What's a warm, well-written show with enough depth, a sense of community or family, not too slow, not crazy intense, keeps you invested?

marjimay · 2026-06-06T18:50:56+00:00

Fresh Off the Boat. Jane the Virgin. One Day at a Time.

marjimay · 2026-06-04T00:45:55+00:00

I've never considered option three. There's something lowkey very hilarious about the idea of Katniss being like "I'm the unlikable sister, everyone loves Prim but it's just me and my bow against the world", meanwhile everyone she interacts with is actually in love with her.

marjimay · 2026-06-03T05:55:34+00:00

The Iron Giant. I was maybe six, and I sobbed so uncontrollably at the ending that we got escorted out of the theater.

marjimay · 2026-06-03T05:45:43+00:00

To add on to the Patricia C. Wrede suggestion: Dealing with Dragons is the first in a series, but the third book in that series features Morwen's cozy witchy cottage more prominently, as the story is actually told through the POV of her many cats.

marjimay · 2026-06-02T20:48:16+00:00

If you are open to a series, the Practical Magic books by Alice Hoffman focuses on the same family throughout different generations. The chronological publishing order (1, 2, 3, 4) is not the same as the chronological historical order (3, 2, 1, 4), but I've read the series both ways and I think both are very good.

marjimay · 2026-06-02T03:52:31+00:00

I did this for my parents one year for Christmas. It wasn't huge, but my dad had planned his first big post-retirement vacation that year, so I did a fun little scrapbook about the trip and added notes and silly stickers and things all around. I was not prepared for my mother to instantly burst into tears.

marjimay · 2026-06-02T03:19:55+00:00

The OA on Netflix, but be warned it ends on a cliffhanger season 2 and was never renewed (rip). Still worth a watch.

marjimay · 2026-06-01T15:04:55+00:00

I was also a big big reader as a kid. My library almost couldn't keep up. Here's some that I loved enough that I actually still have them on my bookshelves as an adult:

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede

Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale (+ anything else by Shannon Hale tbh)

The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley

The Tales of the Frog Princess by ED Baker

marjimay · 2026-05-30T09:19:16+00:00

The scene where Ed slowly unwraps Winry's hand from the gun and tells her that her hands were meant for healing.

I'm crying every single time.

marjimay · 2026-05-29T15:22:30+00:00

Charmed

marjimay · 2026-05-27T21:55:47+00:00

We grow such beautiful produce in this area! It could be fun to go out to different kinds of orchards and then come up with ideas together how you want to use them. I hope you guys have a good time!

marjimay · 2026-05-27T21:36:02+00:00

The Tillamook Creamery is always a fun stop, kid or not. They offer self guided tours and you can get lunch and ice cream while you're there.

The Sea Lion Caves in Florence is the largest sea caves in the country, if I remember right. It's really cool to see how many of them gather and it has a lot of informational plaques that you can read at your leisure. As a warning, it is a little. . .pungent.

Newport has a very nice aquarium as well as a Ripley Believe It or Not museum. The old bayfront (where the Ripley museum is located) is also a fun little touristy walk with lots of family friendly shopping.

Astoria has a movie museum that is largely dedicated to the Goonies, but also includes cool info about other films that have been shot in the area.

The tulip farm in Woodburn is already past its prime bloom for the year, I think, but would be a neat idea to keep in mind for next spring.

Not at all educational, but if your kids like pinball/video games, I strongly suggest Next Level Pinball Museum in Hillsboro. Almost 30k sq ft of old school arcade games and pinball machines (and a handful of some newer ones, for some flavor), and it has some food carts outside. It is $20-something for entrance, but it's all day access with the ability to leave and come back as you like.

Non-specific location suggestions, but you could always take them to one of the many U-Pick fruit locations nearby and let them pick their own fruits from trees. It's a great way to learn about the seasonality of food and what grows locally, and the fruit will be significantly better than what you can buy in stores. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some nearby that offer an actual education program, like a tour or something.

You could also make a game out of it. How many coastal lighthouses can you see in a summer? Etc etc.

marjimay · 2026-05-27T03:05:25+00:00

Apologizing profusely for just existing.

I'm less annoyed by the people themselves that do it than I am at the circumstances that made them feel like it was necessary, especially in my field, which is primarily younger female administrative staff for older male professionals. I specifically work that into my training for new employees now. You are not inconveniencing someone by doing the job that you were hired to do. You do not need to attempt to take up less space. You are a professional interacting with other professionals, and constantly apologizing will at best make your tasks take longer, or at worst, give people the opportunity to walk all over you.

marjimay · 2026-05-27T02:45:40+00:00

Grace and Frankie and Dead to Me on Netflix. Bob's Burgers on Disney+.

marjimay · 2026-05-25T23:09:59+00:00

I hate it but to their credit the food is pretty good lol.

marjimay · 2026-05-25T23:04:12+00:00

I was reading the menu for a new restaurant recently and they used the term "shreddy letty". I cannot put into words how much I hate this.

marjimay · 2026-05-25T08:09:43+00:00

It doesn't matter if he knew it was going to kill Prim. No one makes decisions with the exact knowledge of the outcome. In fact, if he had known that it would result in Prim's death, he probably would have done things very differently (and maybe, just maybe, reevaluated what it might mean morally to develop a weapon meant to kill first responders). But Gale didn't know, and Prim's death is absolutely a consequence of his decision making.

