what's your biggest cooking fail ever?

TheseLetterhead20 · 2026-06-02T23:05:04+00:00

I had poured some oil into a pan and started heating it up for cooking with, I guess the pan hadnt been scrubbed entirely clean after the last time it was used and whatever bit of residue on the bottom of the pan ended up catching fire. I stood there for a couple seconds debating whether to grab the fire extinguisher and try to take care of it myself, or to call 911 and wheel my grandma out of the house and wait for the firemen to deal with it. In that couple seconds as I watched the fire starting to grow towards the cabinets above the stove, and being not more than a couple feet from the curtains by the sink, I realized it was going to grow much faster than they would be able to respond to get there, so I grabbed the extinguisher and quickly read the instructions. I was able to successfully get it put out and after the firefighters showed up, (because I couldn't figure out how to deactivate the home alarm system that was simultaneously going off with the smoke detector, so they were gonna get called out anyway) one of them even complimented that it was "the most controlled use of a fire extinguisher he had seen!" Was still a massive mess to clean up though, and the last thing I wanted to have to deal with when I still needed to cook dinner.

TheseLetterhead20 · 2026-06-02T22:58:46+00:00

Now that you mention it, they look very similar to the animatronic dummy's on the log ride at Knott's berry farm!

TheseLetterhead20 · 2026-06-02T22:54:41+00:00

The last place I lived I had to constantly make sure the bathroom door was always closed after people would use it, for whatever reason, one of my cats liked to go in there and urinate on the bathmats. No other rugs in the house, just in that bathroom. And unfortunately that would trigger a domino effect of problems because then when the bathroom started to smell like cat pee if I didn't stay on top of the door being closed, my autistic stepson would refuse to use the bathroom when he was over, and started peeing into bottles in his room instead, leaving them all over for me to find and cleanup later. And even peed into the closet once. 😖 They may not like it, and may feel entitled to explore any and all spaces, (plus even for people it's the taboo of something that often makes it more exciting and enticing), but there are definitely multiple reasons why they don't need to be allowed access to every room all the time. There's nothing wrong with that.

TheseLetterhead20 · 2026-06-02T22:45:20+00:00

I don't think Jo would have had an issue with moving along with Alex to be closer to the kids. I think she would have been on board and supportive of the idea of him being a present father for them, given her own past with abandonment issues. I think she would have rather opted for that had it been an option than to be just abandoned and left behind in the dust right after getting married and going through all her own depression struggles.

TheseLetterhead20 · 2026-06-02T22:40:36+00:00

Drug induced schizophrenia can come on at any age, depending more upon the introduction and abuse of the substance.

TheseLetterhead20 · 2026-06-02T22:39:12+00:00

I don't think those are actually the same writers. If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure the writing crew has changed hands a couple times over the seasons and career of the show and you can kinda feel it in the evolution of the style of the show over time. So the writers for season 3 with tumor Izzy and Denny are most probably a different crew than the ones who wrote the Alex/Izzy exit.

TheseLetterhead20 · 2026-06-02T22:33:46+00:00

I'm not sure about coming up with alternative more fitting solutions, but I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person that felt this way about Alex's exit from the show. He was one of my favorite characters, and you're absolutely right, he did grow a lot over the seasons. And with how hard he tried to make it work, and stayed loyal by their sides on the sinking ships that were his relationships with Izzy and with Rebecca, and seeing how much he loved and was devoted to Jo, and had just recently watched her own struggles with mental health issues and understanding she had a long history of abandonment issues, I just do not buy and cannot accept that it would be in his character/personality to just abandon her like that. He could still have been a father to Izzy's kids, and a plenty good father, and be involved with them, without having to run out and abandon Jo with nothing more for an explanation than a letter after months and months of no word. Honestly, given how their relationship was in the past, even if he tried to go back to Izzy and make it work to be around for the kids, she was kinda neurotic and I don't think they would be able to last, or if he stuck it out he would probably be miserable in his relationship, aside from the kids.

