I think most of Europe has places that can accommodate that, especially if you travel outside of big cities. I’d put more of my budget into a place to stay and slightly less into food, but that’s my personal preference, and I’ve found tons of meals out for a lot less than that. I don’t think we spent more than maybe 40 euros for a meal for two anywhere in Spain, including wine/beer, and many were more like 25. Even Berlin and Munich were pretty reasonable and we made up the difference by going to Aldi for some of our breakfast/dinner food.

What would you consider a low price level? My mom and I have been to a lot of places that aren’t traditionally known as cheap, but we usually stay in places with a kitchen (aparthotels, mainly, we avoid airbnb) and grocery shop so we spend far less on food than a lot of people would. We also travel outside of peak season, primarily to avoid the crowds but it’s also less expensive.

Puppy mills. Any time a breed gets popular, those pieces of shit will start breeding any two dogs they can find with no consideration for temperament or health, and idiots pay through the nose for them. Then they’re shocked when the dog they were promised would be smart and affectionate is anxious and aggressive.

I had a rescue doodle that came from a puppy mill that shut down, and he was in horrific shape. He physically couldn’t sit for probably a year because his hips were in so much pain. I took him to a groomer and she had to shave him before and after his bath because he was so filthy and matted. He jumped at every loud noise for years. He was also incredibly gentle and sweet once he trusted us, but it was clear that the woman who owned him only cared about the state of the puppies, and kept the parents in appalling conditions.

I love older dogs. I used to foster seniors (one of whom my parents adopted), and we adopted my current dog at a very youthful 6. She’s 9 now and a total butt. I love her to pieces. We’ve also had really good luck - all but one of my dogs has lived to 15+. If my dog wasn’t so hostile, I’d happily have another one but she’s not a fan.

I’ve never even bothered to say never. I already know it’s a lie.

Entomologists in shambles

I was about to be offended and then I remembered how I got out of breath walking up the stairs this morning. (To be fair, I’m anemic af and almost certainly have a touch of long covid, but still.)

I’m just commenting so I can come back and see if you get any good ideas. I used it in a green chile casserole with potatoes and “cheese” sauce recently and it tasted good, but got kind of mushy. It’s not my favorite vegan protein, but I still have most of a bag, so I also need suggestions.

Man, we gotta pump those numbers up. Get our bite force on the next level.

The vinegar situation where I am atm has kind of made me more depressed? Some of it is straight up ass, and the salt & vinegar chips have been pretty terrible across the board. I love vinegar, too, so I’m very sad. Maybe the vinegar has to taste good to work.

My coworker had a full hysterectomy in her late 30s for the same reason and she’s described it as basically a living hell for about a year. Just a complete nightmare where she felt like her body completely turned on her and she had no control over anything it was doing - hearing about it made my attitude about keeping my ovaries much more enthusiastic. BUT she was pretty much fully through menopause after that year, so the good news is that your wife’s situation is likely pretty temporary. The bad news is that a year can feel like much longer when things aren’t going well, and I’m guessing she can’t do any hormone replacement to ease her symptoms because of the cancer risk. I did keep my ovaries and I’m still having some hormonal nonsense (pseudo hot flashes are not making me real optimistic about the real thing, let me tell you), so I can only imagine how much that sucks.

The thing is, you’re probably not actually doing anything wrong, it’s just a total tsunami of fuckery in her body atm that’s making her feel that way. I would suggest marriage counseling, because it’s possible that a neutral third party can help your wife see that, even though she’s not totally in control of her body or feelings right now, she still doesn’t get to make you feel like shit and she might end up destroying a relationship she still wants once she’s past this stage. There’s no easy solution, though, it’s just everyone putting their heads down and pushing through it, unfortunately.

There’s a vegan sushi/ramen place near me that makes something between musubi and onigiri with vegan spam and they’re crazy good. So that’s one use for it.

I’m glad most of my dogs have been small enough to carry when they get old. I guess if they hadn’t been, I’d just have to be a lot stronger so I could lift them. I mean, I’d obviously never leave them to sleep on their own after years of sleeping in my bed.

Oh damn, I haven’t tried it because I have so much hot sauce that I’m on a no buy. I still have a bottle of the Huy Fong new stuff my mom bought without realizing it wasn’t as good, but I was planning to try the Underwood one as soon as I run out.

Apparently the original supplier for Huy Fong (Underwood Farms) makes their own version now, and it’s how Huy Fong used to taste.

I’m not personally insulted. I just think it’s incredibly shitty to treat dating like some kind of caste system where people “belong” at a certain level. I can see why you said you can’t “score” anyone that you view as more attractive when you view things that way.

To anyone who considers a good personality attractive, I’m guessing dating you would be considered scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I haven’t used it for personal stuff in years. My employer uses it for office supplies, so I’ve occasionally ordered work stuff, but even that is as little as possible, and only things where it won’t matter if the quality is just so so, because you can’t trust that you’ll get the real thing anymore. Plus, I don’t want to sift through 10k listings of sweatshop garbage to find the thing I’m looking for.

I’d love to be judgemental about this, but I’d absolutely be in that 25% of women who did it too.

I always did, but I pretended like I was above it for a long time. I think it felt uncool to care about that kind of thing? I don’t know, I was insecure. Now that I’ve run out of fucks, my house is really colorful and I love it. Beige everything makes me wish for the sweet release of death. Depending on how old your kids are, they might be going through a similar phase, and maybe they’ll outgrow it too.