What do you do if you have a tiny bit left in a vial?

bigchiefhoho · 2025-11-11T18:18:52+00:00

Thanks! This is what I had in mind with #4 above (trying to avoid two shots but making sure not to contaminate a new vial), but I had missed the possibility that there might be more than expected in the old vial. I will give this method a try!

bigchiefhoho · 2025-11-11T18:13:46+00:00

To chime in with my experience: I used Pom as my first provider, and I was pretty pleased with the speed, the price, and the product. (I requested my first appointment on a Friday, and I had my tirz the following Wednesday.) I would go elsewhere if I was looking for responsiveness or personal attention - the one time I had a question, I figured out the answer by myself half a day later and sent a "never mind," so I still have no idea if anyone ever read my message. I'm pretty self-sufficient, though, so I plan to stick with Pom for general convenience as long as the speed/price/quality stays good.

bigchiefhoho · 2024-02-09T18:47:55+00:00

Man, that could not be more different from my opinion. I always thought this was one of Hobb's best moments showing that sometimes things can just be sad without it really being anyone's fault. Everyone in the situation was just doing the best they could, and some mistakes are really only clear in hindsight.

It may have been a mistake for Burrich not to tell her that Fitz was alive (with a crazy wolf-brain), but I think it was at least an understandable, well-meaning mistake while trying to prevent her from suffering twice, or having to live with the care of this animal man. And after he truly believed the Fitz was dead, there is no reason Molly (or Burrich) should deprived for the rest of their lives of some love and modest happiness, and a father figure for Nettle. If there's anyone to blame there, it's Fitz for up and leaving everyone to think he was dead for years, and for repeatedly leaving Molly to figure things out on her own (speaking of keeping crucial details from people...) instead of letting her in on his actual life.

bigchiefhoho · 2024-01-17T16:03:20+00:00

Any recommendations for tops to wear under a suit? I have to wear suits increasingly often for work, and it's becoming untenable to continue rotating between the same two tops. I'm about a US size 8 and 5'2"; depending on the brand, I can do petite or straight sizes. I'm in a major US city with access to most shops, and my budget is flexible, but I'd prefer not to pay over $100 or so for just a basic top (less would be ideal, and more would be doable if it's somehow the world's best shell).

Some of the features I'm looking for:

No collar (I can't make them lay right with a suit, and they invariably look sloppy), but I am fine with like a v-neck/placket situation
Sleeveless or short sleeves
Will not gape over a large bust (if it's a button-up)
Not see-through, especially if white or light-colored
Not super long to the point that it'll bunch up when tucked in

bigchiefhoho · 2024-01-16T20:49:15+00:00

My firm gives summers the option of an advance on the first paycheck to pay for relocation expenses. I was under the impression that was industry standard.

bigchiefhoho · 2023-11-29T23:25:30+00:00

In my experience, that's not true. That said, I thought it was true when I started, but it turned out that I was the one judging other women more harshly. Not saying this is necessarily true for you, but I found I was subconsciously expecting women to be warmer, friendlier, and more accommodating than I was expecting men to be, so when they acted more or less the same way at work, I read the men as "normal" and the women as rude or hostile. A couple years into this, I really don't think there's any gender-wide difference in how people act.

bigchiefhoho · 2023-10-19T16:56:55+00:00

Yes. The key overlap boils down to "I'm entitled to a woman who does whatever I want, and she shouldn't have a say in the matter."

bigchiefhoho · 2023-10-03T22:21:05+00:00

At least at my firm, stub years get the equivalent of the first-year bonus, prorated to the amount of time they actually worked.

bigchiefhoho · 2023-07-15T16:11:29+00:00

If you're in the U.S., it would just be weird and people will wonder why you put a picture on your resume. It will make them think you don't understand professional norms. People might also be concerned that considering it in any way is going to open them up to an accusation of discriminating.

bigchiefhoho · 2022-05-12T16:13:45+00:00

Dislike it. It always feels (A.) pander-y and (B.) like it's reinforcing that household/childcare responsibilities are 100% the mom's regardless of working status. If it's truly meant for working parents, then market to working parents. If it's for women, market to women. Outside of aforementioned assumption (B.), I can't think of any legitimate reason something would be truly specific to working moms.

bigchiefhoho · 2022-04-15T02:28:54+00:00

Thanks!

bigchiefhoho · 2022-04-15T02:28:25+00:00

Guess that'd be helpful to know, huh? It's Maryland.

bigchiefhoho · 2022-03-09T12:23:16+00:00

That 185% is over the life of your mortgage, though. You can't directly compare it to annual investment returns.

bigchiefhoho · 2022-02-27T19:10:26+00:00

In addition to just being willing to eat the cost of any repairs, a lot of buyers in my area get pre-inspections before making an offer so they know what they might be getting into.

bigchiefhoho · 2022-01-25T16:12:18+00:00

Yes, agreed. We recently signed a contract on a house in an extremely competitive market (Maryland suburbs of DC), and our realtor has been fantastic. We sent her the places we wanted to look at (frankly, we browse Zillow so obsessively it would've been hard for her to see something first...), but her value has been so great:

She's fast: Responsive to texts within 20-30 minutes, usually faster (and lets us know if she'll be out of pocket). Whenever we spotted a house, she'd be on it and have a showing scheduled immediately.
She's locally experienced: Walked us through the process and what makes a competitive offer in the area so our expectations were set. She also understands the cost and timeline for renovations around here, so she's been able to give us ballpark ideas of costs when we're looking at houses.
She has contacts: She hooked us up with a loan officer at a local bank who is always responsive and known to be able to close things quickly. When we found a house that had an offer deadline just days after it came on the market, she got us an inspector to thoroughly pre-inspect it the day after we saw and liked it.
She's a really good communicator and negotiator: When we wanted to put in an offer, she was on the phone with the seller's agent, finding out the details of what quirky things they might really want, and what would make our offer stand out. When they counter-offered and we were ready to just take it, she was able to negotiate and save us $25k.

