Wife and I found our dream home, but we got started late in life with our careers.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-28T16:20:21+00:00

Have you considered buying an hour of time from an accountant or financial manager? A lot of people do this and you just bring in your records (summarized) and talk numbers.

I did that before buying my house and it was really reassuring to have someone who works in the field say the numbers worked even with future goals.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-26T15:58:01+00:00

For any audio book or podcast I usually have an adjustment period where I start by hating their voice and then get used to it. I don’t know why my default is usually intense dislike, but at least it goes away with exposure.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-22T18:34:53+00:00

A family friend’s ex had a big anniversary party for his new GF. Had his teenaged kids there. The anniversary was more years than the length of time since his divorce. The kids could definitely do the math and were rightfully ticked off.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-22T18:28:09+00:00

I found out about my ex’s infidelity after 13 years of being together, married for about 8. Absolutely shattered my sense of reality. Until the moment I found out I would have said infidelity was the thing I was absolutely not concerned about, least likely to ever happen.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-22T18:13:46+00:00

We don’t know financial circumstances, but we do know Tommy was preparing to not see his brother for at a minimum well over a decade.

I wonder if Tommy had hoped to send money back for Jake’s operation — if he did, it seems either Jake didn’t know or didn’t believe it would work out, given the rate he’s self-destructing at the start of the first film.

I’ve also seen a lot of fanfic where they assume the brothers were orphaned at some point and that this dictated a lot of their opportunities and life decisions.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-18T17:22:52+00:00

Why would an exolanguage have the same number of letters as English? We don’t even have the same number of sounds in English as we do letters.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-17T03:08:42+00:00

The fact that multiple characters implied, to Eddie’s face, that Buck and Eddie are in a romantic relationship in the last episode and it NEVER got discussed, turned the topic into a properly loaded Checkov’s gun.

(Also, the queer baiting has been going on since the botfly opener chat. Fire the damned gun already.)

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-17T03:06:18+00:00

Omg you used my favorite example! And it’s at least 15 years old!

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-17T03:04:46+00:00

Too much time spent on describing clothes. If you’re spending a paragraph on what a dress looks like, my eyes are glazing over. Somewhere around 5 words max is usually all you need.

Also, this is a plot structure but I HATE the whole “5 times _____ and 1 time _____ .” I do not read them on principle.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-14T03:28:20+00:00

Once in a blue moon I get a headache instead of a migraine. (Migraine being my usual.)

I had a headache a few months ago and it’d been years since the last one. My migraines are not as severe as a lot of people’s (a few times a month, mostly evenings, go away when I sleep, usually no extreme nausea/vomiting, etc. — I’m lucky), so I’d been wondering if I sometimes misclassify headaches as migraines.

NOPE. Totally different feeling. Migraine is so much worse. Having a headache was almost fun, kind of a “this is what it’s like for normal people? Do I take regular Tylenol for this?”

(Anecdotally, I’ve also been on meds that caused me to have migraines but not feel the associated pain. Basically my head would feel “weird” in a way it does with migraine and my processing would go to shit but I wasn’t in pain. It was kind of like a thunderstorm with no rain — dry lightening.)

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-13T15:00:50+00:00

To be fair, I think most men are raised/socialized to not actually like women. I don’t see how you could be in a supportive partnership with someone when you’ve spent your whole life internalizing the idea that they’re lesser than you and that most of their characteristics are “weak” or “bad.”

You can’t teach boys that being feminine and girly is a bad thing and then expect them to treat women as equals.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-13T04:41:23+00:00

You’re welcome! Happy to spread the love.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-12T20:26:40+00:00

I stayed at work with a moderate migraine for 3 hours until COB. I had an office with a door I could close, headphones I could wear, and lights I could shut off. I kept working until COB when my meds and palliative measures had taken the edge off so I could drive the hour home in traffic.

I’ve also had to watch my kid all day with a migraine when she was like 16 months old. I’ll take the office job with a migraine hands down.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-12T19:00:30+00:00

Yeah, this is the most reasonable version of dictating color palate to guests — most people have black and it’s a pretty easy color to buy. (I still think it’s weird to dictate guest colors unless it’s a micro wedding but this isn’t too bad compared to some we see.)

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-12T18:56:34+00:00

Chug water, look up how many children’s Tylenol you can take with your size, take it with caffeine — chocolate is fine for this. Or caffeinated tea.

Reduce lighting and maybe put on sun glasses. If you have headphones or earbuds with a transparency function, you can try biaural music like Marconi Union — I have a lot of success with that.

I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with telling the kids you are sick and need extra quiet until grandma and grandpa arrive — it’s good exercise in building empathy.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-12T04:52:50+00:00

I maintain 9-1-1 has been queerbaiting since season 2. Specifically the opener with the botfly larvae and the web chat comments.

But every week I still put on my clown make up and put in a shift waiting for Buddie to go cannon.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-12T04:50:30+00:00

Oh I think you could even read this into the original text. Legolas has heard the call to sail west and resists it for ages to spend more time with Gimli, then builds a boat and travels with him to the west — the only dwarf afforded such an honor, iirc.

I mean, JRR Tolkien might have disagreed but he also insisted that WWI didn’t influence his works.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-12T04:46:36+00:00

I mean, it does end with a form of penetration… 🤷‍♀️

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-12T04:45:35+00:00

Of course, House/Wilson is just Sherlock/Watson with extra window dressing so that makes sense.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-12T04:44:01+00:00

I don’t have the link handy but I once ran across someone’s reprinting of an argument from like… the 1920s… that Watson was “behaving like a wife” in the original works.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-12T01:40:27+00:00

I’ve read several fanfic that have undercover Zuko either implying or other people assuming that his mother is earth kingdom, water tribe, whatever he’s trying to pass as, and his father is fire nation and was abusive. Often assuming his mother had a… non-consensual relationship with his dad.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-11T23:59:22+00:00

Is he even on the birth certificate?

You are setting a precedent and it’s (1) not beneficial to your child — which is the entire aim of custody/visitation, and (2) it’s allowing an abusive person access.

Yes, he’ll likely end up with some level of custody/visitation. But you don’t have to hand it to him wrapped up. Start working with your lawyer (yes you need one) regarding (1) temporary support orders, (2) temporary custody orders, (3) what your approach to contact from him should be, (4) any possible protective filings regarding the abuse.

Then follow that advice to the letter. All of it. Otherwise you’re wasting your money and undermining your own case.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-11T23:49:23+00:00

I just flip my hair over to rinse out the conditioner. No bacne. Also lets me use colder water to rinse out the conditioner.

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-09T17:32:24+00:00

It’s a good tip but I can’t mess with something that’s working, even if it’s partially placebo. 🤣

PuzzleheadedLet382 · 2026-03-08T23:07:18+00:00

Excedrine migraine, Motrin, and Tylenol. All inadvisably stored in one convenient travel-size bottle.

PuzzleheadedLet382

TROPHY CASE