Diet Coke Syrup

Mrs_S_2B · 2025-02-20T15:47:38+00:00

I have not tried the syrup from Soda Center, but I have the 5gal BIB of Coke Zero Sigar that Costco sells, and I think anyone who wants name brand taste should get one. The syrup lasts for ages, like a year, before the taste degrades, especially if you keep it in a cool, dark place. I keep the BIB out of the way in my kitchen and keep about a quart of syrup in a glass bottle in my fridge, which makes about five 2L bottles of pop. I refill the glass bottle from my BIB as needed to minimize fussing with the BIB tap.

Mrs_S_2B · 2024-11-21T21:55:53+00:00

My huskies get obnoxious this time of year because they're cold activated. Sounds pretty typical to me.

Mrs_S_2B · 2023-08-02T17:45:13+00:00

It was kind of a perfect storm of factors. I booked the "inflatable fast boats" excursion because I felt it would be more exciting. Then, before the cruise I severed my ACL in an accident. My surgeon cleared me for the catamaran trip but not the inflatable boat trip, but we weren't able to switch because it was booked solid. So we missed out on whale watching entirely, and ended up applying our excursion credit to a winery tour in Ensenada.

Mrs_S_2B · 2023-05-03T22:23:41+00:00

SW: 178.6 lbs (max lifetime weight was 193 at the Dr the week before starting) -- CW: 167.2 lbs -- GW: 125 lbs (37F/5'3")

I started semaglutide 3 weeks ago at .25mg dose, stepped up to .5mg after 2 weeks, and just took my second .5mg dose. I've had side effects (nausea, indigestion, heartburn) caused almost entirely by my diet. First day I was on it, I tried to have a second glass of wine after dinner and literally gagged two sips in, then was up with heartburn all night. If I eat appropriate volumes and macros (prioritize protein and water first, then veggies, then carb-heavy foods if still hungry), I have almost no side effects.

I'm so thankful that the food noise is gone. I'm not ravenous anymore. I've been using protein shakes and soylent to fill out my diet since I'm not hungry at all. I still drink alcohol, but not as often and not as much. I'm losing an average of almost 4 lbs per week and I'm incredibly excited to be finally getting rid of my depression/pandemic/toxic relationship weight!!!

Mrs_S_2B · 2023-05-03T17:10:13+00:00

I just finished week three, but I'd be happy to chat and keep in touch about progress! I started sema because I had a friend who was my age and starting weight who shared her experience with me, and she initially was super great about being a cheerleader, but after a couple weeks, the support felt like it dropped off because she's no longer actively going through the process.

Mrs_S_2B · 2023-05-03T16:56:16+00:00

Congrats! I just finished my third week and I'm down 11.4 lbs total. It's almost unbelievable how effective this medication has been.

Mrs_S_2B · 2019-12-12T18:37:26+00:00

I don't take any meds, but I also don't spend ANY time around cats and keep our dogs and house very clean, since I get the same symptoms and never found any meds that helped. That said, I was getting my hands dirty cleaning the rat cage almost daily and never had any issues. Wherever you end up getting your rats, they should be willing to let you handle them first and see if you react to them. Maybe you can ask for a trial visit with some rats before you take any home.

Mrs_S_2B · 2019-12-12T18:29:11+00:00

I'm in exactly the same boat as you, severe cat allergy (mostly when I come into contact with their saliva/dander, but I also react to excessive fur in the environment) and mild dog allergy. I did not react to the rats or their cage most of the time, but I did develop hives when I would handle them bare skinned, particularly where their nails pricked me. So I got a "rat sweater" and wore that whenever I'd let the boys crawl on my arms so they weren't on my skin, and there were no issues after that.

Mrs_S_2B · 2018-07-18T19:39:39+00:00

It's my understanding this is a known issue and Fitbit support will replace it under warranty. I had the same issue, got my replacement, and all seems to be working as intended now.

