Coffee Break: Travel Steam Iron
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With linen season and all its wrinkles almost upon us, this seems like a good time to share this fun product: a travel iron that doesn't need an ironing board, the Nori Press.
I think the idea of it is brilliant — it kind of reminds me of a hair straightener or other hair tool, but it's for your clothes.
They claim it's 2x faster than other irons because you can iron both sides at the same time, and has a built in steamer. It only weighs 1.5 lbs (and is 14″ in length) so if you like crisp clothes while you travel, it's an easy fit. It heats up in 30 seconds and has an automatic shut off.
The Nori Press is $120 at spots like Amazon, Nordstrom, Target, the Container Store, (and more!) and Nori.co.
Psst: if you're not a fan of ironing, here was our last discussion on how to avoid ironing.
Sales of note for 5/8:
- Nordstrom – Savings event – up to 25% off! Good deals on Veronica Beard, Vince, Reiss (esp. coats), and Boss, as well as Wit & Wisdom and NYDJ
- Ann Taylor – Mother's Day Event: 40% off your purchase. Readers love this popover blouse, and their suiting is also in the sale.
- Boden – 15% off new styles with code
- Express – $39+ summer styles + 25% off everything else
- J.Crew – Up to 50% off swim, dresses, and more
- J.Crew Factory – Up to 60% off everything, and extra 50% off clearance
- Lands' End – 50% off sitewide — lots of ponte dresses come down under $25, and this packable raincoat in gingham is too cute
- Lo & Sons – Mother's Day Sale: Up to 40% off — reader favorites include this laptop tote, this backpack, and this crossbody
- Loft – 50% off your purchase + free shipping, plus 2 for $28 tanks and tees
- MAC – Enjoy 30% off lip products and receive a 4-piece Mother's Day gift with $90
- M.M.LaFleur – Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off.
- Ruti – Take $55 off your purchase with code 55ONUS
- Sephora – Free same-day delivery for Mother's Day with code
- Talbots – 50% off wear-now styles (5/8 only)
- The Outnet – Extra 30% off select styles, including Veronica Beard, Victoria Beckham, and Marni.
- TOCCIN – Use code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off!
- Vivrelle – Looking to own less stuff but still try trends? Use code CORPORETTE for a free month, and borrow high-end designer clothes and bags!
Has anyone traveled to Morocco, Portugal, Greece or Turkey over winter break? I am thinking about taking a one week international trip with my teenagers over the school break and would like to check out a city in a European country I have never been to before. I am open to other suggestions as well. We are flying from the Seattle area, so no place is going to be that direct, but colder weather is totally fine for us. Any suggestions or recommendations are appreciated. The places we’ve been to and enjoyed are London, Barcelona, Paris, Rome and Venice.
No, but can I recommend Croatia? We loved it, especially Dubrovnik and Split!
I went to Morocco in December (many years ago). It was sunny and beautiful, but definitely chilly, especially at night. And ESPECIALLY in the desert overnight! We had a great trip though, I would recommend. I would 1000x rather be slightly cold than super hot.
I have been to Morocco in October and we had pretty much every weather you can imagine == the desert was chilly and very windy. I can imagine December is pretty chilly everywhere. That said, Morocco is fantastic and if you go, this is a great tour company: https://opendoorsmorocco.com/ (it’s co-owned by an American woman who works with Berber and Bedouin guides).
Portugal, Morocco and a Turkey should be good at that time of year. If you want to do islands in Greece I’d do more research as things can be pretty shut down there in the offseason.
I’ve been to Portugal and Turkey with kids (different time of year though). I think Turkey probably has more to appeal to teens.
Not over winter break but I was in Greece & Turkey last year, and I *loved* Greece, and found Turkey pretty frustrating. Neither is going to be beach weather in winter, but both have beautiful hiking and of course very interesting history.
I bought a Nori iron when they first came out maybe five years ago and promptly returned it. It’s heavy and awkward to use and can’t get into smaller corners. I think it’s an attempt to have the ease of use of a steamer with the precision of an iron but it fails at both.
I like mine. I’m not sure why I can’t handle steaming but it’s just a cup of dangerously hot liquid I’m supposed to wave around and with one hand while also pulling the garment taunt enough to actually remove the wrinkles with I guess my second and third hands? I don’t know why I’m so uncoordinated but I always end up scalded and still wrinkled. With this, I press out the wrinkles right away with no ironing board. No sputtering cup of hot water to move around.