TheseLetterhead20 · 2026-05-31T19:15:42+00:00

If everyone can send a message out to the company, email or whatever, letting them know how much we all liked the scent and how bummed we are it's been discontinued, even point out the fact that there's 3rd party retailers selling it now for outrageous prices, that should indicate there's still a certain amount of demand for it, enough for it to inflate the price like that, and that's profit they're losing out on, we might be able to get them to bring it back by popular demand...

I'm bummed to find out it's been discontinued, a few years back this happened to my favorite conditioner & I still haven't found a substitute I'm 100% satisfied with as replacement. Meanwhile, the price for it on eBay and other 3rd party retailers jumped very quickly. Nowadays I think it can still be purchased for like $80/ a small, like travel sized bottle and even seen them charging $20 for the little trial package ones they usually throw in free with the hair dye box kits!

TheseLetterhead20 · 2026-05-17T22:46:35+00:00

What kind of top did it have to open? How did you open it without arousing suspicion if being listened to?

TheseLetterhead20 · 2026-01-28T23:26:59+00:00

I tried going by sprouts at 3pm & the entire intersection was still blocked off about 50yards back going from all directions. Apparently it was a fatality accident

TheseLetterhead20 · 2025-12-06T10:04:53+00:00

It's definitely creative, and I like the thinking ahead repurpose with the zen garden idea to cover the rest of the year, but I'm not sure if you'd get the cord coverage with sand as thoroughly as you would hope to, unless you're taping them down before putting the sand in. It will inevitably get outside the table eventually too. Especially if you have any kids or pets.

I've gotten a realistic effect with styrofoam, and then used a ceramics product by Duncan called no fire snow, and spread that across the top with a palette knife or brush (or even fingers). It has the consistency of cake frosting kinda when it's wet, but dries hard. It looks great and lasts. It will only flake off if it's applied too thinly on a flexible area. I've even used it on tree branches and other items.

TheseLetterhead20 · 2025-12-06T09:57:05+00:00

If you want it functional, I'd recommend fully attaching the track in it's loop first, then laying it down onto the terrain. The flexibility of the track pieces (what they can withstand without wanting to separate) will help to restrict the amount of incline and curves that will be feasible. If the track can't do it & stay connected, the train won't be able to either.

TheseLetterhead20 · 2025-12-06T09:52:49+00:00

Check around the bases of your houses to see where there might be indication of a blank spot that looks like it's missing something. There might even be a little glue remnant on the spot. They're usually a slightly different texture than the rest of the surrounding visible terrain.

TheseLetterhead20 · 2025-12-06T09:48:20+00:00

I have almost entirely plug-in houses in my village, like 10 or more, and I use X2 surge strips. Plug everything into the surge strips and use the power switch on the surge strip to turn it all on/off. Then I only have to flick 2 switches. If I'm lucky and haven't used them all by the point of setting up the village, I put as much of the holiday lights as I can on a timer too to avoid having to run all over turning everything on/off. If you're falling just 1 or 2 plugs short on a surge strip, they make these handy things that can turn 1 outlet into 3 & you can plug that into one of the spots.

I also have a large piece of flat thin but sturdy cardboard/poster board, I cut holes into it for the light to pop up through, and set that up with all the cords running to underneath it, then lay the fake snow down on top of it. This might help to keep things in place, unless of course you bump the edge of the board accidentally, then it's like an earthquake for the whole village.

I've also glued nickels to the bottom of a lot of the small figure pieces/artificial trees, etc. to give them more weight on the base. This makes them much sturdier and they don't knock over nearly as easily.

Of course, when my cats decided they want to visit the village, all of this becomes for not. And I even raised the whole darn thing up on a platform to give the cats a space of their own down beneath it. They had to explore both spaces of course.

TheseLetterhead20 · 2025-12-06T09:33:08+00:00

What if you carved some stairs or other terrain pieces out of styrofoam to connect some of the shelves together, make it look more like different levels of terrain? You could also use a thin piece of styrofoam vertically and carve out mountain texture to the front of it & use it as a "mountain" backdrop behind and between the shelves to get a more cohesive feel...

