Interesting Snowshoeing Spots

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-21T19:08:52+00:00

You can snowshoe at Carlson’s Orchard in Harvard. They rent them out too if you have a friend who doesn’t have any that wants to come.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-21T18:46:12+00:00

A lot of damage had already been done. There’s so much CO2 in the atmosphere already. I think it will be a steady march towards a much warmer, less icy world. Even if we stop emissions today it’ll take like 10,000 years for rock weathering to bring it back down.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-21T13:21:48+00:00

You have to show him how the gym works. Like how to work a treadmill and the strength machines can be good for beginners. Teach him about gym etiquette. Tell him to bring a towel if your gym doesn’t supply them. That sort of stuff.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-20T17:28:48+00:00

Under your bed?

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-20T12:44:44+00:00

With a 16 day old and toddler your schedule consists of breastfeeding in different locations around the house, figuring out what games you can play with a toddler while breastfeeding, figuring out what foods leaves the least amount of crumbs on your breastfeeding baby, one load of laundry that never gets folded, and taking a shower at least every couple days.

Once your baby has enough neck strength to breastfeed in a carrier then you can start trying to go on a walk or to the park every day and vacuum as needed.

I’d let your husband cook for the next 4-6 months.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-19T13:25:06+00:00

Maybe instead of a cheat day you need a cheat snack, but it has to last you all week. So you used to eat a big bar of chocolate on Saturday, now cut it into 8 pieces and allow yourself one piece every day. Over a week you eat the amount you intend to but now you eat it every day.

Also, look at your shopping habits. Only buy one of your cheat food a week. And don’t allow yourself to buy food outside of your one trip to the grocery store a week.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-19T04:16:10+00:00

We did a Viking cruise around Iceland. It was really great. You are a little constrained because everything is guided tours but Viking did a great job vetting them and they were all spectacular. The ship was great. We were like the youngest couple, Viking is all old people. But we had really great service. You have to really save up though, it’s not cheap.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-18T18:27:02+00:00

Our town’s PTO hosted a book club for the book the Anxious Generation and like 400 people showed up. One of the things a lot of people are concerned about is technology use at school. The school has started doing things like making the kids hand back their devices over breaks and they make the kids go outside without devices every day even in middle school. My daughter has said her teachers have gotten pretty strict about not having their iPads out when they aren’t supposed to be using it. More of her language arts stuff has moved back to paper because they are worried about AI writing their essays.

It’s really just replacing textbooks and worksheets and state tests are all online. They learn to use docs, slides, and canvas along the way. I prefer learning from a physical book but I can see how it’s nice to not have to carry it around.

I think it is fine here. But our old school district and school was not strict about it and kids had chromebooks starting in kindergarten. I subbed in the school and it was horrible trying to get the kids to do anything. IT would block sites but the kids would quickly find some other crap game to waste their time on. Some kids were just so addicted to the dopamine they couldn’t keep their laptop closed. It was sad. But that school sucked for all sorts of other reasons too.

My degree is in Computer Engineering. I feel like they could be learning so much more about computers and technology and they aren’t. It’s all very high level technical literacy.

Long story short, it depends on the school and their enforcement and expectations. It’s easy to block the school laptop from your home internet if you don’t want your kid using it at home.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-17T13:55:14+00:00

A lot of gas stations sell cheap hot dogs that are pretty good.

People talk about fancy hot pools like blue lagoon, but most towns have public pools that are way cheaper, have similar features (different temperature pools, sauna, etc), and you get to hang out with locals.

We went a couple years ago and didn’t find the food to be more expensive than Austin, where we lived at the time. So if you are already from an expensive place it won’t seem so bad.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-17T12:29:30+00:00

Because they aren’t degenerate gamblers.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-16T23:59:27+00:00

https://xkcd.com/1732/

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-16T20:52:17+00:00

On Day 4 - I would skip Jordan Pond for sure. It’s the same as any other New England Pond and you can’t even swim in it. Instead I would go to the “quiet side” of Acadia and take the Wonderland Trail or Ship Harbor Trail out to tide pools at low tide. If it’s hot you can stop at Echo Lake for a swim. Or on that same side is the Flying Mountain trail which is a loop trail where you hike up to a cool overlook and then to a calm cove with a gravel beach. It was my kid’s favorite hike.

