Suit of the Week: Ann Taylor

107 Comments

1. where can I still purchase adult face masks? (flying for thanksgiving and meeting my infant nephew and the parents have requested we mask on the flight which i’m more than happy to comply with)

   1. CVS in Target still has them near me.

      Not saying this is a particularly ethical tip, but you can also steal one from the lobby of any facility that offers them.

      1. Also, you’re a good aunt for taking them seriously!

      2. Those are usually surgical masks and I haven’t found any places offering them recently, even medical facilities. i’m in California for what that’s worth

         1. I’m in California and every medical facility I have gone to has them out—there are actually mask mandates in most Bay Area counties currently.

            1. I don’t know what to tell you. I’ve been to several medical facilities (unfortunately) in the Sutter Health system over the last three weeks, and no masks.

   2. Any hardware store like home depot of you want N95s (either with the safety equipment, or with paint or wood sanding machines)

      Amazon/Walmart s have them reliably online too

      1. This is good advice. I’d go with N95 or other high filtration mask (rather than a surgical mask) if my aim was to protect an infant.

         For comfort, I find Happy Masks (available online from the Happy Masks/Happy Gear website) to be the best combination of high filtration and comfort for extended wear. Bonus is that you can wash and reuse.

   3. They’re still widely available – grocery stores, pharmacies, Target, etc.

   4. Bought mine at Bonafide Masks (found a smaller fit for women) and they’re still in business.

   5. Demetech mail order. They are made in the US.

   6. Walmart online should have BNX in Black w/headstraps (they’re pretty comfortable compared to Auras or earloops in my opinion).

   7. I have to wear N95s a lot and I found a really comfortable one that is worth it.

      3M
      Aura
      Flat flod design
      N95

      I think I ordered on line and picked them up from my local hardware store. Just search online.
      I save them and re-wear.

      1. Flat fold design

         Don’t buy on Amazon.
         Home Depot or the big Hardware store chains are cheapest. Pack of 10 for ~$22+

   8. I’ve liked my masks from Armbrust American and it looks like they are still making them.

   9. Go for an N95, my favorite is 3M Aura.

      Most hardware stores (Home Depot, Lowe’s, Menards) carry them in the paint/sanding/PPE section. Or order online.

      Also, thank you for being careful around a newborn.

2. Looking for gift advice for a slightly different kind of road warrior…
   My mom spends most of her time away from home, either staying with an elderly friend during her 4-day workweek, or visiting me during any long break. She travels by car with her dog, so space is somewhat limited but not as much as flying. Keeping up with her own housework is also a challenge because she’s absent so much of the time. She’s not particularly interested in bougie splurges, but does love having just the right thing to add comfort or convenience. TIA!

   1. Paying for a one-time deep clean from a service?
      Road trip nice-to-haves like a car trash can? Upgraded music subscription (no ads?)

   2. Does she have heated seats? If not, you can find seat heaters that plug into the cigarette lighter.

      A cooler for road trip snacks. Cooler technology has improved a lot in the last twenty years; if she is using an older one, she may appreciate a new one.

      A blanket or a pillow that she can bring with her on these trips, and doesn’t constantly have to take on and off her bed.

   3. Does she have a dog stroller? I can’t live without mine on roadtrips when it’s too hot or too cold to leave the dog in the car when I need to swing into McDonald’s to pee. It’s also handy when I’m trying to carry a bunch of things and wrangle the dog when trying to get to the hotel room. Also gets a lot of use if I’m walking somewhere with a lot of foot traffic like a family day at a crowded park. My doggo is now getting up there in years and it’s also been useful when she just gets tired and can’t keep up (she’s a dachshund mix so has short little legs). Stroller easily folds in my trunk or backseat.

   4. Audible subscription so she can listen to lots of books? (You can also get from library, Chirp, or Spotify.) Maybe Spotify Premium subscription?
      Really nice Anker charger that plugs into wall but also plugs into her phone?

