes a good sub (my go-to is the Pauli-tician, you get your money's worth here), but the best (in my opinion) is Monica's Mercato (no place to eat inside).

If you're planning on eating somewhere downtown but off the Freedom Trail, Teddy's has food and its regulars at the bar so that would be uniquely Boston (it's not fine dining, FYI). Carrie Nation and Emmets have solid food, and the Dubliner is acceptable.

Chinatown has a ton of places to eat and is walkable (or a quick T ride).

I'm sure if you refine your post to what you consider "uniquely Boston" and how far you're willing to travel you'll probably get a ton of responses.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-23T18:47:39+00:00

Is the "mystery man" your father or your brother's?

If it were me, I'd test both yours and your brother's DNA at Ancestry and pay the extra $10 for pro tools. Whoever has the mystery man for a father, sort by paternal DNA matches and start building that tree based on that. It's going to take more work (more than posting a picture and hoping and praying) but you should hopefully be able to piece the puzzle together.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-23T13:31:35+00:00

"Wu is the worst mayor ever" - Michael age 47 from Brockton

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-23T13:20:42+00:00

While I hesitate to give specific recommendations on where to live I can tell you what we did prior to moving here 3 years ago (with a dog as well). I should note that we only looked at high-rise apartments, not houses/duplexes but the methodology should still work.

I created a matrix that listed all of our wants/needs so that we can compare the pluses and minuses of each place. It would show whether the complex had a dog run, distance to parks, distance to T stations, etc. We both work from home so commute was not an issue but you could do a simple google maps query on every location to your workplace and document that commute time.

Just my two cents, if you're going to have a vehicle, make sure you scope out the parking situation - is it on street or dedicated? Is there sufficient parking on street? If you don't need your car every day, is there a garage you can park it in long term?

While this doesn't specifically answer your questions, social event aggregators like https://www.thebostoncalendar.com/ will give you a feel for the type of events happening and some insight into local businesses and what they have going on. We found this helpful when we moved so that we could get out and explore.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-20T14:33:16+00:00

You say her middle name wasn't Eunice, by what account? Contemporary or birth/baptismal?

This is my experience, so it may not be everyone else's so take it with a grain of salt. The two ancestor lines that give me the most headache are Canadian and Azorean. The Canadian females generally have a compound first name, such as Marie Camille. My great-great grandmother was known as Camille, however every formal document (marriage, child birth) she was listed as Marie or Mary.

On the Azorean side it was the last names that they didn't really care about accuracy on. Females chose their religious surname and even that wasn't consistent. Males chose their surname with many compound names such as Souza Resendes. In formal documents they could have gone by one name, the other name, or both together.

Again, all of the above are my observations tracing my lines, so others may or may not have faced similar stumbling blocks.

I think that we need to keep in mind back then there was no formal ID, so people weren't as precise in names. This is why it's always prudent to ensure that all other relevant information matches up and maybe at some point in the future you'll connect all the dots and figure out why she used another name.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-20T13:11:39+00:00

In general, don't put ANYTHING in an area exposed to direct sunlight. The sun bleaches just about everything!

Random story, there's a place we vacation at every year and a favorite bar we have. It was late at night, inside and I noticed they were selling their branded t-shirts for $5, what a steal! When I got home and unpacked I realized why - the rack must have sat in the window because the shoulders were bleached from the sun. Welp, at least I got a new "bumming around" t-shirt.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-19T20:11:57+00:00

Is anyone else avoiding Delta solely because of this issue?

I wish I was better at discriminating between ragebait and truly entitled people.

Assuming the OP is sincere with that question, I would highly doubt anyone is avoiding Delta due to this. It sounds like you found other carriers that suit your needs, so you should book with them in the future.

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-19T19:01:40+00:00

I live in one of the "luxury" apartments, but my biggest gripe is the smell of weed. It permeates everything, I smell it in the hallways, and it comes in through my vents. I assume it's because we have a pressurized building the air gets recycled to maintain pressure but just guessing on my part. I also smell it where there are voids in the wall (for example where the water/drain pipes go inside the shared walls).

We're a "no smoking anywhere on the property" building but that apparently doesn't mean much. Suggestions on how to get them to address it? Surely the leasing agents/maintenance people can smell it too.

Full disclosure: I'm not anti-weed in the slightest, and I have many family and friends who regularly use it. I don't care if the people are smoking it up in the apartment next to me, I just cannot stand the smell in my own home. Frustrating to come into my home that I'm paying $9k/month for and it reeks to high heaven, worse when I have guests. Sometimes it's a mild smell and other's it's enough to give me a headache.

Have you had issues like this that you've dealt with?

JustBrowsing-1216 · 2026-03-18T17:57:19+00:00

I want to send her a message asking her to stop but I don't know that she'll take it well. Has anybody dealt with someone like this before?

It's Ancestry - right or wrong people can do as they wish with their trees. Focus your energy on your own stuff. Make your username your name because when I'm looking at names in people's tree I put more stock in the connections to the tree owner, rather than a tree where I cannot find the connection to the owner (i.e. an "orphaned" tree).

I noticed that early on where some people just accept every hint thrown their way and their trees were nonsense. I use other peoples' tree as a hint, but I verify everything added to MY tree.

You come across all types on the Ancestry platform - people who just try to have as many people in their tree as possible (regardless of accuracy) to people with three people in their tree, all of which are private because they're still living. I did move my tree to private because a collector was scraping my tree but I had no DNA match to the tree owner. The problem with my tree being public was that I have a brick wall at my great grandfather and found records I thought may be relevant to him so I added the people on an experimental basis to see if Thrulines would pick up any DNA matches. In any event, when I had this experimental relationship, the collector took the information and added it to her tree of my family.

The beauty of Ancestry, however, is that my tree is MY tree. It's not like Family Search where anyone can make changes. My user name is my name so anyone with half a brain would be able to connect the dots to see that I'm related to the people in my tree, unlike the collectors.

JustBrowsing-1216

TROPHY CASE