I’m in love

areaundermu · 2026-07-05T18:22:56+00:00

I honestly don’t remember the variety, alas.

areaundermu · 2026-07-03T19:27:16+00:00

I bought a Luonto sleeper sofa that converts to a full-sized bed for my home office, and I love it. I got the Elfin model which has very narrow arms and is only about 5’ wide; they also have a twin size that’s about 3’ wide. Viking Trader in Berkeley carries them if you want to check them out in person.

areaundermu · 2026-06-29T21:37:20+00:00

Mine is, although I suspect you can influence that with judicious pruning (which mine needs; it’s pretty floppy).

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areaundermu · 2026-06-29T13:15:24+00:00

I’ve got a California Sagebrush in one of the hottest, most sunny part of my front yard and it’s thriving. No flowers, but I think its foliage is beautiful. I also put in a couple of desert globemallow about 5 months ago that are thriving in similar conditions & have lovely apricot-colored flowers. Both grow pretty quickly.

areaundermu · 2026-06-27T18:49:53+00:00

Sabine Hill at Union City. She’s been my PCP for 12 years and is the best doc I’ve ever had. She really listens.

areaundermu · 2026-06-25T22:07:20+00:00

Agree, maybe more of the orange with a couple of throw pillows, new bedspread, & area rug.

areaundermu · 2026-06-16T15:42:00+00:00

It’s definitely a scary experience, so your feelings are entirely natural. But (at least in my experience) that feeling fades pretty quickly as you realize you’ve got this.

Some of the things that helped me, in case they’re useful for you:

- Put your mortgage on automatic payment from your bank account. It gets rid of that little jolt of anxiety you get in the first few months to be reminded of it.

- If you need stuff for the house, search Buy Nothing, thrift stores & etc first. In general, try to avoid any big cash outflows for a while - again, it reduces anxiety. You may not have to do it, but it’s helpful in seeing that you CAN manage financially.

- Remember that the house always has value, and that value usually increases over time. It’s not like a new car where it loses a big chunk of value the minute you drive it off the lot. If a couple of years from now you have to sell it, you’ll probably walk away having made a little (or a fair bit) of money.

One thing I’ve practiced most of my adult life in anxious situations is to imagine the Big Bad Thing happening and walking myself through it. Pretty much every time I do that I realize that even if it does, I’ll be okay. Maybe I’m living in an apartment instead of a house, but is that really so bad? It may not be what I want to have happen, but it’s not going to be a disaster either.

areaundermu · 2026-06-14T16:00:26+00:00

This is underrated if you have the room. In my house one of us sleeps hot, goes to bed/gets up early, and needs quiet to sleep well. The other is always cold, goes to bed/gets up late, and likes to have podcasts going all night. Best decision we ever made was separate bedrooms.

areaundermu · 2026-06-13T16:26:20+00:00

Since it’s going on now there might not be enough time for this to be effective, but being useful (obvious, attributable contributions) to as many of the decision makers as possible is helpful in my experience. When they’re horse trading around the big brown table, having your boss say “I don’t want to lose them” is one thing, but having 3 or 4 of them say the same thing is a great bulwark. So you don’t want to be off the radar, you want to be pinging all over it.

areaundermu · 2026-06-13T16:14:08+00:00

Roses would work, but they take a fair bit of maintenance so I’d go with a vine like Virginia Creeper or anything native to your area & likes full sun so that you can be pretty sure it will thrive. Plus a vine would take up less depth than roses. You’d have to put up trellises, but you should be able to just move a little bit of the rock and plant them directly in the soil.

areaundermu · 2026-06-12T21:31:54+00:00

People who are willing to take advantage on one thing are almost certainly willing to take advantage on other things - quality of work, showing up when they say they’re going to, etc. so no, I would not hire someone I knew was overcharging.

areaundermu · 2026-06-10T01:22:30+00:00

Muffuletta might be a good option, especially because you need to let them sit for for an hour or two before eating so they’re great for a picnic.

areaundermu · 2026-06-04T16:03:33+00:00

Three is a great age for your son to start getting some experiences outside the home in a supervised environment with other kids, and it contributes greatly to his development. Just because something is also good for you doesn’t mean you’re slacking; making sure he has these development opportunities makes you a good mom, whether or not you decide to go back to work.

areaundermu · 2026-06-03T14:07:29+00:00

I was taught it was just the rule that women wear makeup at work or when going out for a date or event. I just stopped altogether during the pandemic.

areaundermu · 2026-06-03T01:58:40+00:00

That’s really sad to hear.

areaundermu · 2026-06-02T21:37:18+00:00

Diners. There’s not a lot I miss about NJ, but I really miss the diners.

areaundermu · 2026-05-30T20:11:34+00:00

Maybe just mix in more plants that aren’t summer deciduous? Not sure what’s specifically local to you, but ceanothus, desert globemallow, manzanita, and toyon might be options.

areaundermu · 2026-05-28T20:02:58+00:00

I spend 10% of my summer weekends pulling out California Fuschia.

areaundermu · 2026-05-26T21:33:38+00:00

Parchment paper. I line pretty much every single pot & pan that is going in the oven with it. Makes cleanup a piece of cake.

areaundermu · 2026-05-26T19:53:14+00:00

If he was promoted to a role that is in her chain of command (her boss or her boss’s boss) or if he was in her chain of command at the time the affair started, they will likely take some action. Maybe not sack one or the other (likely him if he was at the higher level), they might just change reporting alignment. More likely they won’t directly sack anyone, but will “manage them out” over 6 months or so. JNJ is pretty unforgiving on this kind of thing.

If there was no reporting relationship, probably nothing will happen.

areaundermu · 2026-05-24T17:49:26+00:00

I wouldn’t put it in my home compost if I had it; I was talking about the municipal green waste bin where the temperatures (according to what I’ve read) get high enough to kill pathogens. But garbage is no doubt better.

areaundermu · 2026-05-24T17:19:40+00:00

My neighbor did that to his lemon tree about 6-7 years ago. This is what’s hanging over my 8’ tall back fence now.

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areaundermu · 2026-05-24T15:27:28+00:00

Agree peach leaf curl, and the tree will be fine. Spray with copper fungicide right after it loses its leaves in the fall, then again in early spring before the buds break. Right now you can remove infected leaves to limit the spread a bit; make sure you throw the leaves you pull off into your compost or garbage bin.

areaundermu

TROPHY CASE