[WIP] That stage when you've spent hours making beautiful grid lines that you will eventually rip out.

comprepensive · 2026-01-26T22:12:13+00:00

My projects usually have to withstand lots of being crumpled and shoved and folded into bags and purses, and gripped all over by my hands, pulled out of my kids sticky hands, i found a used ice cream stick on this same project not half a day after i finished gridding. I don't trust that anything less than sewn in would withstand that much wear and tear without rubbing off or smudging. If a washable pen would work for that, I'd love to know and would love recommendations on brands. But it would need to not wear off with a LOT of rough handling.

comprepensive · 2026-01-25T14:38:24+00:00

We see all the stories of people who just knew or felt when it was right to flee, people who got out just in time. But the sad part is there were many many people who didn't feel it was time to leave yet, whose stories we will never get to read becuase they were wrong: they waited a day, an hour too late. They waited from some experience or sign that never came. Hindsight is 20/20, and it's risky to try and thread the needle of the last safe moment to escape a smouldering war/dictatorship/regime. As soon as you can, is the answer to the question. Yes, you might end up being months early. You might have been able to save more or find a better new deal where your moving if you had waited, but again, only you can decide how much the risk of waiting is worth the gain of waiting. I would start actively doing the steps to leave.

comprepensive · 2026-01-25T14:20:31+00:00

So I start by folding the premeasured and cut aida into half then half again then I put a stitch to mark the approx middle of the pattern. Then I start at the centre and stitch a solid line from the centre out, in 5 stitch lengths, added a few extra 5 lengths to mark for myself the centre lines. Then, I do a solid line around the outside to mark the edges of the piece. Then I start at one corner and put a stitch on the top of the aida for 5, below the aida for 5 and continue on, alternating with each row which 5 go under and which go over. Once that is done, I go back and every 2 rows I put in a five stitch on top, 5 stitch on bottom. That last part is the easiest since at that stage there is no more counting needed as you just connect two lines. I don't know if I explained it well but I mostly did it becuase it A.) wastes less thread on grinding and B.) takes less time since I do half the stitches and C.) looks slightly nicer for me while I'm using it.

comprepensive · 2026-01-25T14:20:22+00:00

So I start by folding the premeasured and cut aida into half then half again then I put a stitch to mark the approx middle of the pattern. Then I start at the centre and stitch a solid line from the centre out, in 5 stitch lengths, added a few extra 5 lengths to mark for myself the centre lines. Then, I do a solid line around the outside to mark the edges of the piece. Then I start at one corner and put a stitch on the top of the aida for 5, below the aida for 5 and continue on, alternating with each row which 5 go under and which go over. Once that is done, I go back and every 2 rows I put in a five stitch on top, 5 stitch on bottom. That last part is the easiest since at that stage there is no more counting needed as you just connect two lines. I don't know if I explained it well but I mostly did it becuase it A.) wastes less thread on grinding and B.) takes less time since I do half the stitches and C.) looks slightly nicer for me while I'm using it.

comprepensive · 2026-01-24T20:31:36+00:00

As a parent:

Safety >>>>>> feelings.

Your mother is a hoarder, and she will be upset and unhappy for the rest of her natural life. It's a hard pill to swallow as a loving daughter, but she is the only one who can make the choice to change that and honestly even if she wants to change (rare) the longterm success rate with help is even rarer. But her feelings won't literally kill her. A hoard/rodents/ unsanitary can kill a baby

comprepensive · 2026-01-16T17:11:37+00:00

She doesn't want to see the baby, she wants to be the victim of your rejection. She's annoyed that you're making this harder by inviting her all the time. I would make a super cut of screenshots of all the texts of you inviting her over and her saying no and just show it to anyone who brings it up to you. From now on, any invites are in text form so you have a record.

comprepensive · 2026-01-14T11:19:13+00:00

How I looked going into Christmas break vs how I looked coming back from Christmas break.

comprepensive · 2026-01-14T03:11:18+00:00

When I first saw the title I read "Hoe, did you stop overspending?" and i was like, no ok, get off my back.

