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Updated: Oct 11, 2020 141 Comments · by

Coffee Break: Villa Waterproof Bootie

Coffee Break

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I could've sworn we'd covered this boot a thousand times in the past — but perhaps I'm thinking of the very similar Valli (which is still around but in reduced colors; both Nordstrom and Zappos have them for under $100). (Here's our post on the Valli over at CorporetteMoms.) I like the newer look to the weatherproof bootie — it's got a similar low heel (1.75 inches) and (woot!) is waterproof. 

It's generally around $150 when it's full price, but Zappos had select colors and sizes as low as $120 recently. And there are a TON of colors: I count 11 at Zappos alone. (“Dark grey” is pictured here.) They come in sizes 5.5–12 in medium and wide sizes. Nice!

Readers, do you have any favorite waterproof boots this season?

Update: Nordstrom Rack has a ton of colors and sizes for the Villa, some as low as $79. 

Hunting for weatherproof shoes for work? As of 2024, these are some of our favorites — also check out waterproof sneakers like Allbirds, and Tory Burch's rain loafers.

short weatherproof walkable boot from Aquatalia
Aquatalia
short weatherproof walkable boot from Naturalizer
Naturalizer
short rain boot
Hunter
waterproof Chelsea boot
Blondo

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Comments

  1. Anon

    OK, I’ve figured out what I need in a face mask: nose wire that holds its shape well, adjustable ear loops, duck-bill or otherwise staying off the mouth but still close-fitting, at least two layers, and machine-washable. I just ordered some on Etsy that a friend recommended, but they don’t seem to fit my face as well as they do hers. What are your favorite masks that meet the criteria I listed? My face is fairly round with a not-tiny nose if that makes any difference. I also wear glasses so it would be a bonus if there is a magical mask that doesn’t fog like crazy.

    • Silly Valley

      Pixie Masks on etsy is my new favorite, although it doesn’t have the nose wire. I’ve heard it called an origami mask, but the other origami masks/mask patterns I’ve seen are slightly different to it. I also have a round face and wear glasses – the ones with a shaped piece for the nose, with or without the nose wire, seem to fog the least.

    • Anon

      Minor jack, but I have the Athleta Made to Move Mask and there is SO MUCH bunching of fabric on the inside. It’s true of all three in the pack, so not just a one-off manufacturing issue. I’m inhaling extra fabric. What am I doing wrong? They were otherwise highly recommended.

      • anon.

        I have and hate these masks. They are my least favorite. Same problem and no idea if I’m just doing it wrong.

        • Anon

          So glad it’s not just me. I have an entirely normal sized and shaped face. They are terrible and I just assumed I was doing something wrong.

      • anon

        Weird, I have these and love them, no issues with bunching. I don’t do anything out of the ordinary, though! My only pet peeve was the tag (I had to cut it out).

        • Ellen

          I want to get the mask that Halle Jackson has on NBC TV. She looks so cute in that mask, and I think I would also. Does anyone know a number I can call or write her to find out where she gets her mask from? My current mask gets all bunched up and men are not attracted to it.

    • Anne

      This is very similar to my list, which is: nose wire, pleated, ideally three layer, machine washable and I cannot find a mask that meets all of them. It’s frustrating.

      • Anokha

        I’ve had luck with the Sanctuary one, which meet some of the criteria: double layered, nose wire, machine washable (I hang dry), pleated. Not adjustable ear.

      • Anonymous

        Yeah you aren’t going to find all this easily. Machine washing a nose wire isn’t a great plan.

      • anon a mouse

        I found exactly these at Gap of all places, the accordion-pleated ones. The kid ones also have the nose wire which is harder to find. They shrank slightly when washed but that just made them a little snugger which was fine with me.

        • Cat

          +1, these have been working great for us. I also have the Athleta Everyday Non Medical Masks en route – have heard poor things about the Made to Move version.

      • Anon

        hertlingusa dot com. DH and I have been putting these through the washer and dryer since April. They are three layers, with a polypropylene filter bonded between two cloth layers. The cloth is 100% cotton, which I find helps a great deal with not breaking out.

    • Anon

      I really like the masks from Trustela on Etsy. They don’t have the pleating to stay off the mouth, but I find the fabric holds its shape fairly well and stays off my mouth for the most part. Also have held up well through the washing machine all summer/fall.

      I hear you on the magical mask that doesn’t fog glasses – no solution for that. My 5yo wears glasses and a mask all day at school, and his big trick is to pinch it hard on the nose, then put the bridge of the glasses over the mask. That works a little better but still isn’t a guarantee.

    • Anonymous

      If you’re willing to spend a bit more money any seamstress can draft and custom make a mask to those specifications.

    • anon

      The disposable surgical masks are so much more comfortable than any cloth mask I’ve tried. I also wear glasses and they don’t fog up (although they do for my husband). I know its not earth friendly but I’ve had a couple work situations where I have had to wear a mask for 8+ hours and was so relieved I brought some surgical masks after the first hour or so.