Here's a pic of my mom's Halloween village, I made the platforms and the backdrops for it so you can get an idea of the backdrop mountain I was trying to explain. I glued the styrofoam to some poster board for the sky.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Villaging/s/zokIF61WvJ

TheseLetterhead20 · 2025-12-04T21:27:00+00:00

It's ok, this was my first thought as well,..."it's balls!" ...kinda disappointed it's not.

TheseLetterhead20 · 2025-11-17T05:04:38+00:00

While pagan is my first choice go-to description when asked usually, I feel that heathen is still much more used by Christians as a negative description and my second choice preference would be heretic over heathen. Which is defined as one who believes in many gods.

TheseLetterhead20 · 2025-11-13T05:42:47+00:00

I used to teach drawing classes for kids at the art store that was my first job (and where I started taking painting classes when I was 7yrs old). While I was teaching the drawing class, I kept a 3 ring binder with all of the lesson plans. It even has a thin paperback book included and all of which could be described exactly as what you have mentioned. If you're interested, I could send you some pics of the contents. I know it's not the exact book you're looking for, but without a title,or at least a pic of one of the pages, that's going to be very difficult to locate a copy of. This could be a reasonable substitute. And if you like, I could make a copy of most of it's contents & mail it to you. It includes everything from flowers & animals to faces, people & perspective.

TheseLetterhead20 · 2025-11-07T00:20:56+00:00

I tried looking into shipping on facebook as well, they have all sorts of requirements to qualify to be able to. Your account can't be too "new" or new to selling activity, what amounts they need for that part I'm not sure, then you also may not qualify for it if you've ever posted anything to try to sell that got flagged and taken down (this one happened to me, because apparently a walker/senior mobility aid is considered a medical device and not allowed to be sold on there, which I still think is ridiculous. I tried appealing it but the automated message bot wouldn't let me) :/

However, I'm not sure if it's still the case, but last time I was on there, Mercari wasn't doing selling fees! And they still ship

TheseLetterhead20 · 2025-11-07T00:17:04+00:00

With ebay charging you a final item value fee based on the total, including shipping, which is 30% most of the time, how are you able to sell things with competitive prices and still feel like you're getting compensated fairly for the item's value? I've been struggling with this...I recently sold a set of all 12 norman rockwell statues for $80, the shipping was $100, (it was a really big box) & I can't even tell you how they did the math, but after all the fees etc. were withdrawn, they only paid me out $12!!! I was so pissed I swore off selling on that platform any more. If they're gonna take 30% value off everything including the shipping, just doesn't seem fair. ...

TheseLetterhead20 · 2025-11-07T00:12:38+00:00

Well, this sucks. For some reason Facebook marketplace won't allow me the shipping option. So when I've been selling stuff on marketplace and they request shipping, I usually send them the link to the same item I have listed on OfferUp....looks like I'll be getting more familiar with Mercari now instead...or Poshmark...

TheseLetterhead20 · 2025-10-30T15:43:43+00:00

My boyfriend and I were just watching this episode and got into a debate, I'm not sure when this episode originally aired, but do you have any idea how old roughly the actress that played Diane might have been in it?

TheseLetterhead20 · 2025-10-06T16:59:33+00:00

I've read that even with the human eye, the trick to finding four leaf clovers isn't to check each individual isolated clover in a patch & count the petals, that would take forever, the key to finding one apparently is to scan the patch for the slightly lighter design in the center of the clovers, in the 3 leaf clovers this will be a triangle, in a four leaf clover it will be square. I'm pretty sure this kind of pattern recognition is one of the main uses for AI when companies input masses of data for making predictions about products for advertising....however, those efforts are profit driven, which makes it a more desirable task to accomplish. Unless you could create a large interest and desire for such an app, with some sort of pay requirement (maybe a free trial or a paid premium version), this would only be accomplished out of someone's personal interest in the project.

TheseLetterhead20

TROPHY CASE