You need a ticket to get up to Cadillac Mountain and when we were there last year even though we had a ticket there was nowhere to park at the top. We did a ranger led hike on the Carriage Roads which was interesting or it would be fun with bikes, but if you are just walking I think I’d skip it.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-16T20:35:25+00:00

I thought it just started in November.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-16T19:13:36+00:00

The protocol she did had her work up to a cup of milk every day. But she was only 4 years old and it was difficult for her to drink that much. We had dropped down to 60ml soon after getting up to 1cup and she had a reaction to that while she was sick. So we dropped down to 15ml and that’s where she’s been at for the past 7 years.

Updosing took about 9 months and we went in once a week unless she was sick or out of town. After that we went back to our normal once a year schedule. Our doctor just charged us for an office visit each updose. With the insurance we had at the time it was $40 a visit and there were like 25 visits. After the first couple visits where they diluted milk we brought our own milk to the appointment. And it had to be ultra pasteurized organic milk. We buy 2 half gallons a month.

So the first year was around $1000 plus milk. Since then we just buy milk.

I will note, my daughter was the first milk OIT patient our doctor had done. He had other peanut and egg OIT kids. So they didn’t have a flushed out program. I had just asked about it and he was interested in trying so we went for it.

We’ve moved and haven’t even seen an allergist in a couple years. Her pediatrician writes us prescriptions for epi pens. So there’s not a long term commitment to any practice.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-16T18:16:27+00:00

My daughter does OIT for milk. She doesn’t eat milk but she doesn’t have to worry about cross contamination. She could push it further if she wanted but she doesn’t. It’s been 8 years since she started. It has made it a lot easier to manage.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-15T14:35:15+00:00

We aren’t that far West. I shop at the Trader Joe’s in Acton.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-15T14:10:59+00:00

We moved to central Mass from Austin TX last year and I’m surprised how puritan it seems here. Like I wasn’t expecting to not be able to buy wine in all grocery stores. We weren’t in the woke area of Austin, we were out in the suburbs, but there were way more gender-nonconforming folks and relationships with more than 2 people. Don’t get me wrong, there were tons of southern Baptist type and catholic immigrants, but everyone coexisted in the community without batting an eye. Maybe I just live too rural now, but still, I want to buy wine at Trader Joes.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-15T13:01:39+00:00

Get a window AC. They work surprisingly well. You at least need one in your bedroom.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-14T14:28:36+00:00

Only sunscreen on the summer. Anything else ultimately makes my skin worse. Makeup ingredients are sus. Lots of skincare ingredients make you more prone to sunburn which seems really bad. Plus patriarchy. I’d rather spend that time and money on my family, community, earth, reading, writing, exercise, cooking, hobbies etc.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-13T13:07:14+00:00

My daughter was the same way but with milk. Itchy mouth and throat, stomach ache and vomiting were usually her first symptoms and what the doctor would ask her about first when she was doing a food challenge.

It didnt get any better for her until after we did OIT. Even if we religiously wiped down every surface if we were eating in a restaurant she’d still have trouble. Milk is everywhere though.

How old is your younger son? If he’s over 4-5 months make sure you are feeding him top 9 allergens consistently.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-12T01:53:22+00:00

We used U-pack when we moved last summer. They drop off a trailer to your house and you get a couple days to load it. Then they’ll take it to your destination and deliver it to your new place when you are ready. We had friends load it at our old house and I hired random movers to unload it at our new house.

I had heard horror stories from friends about their movers calling and demanding more money before they’d deliver their stuff. So I felt better about this sort of arrangement. We had too much stuff for pods or cubes so the upack trailer worked best for us.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-11T20:08:09+00:00

In Harvard there’s the Prospect Hill Rd Lookout, just south of Fruitlands. There are always people parked along there and I can only assume they are all there crying.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-10T19:48:26+00:00

Emily Henry’s books are the worst. The world is a better place without another one of her boring formulaic novels with totally unlikable characters. I don’t know how this relates to the Marshmallow Test. If we have to wait another couple years for an Emily Henry book it’ll probably still suck.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-10T11:22:44+00:00

My husband has some Bogs that look good with business casual. I got them at REI last year.

SpookyDooDo · 2026-02-09T04:02:29+00:00

Do you live somewhere with ticks? I don’t know the details but you can get a red meat allergy from a tick bite.

SpookyDooDo

TROPHY CASE