      • Sloan Sabbith

        Yeah, I just wear those. I have a hard time breathing in thicker cloth masks (because my lungs suck at being lungs) but the basic blue surgical masks are generally fine. I also find them to be more comfortable on my ears, etc.

    • Anonymous

      I use the ones from Cuddle Clones. Not duck-billed but pleated and they fit me perfectly. They have two layers and a pouch for an additional filter if desired (I order those off of Amazon.) Bonus is having my dog’s face printed in a pattern on them. It’s been a nice conversation piece. And to be honest with you, I was in full on anxiety attack when I had a dental appointment–looking down at my dog’s face as I held the mask did a great job at getting me through.

    • Anonymous

      Check out Profound. They’re a bit pricey but fit me better than any of my other masks and seem to fit your requirements.

    • BB

      You might want to try the one from Ministry of Supply. It’s duck billed (not the knit one), has a nose bridge, adjustable loops, and allows for filters. My one complaint about it is that the bill was really big on me (like stuck out with space), but I have a flat nose, so it might be perfect for you.

    • Anonymous

      eBay as is a good source of lots of kinds of masks. I got one that meets your criteria from a seller named “Attriks.”

  2. Coffee Machines

    Help a tired girl out?

    I like black coffee. I think Starbucks is painfully bitter. I’m ok with some flavored brews but not too adventurous. Only other drink I order is a Chai Latte and the occasional espresso.

    Nespresso I’m finding is the gold standard in any Ke urig v Nespresso review blogs. I wonder if my taste buds don’t care or won’t notice? Ideally my machine of choice is a relatively small footprint. Preference for, but not required, that it have a multi-serving reservoir. Bonus for reusable capsules. I know Nespresso has recycling.

    I’ve been looking at Nespresso Vertuo but there are a handful of versions. I also feel like those ads are in my face so maybe I’m just a sucker for marketing. Thoughts?

    • Anon

      If you like black coffee and have had problems with bitterness (and you want to reduce waste), I’d definitely go with a Chemex. It meets your small footprint requirement, it tastes great, and it’s eco-friendly (no plastic involved anywhere). I’ve found that it’s very easy and not significantly more work than a Keurig-type machine – just takes a few extra minutes, but it’s not tons of hands-on time.

      • Anon

        This is what I was thinking. Buy some “third wave” coffee from a local roaster and brew it pour over style in a Chemex or similar.

      • Anon

        Yes, or a small plastic or ceramic pour over thingy that you put over a cup. Add a filter (paper or reusable), grounds, pour boiling water and done. It makes coffee that’s infinitely better that what you can get from a keurig and takes up about as much space as a large mug — mine lives in the cabinet next to the mugs. I buy coffee from my local coffee shop and have them grind it because I have not noticed a difference in taste between that and grinding myself, but it’s a lot less work. The filter plus grounds are compostable, if that’s available to you.

    • OP

      Edited to add as I don’t know if it was clear: I’d like to make an espresso and latte with said machine so my thread name should really not be “Coffee Machine” but “coffee and other stuff machines”. Overwhelmed by choices! TIA.

      • Leatty

        Breville Barista Express – no capsules required, you can use any coffee beans, easy to use, and makes delicious lattes

      • Anon

        Breville Bambino Plus is the one we have and it’s great. We have the accompanying Breville grinder as well.

      • anonshmanon

        Another plug for breville. Have had a breville espresso machine (can also foam milk) and separate burr grinder (coffee snob here, ymmv) for 15ish years. Super long living. Left one set behind when moving overseas and bought the next set used because they are so durable.

    • Anonymous

      Philips Saeco Xsmall. We returned a Nespresso that was a Christmas gift from my parents and got this instead right before the pandemic hit. It’s been worth it’s weight in gold. DH and I both drink coffee black – like 4 cups a day each. Dump beans in the top, refill water tank and empty grounds every couple days (for a single person, not for two ppl). We like Lavazza espresso beans but YMMV of course. Try a few different kinds.

      My MIL is Europe has a Nespresso so I was very familiar with them. Nothing beats fresh ground coffee and this is not harder than the Nespresso. Instead of emptying capsules, you’re emptying grounds. Instead of putting in a capsule each time, you just fill the beans every couple days. Both have water tanks. It’s slightly larger than a Nespresso but about the same size as a K cup machine.

    • Anonymous

      I really like my French Press and some Starbuck’s Blonde coffee – it’s a lighter roast that I don’t find bitter. The French Press has zero waste other than the grounds.

      • Anon

        I love my Nespresso vertuo. I order the pods through Nespresso website and use the mail in recycling. They have lots of roast options and I like many of them black. The different sizes are good, I like the double espresso for lattes and the coffee size for a normal cup. My favorite roast is the melozio. It’s not the smallest footprint but I make it work in my small Chicago apartment.

