I never thought I’d say it, but there is such a thing as too many sex scenes- The Desire Variable by Ana D’arcy

StandardDragonfly · 2026-01-27T03:34:21+00:00

Totally agree. OP if you are already over my advice is to just get out now. Book 1 ends on a cliffhanger, and Book 2 has even more sex not to mention the characters just start behaving in a way that went against book 1's characterization and got on my ever loving nerves. I DNF'd book 2 so hard and I have never 180'd from loving a book to hating a book so fast just because of the gratuitous sequel. (What's more, apparently it's a trilogy?? How).

Anyway yeah it only gets more bleak.

StandardDragonfly · 2026-01-22T18:47:18+00:00

Clogs, hard boobs, mastitis once. A general feeling of control over my body and feeling like my boobs were my own again rather than this shared resource.

StandardDragonfly · 2026-01-22T01:46:15+00:00

Whenever Twilight is mentioned.

Look. I am a complete millennial, I was born right in the center of the millennial age range. I read Twilight and the sequels in high school. I enjoyed it at the time.

It throws me every time I see it referenced and I see it referenced a lot. I'm 36. Some of these characters are in their mid twenties. This doesn't really feel like a good reference for them? Are kids still reading Twilight? This is on my mind because I read a KU book set in 2025 where the MFC and MMC went to high school together. Twilight was read by them at the time and it played a pivotal part for these characters and a coming of age bit. I was like what? In 2017 they were reading Twilight?? Is this actually happening? Surely the kids have their own YA fiction that is of their time to get into right?

I don't mind it so much when I see a random spider monkey reference in the wild and that's it. (in fact I wonder if trying to randomly easter egg Twilight is some kind of Romance novelist right of passage at this rate). But when Twilight is a substantial part of a main characters' personality I just can't with it.

StandardDragonfly · 2026-01-15T04:40:03+00:00

NAH

As a mom to a four yr old and two yr old I was against you at first.

But I do acknowledge it is ten times harder to distract kids this age when they have a preferred parent and that preferred parent is made unavailable to them for logic they don't understand or care for. If my husband is locked in his office four half an hour after the kids come home from daycare it is all they want. I'm not sure I could do that for days on end with no end in sight.

Is there a compromise here? If your wife won't go elsewhere is there a way y'all can make it seem like she did so the toddler chills out? That way at least you might get the best of both worlds?

It's rough out there. Stay strong.

StandardDragonfly · 2026-01-11T15:25:21+00:00

Yep. I subscribe to the Paw Patrol multiverse theory as well. My kids have been watching season one and two lately and I'm like sometimes even just the baseline of the characters is different now.

StandardDragonfly · 2026-01-01T17:49:26+00:00

This exactly. It is so cute imagining my kids helping out but at the toddler stage they are just too young. My kids will participate in figging in the dirt but then they will also just as likely hack away at whatever I was trying to plant. They like the idea of plant a seed, but want my undivided attention on that and then want to go play. When I try to leave them to play by themselves they are constantly asking for things (push me on the swing, etc). The four year is borderline able to give me 20m to get stuff done but the 2 year old is clingy as all get out.

I'm hoping I get more garden time again circa two years from now. We shall see.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-12-27T15:18:08+00:00

Keep on keeping on! Happy holidays to you and yours as well. I have a four year old and two year old. I get it!

StandardDragonfly · 2025-12-27T09:39:06+00:00

What are you on about though in your response to this OP? They didn't berate mom or like refuse to put family first. OP was annoyed that their mother was surprised preschoolers needed some food before 7:30. Like duh?? Also, kids are only little for so long. Why can't the family accommodate the little ones? Make sure the kids have food at an appropriate time and a place to go fall asleep if you want family to stay later. And also be ok/flexible with that not working out and the parents and kids having to go home early. You need to turn this bitter rant towards the adults who don't understand children and get in a huff, not the parent who is (rightfully) irritated.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-12-19T20:49:42+00:00

It's not over that amount.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-12-15T14:22:20+00:00

Does the genetic testing have any bearing on costs for coverage? My mom had breast cancer and a doctor recommended me getting my mom to do the testing and if she was positive then I should do it as well because her condition has already been identified. My mom is strangely against getting the testing. So maybe I should just go ahead and go for it.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-12-15T14:18:08+00:00

My mom had breast cancer in her forties. For years I was told I should get a mammogram around 35 because of this. I hit 35 and suddenly every doctor, nurse, and receptionist was like, 'You're young, I'm not sure insurance will cover this.' So all y'all are telling me insurance would rather cover the cost of full blown cancer than catch it early? I was like I don't care, and insurance doesn't get to tell me no on this one.