   5. Pay for her car to be detailed. While you’re home, bring it to get done.

3. IB follow-up question from this morning. Our local school is huge, like bigger than some SLACs. It offers an IB diploma and AP classes (and something called “AP Capstone projects”). It also offers dual-enrollment (which we aren’t interested in — too many classes are virtual and/or require a car and if a class isn’t offered at the campus that’s walkable from our house, it’s likely over an hour of rush-hour driving each day). Everyone starts out as an IB student. It’s a one-way path: you can leave (and most kids do; out of 800 kids in a class, only 140 get the diploma and they get it as college freshman, not while applying to college). My understanding is that the MYP classes for 9th/10th are OK and it gets much harder in 11/12 for the DP classes. The major reason IMO kids do IB is that their grades are weighted (and weighted more than the AP classes). Apparently some AP classes, including AP precalc and AP calc AB, are also IB-creditable. I guess I’m asking as a double-check to the universe: no one will really care if a kid goes from IB to AP tracks as a junior or senior, unless dropping IB for AP as a senior is seen as just checking out? The schedule revolves around making sure IB kids don’t go off-track, so it’s almost like priority registration for them and a much smaller cohort inside of a huge school.

   I am so old-school we had senior / smoking outside hallways, so I only got AP classes as a senior due to parents moving and me having to switch schools (IMO it was not hard then and I got out of some distribuiton credits that would have been giant freshman lecture-hall classes anyway). I don’t get the kids with 50+ credits going into college but I’d love it for a kid to finish on time maybe with schedule room for an internship or second major or minor.

   I get that we need to hire our own college counselor for our rising junior but feel like I could use one for this (unless it doesn’t matter, in case that is actually very reassuring). Kiddo is agnostic other than wanting the advanced Latin option that just seems to exist in IB.

   1. The only pitfall I’ve seen recently (past two years) is if you tell a college that your kid is an IB student when you are touring and then, when they apply, they aren’t one anymore, it might be a problem. It’s hard to say why a particular school rejects a student of course, but the school (with an acceptance rate of 62%) rejected her despite her numbers and activities being near or above the medians.

      1. Was that school in the SEUS? I feel that all SEC and other large schools that were party / safety schools back in the day are now rejecting well-prepared kids right and left who on paper appear to be admits / serious contenders vs people looking at them for safety schools.

         1. Colleges are now relying on sophisticated modeling to predict who’s most likely to actually enroll. It’s all about yield rates. It’s conceivable that a school would reject or waitlist a more qualified student who is obviously using the school as a safety school, in favor of a less qualified applicant who is likely to enroll. My daughter’s top choice school was actually the easiest to get into of the ones where she applied, and she worked very hard to signal that if she were admitted and awarded sufficient merit aid she would definitely enroll.

         2. I have mixed feelings about IB, but I kind of love the idea of putting everyone in a rigorous program to serve DEI goals. So much better than the California approach of dumbing down math for everyone.

            1. That stood out to me, too. Not the worst idea, honestly.

            2. Yeah, our local CA high school is ground zero for the soft bigotry of low expectations.

   2. There is no such thing as AP precalc. This must be a magnet school, not a zoned school, because no normal public school would start everyone out on the IB track, and that’s a very high rate of IB diploma completion. My daughter’s zoned public high school class was also about 800 kids and only 10 of them got their IB diplomas.

      No one receives their IB diploma until after they’ve graduated high school. Most of the exams and all of the papers are submitted at the end of the senior year, and scores come back over the summer.

      Colleges like to see kids taking the most rigorous courses available at their high schools and finishing what they started. I would definitely start working with a college counselor now.

      If your child wants to take advanced Latin, I would inquire as to whether she can just take that one IB course. Many schools that offer multiple advanced programs (IB/AP/dual enrollment) will allow students to “dabble” by taking individual IB courses without pursuing the diploma.

      1. It’s our zoned school. Everyone is in IB for DEI reasons. Fine, but since at least 80% leave it, now we have to figure out whether and why it makes sense. I have two wildly different kids a grade apart, so it’s great to have options but I need a road map.

         IB is at maybe 3 other public schools in our city for high school. IDK that it gets you more experienced long-tenure teachers vs more basic classes boys hard to tell. I just don’t want any more virtual classes for my kids after the shitshow that was covid learning here. They have so much ground to make up vs kids who got to go to school then (we didn’t and shut down more than local private schools and neighboring public ones).

