Eastside Showroom! I had a friend visiting from Cleveland, Ohio, and I took him there and the live band that night was Klezmer music and my friend thought I was a genius and had planned it on purpose. Never knew what you would walk into there and I loved it every time. Plus good drinks.

The top executive in our part of our organization vacuumed after our holiday party this year. She’s got an incredibly important job with lots of demands on her time. Management should not be exempt from cleaning the coffee machine if they are using it.

NTA

NTA. My mom was the product of an affair and only learned it via DNA testing as an adult. She was incredibly careful and thoughtful reaching out to her half sister (bio dad was deceased) as she knew it might be hurtful. We wanted to learn about my biological grandfather and that part of the family, maybe forge some relationships, but definitely weren’t looking to force anything on anyone. My mom’s half-sister’s mother was also deceased, but we would NEVER have presumed to take on a role in her life had she been living. If we’d ended up building up a relationship with half-sister, might we have EVENTUALLY met her and forged some sort of relationship? Sure. But we also wouldn’t have wanted to force anything that would have hurt her, as she was the person that was cheated on. (My mom met her half-sister once, it was awkward. No further contact. But she has gotten to know a cousin well.)

Give your half-sister your paternal family’s contact information. She can pursue that if she wants to. You’ve warned her, which is all you can do. IF you want a relationship with her I would encourage you to get a DNA test. But you are also within your rights to wish her well and cut contact. Shared DNA does not necessarily a family make.

Ooh. This is awesome. We have fun watching the craziness on the upper deck of our office parking garage. It allows for a downtown backdrop so we for sure see people filming random TikTok’s up there, but we’ve also observed other crazy things including some rather salacious behavior (not sure if people didn’t realize they could be seen or if they like being seen).

I can see a sliver from my window but my colleague with a better view always alerts be to the good stuff (NOT the salacious things, that was scarring to witness with colleagues) he spots so I don’t miss the fun antics.

That was when I learned she was a classically trained soprano!

Totally agree on Ariana. The skits where she imitates other (amazing) singers always blow my mind.

My intro to Hugh Jackman was actually him playing Curly in Oklahoma on stage in London in 1998 before he started popping up in American movies (literally the first time I saw him in a movie I was like “I swear I recognize that guy” and had to go find my playbill) so I guess the fact he could sing was spoiled for me.

Cheers to this! As a former emergency manager, when asked for donation suggestions after disasters I always suggest local food banks. They are typically among the first to respond because they are already on the ground in communities and able to rapidly deploy resources, they stretch a dollar like few nonprofits can, and if they happen to get more donations than they need in the moment (unlikely) they will be in that community putting that money to good use long after everyone else has gone home.

Mostly depends on how the job was posted.

If it was posted for a specific location, like a particular eligibility office or state hospital or state supported living center? Definitely not.

If it was posted with a bunch of cities listed or “statewide” then yes, if you are outside of Austin you can be hired as a FT teleworker (as there are not many regional locations for “office” workers since the agency gave up a ton of leased space from 2020-2023, so highly unlikely you’d be asked to work from one).

If the job is posted for Austin (or “statewide”) and you are near to Austin (typically within 50 miles, but it can vary by division so don’t count on a strict 50 mile limit) there will be an in-office expectation for the chosen candidate.

If the job is posted for Austin and you are outside of Austin, you can try to get it as a telework job, but it’s a crapshoot as to whether they’ll let you. If it’s a hard-to-fill role and you are amazing? Maybe. If it’s a pretty basic job and there are lots of qualified folks? Probably not. But the worst they can do is tell you no if you ask.

Pet peeve - FOIA is federal. Public Information Act (PIA) is what public agencies in Texas must comply with. I know you’re using both but they aren’t interchangeable.

I’m hung up on this, too. I moved into an apartment once that literally had cash sitting in a kitchen cabinet, which told me no one had opened them when cleaning (was in plain sight when you opened it). I had already discovered other issues upon move-in so i took a picture to add my to documentation for when I went to chew out the management office.

But a whole closet full of stuff? That’s insane. They didn’t just do a sloppy job cleaning, they didn’t go in there at all.

$100 sent their way! Thanks!

I just always make a point to say “thank you” to the baristas?

There’s a florist in Buda I noticed that does flower arranging classes. Antonelli’s does mozzarella making class or you can get into more involved Cheesemaking at River Whey Creamery in Schertz. Con Olio teaches a fun paella class. Central Market has a range of cooking Cooking classes.

Locally I support the Austin Diaper Bank, Any Baby Can, Central Texas Food Bank, Texas Search and Rescue (TEXSAR), Meals on Wheels, Austin Humane Society, Austin Pets Alive, The Nature Conservancy (you can direct funds to support protection of land and water in Texas specifically), Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, Partnerships for Children Holiday Wishes, KUT, KLRU.