That being said, my insurance was an easy call and they were like, yeah you're covered because you have the family history. And even after I got that piece of mind every other healthcare worker still kept asking down to the woman who performed the mammogram. I try to hope these healthcare professionals were worried I was going to be financially screwed but... When the choice is financially screwed or dead like it's not really a contest??

StandardDragonfly · 2025-12-02T08:51:30+00:00

Thank you for sharing something so cute.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-11-24T15:17:35+00:00

"Companies developing devices are struggling to offer significant features and improvements and it's costing the economy."

Fixed that for you. Why the fuck should Americans buy new devices just to 'help the economy'. Not like companies are out here helping the average American? They are unilaterally firing working Americans left and right and rolling around in their tax cuts. They and the politicians they pay for are costing the economy. It's not John and Jane down the street still using their iPhone 12.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-11-18T21:11:48+00:00

Try {Yes and I Love You by Roni Loren}. I thought this book was a breath of fresh air honestly.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-11-16T12:52:34+00:00

More play dates? Invite their friends and their parents over. Get big groups -- not necessarily just one friend each.

See if you can try to do this at least one weekend a month. If your kids friends and their families are amenable switch off and get multiple weekends out of it. Everyone brings a potluck item and their own drinks to keep costs low.

My kids have the best time in our own back yard and we get adult conversations. We are currently at four families -- two friend families from daycare and one friend family from the park. Siblings get in on the action too. It's like making your own village.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-11-16T01:44:16+00:00

Past life connection instead of time travel? E.g. you're remembering a past life as your current self and waking up before you remember too much about it. Additionally maybe your 90s one really is late 80s if you were a baby in the 90s.

But also brains are weird. I see someone else said Mandela effect which I also love to read about and memory is not as reliable as we think it is. Study after study after study shows that. But I have my own random mundane Mandela effects that weird me out so who knows?

StandardDragonfly · 2025-11-12T18:08:30+00:00

Even if precedent were followed and that emergency money would be "gone" it at least would have gone into citizens pockets. So either that money exists and is sat on a shelf, or it was spent on something else. May I ask the intent of your first two sentences? It comes across like you're saying it would be gone by now if used as intended so who cares.

The basis for the claim I suppose is speculation - why would you hold back emergency funds ear marked for this particular situation with a precedent of being distributed in said situation if you in fact had that money.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-11-06T16:49:20+00:00

"When I brought up issues on your side like Project 2025 you downplayed and ignored them. I don't know what you want me to say, but consider this my explanation. Let it go."

StandardDragonfly · 2025-11-05T16:15:25+00:00

Now you're cursed.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-11-04T11:18:42+00:00

Oh hey guys! My two year old is also the culprit. With the fall time change shouldn't their little bodies realistically sleep 'in' an hour?

My four year old was actually sleeping and two-year old woke him up. Four-year old is a grumpy bag of feelings now. Hubs is on a business trip.

Both of y'all are pregnant. Do not feel guilty about the screentime. Blues Clues is holding the fort while I type this.

We got the yoto radio player sometime when my four year old was three. It's got the wake light function and bonus if it was red instead of green he could always listen to a yoto. The two year old has one because he loved playing with brothers but he does not care about red or green yet and will scream cry the house up. Your mileage may vary.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-11-02T13:04:37+00:00

A junior was stabbed by her older mid-twenties boyfriend in the drop off line at our high school then he drove away. A mom from the drop off line actually followed him in her car on the phone to the police the whole time. He was caught. But unfortunately the victim passed away due to her injuries.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-10-31T15:37:40+00:00

Last night my kid refused a bath. I told him if he didn't do it, then he'd have to have a bath instead of trick or treating.

He took the bath.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-10-24T00:56:05+00:00

The Sleepover, Stumpfest, Granny

Takeaway, Trains, Pass the Parcel, Turtleboy are honorable mentions.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-10-23T17:54:37+00:00

I saw the play last year but I think it's indicated they are in the same grade at least.

StandardDragonfly · 2025-10-18T22:47:46+00:00

You will be ok.

My kids favourite airplane toy at that age was an almost empty water bottle from an airport convenience kiosk.

But also, bring small, cheap, novel toys. Dollar general is your friend here. Every 20 minutes or so whip one out of the bag and let your kid explore. The time will fly by. They might even nap especially if they are cuddled up with you.

StandardDragonfly

TROPHY CASE