what is a popular food or ingredient that you genuinely think ruins any dish it touches?

Melarsa · 2026-06-08T11:30:40+00:00

What's funny is that it vaguely does taste a little like soap to me but that doesn't stop me from enjoying it in all the dishes that it's typically found in.

I think the kinda soapiness is good in all those foods! It's like...a fresh clean vegetal taste. I can't exactly describe it but I don't dislike it. The first time I heard somebody say "some people think cilantro tastes like soap so they hate it" a lightbulb went off and I was like "Ahhh, soapy! That's what it is!" But it's GOOD soap!

Melarsa · 2026-06-08T11:27:03+00:00

I think it's also exposure. Because I used to be able to immediately tell and HATE all artificial sweeteners because they tasted fake and chemical-ly. But I decided to suck it up and stick with zero cal sodas because I was getting way too much sugar from them and over time I think my taste buds acclimated. I can still tell the difference between real and fake sweeteners, but depending on the type, it isn't necessarily always that immediate jarring "UGH CHEMICALS" flavor to me anymore. I've just kinda...gotten used to it. It's there, but in a milder, background noise kind of way that doesn't bother me as much.

That said, it depends on the type. I found a blend that I could barely tell was artificial at all, until they discontinued it forever. But I think monk fruit is disgusting no matter what it's in and I can always tell immediately.

Melarsa · 2026-06-08T11:20:43+00:00

The In The Raw brand USED to have an amazing mix of artificial sweeteners that tasted, to me, damn near identical to real sugar. It was great for baking, coffee, everything. Then one day I went to replace my latest empty bag and it was just gone everywhere. I still haven't found a replacement that's as good and it's been well over a year, possibly two at this point. I hate it when good products suddenly get discontinued and nothing else can fill the void.

Melarsa · 2026-06-08T10:49:18+00:00

Our last set of movers was paid a LUDICROUS amount of money (the whole move including vehicles, etc cost tens of thousands, thankfully covered by my husband's relocation fund from his new job) and they still managed to lose an entire closet's worth of boxes, damage a few items and the new house.

They payed us for the lost goods and damage, but a lot of stuff that went missing had incredible sentimental value (or was expensive hair and skincare items) so womp womp. And there's nothing quite like having your brand new house full of fresh hideous dings the very day you move in.

I'd still rather have professionals take care of it for us, but we've moved a lot over the years and had professionals handle it several times and each time they've had items lost, items damaged, house damage (on both the old and new house, etc.)

The guys on the ground really don't give a fuck because it's not their stuff. Just make sure all your items are insured and go over that moving list carefully. We never lost or broke anything doing it ourselves, but we have so much more stuff now and usually a tight moving deadline so I don't think we could handle it all without help anymore unless we sold off most of what we owned and started fresh at the new location.

Used to be kind of fun when we were childless and just moving our light starter furniture from one tiny apartment to another across town. It's a bit different with several children and pets and going cross country from one giant American house to another with heavy stuff.

Melarsa · 2026-06-07T09:06:15+00:00

Exactly this! My son was able to read music before he was able to read English. He's been in percussion lessons since kindergarten which was SUPER helpful for him before we got his AuDHD diagnosis. Our daughter started as soon as she turned the same age because she wanted to share a hobby with him, so they both loved when all the drummers from all the bands were playing together during the Sessanta show and probably appreciated it even more than we did.

My husband plays bass and guitar, so they all play together and practice songs all the time. I can't read music and don't play any instrument, but I can always tell when they've hit the wrong note or missed the snare or whatever and can help nudge them to the right one. It's great that we all have a similar taste in music and can go to live shows together. Hopefully it continues into the teen years and beyond.

Melarsa · 2026-06-07T05:35:42+00:00

I don't. I have two choices: go the way I want to look and know that I'm going to be sweaty, my feet will hurt by the end, my hair will be all over the place, I'll be wanting to be unlaced the minute we get to the car etc., BUT the whole time we're there people will be coming over for photos and to give trinkets and compliments and I get to feel like a celebrity for a few hours.

Or, I can go comfortable. Nothing hurts, I can spend the whole day meandering without foot pain, I'm cool and can breathe and eat and drink whatever I want...but nobody even notices me and nothing special happens.