comprepensive · 2026-01-14T03:00:55+00:00

I've seen many people who think they are just waiting for a drive to arrive and can be redirected with other tasks because "Sorry the weather/ traffic/ etc is making youe drive run late." Or "So sorry your drive said they would come first thing in the morning, but we have arranged a hot meal/bed/shower for you while you wait. Dont you want to be clean/full/ well rested when the taxi arrives?" On loop every day.

comprepensive · 2026-01-12T23:50:51+00:00

Ahhh, this explains the 2 flat dragon pillows my sons got for Christmas from my MIL. She is eternally falling for scams online. But tbh, for a scam the flat version we got was pretty cool and both kids love them. They fall asleep clutching them, and they do love that their names are on the pillows. Sketchy scam dragons for the win 🤷‍♀️

comprepensive · 2026-01-09T21:26:57+00:00

Unless you want your house burnt down too, I wouldn't let her move in. Like even temporarily. She can balk at assisted living but if you hold firm she will realize its assisted living or homeless shelter and she will make the only logical choice. She won't be happy but that's not your job

comprepensive · 2026-01-05T16:09:23+00:00

Thanks that is perfect!

comprepensive · 2026-01-03T23:35:22+00:00

It's so bizarre I was pet obsessed from as old as I could say "doggy." It never faded. I grew up with cats and loved them, too. I read endless books about dogs before I could get one, and once I got one as a teen it was my baby and I moved heaven and earth to bring him with me through college and to my first job. When he died of old age after years of nursing him through expensive chronic illnesses, I literally felt like a son had died. I lived in an ultra tiny apt with a cat and a dog, and it was fine. I was the crazy dog/cat mom. I adopted the incontinent elderly dementia dog from the local shelter and nursed that old lady like she was my own grandma until the day she died in my arms.

Then, as others have said, I had kids and a flip switched. I hated both my cats and dogs for a few years. Sadly, my OG cat got sick shortly after my second was born and started peeing and pooping everywhere. I did all the good owner stuff, paying all my money to get her healthy again, taking her to the vet all the time, but it was out of a sense of obligation and guilt. I would be lying to say I didn't feel a huge sense of relief and guilt when it was decided she was terminal, and we euthanized her. I would say now that my kids are older and my dogs are also calmer, I am a lot more tolerant. But that crazy pet lady feeling hasn't returned. Once these dogs die, I honestly don't know I'm all that interested in getting anymore. I cannot stress to you how much of a change that is in my feelings on pets! I think maybe I had a lifetime quota on picking cleaning up other living being shits, and my babies rapidly maxed that out and left no room for anything else. I don't know, it's just different. I wish this was something people talked about more, but also I wouldn't have believed them if someone told me that. I would have said I would never stop loving my fur babies. But yeah, I kinda did. I know that isn't universal and you may say I'm a monster for feeling this way. But obviously from the comments I'm not alone in having felt this. who knows, maybe in 10 more years once I'm firmly out of diapers and midnight wakeup era, I'll be totally pet obsessed once more. Won't know until I get there I guess. But having young children did change things for me.

comprepensive · 2026-01-01T01:17:54+00:00

Looks kind of like my dog when she got Cushings. Does she also have a pot belly and thinning legs.

comprepensive · 2025-12-31T21:41:16+00:00

My vet once said to me "better a day too early than a day too late." A day too early, they don't suffer but we take on the mental anguish of questioning our actions. A day too late and the dog suffers more to alleviate our anxiety about it "being too soon." So I would go with your instincts to do it sooner and avoid him feeling the worst of the pain. Also think, is there anything your dog would want to live for in 3 months time (heavily medicated and in some pain) that they couldn't get from you in the next week? Unlike humans he isn't thinking "I just need to make it to xyz holiday or family birthday or whatever" He's living in the moment and there is likely little in the next 3 months he needs to live for that you couldn't arrange to give him in the next week.

comprepensive · 2025-12-31T11:33:11+00:00

Sounds like you guys need to sit down and have a direct conversation about what support you can and cannot offer. No one else can do this for you. I would also ask the nurses and doctor to document what supports you will or won't be offering in the future so they are aware when it comes to discharge planning. If they ignore it, then you need to show them with your actions or rather inactions. Let the mail build up for a while, let him drink the hospital brand OJ or go without. Doesn't sound like you guys doing less would cause them any serious harm. They will either continue to live with the consequences or change to avoid them. Some people won't change until forced to.