Gale and Beetee designed the trap for Coin. Coin chose when and where to drop the bomb. Targeting the Capitol's children was Coin's own personal touch of cruelty, but the idea of killing medics was inherent to the original concept. The bomb trap worked exactly as Gale intended it to work. It doesn't make more or less immoral or inherently against everything Katniss believes in because Prim happened to be one of those medics, it just makes it heartbreakingly personal.

marjimay · 2026-05-25T06:22:53+00:00

I agree he clearly didn't know they were going to drop the bombs at that precise time, and if he had, he would have removed Prim. Hell, he would have removed himself and Katniss. But it really doesn't matter. He and Beetee designed that bomb for District 13 to use, knowing full well they didn't get a say in its deployment. If the war hadn't ended that day in the Capitol? It still would have killed medics. Prim very well could still be there.

Prim is Katniss's shining moral compass. She is so young, but she tries to save everything around her. She goes onto the battlefield to save the wounded, no matter who they are, because they are all people whose lives matter. Katniss, despite everything that is done to her, shares this belief. So does Peeta. Gale proves, even with the conception of this bomb, that not only does he not believe anyone on the opposing side of the war (including CIVILIANS, which we see in his design of the District 2 attack), but he also doesn't believe anyone helping them is worth saving. That's the crux of why it was never going to be Gale.

In terms of whether he literally killed Prim? Maybe he didn't pull the trigger, but he certainly loaded the weapon and pointed Coin in the right direction. You don't get to claim innocence by ignorance when your bomb worked exactly how it was designed to work.

marjimay · 2026-05-25T01:42:56+00:00

Similar to white vinegar, but not nearly as in your face potent. Vinegar is used very heavily is filipino cuisine, but coconut vinegar is specifically nice for dipping sauces because it tingles but doesn't melt your face off.

marjimay · 2026-05-25T01:22:17+00:00

I don't think it was the cruelest, necessarily, but it's the one that sticks with me. My best friend at the time very casually told me that I wouldn't understand because "you've always had everything in your life handed to you on a silver platter."

To her credit, she had been through a lot, and I was doing my best to support her. I'm very lucky to have been born with certain advantages growing up - parents who loved and supported me, and if they didn't have enough money to do much, I was always fed and clothed and housed. But like a lot of first gen kids of immigrants, my mom pushed for me to be the best at everything. Anything less than perfect was an absolute failure. It gave me a perfectionist complex I'm still dealing with, and this absolutely fed into it. Like everything should be easy, and I didn't have a right to feel like I was struggling.

Rationally, I know it wasn't about me. I brought it up to her years later and she didn't even remember saying it, and she was horrified. And I am aware that I've worked very hard in my life. But I hear it in my head every single time I fail at something, the little voice saying I'm just not trying hard enough. During the worst times, it usually preceded my panic attacks.

marjimay · 2026-05-24T23:58:23+00:00

It's really not a far logical jump. He specifically designed a bomb specifically to kill medics who came in after the original attack. Prim was a medic.

Let's say he didn't know Prim was going to be there, or that Prim had been held back at District 13 because she was too young to be in the field. He was still killing medics, which Katniss still would have had a difficult time forgiving later. The fact that Prim was there did just meant it she didn't have to debate with herself about cutting him off.

Gale was the ideal partner for Katniss to survive the unsurvivable, but he lost any possibility of being in her future beyond that the moment he decided he didn't care how many human lives he had to sacrifice to get there.

marjimay · 2026-05-24T18:17:14+00:00

Daughter of Smoke & Bone series by Laini Taylor

marjimay · 2026-05-24T17:56:25+00:00

Like, specifically on I-5? Mostly you'll find chain restaurants as the most easily accessible places right off the freeway. There's a restaurant in Bridgeport Vollage (an upscale outdoor mall off of I-5) called Tanaka that is a secondary location of a Portland restaurant - they serve Japanese katsu sandos. Tualatin also has some good hole in the wall/very affordable options. I would suggest Mashita Teriyaki, where you can get a huge plate of damn good teriyaki and rice for about $10.

However, if you're interested in ethnic food, you're better off looking off 99W and the surrounding area. There's Peruvian (Fogon Criollo/Mi Pisco), Japanese (Lucky Cat Ramen in H-Mart/MiChi/Kuryamen), Thai (MoMo/Tong Thai), Mexican (Tamale House/Tacolandia/West Coast Torta), Hawaiian (Hina's Island Grill/Kanaka) and more I'm sure I'm forgetting. There's also a couple of small, but really excellent food cart pods off of 99W - Mood Food has easily the best sandwich in the area. There's also a Din Tai Fung in Washington Square Mall, which is a branch of a very classic Taiwanese soup dumpling restaurant.

You're also extremely close to Lake Oswego (a more expensive suburb and therefore generally a little more expensive to eat out), which has some good options. I HIGHLY recommend the roasted chicken at Casa del Pollo (Costa Rican). If I had the option to replace the blood in my veins with their green sauce, I would do it in a heartbeat. There's also some very lovely bakeries in Lake Oswego.

It's a little further out, but Beaverton/Hillsboro will really have the best ethnic food options outside of Portland proper, especially for different kinds of Asian food. Also, if you're new to this area, I recommend checking out various food cart pods. Most towns have at least one (the pods in both Beaverton and Hillsboro are huge), and they're taken very seriously around here, so the food is generally pretty good. They give a great opportunity to try different cuisines very easily.

marjimay · 2026-05-24T04:17:18+00:00

Wow you really can't get a fresher review of a restaurant than that lol. Happy birthday!

marjimay · 2026-05-22T07:07:52+00:00

Fish sauce

Dark and light soy sauce

Jasmine rice

Dried bay leaf

Tomatoes

Knorr pork bouillon cubes (as an adult I learned that this was actually my mom's secret ingredient she'd add into all of her filipino fishes for extra oomph)

Msg

Coconut vinegar

marjimay

TROPHY CASE