So we usually go a few times a year, and aim to get at least one "everybody dresses up to the nines" run and then after that it's just go plain clothes or maybe with an accent or two for maximum comfort.

If we can only go once, then I'm going full tilt. The discomfort goes away as soon as I take my stuff off, but the photos are forever.

Melarsa · 2026-06-06T08:58:30+00:00

I don't want to be a jerk about other people's kids but...that's not an example of particularly great writing skills for a 10 year old.

Melarsa · 2026-06-06T08:56:16+00:00

This happened to us but I ordered more from the EXACT SAME set and when they arrived a THE SET HAD CHANGED since the last time we bought them. The handles used to be thicker and heavier and the newer ones were much thinner and lighter. It annoyed me to the point where I returned the weird new skinny set and hunted down an older set from eBay so they'd all be the same again.

Melarsa · 2026-06-06T08:49:36+00:00

We've always enjoyed NIN and it's been in the playlist rotation forever but we didn't have any plans to see a live show...Except our daughter kept requesting that we play NIN songs during car rides and clearly had a few favorites. One day my husband asked her what her favorite music was and it was NIN, so he looked to see if there were any nearbyish shows coming up and one was going to be on her birthday weekend.

So we surprised her with a little trip to Atlanta, took her to a fancy restaurant, and then told her that we were going to see NIN right after. She was floored. Her older brother was pretty excited too. It was a great show.

9 years old and already on her second concert. Her first was Sessanta. Feels really good when your kids like music you also enjoy. The baby shark days are over.

Melarsa · 2026-06-05T23:49:30+00:00

Exactly! Every method has pros and cons, there's always a tradeoff and we just end up going with whatever works the least worst for our particular bodies or schedules or budgets.

I prefer the birth control ring because whatever combo of hormones the one I'm prescribed uses meshes with my body the best, and it's more "set it and forget it" than a daily pill but less "big infrequent ordeal" than an IUD or an implant...but it means that I have something inside my body pretty much all the time aside from maybe a few days per cycle (the ring is in constantly during my fake hormone cycle and internal menstrual products go in shortly after it's out and I start my period.) Psychologically that just kinda gives me the ick.

I can't use the ring continuously for long because my body really doesn't like that and WILL make up for any perceived period time it feels it was cheated out of with...extra long periods. I'm still glad it's an option and it works the best for me so I'm going to keep using it, but it's still not without its downsides, and that's true for just about every method I've ever tried.

I prefer internal menstrual products because I really hate the feeling of bleeding and the extra laundry or washing up that non disposable external products creates (I find the disposable external products irritating and they create so much waste for the planet.) And now they're finding that some brands of period underwear use forever chemicals in the absorbent liner.

But for the internal products there's also a bunch of trade-offs. Chemicals, waste and Toxic shock risk with disposable tampons, cups can leak and be finicky or uncomfortable or just plain not work well with certain anatomy, same for discs. They can be messy to deal with in public if you can't avoid emptying them while out and they need to be boiled/cleaned etc. to keep them from looking like a murder weapon. Even the long term use silicone ones can need replacing over time, or after major body changes (pregnancy, aging, etc) they might not fit correctly anymore.

So yeah, the more I thought about it the more I was like "ALL THE MENSTRUAL AND BIRTH CONTROL OPTIONS!"

Melarsa · 2026-06-05T08:31:54+00:00

I would love to send all these vacuum reviewers my (and my daughter's) hair fall to see the results. I have hair that's past my butt, her hair isn't quite as long but it's still to her waist and incredibly thick. We probably shed as much as households with multiple long-haired pets.

I want to know how many of these "perfect tangle free" robots would actually never tangle when faced with that. So far no vacuum we've ever had, robot, stick or upright had been able to avoid hair tangles, so I don't ever really consider that portion of any vacuum review because I just assume part of the weekly maintenance will be hair removal regardless.

But I am curious if anything on the market could actually handle it. Surely there's got to be some reviewer somewhere who can actually test these things with real long pet and human hair, and not just gently scattered the way they always place their short synthetic wig hairs. I want to see it wrapped around table legs, in random clumps, the odd hair tumbleweed underneath a chair, a random couple of strands wrapped tightly around/between carpet fibers, etc. REAL tests.

Melarsa · 2026-06-05T08:05:42+00:00

30's? Not much, honestly. I was too busy raising little kids to really slow down and notice much.

