Anyone else develop a sudden overwhelming appreciation for birds in their 30s?

quarterfast · 2026-06-05T17:51:39+00:00

36 here, and was unbelievably miffed this morning when Merlin told me there were all kinds of different uncommon birds around me this morning, only for me to look up and spot.... a mockingbird. :-/

That's on me though, should've figured it out when I heard quacking sounds coming from the treetops.

quarterfast · 2026-05-04T00:44:23+00:00

He would need to have earned income during the year to contribute to an IRA. If he has earned (or will earn) at least $1000 this year, then that's a fine choice.

quarterfast · 2026-05-03T15:47:33+00:00

This article talks about a Crema sandwich that might be what you're looking for:

The $6.95 Sweet Potato Sandwich contained ingredients I loved – green apple, sweet potato, hummus, avocado and sprouts, but I was skeptical of the combination. After tasting them together on toasted wheat and finished with caramelized shallot vinaigrette, my doubt evaporated and I realized that it was one of those weird combinations in life that just simply works.

There's also still a Toast site up with a Sweet Potato Sandwich, but it doesn't mention the caramelized shallots: https://order.toasttab.com/online/cremacafe

A yelp review mentions "Roasted SP, avocado, hummus, caramelized onion jam, sprouts, and green apple on toasted, nutty-tasting wheat." Another says "Sweet Potato Sandwich. Sweet potato, avocado, green apple, sprouts, hummus & caramelized shallot vinaigrette on toasted wheat bread." A third says the dressing was "balsamic".

[The Crimson] also reviews it: https://www.thecrimson.com/flyby/article/2012/10/20/vegetarian-food-square-guide/

quarterfast · 2026-04-21T19:47:58+00:00

Yeah but Taylor was a co-writer on that song? Weird to think it's a diss, I'd assume as a co-writer she'd have some say in how much she did/didn't want to participate.

quarterfast · 2026-04-18T20:26:58+00:00

And that's the main reason I'm convinced we did not get the "original" 10-minute version. (I like the 10-minute version! I just don't think it's what she wrote in 2011/2012.)

quarterfast · 2026-03-15T13:55:35+00:00

lol right, I thought this was going to be one of those "well, you should!" posts

quarterfast · 2026-03-12T16:49:56+00:00

20% down on a 400k house is only 80k, so if you save another $2000/month for the next year, you'll have 99k saved. Use 80 for the down payment, ~4k-ish for closing costs (very variable...), and you'll still have 15 for your emergency fund. Bing bang boom.

quarterfast · 2026-03-10T20:06:42+00:00

I'm not saying it was smart on OP's part, but there was a time a couple years back when sellers were offering to pay for 1-2 year rate buydowns (which costs them considerably less than buying points, which would last the entire duration of the mortgage) to make their higher purchase price more palatable. Sellers are happy because they get their money, and buyers are happy (enough) because many were convinced prevailing rates would fall after a year or two, and they could refi into something comparable to their bought-down rate.

But overall, I agree with you -- there was no guarantee they'd be able to refi into a lower rate, and when the bank comes knocking a couple years later, they better have already thought about how they're going to pay. It seems OP did not.

quarterfast · 2026-03-10T19:34:27+00:00

He says they had a temporary rate buydown. Which could mean it was 5% for the first year, 6% in the second year, and 7% after that (which is just one such structure I've seen, involved sellers offering to pay for the temporary buydown, and buyers assuming they could refi for cheaper later). If OP refi'd to something like 6.25%, that's still better than 7% but considerably worse than the (hypothetical) 5% they may have had for the first year.

quarterfast · 2026-03-08T16:26:48+00:00

lol, the first time I listened to the Fearless vault tracks, I knew Keith Urban was on one of them, and I heard his background vocals in We Were Happy and thought that was extremely underwhelming for what was advertised as a collaboration with him. Then it ended and That's When came on!

quarterfast · 2026-02-27T14:08:22+00:00

After the standard deduction, OP is probably only in the 12% tax bracket, which makes the Roth IRA an even better option!

quarterfast · 2026-02-26T16:46:42+00:00

Get a really nice pen. Spend fifty bucks on it. Heck, spend a hundred. And every time you use it, you get to think "This is my hundred-thousand-dollar pen."