         1. That last point about preparedness is key. Kids entering the IB program at my kid’s high school since COVID have been woefully underprepared, and it makes the whole experience that much more stressful.

      2. Maybe AP precalc is new but it is offered all over our city based on the parent board posts on FB seeking tutors in it. It was just AB or BC back in my day.

      3. AP Precalc is a new class being offered this school year. My kid is taking it with about 80 other kids in their public high school.

      4. My son is in 10th grade and is in an accelerated honors math class that is AP Precalculus this year. I had no idea there is an AP Precalculus test; I don’t know if there is one. But that’s the name of his class on the HS transcript

   3. Oh man, what an embarrassment of riches! Our local public high school is big, but only offers a handful of AP classes.

      My advice is that college admissions these days is a huge crapshoot. I’d retain the college counselor, but other than that, follow your kid’s lead.

   4. You need to understand exactly what AP and IB credit mean at this school. To count towards the IB diploma, the course must meet very specific requirements prescribed by the IB organization and the student must complete a paper or project (IA) and pass an exam. To get AP credit at a college, the student must achieve the college’s specified score on an AP exam. Some IB courses may prepare students to take AP exams; my daughter’s IB math HL class all took the AP calculus BC exam at the end of the first year. Then there is how the course is listed on the transcript and weighted in the grading system, which is internal to the school as long as they aren’t misusing the AP and IB trademarks.

      There are different IB programs. The IB Diploma Programme is the “real” IB program for juniors and seniors. There is an IB Middle Years Programme for 9th and 10th graders, but some high schools have their own programs or courses for freshmen and sophomores on the IB track.

   5. I don’t think she’d take a hit for going from IB MYP to AP as a junior, but I’d be concerned if she started the DP as a junior and dropped it.

   6. I guess I have a hard time seeing the benefit of an IB program, unless you’re really interested in studying internationally. It’s even crazier to me that IB is considered the default path!

      It probably depends on where the kid is applying to college, but many AP classes can be taken for college credit. And, AP is still more rigorous than regular, or even differentiated, curriculum without all the extra requirements that come along with IB. My son briefly looked into IB and although he is a serious student, he thought it would be way too much of a commitment and would not allow time for getting a well-rounded high school experience. Especially since he’s in a couple of high-commitment extracurriculars that he wants to continue all four years. He hangs with a very high-achieving crowd, and only one of those kids chose to apply to the IB program. (Our district offers IB at only one school, so if you want to go that route, that’s where you go.)

      1. My daughter chose IB because she thought it was less work than AP and found herself to be seriously mistaken. It also locked her into some two-year course selections that she ended up regretting. Her college really likes to admit IB students but does not give them much credit. I was unimpressed by the projects and found some of the materials (e.g., how statistics were handled in the biology course) flat-out wrong. Overall I think she regrets her decision.

         1. I have heard the same thing; that IB requires a ton more work (busywork? hard to tell) than AP classes. I wasn’t convinced the benefits were great enough to push my son in that direction. It seemed more limiting than expansive.

            1. When I was in college the students who went to IB high schools had completed entire projects; few of would do anything similar until we made it to the thesis stage of our majors. I did AP classes and felt like I wasn’t as prepared to take advantage of academic opportunities right from the start. Teaching AP is a lot less intimidating to me than teaching IB too. If an IB program is just busywork, they’re doing something wrong.

      2. As a counterpoint, I did IB (full diploma) 20+ years ago when I was in high school and could not be more grateful for the experience. It prepared me immensely for my college years and beyond. Indeed, I don’t think I’ve had as challenging an academic environment since then (and I have two Ivy degrees). It pushed me to be the best student I could possibly be and while I’m sure it’s not the same program now, I’d certainly consider it for my kids when the time comes.

4. Does anyone have the Lo & Sons Aoyama? I have a crescent bag from Baboon to the Moon that I love, but it’s my very casual weekend bag (and it’s great — lots of pockets). I have a Seville that I love, but with WFH, I sometimes need an elevated bag for client meetings and lunches where I don’t need to schlep a laptop along but sometimes my other bag is too casual.