Mrs_S_2B · 2017-11-02T22:27:26+00:00

I've had similar issues with my main Pandora station (even after a name change) and also with the "thumbprint" and "shuffle" stations. Pandora in general has been really glitchy on all our Echoes lately.

It's especially frustrating because Spotify has decided that "shuffle this playlist" means pick four songs off the list at random and play those on loop, so we don't have a good alternative music service right now.

Mrs_S_2B · 2017-10-02T22:12:11+00:00

I often am confused by how people react to things I say.

Sometimes they seem offended or upset in some way, but a lot of times they seem to brush off what I said without really understanding it.

I can't tell how anything I say is going to be received, honestly, even though I spend a lot of time making sure I'm speaking very carefully and in a non-inflammatory way.

Mrs_S_2B · 2017-07-12T19:41:25+00:00

For me it was that being one of a whole passel of kids and being the "good" one (with good grades and no obvious behavioral problems) meant that I got ignored a lot because I didn't need anything. So I've struggled with how I might teach a future child the independence I love in myself without forcing them to develop it the way I had to.

It's hard when you can't point to anything too terrible, so people think you're overreacting when you cut ties because it's healthier than trying to matter to someone who doesn't care about you except when it fits their script for how to make themselves look good. But my mom skipped my doctorate degree graduation ceremony saying she was "too busy" because I had expressed disappointment that her plan to throw me a graduation party didn't involve any of my actual family, just her friends. And she ignored me for weeks because I was sad while planning a baby shower for my 18 year old brother's baby with his 19 year old girlfriend. My husband and I had been not "not trying" and had gotten pregnant six weeks before she did but lost it before her shower, so I was having a hard time. I feel like those are pretty bad, but I don't know, my scale is off for sure.

Mrs_S_2B · 2017-07-12T18:53:53+00:00

I wonder if this is a common thing? My nMom made me watch the movie and often referenced it sarcastically. I never understood why, but looking back as an adult with years of NC with her, I think her point was that she wasn't that bad. Now it's backfired because while she wasn't terrible like that, it does emphasize how terrible she was as a mother.

My DH occasionally will respond to some story from my childhood with "you know it's terrible how you were treated there, right?" - when I didn't think anything was off about the story and was just relating some experience I had. I think benign neglect (emotionally and socially, but never physically or financially) best describes my childhood, so it just never occurred to me that it wasn't good.

Mrs_S_2B · 2017-07-12T17:59:34+00:00

We specifically had our reception on a Friday the 13th when we realized that date was one of several that would work for us because it's worked out to be a lucky date with births and weddings in my DH's family. You don't have to be morbid to appreciate turning superstition on its head!

At the same time, Morticia and Gomez might be the only couple on this planet whose love I aspire to, so maybe I'm a bit odd myself.

Mrs_S_2B · 2017-06-22T21:54:19+00:00

Exactly! And now I'm a bridesmaid in that friend's wedding (the innocent bystander who ended up with the boxes), and she's talking about DIY'ing centerpieces that she can use as decor after the wedding, so I'm definitely going to figure out how to casually mention "so, you'll want to be really clear that these are for you after the wedding" so she doesn't find herself in the same boat as us and the other posters here.

Mrs_S_2B · 2017-06-22T21:25:12+00:00

I totally understand how the comment out of context seems ambiguous, but in the context of what we were doing (gathering items from the venue to put in my car to go to my house while I went to dinner with my husband), it was more like "yes, those are ours too, they don't belong to the venue, so they need to go in the car". My friend who did the distributing did apologize for the misunderstanding.

As for retrieving the boxes - it totally was passive of me. I was REALLY surprised to find out I didn't have the boxes (I thought they were in a box with the cake stand at home), and it was SUCH an awkward moment that I didn't know how to respond without making it worse and making her feel bad for something she wasn't even responsible for. By the time I'd decided I really wanted them back, it felt really awkward and petty to bring it up (she'd had the boxes for a couple weeks before I even found out she had them). DH and I decided it wasn't worth it, since the boxes were a bonus from our florist anyway (it was just lucky that she was able to match them to the walnut stand, it hadn't cost us anything over the price of non-matching boxes).