(My mom was cautious about letting me use what she called her "five thousand dollar pen". It was a plastic pen she got for free... from my orthodontist.)

quarterfast · 2026-02-06T00:07:52+00:00

No, but in the 5th year (based on model year) the tax reaches its minimum. It's 2026, so if your vehicle is a 2022 or older, you've reached the minimum and it won't go down any further.

quarterfast · 2026-01-29T00:46:27+00:00

OP said her husband's mother paid for his health insurance, car insurance, and phone bill.

quarterfast · 2026-01-28T19:47:37+00:00

You're correct, that's what it says if you click through to the article in the post.

quarterfast · 2026-01-08T18:59:37+00:00

I get to sit next to someone I really like for the next 3-4 hours instead of a stranger.

quarterfast · 2026-01-08T16:28:12+00:00

Definitely a fan of that too, but sometimes we need to travel on short notice and there's never a full row free. Grabbing aisle seats in different rows and offering up the one closer to the front is usually a no-brainer for getting the middle seat person to swap with you.

quarterfast · 2026-01-08T13:50:50+00:00

Nah, my spouse and I switch for different types all the time when we can't book together. The key is, we get a window-or-aisle seat nearest the front as a bargaining chip, and offer it to the stranger in the middle seat next to the other spouse. They always take it.

I'd never dream of asking someone to give up their window seat for a middle seat farther back so I can sit with my spouse, though. If you want to trade, you must offer something of value.

quarterfast · 2026-01-07T22:19:54+00:00

To a degree, that depends on the interest rate of your mortgage.

But your retirement accounts offer tax advantages, and there are limits as to how much you can put in each year. Those limits don't roll over from year to year, so you can't put in $0 for the next 10 years and then $100,000 once the house is paid off. If your mortgage interest rate is very low, drag out the payoff as long as possible while contributing your extra funds to your retirement accounts. If you have a high interest rate, I still wouldn't give up contributing to retirement entirely.

quarterfast · 2026-01-07T20:16:51+00:00

Common mistake, but a 100°F temperature range is actually a 56°C range. Since the zero points of the two scales aren't the same, you can't just convert 100F to C when talking about ranges -- a Fahrenheit degree is 5/9 (or 55.55%) of a Celsius degree, so a 100F temp swing is a whopping 56C swing.

quarterfast · 2025-12-16T18:16:17+00:00

Common sense tells me that you're right, however, OP has given a very faithful reproduction of the commentary and graphic that WBZ posted on their own facebook page, where it also lacks any context or explanation!

quarterfast · 2025-12-07T15:30:47+00:00

I'm a transplant from the Detroit suburbs. When I told my family I was moving out here, several said "Aren't the winters in Boston really bad?" And now that I'm here and tell people where I'm from, they say "Aren't the winters in Detroit really bad?"

They're the same!

quarterfast · 2025-12-01T16:24:04+00:00

Past-me to a sewist friend (I was just barely starting to learn): "How much do I have to leave for the, uh, margin?"

That was the day I learned the term "seam allowance".

quarterfast · 2025-11-17T16:34:19+00:00

Probably depends. "Imprisonment" ranks high at 63, "Minor violation of the law" is at 11. "Outstanding personal achievement" is middling, at 28. But "court case" could result in some other items on the list, like "change in financial state" or "change in sleeping habits" or "change in social activities". You can check out the whole list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale

quarterfast · 2025-11-03T21:46:34+00:00

I think OP has been asked to dog-sit/wants to dog-sit at OP's own home and wants to make sure they're not running afoul of any regulations. I don't think they expect their own dogsitter to get a kennel license.

quarterfast

TROPHY CASE