Would appreciate some thoughts from people on this board who have a spouse/partner who ends up getting promoted to a more demanding job. Did the added stress on their life (and therefore your life) make you want to step back a little in your own work? As the person who was primary breadwinner for a long time and basically reached the career goals (took over 20 years of working, but still made it), I’m now in a position where my spouse will be earning more and we don’t have any real money concerns and I’m wondering if I should try and lean out a little (but not too much since I need to bill hours) just for my own sanity. Kids are teenagers and we have maxed out their 529 plans. Has anyone else been in this position and if so, what did you do?
how old are you and what does the rest of the picture look like – any debt? retirement savings? post-tax savings? net worth goals?
my thinking here is this – if you’re in your 50s, girl just retire, especially if you guys have enough money. you could take consulting work, or even fill in for your old position for things like maternity leaves. spend the time with your kids. travel while you’re healthy. do important charity work.
if you’re in your 40s, that’s a long time to retire, so maybe explore flexible job options or other things.
if you love your job then definitely use the money to make your life easier – a nanny for driving, local chef for a few meals a week, so forth.
What will make you happiest on your deathbed?
This is when we got a house manager/’driving nanny’ in addition to weekly cleaners. The nanny did all the tween/teen drop-off and pick ups as well as light around the house chores (laundry, returning packages, picking up prescriptions, dropping off dry-cleaning, midweek shopping trips, etc.). It was really helpful to both of us to have time off be family time vs. having to clean/do chores after both working all week.
This is a tough one. I would tend to leam out because your kids are getting close to leaving the house and I would like to prioritize time together before they leave. However, I probably leaned in at this point because I had not yet reached my career goals and I really wanted to a) for my own self satisfaction and b) for my kids to see my as somewhat of a role model (you are not stuck where you currently are). Ultimately, it worked out well for me because it gave us a lot of extra financial stability and allowed my husband to retire early. But I think this is a classic case of YMMV, depending on whether you share those objectives above or have other ones.
I would personally be happiest leaning out, but this is such a personal, individual decision.
I recommend the book “die with zero”
What surgeries would you get done in a stand-alone outpatient surgery center? Like what happens if something goes wrong? When I was pregnant, the actual hospital where I had my baby stressed how they were well staffed and could handle any emergencies 24/7. I guess the plan in other settings is just to hope for no emergencies? My sense is that surgery centers exist because the doctors own them and don’t have to share fees with the loss-leaders in a full hospital, like having an ER and dealing with indigent care, which is not a pro-patient rationale for this set-up.
Anything routine for the surgical staff as long as I don’t personally have any known risk factors that raise the likelihood of needing more intense care than they can provide.
Like what? What is “routine” surgery in your mind?
My kid got her ear tubes done at an out patient surgical center. She was in and out in less than 5 min.
i think i’ve done routine things like colonoscopy
Surgery centers exist because having a procedure there is orders of magnitude less expensive than having it in a hospital. But yes – if you have a complication there will be a delay in getting you to a fully staffed OR. On the other hand, infection rates tend to be lower than a hospital setting.
I had my colonoscopy in one and had no concerns. We were right next door to the hospital and the procedure itself is low risk. Same with my tonsillectomy. My brother had his vasectomy in one (long story but I drove him because his wife was sick, which is how I know about it).
I wish hospitals would get a handle on infectious disease spread. The worst scandals I can think of have been at free standing centers (because of profit incentives to cut corners on things like sterilization and equipment). But hospitals cut corners on staffing and PPE, and it doesn’t lead to the same level of scandal.
A lot of surgical procedures are lower risk than giving birth(!).
Don’t assume a center is physician owned and not a private equity acquisition. If the biggest risk is anesthesia, do not assume that an in-network center uses in-network anesthesiology, and don’t assume they’re employed by the center and not gig or fly by night.
Emergencies (e.g. perforating during a colonoscopy) are going to involve ambulance transfer to a real hospital, yes. People at known higher risk of emergencies are advised to have surgeries done at hospitals.
I had an endoscopy at one. Hospital affiliated but a few miles apart.
Ah, another day ending in y, another random anxiety hypothetical.
I’m ok w it. I had no idea there was a difference. Better than the “help me dress for non-important event!”
I think outpatient surgical procedures can be okay when everything/everyone is low risk.
It’s “free standing ERs” that I’ve always been advised to steer clear of.