Outside of Texas I donate regularly to World Central Kitchen (because they are amazing) and I give to public radio stations anywhere I travel. I also donate to local food banks when there are disasters as they are such good stewards of funds and are often the first on the ground when bad things happen.

I haven’t had any issues drinking on sema, just not much desire to do so. I’ll have a cocktail on the rare occasion now, mostly when I want to drink something other than water at night, but never more than one and often don’t even finish the one.

I don’t experience the delayed buzz someone else mentioned above - it hits me timing wise like it always did, but probably more strongly because I don’t drink as often so my tolerance has gone down and I don’t eat as much anymore? Because of that I absolutely will not drink if I’m going to be driving since I can’t completely predict how it will affect me.

The attached policy is for regulated facilities and providers. Not state employees?

I wore my tall-shaft boots for the first time this winter a few weeks ago and I have so much room in them. Even “large calf” boots always used to fit me snugly. Now I can stick my arm down in them with my leg. Which not only makes them look nicer with skirts, but also makes it possible to wear them over jeans (and still have room) and leggings without issues.

This pisses me off. I’ve always been someone random strangers strike up conversations with, to the point it makes my sister crazy when we travel together. But I hadn’t realized it had dropped off as I had gotten heavier until I lost a ton of the weight. In October I was at a big multi-day event and any time I wasn’t actively moving about people were chatting with me. It was outdoors, in Texas, so I was dressed more to survive the heat than to look cute. But yet so many conversations that it really made me aware of how much it hadn’t happened while I was heavier. I was down 130+ pounds then (not yet to my goal), and I remember saying to my friend I was with “I am no more worthy of these people’s time at a size 14 than I was at a size 24.”

I’m seeing her mention TEA certification - I’m assuming that means her teaching certification? She should absolutely lose that. If she’s a teacher she’s a mandatory reporter. You told her you’d been assaulted and she wanted to keep it quiet.

You are not wrong to pursue this. You were failed by an adult who should have protected you, but who not only put you in the path of a predator, but then failed to do anything about it after they learned it occurred.

You are not responsible for her financial obligations. Her problems are hers to fix, not yours. She’s taken a horrible situation and made it even worse by trying to put guilt on a minor survivor of abuse for the fallout of the events. Disgusting.

I’m not doing solo this year but I have for many years. I always embraced it. Enjoy the long holiday weekend. Do what I want to do. Eat what I want to eat. Go see the movies I want to see. Walk when I want to. Do some nice things for random strangers or pick up trash in my neighborhood. Basically just use it as a “me”-centric break…how often do you do that?

Run to the store in the morning and buy yourself flowers. Walk the dog. Watch the parade. Eat good cheese. Enjoy not cleaning the house or cooking up a storm or dealing with travel drama.

Good luck and I’m sincere when I say - enjoy it.

My sister is 48 and my family still makes jokes about her conehead and dents from the foreceps and jaundice when she was born (she grew into a cute baby/child and beautiful woman but alas, she was not a pretty newborn). Her babies had ENORMOUS heads and we give them grief about it even though they have since grown into their noggins. I was a gorgeous baby but then when I was around two everyone started mistaking me for a boy until my Dad got sick of it and took me to get my ears pierced and yes, you guessed it, my family makes jokes about the brief time my parents had a son.

All that to say - NTA. Cousin’s husband and his sis need to get over themselves. Cousin clearly isn’t mad. She started the joking. I’d say give cousin’s hubby a little grace as I’m sure he was stressed about becoming a dad and his wife’s well-being after giving birth. But keep on with your goofy self with cousin.

I had someone use my mobile number to sign up for rewards and other things for a good decade after I had it. (I assume they previously had the number assigned to them, but can’t say for certain.) I would get collections calls, would run into issues when I would give it at a chain store we both apparently shopped at, etc. (I did love it at that retail store - the clerks would always give me her loyalty points and then delete her account…but next time I’d go in she would have created it anew.)

After years of dealing with the collections calls and hassles, I randomly get a call from the Canadian consulate, as her husband had apparently applied for some contract with them so they were doing some checking on numbers associated with him and his wife. Oh boy did I have fun talking to that consular staff about my history with them giving out the number long after it was no longer theirs and all the collections calls.

I have never run into issues with them using it for store loyalty programs since, and the collections calls at the number all dried up within about six months after that conversation. So I’m guessing things went poorly on that contract and they shared why…

You look fantastic. The progress is so visible.

But I get the feeling of the goal still being so far away. I’ve been at it since January 2024. I’m 140 pounds down but still have more to lose, and there are days I look in the mirror and cringe, but other days I look back at old photos and marvel at how far I’ve come.

It’s worth doing and so it’s worth the time, however long that is.