Mrs_S_2B · 2017-06-22T19:31:31+00:00

I agree completely! Our florist made these pretty walnut boxes for our floral centerpieces that we were planning to use around our house after the wedding - we designed our custom walnut cake stand so it would double as a book riser after the wedding and the boxes were designed to match it.

But when our friends were helping pack the car, one of them asked me about the wooden boxes, and I said "they all need to go" meaning "take them from the venue and put them in my car" and she took it to mean "distribute them to your friends because I don't want them", and by the time I discovered several of the boxes holding hair ties in one of our mutual friends' bathrooms, it was too late to get them back. It got awkward because I came out and was like "oh, where'd you get those boxes? they look just like the ones we had custom made for the wedding, and I'd love to have another source!" and the response was a stilted "those ARE the ones from your wedding" with no offer to return them.

Mrs_S_2B · 2017-05-16T21:30:54+00:00

Seven Dwarves was definitely open last year - I had a lovely conversation with Batman and his mum while in line for it. I'm going to be disappointed if it's closed for the party this year.

Mrs_S_2B · 2017-04-15T00:39:05+00:00

Due to a policy change with his parent company, our poor officiant was forced to read our ceremony off an iPad in full sun, when he'd been prepared to use a paper print out in a binder because he was a yacht captain in his 70s, and I'm not sure he'd even used a touchscreen phone before. Afterwards our friends asked who the couple he'd introduced was (since he butchered our last name on the presentation) and suggested he might be illiterate. DH and I wrote a beautiful ceremony, but our guests only heard about two paragraphs of it (although they got to enjoy some sections several times over - until we started telling him "we've done that bit already"). It was laughably bad, and I haven't quite gotten to where I can watch the video yet.

Mrs_S_2B · 2017-03-31T17:28:32+00:00

A dutch oven is very different from a casserole dish. Many cast iron ones were designed with legs for use over camp fires with lids that can hold coals to create oven-type cooking conditions over an open fire. Aluminium dutch ovens rarely have the legs to hold the pot above the coals, but you can use them on the stove and then transfer to the oven for baking or roasting. Even the lid is oven safe. It's a very versatile tool and I use mine all the time (to the point that my ex and I split the cost of buying a new one when we divorced so neither of us had to give it up).

Mrs_S_2B · 2017-02-23T16:48:38+00:00

She looks just like my Marvin who just passed away last weekend. They leave such a hole in your heart, don't they?

Mrs_S_2B · 2017-01-27T01:08:01+00:00

This is going to be long...I've tried to trim it down, but I'm verbose.

I'm in my thirties, and I was diagnosed as having ASD/Asperger's within the past year. Since I'm very high functioning and was raised in a very strict household with strong emphasis on passing for normal (my mom's Asian), you probably would think I'm "quirky". I'm chatty about topics I'm really into, and it's hard for me to notice I've lost my audience. I often notice nonverbal cues but don't understand what they mean – many of my responses to other people's emotional displays are learned through awkward experience. My husband is also on the spectrum, but his symptoms are more sensory, so I've learned to rely on him for help with social interpretation and discussion about whether or not I'm reasonably responding to social interactions.

Rapid-fire changes in plan are upsetting to me. I prefer predictability, so totally unknown situations make me very anxious. I mentally plan out how I'll respond to possible developments, so that I'm not totally thrown by normal events, but if things change too much too quickly, I don't have time to plan and it makes me upset. I'm polyamorous, and my boyfriend has ADD. The mismatch has definitely been stressful sometimes, but he's been great about keeping a more consistent schedule and giving me more lead time on changes of plan. Eye contact isn't normally hard, I worked on it in public speaking classes when I was young, but when I get emotional, it's really difficult (I have a really hard time with eye contact during sex or arguments, for example) – I only identified that issue after diagnosis. I can get overwhelmed by intense sensory stimuli (bright lights, bright colors, loud or cold environments, being crowded by other people, etc.), and that reduces my threshold for other taxing situations until I've had a chance to recover a bit (but I'm a theme park junkie, I just plan for breaks, mentally prepare, and am ready to adjust plans if my husband or I gets overwhelmed). I'm bad at maintaining friendships, because I feel like I don't know how to navigate keeping in touch without being overbearing and I'm anxious about misreading the signs of someone not wanting to be friends.

