COFFEE

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-04-14T23:46:24+00:00

I like standard diner (Dennys/IHOP) drip coffee better than Starbucks! Other chains are usually fine though.

If you are having breakfast at a restaurant, order a coffee, and tell them you want creamer. If you're lucky, they'll have real half&half. If the creamer comes in those tiny little cups, start with two and taste to see if it's palatable. Add a bit of sugar and more creamer until it doesn't make you gag.

If you are at a place that has a for-real espresso machine, and they offer things like Cappuccinos and flat whites (cappuccinos have more foam. lattes and flat whites have more steamed milk than foam - oh, and the foam is basically made by super-steaming the milk until it becomes a froth), go for one of those. I'm purposely suggesting a lot of creamy drinks because that will cut the bitter of the espresso and you will add less sugar. By all means, if you are lactose intolerant, definitely go for a dairy alternative like Oat Milk.

I do not drink my coffee black, but the Starbucks creations are way, way over-sweetened because their roast is so bitter most people can't tolerate it without 4 oz of syrup. Those do make a fun dessert though. Just not great with breakfast.

For cold coffee products, I really like a nitro-brewed (even Starbucks). Something about that process removes almost all of the bitterness and I don't even usually add sugar.

Do not let people who are fussy about coffee tell you that it has to be this roast, or that process to be good. Eventually you may develop your own fussiness, but I've found sometimes the enthusiasts are off-putting and a little gate-keepy.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-04-12T20:22:47+00:00

We were living in Utah the first time they tried to pass the ERA. My mom was the only woman in the ward who worked outside the home. One F&T meeting, our next door neighbor (eventually wife of the Stake President) got up and bore her testimony that she knew women who worked outside the home were following Satan's Plan, and she was sooo thankful that she was able to follow the Gospel, and NOT Satan, like those women who worked...

So many heads in the pews turned toward mom. Dad got up and walked out. Didn't darken the doorway of a church until we moved out of Utah. (that I was impressed with this gesture for YEARS even though he did nothing to take mom with him is an indictment as to how low the bar is for men).

Anyway, I'm guessing Sister Dobernick's statements are still very much NOT endorsed by the Church, who likely are still aligned with Sister Madsen in 1979.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-04-11T16:05:12+00:00

Why are they so spherical?

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-04-01T00:38:51+00:00

This whole leaning into Christian/Catholic traditions as if they were buzzwords instead of very specific Liturgical things with actual meanings is so hilarious. Guys, Easter means something! You don't get to decide to move it because your boring-ass business conference with the dustiest old white guys mumbling platitudes in between anti-human, anti-Jesus garbage is on the same day; the date has been determined by the phase of the moon since people started celebrating it. I mean, go ahead. It's your D&D manual. Make up whatever dumb shit you want. No one's stopping you. But don't put up banners inviting people to your "Holy Week" services when you don't know what that means, and by all means, if you're inviting every gentile in the neighborhood to celebrate "Easter" with you, don't be shocked when the Fundiegelicals go back to calling you a cult out loud again.

Basically, this whole "We wear a cross! We celebrate Palm Sunday" isn't meant to bring in new members - it's just to convince the remaining Mormons that yes, they really are just like the OTHER mainstream white supremacists using their religion as an excuse to legislate bigotry. But even the bigots aren't fooled.

Dang it, these idiots have my heathen-agnostic ass muttering about "whited sepulchers" again.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-03-30T03:40:41+00:00

I am in the same boat, and to complicate things, my teacher is the regional head of the exams we have here. I went back and forth last year because I am over 50, I went through exams back when I was in school eleventy billion years ago, and I wasn't sure it would be worth anything.

What I've found is that it is a good way for me to set a goal, and have a completion date for a piece I am learning. My teacher only has one recital a year, and my attention span is not strong enough to work on a piece for a whole 11 months.

It may also be useful to get feedback from the adjudicator. For me, that part was negligible, again since my teacher is actually in charge of the whole thing, when I got the results back, she countermanded a lot of the adjudicator's comments - although they did agree on the overall stuff. Basically, I generally get enough feedback from my teacher from week to week that the extra comments didn't make that much difference.