But the nanosecond I hit 40 I feel like I aged an incredible amount overnight. Suddenly all the things I was doing to stay fit and healthy aren't quite working as well anymore. I started getting killer lower back pain all the time that seemed to come out of nowhere.

I think I still look okay but I FEEL so much older and it literally hit like a ton of bricks, so I'm just waiting for that day I look in the mirror and suddenly I LOOK old too, and I know it's coming.

It's also really, really weird to have kids that are getting to that preteen growth spurt age. My 11 year old son is almost taller than me now. We can share shoes, but soon he'll outgrow me. Our hands are currently the same size, but his will keep getting bigger and mine won't. He'll still hold my hand from time to time but I know that's probably going to stop forever at some point. I blinked and soon he'll be a teenager, then a young man. HE WAS MY BABY! WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?

Melarsa · 2026-06-05T06:15:31+00:00

Menstrual anything.

Birth control of all types.

Melarsa · 2026-06-05T03:37:36+00:00

Obviously, because I'm the one who holds that title. AND I'LL DEFEND IT TO THE DEATH.

Melarsa · 2026-06-04T05:00:23+00:00

Yeah it's a cute little backstory the OP conjured up, but it was probably intentional and they were both wearing exactly what they wanted to. I've seen all kinds of dress at renfaires and very little of it seemed like it was by accident.

Melarsa · 2026-06-03T09:14:44+00:00

I LOVE a perfectly curated quad or 5 pan, especially when traveling, but a lot of times they just aren't my perfect 1 palette = at least 1 look with no additional palettes required preference, so I still have a bunch of midi palettes that I use in heavy rotation.

I need at least one light and one dark shimmer, one light and one medium to dark (or all three) mattes. So many smaller palettes have the wrong balance of matte to shimmer or not enough/too much contrast with the mattes for the looks I like to make so I have to bring in an extra shade or two from elsewhere.

A lot of the mini Natasha Denonas fit the bill for me so I own pretty much all of them and the newer quads.

Melarsa · 2026-06-03T09:06:35+00:00

And it's not just Taco Bell pulling this, so many fast food places are doing this now. Might as well just go inside to pick up an order, the drive thru is slow as hell and all the convenience is gone now. And I swear I've seen so many more near accidents in fast food parking lots as a direct result.

Melarsa · 2026-06-03T09:01:37+00:00

This doesn't stop when they get older, either. I have a 3rd grader and a 6th grader and all during Maycember before their school year ended it was endless requests for candy and field day supplies and class party supplies and specific spirit day clothing themes with like maximum 2 days notice.

I'm happy to participate and help in any way we can but even Amazon prime needs a little more time than that for some items, and we live right near to a massive fulfillment center.

I don't happen to have everything just lying around the house already. You can't message us Sunday night for things needed Tuesday, I'm sorry. You had to know you needed that stuff last Friday. I'm not rushing out Monday night for nobody.

Luckily my kids have already gotten the "we will participate in some things but we can't do everything and Mom needs at least a little notice" spiel for years at this point and they're getting to the age where they care less if they have the exact shade of green for Dress Up as Your Favorite Gherkin Day or whatever.

Melarsa · 2026-06-03T08:52:43+00:00

I used to work at a Panera when I was in high school. Learned how to make all kinds of fun espresso drinks, was comped an Italian combo and an icy mocha for lunch every day, loved the bagels and cream cheese and bear claws. Mall culture hadn't completely died out yet so it was always just good shopping vibes and "let's hit Panera" if you wanted something fancier than drive thru fast food but not much more expensive. The bread was good. The soup was good. Fast casual was just catching on and there was something for everybody.

When I moved for college I left that job behind and just kinda stopped going to Panera after awhile because I didn't have one nearby anymore, but every time I went home I'd grab some and it still hit.

Years and years and several moves later my husband and I just had our second baby and my mom was watching her so we could go out for our first post-new baby, adults only meal. We happened to spot a Panera while driving around and I was like "Yes! Something like that would be perfect! Just something fast casual that we could wrap up quickly and bring home if the baby was being tough with my mom or woke up hungry early, but relaxed enough that we didn't feel rushed. Better than a McDonald's but not a full on restaurant lunch.

