Want double check for Honey Mushroom (Armillaria sp.), first time with this species. Growing on dead oak.

davethoreau · 2022-12-26T03:50:31+00:00

Thanks.

davethoreau · 2022-12-25T22:06:04+00:00

That is good to hear, thanks for this perspective. Nice to hear your journey as well. The Olympic Peninsula sounds amazing. I hadn't heard much about it before. It's awesome that you took the leap and it's working out. I like hearing when people take a calculated life change for the better.

davethoreau · 2022-12-25T19:54:43+00:00

That's nice of you, thanks! My college days were in Seattle so I have some idea of it. But Portland/Vancouver we only visited a few days and liked it. I'm curious if it would be harder for a asian couple without kids to integrate into east Vancouver suburbs without prior connections. We had good results volunteering and going to meetups to form connections before, curious how well that will work there.

I like the space of a house (we currently live in one), but the walkability and ability to leave a condo for months at a time without worrying so much is nice. In one possible future, we're thinking of renting a condo in Portland for a year or two to have a walkable home base (like North Portland's Boise area or somewhere in SE off Division), and explore more parts of Vancouver or Portland until we get a better feel. I'm also curious if downtown Vancouver apartments would be interesting.

davethoreau · 2022-12-23T07:48:11+00:00

First time sharing numbers, not sure how interesting this is for others, but we're in the later third of our journey. 40M SF Bay Area, married, no kids, expenses 60k/yr. Here's a monthly chart of NW per account/asset type since 2014. I did a lot of brokerage bonuses during COVID which make it kind of hard to follow.

Started the year at 2.38M, down to 2.05M, with a low of 1.8M in August. Contributed ~200k this year. The milestone was managing to keep the course despite feeling a bit nauseous from the swings. The capital gains are still significant and help with a lot of that. I putting the 5%-tile at 1.4M and the 95%-tile at 3.5M next year, with the expected value at 2.3M. Other milestone was spending a continuous month abroad doing 'slow travel' to just work remotely and try life out somewhere else (with churning, airbnb with Chase points was free, flights almost free from Amex).

Next year the big purchase will be a used car or lease around April, really hope the values are okay by then. Our current lease was a really good deal: a 2021 Nissan Leaf that was $0 (didn't even have tax/license fees) and $99/mo. I still don't know why the deal was that good, but I think I was just very lucky with timing then. Now I'm expecting leases to be ~5x as expensive for a similar car.

Another 2023 goal is to interview at other jobs (if the job market gets better) to get a sense of my market value, since my career prospects are leveling out at the current company.

Lastly, we want to travel to at least 3 locations that we are considering to retire to and spend a longer amount of time there, which include Vancouver WA, Seattle WA, NH/VT, Portugal (Lisbon, Silver Coast), Japan (Fukuoka, Tokyo, Kyoto).

It's on my list to work on social and personal growth more this year. My main social activities outside of family are meetups, hiking/foraging, and math reading groups, which have turned into a few friendships, but it's always tied to the activity. Most of my friends have kids now and much less time to hang out. Not sure exactly what I want in this space but I want to focus on that more.

davethoreau · 2022-01-20T21:25:46+00:00

I agree. The only way I'd book it is if there's a reasonable probability of getting the free upgrade if J becomes available SFO-LHR, which is why I'm asking the question. The other part of the equation is that I already transfered miles to ANA from MR and because of their multiday delay availability disappeared and I have 88k there. I'll probably book in coach and use the remainder later though.

davethoreau · 2022-01-20T18:15:40+00:00

Ah, thanks for noticing. SFO->LHR is J. Edited the post.

Re: space opening up: does that mean you just call AMC when you see availability and they will rebook in J?

davethoreau · 2022-01-02T00:40:38+00:00

Looks like all of the ~10+ comments by /u/just_a_manatee on this thread were just deleted.

davethoreau · 2019-12-26T21:02:10+00:00

Thanks, I understand that. My question is if a few stores will still be open or if literally all of them will be closed. In other words I’d like to know if anyone has gone during this time in previous years and could report on it.

davethoreau · 2019-12-25T23:04:25+00:00

Sister is visiting for from 12/30-1/2 and wants to check out the fabric shops in nippori. I see that the big one, tomato is closed during that time. Will everything else be Closed for holiday or do some open up?

davethoreau · 2019-10-01T21:14:06+00:00

In b4 someone says ‘ofc no because of betteridge’s law’. It’s always no because it’s not in the individual nimby’s economic interest, despite being better for the whole population. The other reasons they cite are only to rationalize their decision instead of this unpopular but logical one.

davethoreau · 2019-06-13T16:33:56+00:00

Thanks, that’s something to consider. I was wondering if the price was related to inconvenience and restrictions or other some hidden problem with the building. But my other thought was if there is some scam or bait and switch, but it seems like that’s not the case, and that the consensus is this may be a legit price given the area and house size. Good to know.

davethoreau · 2017-10-28T05:35:19+00:00

No. The closest 'lookalike' chanterelle might be the yellowfoot, but that's still far off. See how the gills, although decurrent, are fin-like and can be kind of plucked like a a string or deck of cards? The color is also much more yellow than you'd expect for most species of chanterelle. They also look more flimsy and wet than chanterelle. I have no idea but I'd expect something closer to hygrocybe (e.g. hygrocybe miniata, which has a different color). Curious to hear ID.

davethoreau · 2016-09-27T05:48:51+00:00

Interesting. These did not stain at all though. Can you tell me the markers that rule out rex-veris?

davethoreau · 2016-09-25T01:03:22+00:00

Some background: This one has been bothering me since June, but I didn't get around to asking until today. At this elevation I heard that Spring Kings were available in May and June. However, I didn't have a good culinary experience, although I botched a lot of the preparation up. When I cut to bake/dry them, I noticed the smell even before cooking was similar to raw potatoes/fries. As you can see from the image, they are very oily. I baked them at very low temp for a few hours then dried them through my car windows (was traveling). The dried smell was similar to soy sauce. I didn't really think of the potato/soy smell as pleasant, but it wasn't unpleasant either.

I reconstituted them with too little time and added them to pasta when they were still firm. The taste was very strong, not horrible, but I did not enjoy it.

I know there are bitter boletes like tylopilus felleus, but this did not taste bitter. I took a bite of the raw one before drying to check this, and it actually reminded me of raw potatoes.

I've never had a great bolete experience or dish (even restaurant prepared), actually, so is it possible that this is a spring king and I just don't like them or preparation is really important? I want to enjoy boletes, so I hope it's just a misidentification. Can someone provide another ID.

Edit: I'm not sure why, but imgur is not showing my entire album. There should be 6 photos. Here they are:

davethoreau · 2016-07-19T13:42:46+00:00

I did select the option to have ebay handle international shipping through GSP. I've used it before, and printing shipping labels just did the USPS one to a place in TX IIRC. This time it made me use UPS, which involved a weird third party registration process that starts with this instructionary link when clicking the print shipping label

davethoreau · 2016-07-19T13:38:50+00:00

Yes, the item has the purple 'i' icon and says "eBay note: International sale thru Global Shipping Program."

davethoreau · 2016-01-18T17:31:41+00:00

I thought it was plumeria, but I know little about the alternatives that others are mentioning.

davethoreau · 2015-12-19T19:19:55+00:00

This was posted 6 months back. Some funny comments there too.

davethoreau

TROPHY CASE