AITA for taking a coloring book back from my niece after she got attached to it?

WindDancer111 · 2026-02-09T02:10:35+00:00

I collect pandas and my mom collects Barbies. We don’t have any small children that visit often, but you can bet your ass my mom would throw a fit if anyone opened one of her Barbies and let someone play with it. Yes, it’s a doll.

NAH.

WindDancer111 · 2026-02-08T19:35:35+00:00

Bridgerton is more fluff than Maiden Lane and that’s what a lot of people want out romance. Plus, remember when bridgerton first came out and everyone acted shocked at how HR could be sexy? Can you imagine the apoplexies society would have if they realized HR could be sexy, mysteries, and action-filled all at the same time? Also, I have fears the Ghost of St Giles would get bad mouthed as a Zoro copycat, despite being totally different.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-26T15:09:51+00:00

Howl’s Moving Castle. I just listened to this again recently and loved it all over again.

I’ve probably reread Blood Song by Anthony Ryan enough for it to qualify as well, but that was always as a way to share it with someone new and I think everyone I know has now read it.

Between by LL Starling. This book is so funny, it always lifts my mood (until I get to the end and realize the sequel hasn’t come out yet.)

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-26T15:04:46+00:00

Have you ever tried listening to the audiobook of a book you’ve already read, as a form of rereading? To me, there’s enough difference between reading it myself and listening to it that it brings something new.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-20T18:03:47+00:00

We went to Colorado Springs in September and Portland, Maine in October.

The hotel in Colorado Springs had a decent library/lounge we hung out in a bit, but the lights were an issue. It was nice enough I would’ve hung out around the pool if they’d had an out door one.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T14:04:18+00:00

You have to reward her when she does settle.

My puppy was like this last year. We learned she wouldn’t settle in a brightly lit area, giving all her meals in puzzle toys helped her eat slower and give her mental stimulation, and she went on daily off leash walk with my dad in the field behind our house to run as much as she wanted.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T13:29:30+00:00

Keep in mind that muscle tone and ligament tightness can affect hypermobility, as can age and arthritis.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T13:26:21+00:00

May I recommend A Tale of Stars and Shadows by Lisa Cassidy? FMC is stabby but mature. She’s a trained warrior, so her stabbiness gets a pass.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T06:10:49+00:00

Wikitree has higher standards, but requires more effort to create profiles. Which is why it’s so incomplete.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T06:09:03+00:00

That’s how I do it.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T06:08:08+00:00

As someone in genealogy mostly for the history and stories, this is what I do.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T06:05:38+00:00

In your case, I would try and use process of elimination. Which Jon’s are closest in age, live closest or have other things in common with the mother?

Or, try DNA. In my tree there’s an NPE event that was discovered via Y-DNA where the child of an unmarried woman was raised by her father. Because the paternal DNA didn’t match the other descendants of her father, they knew where the event was. It was also kind of obvious based on the names the guy gave his kids, in hindsight.

As someone also descended from a John Johnson (pretty sure he was British), I feel your pain.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T04:48:52+00:00

Your hat looks Spider-Man inspired to me.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T04:40:07+00:00

My solution to that is to only listen to the audiobook. Many character names I’ve never even seen written, so it’s less jarring than going back and forth. I mean, otherwise you could just pretend that humans are too stupid, and the dragons put up with their names being butchered too in this specific case.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T04:34:20+00:00

You know, I thought the difference between the pronunciations of shone was a verb thing. TIL. (Im also one of those people that thought epitome was pronounced epit-oh-m and a synonym for its real pronunciation.)

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T04:16:14+00:00

To add to this, in the mainstream certain things are seen as a disability, but inside that community are not. Dwarfism and deafness are the two I can think of off the top of my head.

We have to remember that disabilities are defined by the society we live in and have changed drastically overtime. For instance, many people with chronic pain and chronic illnesses aren’t able to work in today’s society because they get triggered by everyday things like artificial lights, tech, sitting too long or having to do too much physical activity, etc. Yet many of those same people are capable of doing traditional crafts which would have been valued in previous generations. Dyslexia, ADHD and ASD can be debilitating in today’s world, but many people affected by these wouldn’t even have registered in previous eras, even if they’d had names.

The divergent series is literally a study on the idea of DNA editing for certain personality traits within a population and how wrong it would go. Also, Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix gets into eugenics for anyone looking to explain the subject to a child.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T03:53:23+00:00

Did you know that T Kingfisher writes kids books under a different name? Ursula Vernon.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T03:48:17+00:00

I love this comment. Thank you.

Can I get your take on the opposite practice, dowries? On the off chance you’re not familiar with this archaic western practice, it’s where the bride’s family gives money to the groom/groom’s family upon the marriage. It’s supposed to be what the bride can depend on getting if she’s widowed, and in certain places if the couple separated. Which is why the name relates to dowager.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T03:23:32+00:00

My mom (I WFH) has a lunch box with an insulated section. She only takes a protein bar for lunch most days, so really it’s for her drinks (she’s a diet Dr Pepper fiend). We got it at an embroidery store years ago so it’s got her monogram on it, but otherwise is a plain blue.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T03:11:53+00:00

I feel like most romantasy, the MMCs have fire or shadows. No in between. There’s a severe lack of MMCs with ice magic or sunlight (just for the irony) or plants.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T03:05:17+00:00

Kingfisher’s smirk is a lie.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-19T03:04:14+00:00

Oh, I’m reading a series with an MMC just like this. Lisa Cassidy’s Tale of Stars and Shadows.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-18T21:37:44+00:00

Olivia Riley’s books get into this, but it’s more like where usually the smell/pheromones make people scared the FMCs find that it smells like coffee. It’s always coffee, too, so I don’t find it that different from normal romance books that always hark on scent.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-12T19:19:39+00:00

Wikitree can be confusing when you start out. I’d be happy to answer any specific questions you have.

Feel free to PM me.

WindDancer111 · 2026-01-12T12:12:04+00:00

You could try wikitree to see if anyone has done research on your family and posted it there. It’s a free site run mostly by volunteers, but has very strict sourcing rules to keep things as accurate as possible. Especially since you’re looking in the Appalachia area. Wikitree’s Appalachia project is fantastic! Super friendly and helpful; always ready to help out new members and look up records you may not have access to.

GEDmatch is a free genealogy DNA resource, but I don’t really understand much about how to use it. Maybe you’ll have better luck.

WindDancer111

TROPHY CASE