5. I have never had food from the Philippines before, but I understand from my nurse friends that it is excellent. I am going to a food hall Saturday night with a Philippine option. What should I try? I’m game for a lot. The instagram menu just has words (no pictures or descriptions). Lumpia? Something else? What is at the shallow end of this cuisine? I like other cultures’ foods, but what I eat is geared to Americans: chicken tikka masala, vermicelli with pork rolls, panang curry.

   1. Lumpia and pancit would be great places to start.

      1. This. Lumpia is like an egg roll. Pancit is a delicious noodle dish
         But I don’t find most Filipino food “challenging”; it is just flavorful. YMMV

         1. +1. My palate is comfortable with the presumably somewhat westernized versions of Chinese, Indian and Thai food, and had no trouble at all finding something that I liked on a Filipino buffet.

   2. Rendang curry

   3. Chicken adobo is also delicious. And if they have any potato-based desserts, I encourage you to try them.

   4. If there is sweet spaghetti and it has cut up hot dogs, you need to have some. I know the combo might sound strange. But the red sweet and tangy sauce with the smokiness of hot dogs or ground beef is out of this world. Like the best comfort food you’ll ever have. And nothing spicy. So, so, so darn good.

   5. I don’t think you can beat lumpia and whatever noodles look like chow mein. I am not fillipina but am lucky enough to get invited to kids birthday parties where they have those giant foil trays of Filipino food. Please invite me back every year.

   6. Grilled bbq pork skewers, lechon (roast pork), and longanisa sausage are all pretty great and standard fare as long as you eat pork. Bibingka (coconut rice cake – dessert) is also tasty. My favorite is dinuguan but you likely would not enjoy it once you knew what it was.

6. Suggestions for a festive sweater or top for a work holiday party? Something that works for a slim/flat chested build.

   1. Boden has some good options in that category.

      1. Seconding Boden — festive tops in velvet, or with tulle sleeves. I got the tulle blouson sleeve top but haven’t tried it on yet.

   2. https://www.anntaylor.com/clothing/tops-and-blouses/cata000010/836436.html?dwvar_836436_color=8636

   3. Banana Republic Factory – the Tuxedo-Front Blouse and the Sparkle Top.

   4. Talbots always has stuff like this. The ones sparkly sweater I have I bought on Poshmark secondhand from Talbots.

7. someone on a local facebook group mentioned they were going to try to purchase holiday gifts from small businesses in the areas hit hard by the hurricanes recently. thought this was a nice idea and wanted to share here

   1. I love this idea.

8. Shot in the dark – does anyone’s 8th grader or 9th grader do Word Within a Word for English class (Latin stems)? My 8th grader in honors english is having a hard time because the teacher considers absolutely everything they’ve done previously to be fair game on every test, which is like 1500 stems and words. Just figured I’d ask if anyone else has found a better way to study or gamify it.

   1. That’s a pretty standard approach for teaching etymologies and vocab. Students are expected to retain what they previously learned. Flash cards, either on paper or via Quizlet, are the way. Focus most of the time on reviewing what they don’t remember well instead of going through every term. Practice both ways (word/stem to definition and definition to word/stem). Prioritize the stems over full words.

   2. Anki.

   3. Connect it to things she already knows rather than focusing on the words on a test list (e.g., if she learned about the antebellum period in social studies, use that for bellus/bellum rather than “belligerent” which might be on the official list). Once she’s got one cognate she can lock into she’ll have a foothold. Is she taking a romance language in school? If so a lot of the roots will be the same and you can use what she’s already learned there. Also do it all the damn time. Watching a TV show? Point out the roots as you hear them. Reading anything (even a restaurant menu)? Point them out. If she’s got enough English vocab to be in honors English then she already knows a lot of these, she just isn’t focused on them.

9. Does anyone have (or have thoughts) on the Cuyana overnight or weekender bag, in knit? I have a work trip to Asia coming up and would love to have a new carryon bag (I will be checking a suitcase). If the overnight is large enough it would be good to have a new everyday work bag, but if the weekender is the right call here, I’d love opinions.

