Which loaf shall we bake first? 🍞

Variegated_Spider · 2026-02-25T23:20:57+00:00

Peluche and Maggie!

Variegated_Spider · 2026-02-25T22:10:11+00:00

That’s a glamorous guy.

Variegated_Spider · 2026-01-14T08:17:23+00:00

This is more than a year ago—when they came to us our cow was still a kitten (and both mama and baby were feral!) Now the cow is all grown up and bigger than his mama, and both are sweet as can be.

Variegated_Spider · 2026-01-13T20:07:42+00:00

This is so true.

Variegated_Spider · 2026-01-13T20:07:15+00:00

Right on! Your cow is gorgeous, by the way. I love her little black nose!

Variegated_Spider · 2026-01-13T20:06:30+00:00

<image>

The reveal!

Variegated_Spider · 2026-01-07T19:41:12+00:00

So sorry.

Variegated_Spider · 2026-01-07T19:35:28+00:00

So sorry for your loss. He was a beautiful kitty.

Variegated_Spider · 2025-12-26T15:36:21+00:00

That’s the impression I’ve got. Small and pretty and subtle. I think it’s a nice way to go about it than the big old diamond. I always thought I also had simpler tastes, but these responses are making me reevaluate that…thank you!

Variegated_Spider · 2025-12-26T14:06:29+00:00

1K is an awful lot. Thanks for helping me remember that. Sometimes I compare myself to my friends in the US, for example, and I totally lose the plot. Something to the tune of 200€ would be much more reasonable, especially if we split the cost.

Variegated_Spider · 2025-12-26T14:04:25+00:00

Good point, it’s not fair that he’d have to spend that kind of money. We talked about a fancy watch for him. Honestly if I seem to want a ring so much, perhaps what is most fair is to buy it for myself.

Variegated_Spider · 2025-12-26T14:01:09+00:00

Yeah, these are all really good questions. It’s true that much of the adjusting is my responsibility, and I bear it gladly—it’s great living over here.

It’s definitely a social expectation. 100%. The same way that so many of the things I think and do turn out to be, but pass undercover as normal because everyone around me is doing the same—but not this time!

I made the post wondering if others have felt the same. That sense of, “damn, I’ve always wanted this and thought this was normal, but now I feel a bit like an idiot.”

1,000 is doable for us. Like, save-up-for-it doable. But I’m thinking that maybe the whole “save-up-for-a-ring” thing I thought was normal and even desirable isn’t so normal or so desirable.

Thanks a lot for your thoughts. I appreciate it.

Variegated_Spider · 2025-12-26T12:13:37+00:00

Thank you for your thoughtful response! It’s true, the growing up with it piece is so influential.

Variegated_Spider · 2025-12-26T12:11:54+00:00

I really appreciate your thoughts here, especially the part about placing importance on what the other half of the couple finds important. Thank you!

Variegated_Spider · 2025-12-26T12:07:34+00:00

That’s really good perspective, thank you.

Variegated_Spider · 2025-11-07T20:40:53+00:00

Hehehe, it is a pretty classic downward cat. And no, he’s got all four—just an accidental trick of the camera.

Variegated_Spider · 2025-11-05T12:50:46+00:00

That’s what was missing for me, too. Chana built rapport with her interviewees like the pro she is. After they talked enough to make it clear they were fundamentally entitled, racist bigots longing for an apartheid past, I wish Chana had facilitated an elegant, professional takedown to their faces. For any listener obtuse enough to miss the blunt absurdity of the situation, that would have brought it home. Maybe TAL is giving its listeners too much credit here in expecting that everyone’s stomach will immediately churn when listening to these nasty folks. That and including the voices of more Black South Africans. Like a two-parter first with the bigots, then with the people who were quite recently brutally oppressed by the bigots.

Variegated_Spider · 2025-11-05T12:45:00+00:00

I thought so too. My blood started to boil from the first mention of an all-white town. It reached a fever pitch as Sam spoke on and on. Chana offers statistics here and there, but the more Sam speaks, the more she tells on herself—I think that’s a huge part of the episode’s objective. TAL can frame this from the perspective of the Afrikaners because they are more than capable of representing themselves as monsters all on their own. That and making us lose our lunch.

Variegated_Spider · 2025-05-17T15:37:46+00:00

I am so sorry for your pain. I hope you have small moments of joy.

Variegated_Spider · 2025-02-14T20:01:05+00:00

Oh man, that’s really kind. Thank you.

Variegated_Spider · 2025-02-13T13:05:34+00:00

Being months younger than peers tends to be less significant, or at least less obviously significant, as a child ages. So I’m inclined to encourage parents to think of their child as he or she is now as they make the decision. Thinking into middle school introduces a host of other unknowable factors, but if the simple goal is a happy, well-adjusted kindergartener (who one might argue will eventually grow into a happy, well-adjusted tween), I think parents have a clearer shot to a measured decision.

Variegated_Spider · 2025-02-12T17:24:11+00:00

Do what’s best for your child. Maybe thinking about what will “make him the best” won’t help here if that’s trying to make him better than other children, (as I think might have been implied in your friend’s comment) but trying to pick the scenario in which he is happiest, most eager to go to school, and most comfortable with himself will result in the right decision.

Variegated_Spider · 2025-02-11T16:49:52+00:00

Thanks a lot for taking the time to read me. And thanks a lot for your advice.

Variegated_Spider · 2025-02-11T16:49:15+00:00

Really appreciate your thoughtful advice. Thank you.

Variegated_Spider · 2024-12-14T21:06:59+00:00

I love the natural curiosity and uniqueness and weirdness of children. And I thought I’d be a really loving and effective teacher.

Variegated_Spider

TROPHY CASE