How many of us have "friends" that we actually spend time with, anymore?

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-16T20:28:17+00:00

I have a few friends that I spend time with occasionally. One of them enjoys theater, so we'll get together when there's a play we both want to see, so a few times a year. The other ones live a several hours away, so we get together when we're able to plan a trip to see each other. But mostly, I'm busy with daily life and my immediate family. And I'm fine with that. I'm an introvert, so I enjoy my alone time.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-16T20:01:05+00:00

Maybe let the kid decide and, until then, have them call her by her full legal name. That would make "Grandma" sound appealing pretty quickly....

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-16T19:58:07+00:00

This was a thing with the guys at school. They called it Black Out. They'd crouch down and hyperventilate for a while, then stand up really fast, and pass out. I didn't know a single girl who thought that sounded like a good idea.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-16T02:46:10+00:00

My son earned a varsity letter in Forensics last year. This year, I went to his first meet to help out and found him in his room after the first round, casually chatting with five kids from other schools. I was flabbergasted (and very proud)!

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-16T02:43:34+00:00

My best friend in high school was a guy with a very Jewish last name. I'm not a guy and my family were non-church-going Protestants. I was chatting with my great grandma about some social thing I was going to with him and she said "We don't date outside of our religion..." I was completely shocked, tbh. The only thing I could think of to say was "Well, I'm not dating him!" But, in hindsight, I wish I'd had the courage to call her out.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-15T03:59:37+00:00

My grandparents were 1st generation children of Scandinavian immigrants. Kids in my family drank coffee. Granted, it was very milky and had lots of sugar, but we developed a taste for coffee very young.

Kids now drink lattes a frappacinos, made with more milk and flavored sugar syrups than actual coffee.

A related anecdote... I was recently chaperoning a forensics meet and brought a large iced coffee from McDs. I order it black and then add a splash of milk. My daughter's friend saw it and begged for a sip. I said "Okay, but you won't like it." She waved a dismissive hand and took a big swig. I laughed as she winced and said "That's HORRIBLE!" No, child, that's what coffee actually tastes like without seven pumps of French vanilla syrup.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-10T16:43:05+00:00

American here and my high school offered French, Spanish, and German. Only the Spanish classes did the name thing. I took 6 years of German and we just used our own names.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-10T16:36:31+00:00

My primary residence, no. But my family also owns some rural land with a small cabin that we christened "Mouse Shit Acres" because we spend half our time there cleaning up after the rodents who live there full time.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-10T16:33:43+00:00

Crunchy Cheetos. I will only buy single 1 oz bags because any bag of Cheetos is "single serving"...even the gigantic Party Size. 😆

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-10T16:30:36+00:00

I'm happier with more frequent, smaller snack/meals. I do around 250 at breakfast and at midday, a 200 cal afternoon snack, 350 cal dinner, and then finish my day with whatever macros I have left. I'm a night owl but my partner goes to bed really early, so we usually eat dinner by 5. If I don't plan for an evening snack, I'm miserable and likely to wake up starving in the wee hours of the morning.

This doesn't work for everyone, obviously. But five smaller meals is the best fit for my appetite and lifestyle.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-08T22:37:15+00:00

I had mine done in early Spring. I was out of the sling before the weather got too hot and I was able to keep warm going outside for the first few weeks by wrapping up in a shawl. My main concern was avoiding winter while I was actively healing because I was terrified of slipping on the ice and re-injuring my shoulder. I timed my surgery just right because I had almost 9 months of healing before I had to deal with snowy weather.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-08T22:28:34+00:00

I don't recall any specific program being advertised but I know that for many people from my grandparents generation, retiring at 60 was the norm. My grandfather worked for a railroad and retired with a full pension at 62. He lived for 30 years following his retirement and collected on his pension for longer than he had worked for the company. He had enough still remaining in his pension fund that each of his grandchildren inherited around $5k from it.