10. Question about remote work and the government given some buzz in the press about the DOGE. Ignoring the two bozos at the head of DOGE for a brief moment, I’m curious to learn more before arriving at a snap judgement about return to office mandates that are being preliminarily proposed.

    With that, I’m looking to just understand. Were government workers told en masse at the department level that they could indefinitely work remotely? I just read a profile about someone who works for the Library of Congress who moved to the midwest and now doesn’t want to move back. This person was once in person in DC until COVID. Were these broadly supposed to be temporary remote positions that have just drawn way out? I’m not asking about hybrid (which I am absolutely supportive of with certain guardrails in place), but I mean full remote.

    1. They’ll be shooting themselves in the foot in a lot of cases. Outside the NCR (Washington DC), locations and networks are incredibly under-invested. I often have to work from home in order to have a somewhat usable network speed. If everyone in my immediate area came back to the office, aside from jockeying for desk space, there wouldn’t be enough bandwidth for them to do their jobs. Yes, those of us in IT raise the issue regularly, but it’s never acknowledged or addressed.

       1. +1 something is always, always broken in the office

    2. They want folks to quit so they don’t have to pay out for unemployment as they try to trim down workforce. Simple as that.

       Throw in a good measure of “you’re lazy if you work from home” and I’m sure it will appeal to the base and older generations who already hold those stereotypes, especially those who dislike white-collar workers who aren’t at the CEO level or retired.

       1. I mean, I get that. That’s not my question. I’m just wondering how the remote work came to be. Additionally, in my circles, which are not government but professional and government-adjacent, there is a perception that government workers are ‘all remote’ – which I logically know is not correct but even still, the narrative is out there. I’m just curious how pervasive it is, how it came to be, etc.

          1. I wonder where that perception comes from because in my circle that’s very inaccurate – I work in a large office (approx 300 folks) and have other friends who are feds – I only know one remote worker. She’s a disabled veteran and has a Reasonable Accommodation to be remote due to her disability… and she’s still in the office about once a month for something.

          2. Honestly, it’s pretty ignorant to have that perception.

          3. I am not sure what you are asking – how it came to be…? It came to be because there was a lockdown that in many parts of the country was pretty thorough and pretty long lasting. For a year or more, a lot of workers have been performing their work from home, and a lot of them did it successfully given the circumstances. Some moved to be closer to family or find more affordable cost of living during that time. I don’t think anybody was given a guarantee that they could work from home forever, but they were also not discouraged from moving, or given any kind of ultimatum or deadline. In 2021, the main message in my workplace was ‘clearly many can perform their job remotely with minimal issues, we will not go back to the office just out of principle, we will do what makes most business sense’.
             And, as others have said, in a lot of places, a lot of deferred investments for in-person work now mean that we are playing catch up. My workplace has not enough desks, parking spaces and conference rooms to bring everybody back.

          4. The feds I deal with went back to in-person work a year or two ago. The department had done a lot of hiring since the pandemic and the new people, who had been working remotely from wherever they lived, all had to move to DC.

    3. I think the vast majority of Feds are hybrid or fully in person (due to the nature of the work).

       My office is 50% in office. I do have colleagues who moved back to their home cities (usually for elder care reasons) who do now fly to my city every week and stay in a hotel.

       People have always had wild commutes for federal jobs – my colleague who now flys in every week (on his own dime of course) used to rent an apartment here while his family lived in his home city (a 2 hour flight away) and he’d go back every other weekend because there just weren’t jobs in the major city he lived in. I have several colleagues who commute 1.5-2 hours each way (they either did this before the pandemic or were hired duting the pandemic). It’s usually because of personal preference/ family reasons but also all federal regional HQ cities are pricey (let alone anyone stationed in DC!) and salaries only go so far so you often have to commute from far out

    4. That’s inaccurate. My ~400 person regional office has no one fully remote. We’re all hybrid or fully in person, depending on the position and its requirements.

       We absolutely do not have office space to be fully in person though.

