For your carrot problem, get the really fat bulk carrots, which (at my grocery store anyway) are not woody and very tasty. Peel it as usual, noticing you only have to peel one or two. You’re now perfectly set for your first cucumber solution, cutting it in half lengthwise, or maybe even quarters because carrots are a firmer bite. Personally I start cutting off the fat end and work towards the tip, because you have more to grip for better control on the harder slices, and if your last ones are a little thicker they’re also small.

Nine MORE migrants

Okay wait, listen to yourself. You expected Obama to give a reasonable answer, and of course he did. Gosh, wasn’t that nice? You might agree or disagree with his choices and priorities, but even his worst policies had SOME sort of reason behind them. And were stated in complete grammatical sentences that stayed in topic.

In 2025 the Los Angeles wildfires burned more than 16,000 homes and other buildings. And about 6,300 cars.

An outlier yes, but many of the wildfires do burn a significant number of structures, that’s the main reason firefighters engage with them. The purely chaparral fires (which may be allowed to burn) are more distant from most pregnant women so even though the smoke blows over it’s less concentrated.

The story says “wood smoke” but then they talk about Southern California wildfires, which typically contain a lot of other toxic materials from burning houses, other buildings, vehicles, power and telephone lines, etc. especially the fires burning in proximity to pregnant women.

Fair enough, we’re in the right instance.

In a tiny hand

No the bus stop is perfectly accessible! It shows they know exactly how to design a handicap space for this type of bike lane, so people with ramped minivans could park. But they don’t. All the others have the narrow raised cement lump, that leaves a ramp hanging into the air 6" above the middle of the bike lane.

I’m not objecting to the bus stop. Just noting that although it’s blue and has a perfect wide platform for the bus wheelchair lift/ramp, and a curbcut to get to the sidewalk, it’s a bus stop, not a disabled parking space. Which would be fine if there were any other spot similarly designed on that or any of the other streets with this type of bike lane. So far I haven’t seen any.

Oh well, yet another place it’s impossible to park and drop a wheelchair ramp. That blue thing with the red-zone paint and curb cut is a bus stop. Buses are wheelchair accessible but too few and difficult to access for a person who’s well-buggered-up.

That’s a legitimate use of “scratch” and since OP was being too cool to use the whole phrase “from scratch,” it could be re-interpreted to mean “I decided to throw out the whole meal and just eat a spoonful of peanut butter. What a waste of all my hard work!”

Like if they’d just opened their mail and in it was a notice: WARNING: MAJOR ARSENIC CONTAMINATION IN YOUR AREA! Injesting anything grown in your soil may cause severe illness and harm to vital organs!

This reminds us to be careful with phrasing.

From scratch is an idiom meaning “from the start” (as in a starting line scratched in the dirt for a footrace)

And in the context of food it means “cooked by myself from basic ingredients.” I don’t think OP means they grew the wheat, maybe not the jam berries, but they made the English muffin from dough using flour and yeast etc, not a mix and not store bought. They boiled up the jam from fresh fruit, and made the pectin to thicken it rather than buying pectin powder. They didn’t do all that tonight, in fact the elderberry mead started 6 years ago. And I bet it’s damn good!

In 1929 someone celebrated “Kill a Colonizer Day” by gunning down seven of Bugs Malone’s gang that had been colonizing Capone’s turf.

They should be in jail, they’re a threat to the community.

I think they’re cheese waxes like from Laughing Cow. They’re saying “melt down old cheese waxes to make romantic red tea-light candles for your Valentine.”

Edit to add, “you may fascinate a woman with a piece of cheese.” So bring some more Babybels to eat in the Jacuzzi by candlelight.

With pull tabs you’d still need to hold the can down anyway.

White people willing and able to do construction work in Texas cost more, if they can be found at all.

My first thought: how’d you open the cans? But I guess you must have an electric can opener.

The best way to help Cheeto get fit is to play actively with him.

Honored, you mean. 😸