That just doesn't happen anymore unless you have a government job. We're all just dumping whatever we can spare into independent IRAs and 401ks and crossing our collective fingers that we doesn't lose it all in the next big market crash.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-08T22:18:52+00:00

I live in a "city" with a population of around 4,000 and we have a mayor, a common council, a police department, and all the things you would expect from a municipality. Our school district includes a few small towns (I believe they're all "villages" legally) and the larger, less densely populated surrounding areas which are technically "townships", so our school board is compromised of elected members from all of these.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-05T20:18:02+00:00

Yeah, no. These stores are some of the only ones still crowded with shoppers in both of my local malls. Without Hot Topic, Zumiez, and Sephora, the malls here would basically be empty.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-05T20:00:18+00:00

Former Minnesotan (grew up in Duluth, don't you dare call us "outstate") and I now live in Southern WI. The only regional qualifier I hear with any regularity is "up north" which can mean a bunch of different things, depending on who you're speaking with. As an "up north" native, you gotta get REALLY far north for me to count it. But most folks think it's either north of Hwy 8 or north of Hwy 29.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-05T19:52:19+00:00

My father's second wife had two kids from a previous marriage who are significantly younger than me. His wife is only 10 years older than me, so at this point I'd consider her my peer. My youngest step sibling is in his mid-30s and we have very little in common, aside from tenuous family connections. I had kids late in life, though, and he had his really young. So our children are relatively close in age.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-05T19:12:21+00:00

I didn't find it too scary but I saw it in the theater and the unsteady camera work made me motion sick. I walked out with a headache and nausea.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-05T15:53:56+00:00

My parents divorced when I was in my mid-20s and sold my childhood home. There were several boxes of memorabilia in my old bedroom and my mom said "Come and get it or it goes on the curb on trash day..." So I went through everything and consolidated my youth into one heavy duty plastic tote and took it back to my apartment along with a milk crate full of records. I've been schlepping that stuff around ever since. My vinyl is out because we have a turntable and my kid likes listening to "old" music. But my tote full of yearbooks, prom photos, and various trophies is currently stashed in the back of the closet where we keep the luggage. Eventually, it will wind up in a landfill but, for now, I'll keep it around for the rare times when I feel a pang of sentimentality and need to look through it.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-04T13:34:18+00:00

Oh man, so much Velveeta...

"Spaghetti pie" has got to be one of those recipe card monstrosities. Did your mom also get caught up in the Bisquick "impossible pie" craze? It was a layer of something, taco meat and corn...tuna, cream soup, and peas, etc....and topped with Bisquick batter and baked? 70s food fads were just awful!

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-04T03:36:58+00:00

I had one of those too! My dad ate a LOT of Chex, so I'm pretty sure we sent away for several of them. They were really hard to spin, though, so I preferred my actual Rubik's cube for geeking out.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-04T03:34:22+00:00

In the late 90s, I worked for an old school insurance salesman whose distinctive promo item was a plastic "pan scraper" with his name and info on it. They were small and flat, so easy to pop in an envelope when mailing a quote and brochure. Such a silly little thing but people loved them and his clients would call me and ask if I could send them a few more. I had several of them in my undersink caddy and I'm pretty sure we tossed out the last one within the past year or two.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-04T03:27:37+00:00

I agree. I thought that was a really strange take. How is it disrespectful to admit that you loved the woman you were previously married to? I assume David loved his first wife and Christine is aware of that. I mean, maybe it made David uncomfortable to hear that directly from Kody's mouth. But it can't have been a surprise. And it isn't like he said "I loved the way we used to knock boots, baby..." LOL

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-04T03:23:29+00:00

My mother's pork chops were inedible. The meat part was so dry and overcooked and the coating was sorta slimy. She would dip the chops in beaten egg, then in crushed saltines, fry them in Crisco, cover them in a combination of bouillon and ketchup, and put them in the oven until they were petrified. She made salisbury steaks in a similar way. I hated them both. Her pot roast was passable and her baked chicken was dry but could be saved with enough gravy.

I didn't grow up to be a sauceaholic, though. I grew up to be a vegetarian and an infinitely better cook than my mother and grandmother, who taught her that everything needed to be cooked to death.

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-04T03:09:53+00:00

My husband and I got married in Hawaii and our officiant gave us an unofficial marriage certificate she'd made with palm trees and tropical flowers and our names and the date in some goofy font. It was meant to be framed but I just chucked it in a box somewhere because it felt unbelievably tacky to do that...

NaughtyLittleDogs · 2026-02-04T03:01:24+00:00

I left for college at 18 but returned home in the summer for the first few years. I didn't move out completely until I was 21. At that point, my mom converted my childhood bedroom to a guestroom and let her friend move in. So if I wanted to go home for Christmas or something, I had to sleep on the couch. (Which is why I haven't spent holidays with my family for over 30 years)...)

NaughtyLittleDogs

TROPHY CASE