       1. That’s interesting. Did the headcount grow that dramatically since COVID or was that always the case?

    5. Remote worker here – it depends on the agency. Some positions are hired as fully remote – this is the situation I am in. The state I live in is 500+ miles from HQ and 300+ from a regional office. I am paid based on my location and do not receive HQ (DMV) locality pay. During COVID, some agencies reclassified existing jobs as remote (I believe GSA did this). Some agencies had an application/approval process to move away from HQ location and be reclassified as remote. Some agencies have “local” remote, which is that you have a remote agreement but are w/in 50 miles of HQ – I think this is rare though, based on the last few years of RTO. I personally know people who had local remote revoked and now they go in multiple times to HQ.

       All remote agreements are reviewed/reapproved on a yearly basis – the exact language in them varies by agency (I believe). They are not “temporary” remote that has been drawn out – that’s not really a thing. If you are an actual remote worker your SF-50 has your home location on it and not a HQ or Regional Office location listed.

       If they revoke my remote status – I may be able to drive so a location where my dept. (but not my bureau) has a presence. That is unclear though.

       It’s a demoralizing situations – I joined to serve the people of this country and believe very strongly in public service.

    6. I’m not really a fan of fully remote work but I think more flexibility from where we work would be great.

       I worked at agency that really only had a presence in DC but had to move home for family reasons. My home city has regional offices for several agencies so I was able to find a “good enough” lateral position. Being near friends abc family and able to help with elder care and raising my kids near family is 1000% worth it but man I wish I could have kept my old job and just reported to an office in my new city.

    7. Honey, I didn’t even get to be remote during COVID let alone now. I’ve been fully in person or hybrid every d@mn day of the last 4 years

       1. Honey, so have I?

          I’m just trying to figure out where the talking points meet reality. Appreciate the constructive feedback I got. Very informative. I had no idea there were space issues before the lockdown!

    8. I just worked 37 of the last 40 days. All in person. On a work trip. Didn’t get to come home on those 3 whole days I got off.

       No, we’re clearly not all remote.

    9. I’d prefer to remain hybrid, but if I’m fully in person then it won’t be the end of the world, but they’re gonna need to make changes if they bring us fully back.

       My ~200 person office has 150 desks so we all hotel. We don’t get lockers or cubbies or drawers – everything has to be brought home with you every day. There are 8 private officers for division directors and higher. They all share them and hotel as well.

       We have four conference rooms. They’re impossible to reserve. So every phone call or face to face chat has to happen in our open layout workspace. I’ve overheard too many performance reviews to count.

       We have one microwave and one standard size fridge. No break room or kitchen so we have to eat at our desks.

       Obviously no coffee, filtered water, ice, napkins, or little things like dish soap, a sponge, Kleenex, etc provided. One office I worked in didn’t even reliably hags hand soap.

       HVAC is awful. Our carpet is stained and hasn’t been replaced in lord knows how long.

       1. The hoteling and lack of storage or privacy for private work-related matters sounds dreadful! And toting everything back and forth can’t be completely secure in terms of government records. Yikes!

    10. It varied a lot between agencies. In my division, about half of the people are fully remote, about a quarter are fully in person, and the rest of us are hybrid. There was lots of managerial discretion and no one was given any big guidance about how long things would last.

        Frankly, I think this attitude of “everyone needs to be in person all the time” is a way to get people to leave without having formal layoffs.

        1. I was just at an event for my industry, which is non-governmental, where a CEO I am briefly acquainted with was “entertaining” the table with a tale about how his return to office order should result in a 10% to 20% reduction in workforce with no severance. Oh fuckin ha ha ha sir, good one.

           1. Good way to get rid of good workers who treasure flexibility. And to turn off job applicants. And to increase commercial real estate costs. So short-sighted.

        2. I totally agree that’s the motivation.

           1. The thing is that it’s the best employees who will leave, because they are the ones who have the most options. It will also be hard the recruit the best and the brightest in the future. My entire field (not federal) has gone fully remote and it’s dramatically increased the quality of our applicant pools.

    11. Some agencies had generous telework policies before because they simply don’t have the space to hold everyone. People had to share desks on split weeks or sit in conference rooms etc. Mine has agency buildings and was paying rent in multiple office buildings that they also had grown out of. All for workers to sit in cubes still using teams because meeting rooms weren’t big enough.