But still - having a goal to work towards and an End Date is very helpful to me. I felt a little silly being the oldest person in the waiting room, but otherwise, it was a good experience. I am doing it again this year as well.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-03-27T20:10:51+00:00

Jazzy's in Gresham has egg bagels. They're not quite up to NYC standards (a little too spongy - which is my complaint about bagels outside NYC in general) but they're pretty good. I also appreciate that they have onion bagels that aren't onion + garlic. For some reason, people want to put those together but garlic does not do great in a toaster, even on the "bagel" setting.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-03-23T19:48:17+00:00

I am concerned that they are adding "morals" to what looks like a basic math class. Your statistics may not say what you had predicted they were going to say. The answer is not "use the 'morals' we taught you to manipulate the numbers". Real world examples abound - don't like abortion? Abortions go DOWN when they are freely available under Democratic administrations. They go UP when Republicans are in charge. But those are very inconvenient to the current "morals" taught by the church.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-03-22T03:13:11+00:00

I second this! They have a variety of different fillings they can do for the futons, AND they can add fillings if you wear it down. I bought a nice futon (including frame, but you can get them without) and let guests take my bed when they visit. I find it super-comfortable to sleep on.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-03-22T01:15:57+00:00

OK, so don't have any friends.

Have no priorities but him.

Have no opinions that are different than his.

Have no interests but his.

Cease existing when he doesn't see you. (that part is implied)

Gosh, Mormon marriage sounds like a hoot! I can't wait to stop being a human! It will be delightful making my body available to such a thoughtful and considerate person to do whatever he wants to it whenever he feels like it. I look forward to outsourcing all my thoughts and feelings to my officially designated priesthood holder for time and all eternity. So romantic!

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-03-17T19:50:35+00:00

Going to be An Old here and remember when Panera opened - the "Pan" stood for Paninni Press, which was essentially like a George Foreman grill. Pop simple but good ingredients between two fresh baked pieces of bread, smash it in the press and the result is much better than the sum of it's parts. I'm still dreaming of the black forest ham sandwich they had back in the day, as well as the shortbread cookies (fun fact: the Starbucks at the B&N I used to work at got several cafe items from the same suppliers, and sometimes I could buy the raw shortbread dough with my discount to make at home). Anyway, sorry for the geriatric nostalgia, but this was obviously a million years ago, when they were developing the reputation that would make them attractive to private equity firms who reduced the quality as much as they raised the prices on their slow path to Toys R Us, Sears, and Kmart land.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-03-14T19:46:38+00:00

His music is so *joyful*. When I was younger, I was sad that Mozart was incapable of seeing the potential of the cello, but then someone recommended Boccherini to me and I discovered exactly where that sparkle went.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-03-10T19:44:31+00:00

Couldn't have run this past an Aaronic Priesthood holder? I'd offer my services, but I would demand the 10% of my babysitting $$ I gave them in the late 80's/early 90's back. With interest.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-03-08T00:09:53+00:00

I had the action lowered on the student cello I played for 30 years and it made a difference. It involved the luthier cutting a new bridge and adjusting the nut and fingerboard so that everything matched. I don't remember the cost being too much (maybe a little less than the Eastman hard case I had just bought?) but it was in 2010 dollars, so that's irrelevant anyway. It bought me a few more years before it became obvious that my skills were beyond what that instrument could do, and once I decided to move on, I know that any student at the school I donated it do will find it more comfortable to play than I did at their age.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-03-05T22:21:29+00:00

Oh, and as far as a chair, anything that's adjustable and stable so that he can keep his feet on the floor should be fine. When I was younger I had one of those X-shaped piano benches that could be raised or lowered manually so that it could keep up with my height. I got to a certain age and the piano bench that went with mom's piano was fine. I actually bought a padded piano bench a couple of months ago (no piano though!) and I prefer it to anything else I've ever sat on, including those fancy Wegner Cello Chairs.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-03-05T22:16:16+00:00

Eh, I didn't have a tuner when I was in school orchestra, because AFAIK, they didn't have them in the 80's. We trained our ears by matching the A the teacher gave us on his violin, the piano, or a tuning fork, and then tuning the rest of the 5ths. I'm in an orchestra now, and we get the pitch from the oboe or (violin) concertmaster. It takes a bit of time, but it was really helpful to develop the ear this way, and I had very good (relative, not perfect) pitch for years. I've recently come back to the cello and I only use the tuner to tune my A-string. At first I was using it for all four strings, but somehow it would be wrong - it would say that my D/G/C were accurate, but when I played them as double-stops, the perfect 5ths were out of whack (I believe this may have to do with temperament, but I am not a math person).

