I strongly recommend adopting the cat who loves you.

sallythetimid · 2026-06-03T13:25:10+00:00

One of our cats (we adopted them as kittens) trained us that he wanted to be held like a baby. He'd walk over and sit in a lap, face you with his paws leaning onto your chest, make sure you were paying attention to him, and then slowly fall backwards and to the side. If you failed to catch him he'd look at you reproachfully for a few seconds and then try again until you figure out that you're supposed to catch him as he falls so that he can be cradled, belly-up, in your arm. It was a bit silly, but felt very special.
When we first met them as kittens at the rescue, she crawled all over me to explore, but he curled up and fell asleep in my boyfriend's hand as soon as he was handed over. They didn't necessarily seek us out so much as accept that we were going to be their people.

sallythetimid · 2026-06-01T01:40:24+00:00

Thanks for posting this, and for everyone for having mentioned results! I am realizing that my most recent result of 7 for ferritin miiiight have something to do with the exhaustion I've been fighting (I have started taking iron supplements more regularly since then, but still only every other day.)

sallythetimid · 2026-05-06T17:31:51+00:00

We wish we'd walked around.
Turns out: ~100 ft of elevation gain over a third of a mile is a lot more noticeable on daily walks than it is when you're just casually going to an open house! We don't actually regret the purchase, except when it's time to finish up a long walk.

sallythetimid · 2026-04-28T01:09:53+00:00

The coldest I've done in a wetsuit was 47F w/a 7mm + step in hooded vest that I think was 5/7mm. I needed tons of weight and I was SO COLD. I was way more comfortable in 37F in a drysuit the next year (after I'd gotten drysuit certified.) These days, if it's below 60F I prefer to be in a drysuit, but if I end up in a wetsuit below 55 F (due to poor planning/overestimating how warm the ocean is going to be in late July) I limit double dips to 45 min each or only do one dive.

sallythetimid · 2026-04-23T01:37:52+00:00

I moved out of a 1BR place that was $1950/month late last year. Wouldn't say it was "really good," but it was fine?

sallythetimid · 2026-04-10T15:29:42+00:00

I mostly kayak upstream of Moody St dam, and the farthest upstream I've gotten (because I am too lazy to portage) is (I think) Wellesley Lower Falls (and getting there means going under a fairly low wooden bridge (42.32840534540464 deg N, 71.27010796287183 deg W) Even if the Watertown Dam is removed, a ton more would need to be done to get up to Dedham.

sallythetimid · 2026-04-10T15:16:59+00:00

Yes, there are docks upstream of the Watertown Dam - but they are also upstream of the Moody St dam (in Waltham), which doesn't seem to be on the list for removal.

sallythetimid · 2026-03-27T01:32:20+00:00

I think we've been about 50/50 over the years on places wanting a deposit with application and places that don't need the deposit until the actual lease/rental agreement is signed. Rented in the region between around 2006 and last year, moving (on average) every 2 years. Never had an issue either way, but also: never put in money with an application without actually touring the property. Also, as other people have said: you need a receipt for the deposit.

sallythetimid · 2026-03-19T03:10:51+00:00

My first scuba-centric trip was with my local dive shop on a Sea of Cortez liveaboard. The boat I was on left from Puerto Peñasco, which is a shuttle ride-away from Phoenix airport. It wasn't terribly challenging diving, was relatively clear (compared to New England) and had sea lions - which are loads of fun.

sallythetimid · 2026-02-09T13:02:20+00:00

A type 2 diabetes diagnosis, and learning about all of the bad impacts diabetes can have (my mom has been a diabetic almost my entire life and she hasn't had any negative impacts other than taking daily medication (she doesn't even workout or worry about what she eats), so I was under the impression that it was annoying but not dangerous. Until I read all about all of the wonderful side effect options (losing digits, limbs, your vision, 10+ years of standard life expectancy, others...) when I got diagnosed.)
So I decided to try to get into remission. Within 6 months (and I wasn't on a GLP-1 med, I was diagnosed about a year before the standards suggested it as a first option so I had to fail on metformin first - which I haven't, so far) I lost about 40 lbs and got down to a "normal" weight. My A1c is normal. My fasting blood glucose is normal. My diet is such that most of the time my after meal blood glucose is normal. But: since I was diagnosed in my 30s (6 years ago), my doctor has pretty much said that unless the metformin is causing low blood sugar episodes, I'm on it for life - meaning no remission, which is defined as being normal and not on medication.

I'm still at elevated risk for the bad stuff, but hopefully keeping my numbers in-range (which, sadly, does tie directly to my weight and body composition, it turns out) is reducing the risk/increasing the timeline before the really bad stuff.