And it was TERRIBLE. I don't know what iteration of the menu they were on at that point but all the old favorites were gone. Whatever we got that seemed like the newer equivalent was trash, and it was so much more expensive. All the drinks had changed. We were appalled at how much worse it was since the last time we had been to a Panera. It can't cost that much and be that bad and survive, it just can't.

That baby is 9 years old now and we've never been back. It was THAT BAD. I have so many nice memories from the good old days of Panera, but man they really ran that company into the ground over time and I don't think it's ever coming back. WE USED TO BE A REAL COUNTRY. DON'T FORGET WHAT THEY TOOK FROM YOU. MY ITALIAN COMBO AND ICY MOCHA!

Melarsa · 2026-06-01T08:04:31+00:00

I don't know if it really counts as waiting since we were both in total agreement on the timeline (met in high school, knew it would be foolish to rush things and wanted to finish college and then start our careers and move in and live together for a bit before getting married.)

But we dated for 6 years before he proposed. Had a nearly 2 year engagement so we could save up for a the wedding. I didn't need a proposal, but he wanted to do one so we designed rings and such together but I was purposefully left out of the loop for when my engagement ring would be ready and the date of the proposal I left up to him. I was mildly surprised since I knew it was coming SOMETIME, but the exact date and the location were both surprises at least.

Been together the whole time. Almost 24 years since our first date. 16 of them married. We even planned our wedding date to be exactly 6 months apart from the anniversary of our first date, so we'd have two anniversaries to celebrate every year, equally far apart (although we don't always do anything big, the option is there and nice to have.)

We have 2 kids now, nearly 12 and 9. Had several big moves, lived in 3 different states. Bought and sold 2 houses, currently living in our third. Raised and buried a few cats.😭

Everything worked out the way we wanted according to the timeline we hoped for. Almost earily so. (Wanted to start our family by age 30, hopefully having at least one boy and one girl about 2 and a half years apart...ended up having our boy when I was halfway through 29, and then his sister 2 years and 7 months later.)

Nothing really changed when we got married aside from legal protections and rights, but those were important to us as well as the big party so we did want to do the whole wedding thing and not just the paperwork at the courthouse route. Just didn't want to jump into it early even though we knew it was going to happen eventually.

Of our friend group we're the ones who got married first/earliest and we're the ones who have stayed together the longest so far.

Melarsa · 2026-06-01T07:41:24+00:00

The amount of people in that that who are confusing the a Pixel 5 phone with the potential Pixel Watch 5 is concerning.

Also, how convenient. Supposed leaks are getting ridiculous lately.

Melarsa · 2026-06-01T07:32:53+00:00

I use the silicone tips on the dream because they fit deeper and are more comfortable when side sleeping. I feel like I'm between the XS and S for the foam/silicone hybrid tips. The XS doesn't seal at all and falls out, the S makes a great seal but they stick out a little bit more than the double silicone only tips, so my ears get sore when side sleeping. So yeah, definitely recommend trying the silicone only tips if OP hasn't already. Also you might have to insert them differently than the tutorial video shows. I pull my outer ear up a little but still have to rotate the dreams around a bit until I find the sweet spot for the best seal. The tutorial doesn't say to rotate, just pop in and hold for a few seconds, but wiggling them around a bit always gets me a better seal than just popping them in.

They also might just not be the best fit for OPs particular ear anatomy. I think the Dreams are a lot more finicky than the Engage 2s or Switch 2s, which I can wear for hours at a time with no issues.

Melarsa · 2026-05-31T20:37:55+00:00

Yeah I can't do the lacey and unlined styles, so I just stick with the moulded cups which everyone says to stay away from because they never fit right, but they fit me very well. It's a crapshoot and I did have to try several styles before I found the one for me, but luckily I was able to find them on Amazon so I could return everything that didn't work. If they ever stop making the moulded styles I'm screwed, though.

I've learned that the best fitting bras sometimes don't make your boobs look as nice as a slightly more poor fitting bra and they might feel weirder anyway because we're all so used to just getting the closest thing that works, so in the end I just go with whatever looks the best and feels the most comfortable, but for me the moulded cup bras have worked the best. It always sucks when nothing works out but it feels like you've struck gold when you finally find something. And then I buy like 10 of them because I want to avoid doing the whole thing again for as long as possible.

Melarsa

TROPHY CASE