        Also, often when we say we’re downsizing government we’re actually expanding federal contracting. There is some benefit to the taxpayer for agencies to allow remote work because you can recruit talent that is cheaper because the cost of living is cheaper.

    12. I’m a retired Fed and worked for almost 40 years in the government. My agency went hybrid in 2015 as a recruitment tool and it allowed us to woo a lot of really competent people. I think the essential/non-essential designation used in previous budget shutdowns has really harmed government workers. Most people do not know what government workers do and to be told that they are basically non-essential and now only “working” from home is harmful and insulting. Do I think there are employees who are not the best, sure. But every organization has them.

11. Is 9 days in London as a solo traveler too long? I’ve never been before. I’d love to do Oxford/Cambridge/the countryside and not just the city so a longer trip feels right but I am anxious about being tired of being by myself for too long. I’d be going in January.

    1. That sounds heavenly. I’d get the Rick Steves book and do every page. Plus that will let you do everything at a relaxed pace. Keep in mind, that time of year, sunset is at 4 pm, so the days will feel very short, which may make it nice to have more time.

    2. I don’t think so (although the countryside may be nicer in a warmer month) – my first trip to London was 5 days and it was hard to whittle down the list to a trip that was busy but still relaxing (as in, time to linger in a pub for a long lunch).

    3. The days will be short in January, won’t they? I wouldn’t stay in London the whole time because you’ll lose so many hours to travel. Stay a couple of nights in each location. Make it a roadtrip if you’re comfortable driving.

    4. It sounds perfect! I spent 10 days in London last year and used two days for side trips (Bath, Stonehenge, the Cotswolds, Oxford) and it was perfect. You’ll never run out of things to do in London!

    5. Solo in London is easy! There are tons of great museum tours you can join if you want a little company while you’re poking around (or museums are great to be in by yourself). See if your trip is timed to take advantage of any of the “Lates” (museums open post regular hours, usually with a bar, usually 18+). If you’re into cocktails, sit at the bar at Bar Swift, Coupette (or their outpost in Soho), Tayer + Elementary, Satan’s Whiskers, Lyaness, or any of the other fancy cocktail bars around town and the bartenders will take very good care of you. Great restaurants for solo dining are Yauatcha (esp. the City location), Bancone, Kiln, Jugemu, Lina Stores, Duck Soup, Barrafina, The Barbary, Kanada-Ya, and Bao. All have either tables for one in good people-watching spots or bars you can sit at so it’s not awkward to eat solo. Stop by the TKTS booth in Leicester Square to get rush tickets for a show; if you’re only looking for one, you can usually get a great seat for like 20 quid.

    6. No but I love London. There’s always something going on so you can see a show or concert or museum. Theater is a lot cheaper. Plus the average tourist never sees some of the really interesting neighborhoods in London. The rail system is very easy to navigate (both the tube and British rail) so day trips are also easy. Lots of tour companies do day trips too if that would make you more comfortable.

12. My office is severely understaffed and I am so sick of the senior partners refusing to do work because their “hourly rate is too high.” If it’s too high then you can charge a lower rate, discount your time, or the client can’t afford our firm so you should connect them with another firm. I cannot be in two places at once. And no, I’m not going to bump a hearing for my client so I can cover a hearing for your client. Either do it yourself or tell the client why their issue can’t get resolved until next year. Harumph!

    1. I agree!

    2. AGREED

13. OMG is it just me or does my base model rental Nissan Rogue have the most perfectly comfortable drivers seat ever?

    1. We briefly had a Murano, which I believe is the same car as the Rogue but with nicer trim. I irrationally hated that car for how it looked on the outside, but I can’t deny that the inside was comfy AF.

    2. I have a Lexus sedan but honestly, I miss my Altima. Nissan cars are exceptionally well-designed, it’s a pity the Infinitis aren’t (IME) great cars.

    3. So funny, we just were in a Rogue as an Uber a couple weeks ago, and we were a group of 4 so my dad sat in the front seat. He also commented about the extremely comfortable front passenger seat. And he drives a big Range Rover normally!

    4. We have a used Nissan Leaf and I am consistently impressed with how comfortable the interior is.

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