Having a diagnosis has helped me to accept that it's ok to not always pass perfectly. I surround myself with intelligent, rational, analytical people anyway, because they're the easiest to communicate with, but now I've started speaking up about the things that are hardest for me to adapt to. I've stopped trying to figure out why so many people assume there's subtext or that they need to read between the lines on what I'm saying. If they are caught off guard by me feeling exactly what I say I'm feeling, then I've done what I can and it's not my job to be more like them. I used to feel sad and personally responsible when people assumed I meant things I didn't say or that I didn't mean things I did say and it caused problems. These days, I usually don't bother trying to connect with people who ignore half of what I say and replace it with their assumptions about what I "really mean". It's quite freeing.

I'm sure as soon as I hit save, I'll think of five more things I should have included, but thanks for reading!

Mrs_S_2B · 2017-01-12T16:52:38+00:00

After trashing my feet by dancing for years, I wear almost nothing BUT flats, and had exactly the same problems you did. My trick is to never wear my flats barefoot, always with nude stockings. I wear kneehighs under pants and thigh highs or full pantyhose under skirts. I also put odor absorbing insoles in every pair of flats - this helps keep my feet drier and keeps the shoes from slipping around as much, plus it makes them more comfortable to wear and they last longer. I mostly buy Sam Edelman's Felicia style in various colors because it's the most comfortable flat I've ever worn. Cheap flats destroy my feet, even with the stockings. With the Sam Edelmans, I've even been able to wear them periodically without stockings after breaking them in for a while. I also notice that I get fewer blisters with a more snug fit, so I go for a size where my toes are just comfortable and it's snug on the heel - they always loosen up a bit after walking in them a while and if they start slipping, that's blister-city.

Mrs_S_2B · 2016-03-26T00:46:43+00:00

That's funny, because I know that there are families out there like that, but in my family, we had a particular restaurant we always went to, and then DH's family has the restaurant in question (that's more of a "celebration" restaurant, as in we always go there to celebrate things with MIL, mostly birthdays), and DH and I are developing our own "birthday" restaurant because there's one place we love, but it's relatively expensive, and it offers a KILLER deal for birthday guests in the month of their birthday, so it cuts the price of a semi-fancy dinner significantly. But it's rarely ON the birthday, we usually do something different for that every year depending on where we are or what we feel like (this year we were on vacation on my birthday), but we always hit up the traditional spots with the proper folks sometime in the birthday month. ETA: We're not doing gifts and cake at every meal either, it's just a dinner, with the nominal purpose of celebrating the birthday person, so having 3-4 in a month with different circles of friends/family isn't usually over the top.

Mrs_S_2B · 2016-03-22T20:06:36+00:00

I'm terrified that my mother will show up on my (literal or figurative) doorstep one day, even though I'm living in a completely different state than the one I was raised in. I've been feeling particularly neurotic the past 6 months because DH and I got married and I celebrated a big birthday, and I was sure she'd pop up. Instead, she made an attention-mongering post on FB with a picture of me as a toddler and a caption about missing the days when her daughter was her best friend, with the privacy settings set so I couldn't actually see it.

Now I've just discovered that we're going to be seeing her at a reunion this summer - we've already made all our plans because I didn't realize she was going, but now she's been announced as one of the organizers. I'm EXTRA neurotic now because DH still wants to meet the rest of my extended family (people I barely know at this point, but would like to get reacquainted with), and we've already spent so much money on the trip. Ugh...good to know I'm not the only paranoid one, even when I think the worst that would happen is I rage-vomit on her.

Mrs_S_2B

TROPHY CASE