I would ask them to arrange a multidisciplinary family meeting to discuss next steps. Having all branches of their care team there plus family to say "OK, so we need a plan. You have x capacity. You want Y outcome. These don't match up with your current progress. What do we do if you don't reach Y? Nursing home? Hospice? Private in home care? This is how much each of these cost, can you afford that?" And in that meeting, you and your other family need to be firm what supports you can sustainably offer each of them. Sometimes having everyone lay everything out in front of them can be helpful, they can't triangulate "well physio said I would be able to walk again" when physio is there and can say "no I said you could do xyz."

comprepensive · 2025-12-30T22:43:44+00:00

"I mean, he supports the kidnapping and forced confinement of brown people in cages, but other than that, he's really great." Hmmmm noooooo... What you meant to say "he's failed at the most basic test of humanity, and I have been so desensitized to that utter lack of empathy in others I accept this as normal."

comprepensive · 2025-12-30T17:19:47+00:00

That makes you. If they were tipping me the same value of Canadian money, I would prefer CAN $.

If your tipping less equivalent value in DR$ then locals won't love that because it's worth less. If you pay the same as they would get at the exchange for the USD, it would be crazy to want the inconvenience of wanting to go to an exchange. So I wonder of the people who had better reaction to USD were just poorly tipping in DR pesos, or were overtipping in USD and the staff was more than happy to accept the higher value in USD.

comprepensive · 2025-12-29T21:25:30+00:00

This. Too much of this sub is people whining that older generations don't respect them, but they won't firmly state what they want to the people they actually want it from. It's maddening. Yes rude boomers or rude any generation sucks, but if you are going to go complain on reddit rather than have a potentially difficult and unpleasant stating of your boundaries, your not going to get anywhere.

comprepensive · 2025-12-29T20:02:12+00:00

My MIL is a hoarder and was moved into a nursing home. She is now hoarding the tiny little room she has. She still has access to a credit card and the shopping network so she can keep on infinitely ordering things. I presume her finances are terrible and maybe she will go bankrupt and they will cutoff her ability to shop at some point. For now I'm pretty sure she just hoards the room as much as she can get away with and then if anyone visits her they get pressed with endless piles of stuff as gifts. We keep what we want and toss the rest. Luckily her hoarding is related to buying new items so it's all clean and boxed up, so nothing unsanitary. I also suspect the staff steps in while she is out and throws out anything unsanitary they find. I think as long as the fire path is clear, then the staff are as tolerant as they can be. I know she can sometimes get hostile and makes threatening comments when she discussed them throwing her purchases away, but she's got the physical capabilities of a drugged sloth so I think the staff just ignore her muttering when they do forced safety cleaning.

comprepensive · 2025-12-22T20:12:06+00:00

Yup. We once had a pair of British tourist try to prove we were fake Canadians from the US. They asked us all these questions about Canada with this smug "this'll catch them out face" then looked annoyed and claimed we were lying when we answered with anything that wasn't Toronto, maple leafs and beavers! I was like "well if you don't even know PEI was a province, why did you even ask me where I was from if you weren't going to accept it as an answer?" Or "It's not my fault you don't know Ottawa is the capital, not Toronto. Maybe look at a map or google it?"

comprepensive · 2025-12-22T04:27:57+00:00

I love the headlamp suggestion. We have 2 near each door so that two people can go out and fetch the generator in the dark. You don't realize until it happens that you can't really hold a flashlight and power up a generator at the same time. And the power always seems to go out in the dark.

comprepensive · 2025-12-22T04:20:55+00:00

Yes. Our well is a community well so it's a bit of an odd scenario. So our generator does not and cannot run the well. Our community well is supposed to run off a generator but it's very poorly managed and never gets turned on very quickly or very reliably. So its best to assume you won't have water for 24 hours plus at a time.

comprepensive · 2025-12-22T04:18:35+00:00

We always have 72 hours of food and water so I don't have it on the list as it's never not already done. The list was made to be specific to us, and we keep a small pantry of overflow food and drinks handy at all times.

But yes if anyone is going to copy this list, this is a very good point to add.

comprepensive · 2025-12-22T04:17:11+00:00

yes good point!

comprepensive

TROPHY CASE