I have had cosmetic procedures in outpatient surgery centers. They key was going to an aftercare center for a night or two afterwards — it’s like a cross between a hotel and a hospital (in fact one of them was in a hotel) and they have nurses to give meds and change/check bandages and so on. I was really glad I did it.
I had knee scope surgery in a surgery center. It was across the street from a hospital so I wasn’t too worried about it.
I had a cheilectomy at a standalone place. The doctor being great was, to me, more important than the fact that some insanely remote risk could occur.
Hospitals want to keep high margin, low risk surgeries in house.
As long as I was not high-risk for complications, I would likely have any outpatient procedure at an outpatient surgery center. If something goes terribly wrong, they transfer you to a hospital by ambulance, but they are also designed and staffed to handle routine complications.
This varies by state, but a lot of surgical centers are owned by hospital systems. Doctors are required to follow Stark law, which prohibits referring services to an entity where they have an ownership stake, so your assumption isn’t accurate. But many insurance companies won’t authorize certain procedures in hospital outpatient settings if there is an option to do it in an outpatient surgery center. I would say the payers drive facility choices more than the physicians do.
I had a large kidney stone blasted to bits and an electronic nerve stimulator device installed at a physician-owned surgical center, and my ex-H had cataract surgery there. I never thought to ask but assumed it had procedures in place for dealing with complications and emergencies, and a large hospital was just a few blocks away.
Whichever ones the insurance company told me to. It’s not as if most of us have any say.
My insurer gives incomplete lists of what’s in network though. They told me I could only get an MRI on the ancient machines at the jankiest facility since it was all that was in network. I called around and the state of the art research university hospital imaging is also in network, oops they forgot to mention.
If it were a surgical procedure, I would definitely make a lot of calls!
Ugh, so frustrating.
I needed a number of diagnostic procedures for a suspected heart condition, and the list of in network providers from my insurance (HDHP with United Healthcare, so a really big player) was extremely inaccurate. They listed facilities that, when I called, didn’t offer that procedure. They did not list outpatient facilities from Provider A, that were located in rented offices in the same freaking hospital building owned by Provider B. Conveniently, A charged 5x less for the same procedure than Provider B, since B was categorized as a hospital vs. A being an office.
It took me 3 weeks of calling 5 different facilities for 3 different procedures. Horrible.
I had my wisdom teeth removed in one and a shoulder surgery in one. I have also taken parents to cataract surgery at one. They were all pretty close to hospitals, some right next door. Most of the procedures didn’t require full anesthesia.
My town’s major hospital has an outpatient surgery center attached to it for things like colonoscopies, endoscopies, ear tubes, etc. I don’t really think less of it – the doctors who practice there all work at the hospital, and it’s literally connected to the hospital in case of emergency. For things like colonoscopies I don’t even think you have a choice. That’s where the hospital GI docs do their colonoscopies.
I would think twice about going to an independent one that’s not connected to a hospital though. I had my wisdom teeth done at an oral surgeon’s office without a nearby hospital, but considering you can have those done at a regular dentist, it seemed ok. Anything more major than that and I think I’d rather be at a hospital or hospital-attached surgical center.
Best trader joes cookies/desserts? Going to a BBQ this weekend and don’t have time to make anything from scratch. Driving about 2 hours to get there otherwise I’d buy a bakery cake/ice cream cake and be done with it.
The raspberry filed star cookies and the snickerdoodles are my favorite. Both from the bakery section.
A non-ice cream bakery cake should be fine for a two hour drive. Or get some nice butter cookies from an Italian bakery.
I agree a regular bakery cake should be fine, but if you would like a TJ dessert to supplement, their Sea Salt Turbinado Sugar Dark Chocolate Almonds are dangerously delicious (though not really what you think of as a stand-alone dessert).
Further thought: if you live near Publix, their little mini cupcakes are always a hit at group events for me. Wegman’s also has really good bakery items.
The TJ’s lemon flower cookies are divine. But yes a bakery cake should be fine on a 2-hour drive.
tbh I don’t love their sweets other than biscotti or breakfast pastries. If you’re worried about a cake holding up, what about a cookie or brownie “cake”?
+1
I love the TJ’s maple sandwich cookies. The meringues are also good.
Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Ganache Mini Sheet Cake. Delicious!
TJ’s has a limited edition Earl Grey Blondie Bars right now! The package only has 8 squares so grab a couple for your potluck. I’m visiting my sibling who just had a baby and us adults just polished off two boxes over the weekend.
Frozen lemon bars. They can defrost on the way and are better than most homemade lemon bars.