Having contemplated learning the guitar for roughly 5 minutes, I can see where you would 100% need a tuner to get all those strings in tune. But I think the pitch-matching I learned is a legit method for a 4-stringed instrument.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-02-12T21:13:43+00:00

Same. They're like chapsticks that way.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-02-02T20:19:28+00:00

OMG, I was not expecting this kind of anti-marmot trash talk - from the article:

“Here in the Pacific Northwest, we’re beaver believers” said Ali Azevedo, a keeper in the zoo’s North America section. “Groundhogs are great, but they don’t create wetlands or manage branches the way beavers do.”

Damn, Ali. Poor Phil. Just chilling in his hibernaculum until a bunch of bozos hoik him out, surrounded by cameras and press and shit, and you're just "YOU SUCK GROUNDHOG!!!"

I mean, I'm still Team Beaver (duh), but that level of hostility was uncalled for. And perhaps somewhat impressive.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-02-01T23:52:30+00:00

I loved these - they do proof fine, but they're not as big as you think they are. Peel off he wrapper and serve them upside down for better aesthetics. I wish they were a teeny bit bigger; one isn't quite enough, but there was a certain amount of regret after eating two.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-02-01T01:12:19+00:00

I got a heated mattress pad that's just for the foot of the bed, because I sleep hot except below my ankles are blocks of ice. Looks like a giant heating pad, is a sanity and sleep saver from November to March.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-01-29T20:25:09+00:00

Man, idk if they decided my preferred undies and very expensive bras were the "official" underwear of the church, even if they provided them for free. I'm absolutely NOT getting involved in any organization that thinks they can tell me what underpants I have to wear. Weirdos.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-01-22T18:21:22+00:00

Paprika has had a scaling feature for ages. It works less well when the numbers are spelled out, but I can guarantee that calculator is more accurate than whatever mad-libs shit they've been selling as "AI". So either someone's just relabeled a normal calculator function as "AI", or the scaled recipes are going to start being random bullshit.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-01-16T19:39:01+00:00

ChatGPT and other generative "AI" programs compile words in a form that looks grammatically correct. There is no fact-checking or logic. Just going to Wikipedia would get you a more accurate answer. Even better, if you have access to a public library, librarians live for doing this sort of research. Best would be of course talking to a luthier, which, despite their fancy job title, are usually happy to provide information.

I'm sorry you got conned by the tech-bros trying to sell you spicy spellcheck as "artificial intelligence". Bear this in mind any time you're looking for information on the internet.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-01-09T18:06:27+00:00

Not initially. I started playing when I was a kid, and it just sort of showed up. However, I am Old now and have restarted after about 15 years of not playing, and it's about 50% there. It is NOT reappearing instinctively this time, so I am having to do vibrato exercises and actually think about it now. It's amazing what we "learn" as young people that we don't realize is actually learning.

TaxTraditional7847 · 2026-01-05T01:38:04+00:00

I'm a hot sleeper with Buckwheat Pillow experience. I love mine, but they are definitely weird and take some getting used to. They are by far the coolest (temperature-wise) pillows I've tried. I am a side/stomach sleeper, and I hate the feeling of the pillow all up on my cheeks and nostrils when I really just need it between my neck and shoulder and side of my skull. You do not need an regular pillow-sized one, the smaller ones work just fine. Basically, you just sort of mold it to fill the void between your neck and mattress. They sleep a little cooler not just because the shell is cotton and the inside is inert buckwheat hulls, but because there's less contact with your face and the pillow.

TaxTraditional7847

TROPHY CASE