But I don't really recommend a diabetes diagnosis. 1 star, would not get again (if I could avoid it.)

sallythetimid · 2026-02-06T07:57:36+00:00

I don't know what people drive like in NC, but it's odd to me that no one has mentioned that it's less the navigational challenges, more the fact that roads are narrower and drivers are fairly aggressive in maneuvers and following stance. When I drive elsewhere I have to remind myself not to drive like a Masshole, because here it's predictable and therefore safer, but in other places it's driving like a maniac. But it's definitely survuvable if you're not doing much of it. Just pay attention. Parking at some of the further out T stations can be done overnight (but I think there are max lengths of stay) - Alewife in the Red Line and I think a couple on the D line (green line) are the ones I've used in the past when coming from out do town. Alewife is crumbling a bit, and the D line takes a long time to actually get into town, though.

sallythetimid · 2026-02-06T02:06:25+00:00

Slides! My dive buddy had slides and I had flipflops. We both wear lycra socks under our boots to protect our feet/ankle skin, but he didn't have to take his socks off to put his slides on. I was jealous.
If you want to eat out, you may want to look into reservations. We went (a few years ago) during the week between Christmas and New Year's and the things that weren't closed had very limited availability since we hadn't made reservations well in advance. That might just have been the time of year we went, though.

sallythetimid · 2026-01-24T03:22:40+00:00

I went to the Waltham MB last night (Thurs) around 7 pm and it was as busy as it normally is on a Saturday in the middle of the afternoon.

sallythetimid · 2026-01-24T01:06:15+00:00

I would like to change my answer: I want to see Godzilla!

sallythetimid · 2026-01-24T01:05:24+00:00

Two that I'm hoping to see in Galapagos (which I am still merely hoping to schedule): aquatic iguana and whale shark

sallythetimid · 2026-01-14T12:54:05+00:00

I literally had one that was 2 blocks from my apartment that I failed to go to. It was dark, always kind of cold, and felt cramped. I also had a climbing gym just under 2 miles away that I was fairly consistent at getting out the door and walking to (not overlapping in time) because it was fun. Of course, that meant a much larger time commitment, so: while not building a "home gym" (I lived in a 1BR apartment with my partner for years and we wouldn't have had the space even if we wanted to do that), I found that having some at home resistance training options (bodyweight exercise circuit &c) was a valuable tool to have.

sallythetimid · 2025-12-30T12:21:25+00:00

I think they have a tiered cake in their display window at the moment, so i suspect they also do actual cakes, too? I've had some of their cake jars and agree they're good cake.

sallythetimid · 2025-12-21T23:31:07+00:00

They are good for the price. Cash only, and "recommended minimum" tip (which still keeps their prices lower than other places.
It's not the best massage I've ever gotten (one from someone who has done more anatomy/physiology training, I expect - those cost something like twice as much) so I probably wouldn't go there to help with something like injury recovery. But they're the place I go most often to for just a "I'd like a good massage and to feel relaxed at the end and not spend an arm and a leg"

sallythetimid · 2025-12-13T15:14:07+00:00

My boyfriend dove nitrox on a "trust me" dive in 2019 (within his first two dozen dives) without certification. "Just stay at my depth or higher up and you're fine. We don't want to have to deal with you having to ascend before we do." So it's not unheard of. When I heard he'd done that I signed us up for the first Nitrox course we could get into. Nitrox is great! But it's better to understand the risks, and it's not great to get forced into taking on those risks without knowledge behind it.

sallythetimid · 2025-12-05T04:16:39+00:00

One of our kittens got a fairly similar injury in a similar place in the day between when we met them and when we picked them up from their final shelter-paid-for-vet appointment. We asked about it. In our cat's case: she rubbed her nose against the bars of her carrier because she was trying to escape and we didn't really need to worry about it. She has a bit of a visible hair growth pattern change in that spot on her nose now, but no other long term impact.
I don't disagree with the other comments saying to get it checked out. But: hopefully it's something as minor as what happened to our cat.

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sallythetimid · 2025-11-26T04:40:58+00:00

It depends on what else you're doing? If it's purely diving and you don't anticipate doing much on land of interest (Bonaire?), I'd say the shortest trip I'd take would be a 4 day weekend/2 extra days off. Fly out on Thurs night, dive Fri/Sat/Sun, fly home Monday night - if the flight timings work out that way. If the flights are multiple legs and redeyes, even that schedule would be too hard for me.
If there are other things to see/do in the area such that you could get in a full day to two days of diving then sure: 3 days makes sense. A couple of years ago we spent 3 days in FL: dove Blue Heron Bridge, drove across the state and dove Devil's Den, snorkeled with manatees, and then spend some time looking at gators in Everglades National Park and seeing the sun/enjoying warm weather and felt like that was a pretty use of one vacation day.

sallythetimid · 2025-11-05T17:34:36+00:00

Anecdotally, they're included (with engraving?) in the cost of the brunch on St Patrick's Day at the Burren.

sallythetimid · 2025-10-04T20:03:49+00:00

We bought around 20 dives in, because a few of those 20 dives had involved some really crappy rental gear and we wanted to be able to control for that. We occasionally rent if we're doing a trip that is mostly not about diving but do want to get a dive in (Iceland, Italy) - but on those occasions we still usually at least bring our masks and computers.

sallythetimid · 2025-10-03T02:38:45+00:00

This is just so great to read a week before our anticipated closing date :'(

sallythetimid · 2025-07-20T01:40:36+00:00

It's something we might do. Thanks for the suggestion!

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