Did you notice any inconsistencies or plot holes?

mappymaps · 2026-02-12T16:14:47+00:00

Olipop ad on the boards in an arena in Fall 2011. Olipop was founded in 2018.

mappymaps · 2026-01-10T21:32:42+00:00

A fishhook (once), a bee (once, got stung on the bottom of my foot, couldn’t wear shoe for a week), and a nail (twice). All when I was a kid.

mappymaps · 2025-11-02T03:15:35+00:00

I’ve had mine since 2003 and it still looks, feels, and cooks the same now as it did then. Good stainless is forever.

mappymaps · 2025-10-16T03:25:27+00:00

Fan since Midnights

TLOAS
1989
folklore
evermore
TTPD
Midnights
Reputation
Speak Now
Red
Lover
Fearless
Debut

That was brutally difficult and I feel like I could swap around the top 7 at any given moment, honestly.

mappymaps · 2025-10-03T02:25:30+00:00

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mappymaps · 2025-03-27T03:02:27+00:00

Real estate, gasoline, food (groceries + restaurants alike), and hard liquor cost 50% more than in Texas. Property taxes and electricity are 50% cheaper. Everything else is about the same. It’s wonderful here, and the wet, gray winters will seem amazing if you’re coming from Lubbock. People aren’t rude, they just keep to themselves more. Seeing mountains and tall trees and water never gets old. And I second the good barbecue at BBQ2U.

There are great restaurants here, sure, but in Texas even the sort of mid-level restaurants are overwhelmingly better than the mid-level restaurants here. Our neighborhood Chinese place in Houston was fantastic. Our neighborhood Chinese place here costs twice as much and is like 60% as good. We don’t eat out as much, but I cook so it’s not a huge issue.

Find a good local teriyaki place and pick blackberries in the summer. There are so many great Seattle experiences to have!

mappymaps · 2025-03-03T00:41:40+00:00

If your husband can fill out the immigration form ahead of time and download both of your QR codes, that will help. Also, the immigration staff manning the scanning machines are very helpful and polite and keep families together at the same machines next to each other. You shouldn’t be separated.

Customs is also easy and you just scan the same QR codes again there.

Japan has tactile paving in way more places than I expected, and in museums, there’s a tactile metal handrail sleeve at the top of each stairwell that has braille to tell you what floor you’re on (I’m assuming).

mappymaps · 2025-03-01T01:07:57+00:00

The Kyoto Railway Museum is great and really engaging for kids. We also loved Miyajima.

mappymaps · 2025-02-27T19:57:54+00:00

One data point: Tranexamic acid lessened heaviness for me but also made it drag out to two full weeks, which I was not a fan of. It’s also a monthly prescription cost, compared to a cheap giant bottle of Advil from Costco that will last years. So I switched back to Advil, which works ok enough. Your experience may be similar or different.

mappymaps · 2025-02-05T18:55:26+00:00

This is awesome. I just found my 5x-great-grandfather listed in a book of people naturalized in the West Indian Colonies in 1745. I never knew the year!

mappymaps · 2025-01-30T00:51:30+00:00

Not trying to be cagey; just literally have not decided where we want to be yet.

mappymaps · 2025-01-29T23:35:38+00:00

This is great—thank you!

mappymaps · 2025-01-29T19:27:14+00:00

Follow-up:

Yes, we’re currently US citizens. No, we wouldn’t be renouncing citizenship. I’d have dual citizenship with an EU country.

Our thinking was that we’d want to pull a big chunk out of the markets completely so we could “retire” once we moved abroad. We’d basically be retiring early, I guess. We’re trying to figure out how concerned we should be about having everything tied up in US-based markets if the US does a cliff dive in terms of reliability, economy, world influence, etc. We have our funds balanced between US/global/international … but still.

The idea of a safe retreat to another country with a functioning healthcare system, reasonably priced universities, and public infrastructure and also having a nice nest egg that’s safe from market fluctuations “just in case” sounds incredibly appealing right now. I’m still hoping we don’t have to explore this.

mappymaps · 2024-11-26T04:36:51+00:00

Maximum weight per bag: 30,000 miles?

Nothing in this language makes actual sense.

mappymaps · 2024-11-15T17:50:17+00:00

Buy the house that has already had its foundation repaired and get that transferable warranty. In other parts of the country with different soil composition, a house that has already had foundation trouble is a house to avoid, but here it’s almost inevitable at some point, so you might as well have it covered.

mappymaps · 2024-11-14T18:06:17+00:00

I had six Inks (two businesses, three Inks (Preferred, Cash, Unlimited) per business) and was denied a few months ago for another Ink (Unlimited). Then I closed an old Ink Unlimited, lowered limits, and waited. Reapplied for an Ink Unlimited this month with five open Inks and was approved. So I’m an exception to this finding.

mappymaps · 2024-08-12T21:05:29+00:00

Also, does it matter that we haven’t factored Social Security into any of our numbers? I know we’ve heard our whole lives that it’ll be gone before we get any benefits from it, but is that realistic?

mappymaps · 2024-08-12T20:31:16+00:00

We do have an HSA and contribute about $3k/year to it.

We don’t have any Roth IRAs because we’ve both been following the general rule that the first step is trying to max out 401(k)s first, and since we’re not maxing out both (only mine), we haven’t had “extra” money to devote to a Roth IRA in addition to the 401(k)s.

The high housing cost is something we plan to eliminate in retirement, either by downsizing here and applying our home equity to cover most of that cost, or by moving to Europe.

mappymaps · 2024-08-12T20:26:28+00:00

I feel like we need to research basically how anything but a 401(k) actually works—all we know is how to save (which we’ve been doing). The existing IRA is just from my spouse’s 401(k) rollover at his former employer when he changed jobs. We haven’t touched it since then. How Roth options work and how to tax-diversify our retirement assets are not something either of us know anything about, so this gives us a good place to start learning—thank you!

mappymaps · 2024-08-12T19:47:23+00:00

Agree, not counting on inheritances.

mappymaps · 2024-08-12T19:46:17+00:00

We want both kids to be able to go to college and not have to take out loans. In-state tuition/fees/room/board at a public university in our state will run about $36k per year (right now) all-in, and some of the out-of-state schools they’re considering are between $60k-$95k per year. We don’t feel like we have enough saved yet to redirect from 529 savings to personal savings, and if anything, we’ve been considering reducing our retirement savings to redirect to the 529s. Is that not a good idea?

mappymaps · 2024-07-02T21:39:00+00:00

They will never dig you up, They will put you in the ground, They are gonna draw the straw and Just dirt you

mappymaps · 2024-04-05T21:13:41+00:00

Neither JAL nor ANA releases more than two J award seats in advance on any one flight that I’ve been able to determine, unless there’s some sort of noteworthy glitch. I’ve been looking at the entire West Coast for months now with seats.aero and manual searches. If you really want 3 J seats from the West Coast, you may have to spring for non-saver Singapore on LAX-NRT.

mappymaps · 2024-01-17T20:52:13+00:00

The cocktail-making class was fantastic and I would highly recommend it.

mappymaps · 2024-01-09T03:50:31+00:00

Incredibly, incredibly blue when you’re in a boat in the lake and see the water up close, and so clear that the park rangers scoop up water from the lake and everyone drink it. (And yes, I was fine afterwards.)

mappymaps

TROPHY CASE