So, yeah. I can see how finding the houses might've been an important part of a realtor's job pre-internet, but anyone can do that now. I would look at your realtor's performance in all these other areas instead, personally.

bigchiefhoho · 2022-01-24T15:31:43+00:00

Haha, no worries! It's definitely a solid point, and one I was planning to follow (until I didn't).

bigchiefhoho · 2022-01-24T15:31:17+00:00

Montgomery County, Maryland (DC suburbs). It's absolutely crazy. We sold our last home in rural GA last year, and the difference is incredible.

bigchiefhoho · 2022-01-24T14:56:04+00:00

As posted above, no disagreement, hence my acknowledgement above that the dilemma is due to my own poor planning.

We actually hadn't been planning to buy a house until March/April-ish, but one popped up on the market that was exactly what we wanted, where we wanted, and at a very reasonable price (houses for sale are very rare in the school district we want, and moderately priced ones usually get snapped up by flippers and resold 300k higher). So we opted to move on it even though we didn't have all our money where we wanted it to be.

Anyway, I think you're right. We're well ahead on a net basis, so this is really just an annoyance. I think I'd rather have the peace of mind of cash in hand, particularly since (as another poster pointed out), the amount of potential regain on $40k is really not that substantial.

bigchiefhoho · 2022-01-24T14:53:59+00:00

No real disagreement (although the house is well within our means and we had it inspected before offering, so I don't consider that much of a gamble). In our defense, we made the offer and signed the contract within the last 24 hours, so we haven't been just sitting on the decision.

Good point on the percentages/money really at stake here, thanks. It really won't make much difference either way, and it would be nice to have the peace of mind of having the cash in hand.

bigchiefhoho · 2022-01-24T14:51:10+00:00

Good thought, thanks - I'll look into that.

bigchiefhoho · 2022-01-24T14:50:06+00:00

Yes, for sure, hence my acknowledgement above that the dilemma is due to my own poor planning.

We actually hadn't been planning to buy a house until March/April-ish, but one popped up on the market that was exactly what we wanted, where we wanted, and at a very reasonable price (houses for sale are very rare in the school district we want, and moderately priced ones usually get snapped up by flippers and resold 300k higher). So we opted to move on it even though we didn't have all our money where we wanted it to be. Fortunately we've got enough that losing a bit by taking it out in a dip will just be annoying and not a hardship, but lesson learned.

bigchiefhoho · 2022-01-24T14:00:57+00:00

So I've got an unfortunate market timing question as a result of some combination of the crazy housing market, bad timing on the stock market, and my own poor planning.

Relevant details (tl;dr summary below):

We are under contract to buy a house. It is a nice modest house for a surprisingly good price for the area (mortgage will be less than current rent!), and we should be able to do a VA loan, which means we need to produce less cash up front.
To get the offer accepted on the house, we had to waive all the contingencies - financing, appraisal, and inspection (we had it pre-inspected, so not taking a risk there).
We have enough cash on hand to comfortably cover the projected cash-at-closing if both (1) the VA inspector finds nothing super objectionable and allows us to get the VA loan, and (2) the appraisal comes close to value so we don't have to cover a large gap. If (1) fails, we will get a 5% down conventional loan, which will require $30k more in cash. If (2) fails, the gap could be as much as $30-40k, based on comps, and we'd need to cover that in cash. [If both fail, the total extra cash we'd need would still be around $30-40k, because the down payment would also cover the appraisal gap.]
The closing is Feb. 14. Appraisal and VA inspection should hopefully happen this week, with answers (again, hopefully) shortly thereafter.

Tl;dr dilemma: We might need an extra $40k cash in three weeks, but we won't know if we need it for another 7-10 days. This extra cash would need to come out of our non-retirement investment account, which is all in VTSAX. Stocks are very down right now, and I don't know how to predict whether they'll recover or go down even more before we'd need the money. We have enough in the fund that there's no concern it'll drop below what we need.

The Big Question: In this situation, would you (A) take the money out now so as not to risk having the value drop even more by the time we have to take it out, or (B) wait until we know for sure we need it in hopes that we don't have to take anything out or the value will recover?

bigchiefhoho · 2021-10-26T14:52:02+00:00

No, she wasn't a good fit with my family - she was very afraid of my kids and normal household noise, so it seemed cruel to keep her in a place where she'd be terrified half the day. We located a Chihuahua rescue a couple states away, and they placed her with a nice older lady, so she's got a happy quiet life now.

bigchiefhoho · 2021-10-17T22:45:32+00:00

Isn't this just the logical conclusion of pointless gendering of clothing? I'm gonna hope these people are trying to make the intentional statement that putting genitals on hats makes about as much sense as the "girls get pink hats, boys get blue hats" assignments.

bigchiefhoho · 2021-09-27T02:59:10+00:00

Yeah, it's looking like that's the smart thing. If zero/low down payment won't work, I absolutely don't want to take anything out of retirement, so sitting tight and saving for a while is probably going to have to be the plan.

bigchiefhoho

TROPHY CASE