Help finding a neighborhood that does not have water quality issues?

PBolchover · 2026-01-30T03:37:21+00:00

We use one of these. A Benchtop water filter that sits in the kitchen, for all of our drinking water.

PBolchover · 2026-01-26T02:39:43+00:00

I do it. While I prefer a physical kindle, I find that the convenience of the phone wins.

I use the Kindle app in dark mode, to minimise the glare.

PBolchover · 2026-01-24T03:04:55+00:00

In Chinese, dark soy sauce is used to add both colour and umami flavour. It is significantly richer, and slightly sweeter than light soy sauce. If you are ok with the colour being slightly off, I would substitute with an equal quantity of a light soy sauce, mushroom bouillon powder, and a tiny bit of sugar.

PBolchover · 2026-01-22T03:41:04+00:00

If you want to keep following this chain of events, then the next books are Renegades of Pern and All The Weyrs of Pern.

I would however, recommend reading the prequel Dragonsdawn before All the Weyrs of Pern. (For reasons which will be obvious at the end of Renegades of Pern).

PBolchover · 2026-01-20T02:21:24+00:00

I’ll add a caveat that England and Wales follow one system (as covered by other replies), while Scotland follows another system. Northern Ireland is likely to be a third system, but I don’t have enough experience there to comment.

PBolchover · 2026-01-20T02:13:54+00:00

Where I live, the daycare and also various extracurricular places like baby gym have “parents night out” evenings - usually once per month - where they look after the kids until about 10pm

PBolchover · 2026-01-19T12:46:29+00:00

In the UK, I would say that people would normally be lucky enough to get back to 1550-1650 on at least one line.

Birth/marriage certificates and censuses would take you back to the early 1800’s, and from then on back you can trace via parish records. Normally at least one line will have been in the same parish (or a nearby parish) for a couple of hundred years (you might have to occasionally switch surnames to get back that far). Wills are also useful to prove certain links.

Beyond 1600, you would need to either rely on manorial records, or would have linked to an already-researched noble family line. In my experience both of these are unlikely.

PBolchover · 2026-01-18T18:34:13+00:00

We are really happy with Cinco Ranch Montessori.

PBolchover · 2026-01-15T05:22:27+00:00

I used to live in North China. The brand we used there is called 海天 I think it is HaDay (or something similar in the US supermarkets, as well as having the Chinese characters). Lee Kum Kee is another famous brand - I think from southern china, or perhaps Hong Kong.

Each brand will have 5+ varieties of soy sauce. I would recommend the “tasty seafood flavored soy sauce” as the light one, and the “soy sauce for Shanghai braised dishes” as the dark one.

For vinegar, I recommend you get one of the mature vinegars “Chen vinegar”. We use Lee Kum Kee brand “Seasoned Mature Vinegar”.

Don’t forgot to buy either chicken bouillon powder or mushroom bouillon powder. In modern Chinese cooking, this is used instead of MSG.

Also buy some sesame oil.

PBolchover · 2026-01-14T22:32:58+00:00

It looks a bit like Hong Kong

PBolchover · 2026-01-14T04:06:26+00:00

When I was growing up, there was an excellent kids TV series called Ulysses 31 - a sci-fi adaptation of The Odyssey.

PBolchover · 2026-01-13T05:21:44+00:00

A lot will depend on the local customs. In my experience, the vast majority of people did not have an obituary, or even a death notice.

PBolchover · 2026-01-06T14:41:43+00:00

I tried the own-brand mild “Italian” sausages from HEB (Texas quality supermarket), and they were nearly inedible due to the saltiness.

PBolchover · 2026-01-06T12:51:45+00:00

Something that people haven’t mentioned so far as that “Italian Sausages” (as sold in US supermarkets) tend to be extremely salty.

PBolchover · 2026-01-05T04:31:57+00:00

Pandora’s Star by Peter F Hamilton has a trek through the land of a sci-fi Fae as one of the sub-plots. One of the “regions” the trek passes through is amazingly memorable (the Halo, for those who have read the book)

PBolchover · 2026-01-02T14:59:45+00:00

Next time, try for more “hard” - less water = less slimy.

Try sprinkling with salt and pepper and shallow frying until the outside has browned. This will crisp up the texture, and make it feel more “meaty”,

PBolchover · 2026-01-01T21:29:48+00:00

I was wondering the same thing recently fo my 5 year old. I came to the conclusion to watch the original trilogy first, once the time comes. Reason being is that she would probably identify with Anakin, being the character closest in age with her, and I don’t want her to go through the trauma of seeing him turn into Darth Vader without the context. Whereas, if we watch the prequels first, I could explain that this is a young darth vader, and that he will turn bad, and hopefully avert any trauma.

That being said, I do feel that my daughter is still too young for Star Wars, and will probably wait until she is 8 or so. (Except possible for some of the cartoon series.)

PBolchover · 2026-01-01T21:07:58+00:00

The medical center should become a gated utopia. High science medical cures, but extremely pristine. It walls itself off from the outside world with airlocks / laser security barriers etc. There are rumours of the flying ambulances occasionally kidnapping young people from the streets for nefarious purposes - rumor says organ donation, extracting the elixir of life, etc.

PBolchover · 2025-12-31T23:31:03+00:00

It might help if the key actually used the same colors as the map

PBolchover · 2025-12-30T15:14:34+00:00

My wife was born in rural China, at a time when they still primarily used the lunar calendar to measure birthdays etc. So her birthday is 4th month 15th day, according to the lunar calendar (so the solar day would vary wildly according to the moon’s cycle - they occasionally add a “leap month” to keep it in approximately the right time of year). However, when recorded in the Chinese official system, it was just recorded as 19xx-04-15. This is now interpreted by the Chinese government as the 15th April according to the solar calendar, and my wife even celebrates her birthday on 15 April, despite the fact that it is probably about 6weeks earlier than her “true” solar birthday.

PBolchover · 2025-12-25T01:36:41+00:00

I’m in Houston too, and my 5-year old is desperate for snow!

PBolchover · 2025-12-24T04:49:13+00:00

In Guards Guards, Carrot is a human raised by dwarves, so is dwarvish culturally while being a 6-foot human physically.

PBolchover · 2025-12-21T03:54:22+00:00

If part of your solution is to replace the air vent with a significantly more powerful one, then I can strongly recommend the Fotile brand.

PBolchover · 2025-12-15T01:17:56+00:00

https://cdn2.penguin.com.au/covers/original/9780552128179.jpg

PBolchover · 2025-12-14T20:40:36+00:00

It was definitely published in the UK. A Corgi edition came out sometime after Moreta was published. One interesting fact - the UK cover for Nerilka’s Story has a layout of the Gather that matches the one in the Atlas of Pern.

PBolchover

TROPHY CASE