          • Anon

            According to my order history I got the Nespresso VertuoPlus Coffee and Espresso Maker Bundle with Aeroccino Milk Frother by De’Longhi, Limited Edition Black Matt. I love the frothed since it does both hot and cold foam.

          • Anonymous

            This sounds like what I have too and I love it. I like the 7.7oz coffees black and the double espressos for yummy almond milk lattes.

      • anon a mouse

        +1 for trying different coffees, too. Beyond Starbucks, a local shop could direct you to their least-bitter blend.

    • Korvapuusti

      I got a Nespresso Vertuo machine off free cycle that is noisy after several years of use, but perfectly functional. I use it with the Campresso reusable steel cups, and get a local coffee shop to grind beans to medium fine – I don’t have any issues with residue that some reviews mention.

      I think the Vertuo model I have is Evolou, and I have a separate (non Nespresso) frother.

    • anon

      You need to start with good beans. You can have the fanciest coffee maker in the world but if your beans are low quality, the coffee won’t be good. I’d recommend starting at a local specialty coffee shop. If you don’t want to go that route, I’d try something like a misto box or angel’s cup subscription. I’ve also found that any coffee in pods causes the water to coffee ratio to be off and it just won’t taste as good as non-pod coffee.

      • Anon

        Agree. #1 is good beans. #2 is freshly ground. #2.5 is ground correctly, burr grinder preferably. The brand of coffeemaker is pretty far down the list in terms of big impact on flavor.

    • Marie

      I have the Nespresso original and drink all of my espresso black. It is the kitchen item I easily get the most use out of. I even bought a second for my office to cut out the need for a midday coffee run.

    • techgirl

      We have a standard nespresso (not the vertuo) that we’ve had for 6 years, alongside an Aerocinno 4 that’s 2 years old. Love both. Can make espresso, latte, iced lattes and cappuccinos.
      We buy compostable pods from an independent who has an excellent house blend.

  3. LookingForPrimeDayBooks

    Any easy way to determine whether Amazon is offering any prime day deals on books (not kindles, books themselves)? TIA!

    • pugsnbourbon

      If you click on the Prime Day banner right below the search bar, it’ll take you to a page with all the deals. Then you can select “books” from the options bar on the left side.

  4. Nearby state Us

    I thought about the college-kid posts this week and it seems that they envision something like a kid from New Mexico going to a far-away school and only returning at each semester’s end. I was like that in college and so was my sibling. We were 8-12 hours away form home and for shorter breaks had to bunk with friends or nearby (2-4 hours) family. We also did not have cars.

    In my city, a lot of kids to to nearby very large schools (so they may not police individual students much, many live off campus, etc.). The kids generally drive to-from school several times a semester and often to other schools when they have football games or to see friends / boyfriends / girlfriends. This is normal stuff. I think it has been done cautiously now, but from my neighbors with college kids, they have not stopped small group stuff (just large group stuff, like packing bars or extreme day-long tailgating).

    The good news is that outbreaks would have been on local news and/or schools would have had to send kids home or do remote learning. I can’t tell that that has happened. I still do think that they are likely vectors and that is a concern for semester end — maybe colleges can encourage kids to get tested before leaving (but since leaving occurs every weekend, it may be that that ship has already sailed without incident).

    • Ribena

      Here in Scotland (where we’re not allowed to go inside other households’ homes) there has been chat about asking students to isolate for a period of time before returning to family homes for the Christmas break

    • Anon

      I went away this weekend to a small town in my state, which I did not realize had a college. We went for hiking and mostly did take out, but went into town on Saturday night for outdoor dining. There were large groups of college or slightly older people sitting at tables outside many bars — most were groups of 10 or so. I saw plenty of maskless hugging and the like. I’m hoping everything I’ve heard about outdoor transmission being extremely rare is true!

    • Anon

      The public school I work at has many in-state students who live just a few hours away. The school canceled Labor Day and fall break and is ending face-to-face instruction before Thanksgiving and told students not to go home to their families except at the end of the semester, so no, the kids are not generally randomly coming and going for long weekends. I’m sure some have done it anyway, and I know of some parents who’ve visited their kids, which is similar though maybe not quite as risky, but there’s definitely been a cultural shift towards staying on campus for four straight months even though most kids could easily leave.

  5. anon

    I had coffee today with my former boss, who reached out to me to reconnect. We hadn’t seen each other since December, when she retired. I always said that I liked her as a person, but she wasn’t a great boss. After our get-together, I was reminded that actually … she’s not that great of a person. Even with the disaster of COVID, my work life is much improved from this time last year. I feel like I need to do something cleansing after interacting with her. Current boss has her weak points, but working with her is so much better.

    • Ellen

      Be charitable. Sure she may not be ideal, but she was your boss and she’s now retired. Be nice to her b/c you never want to burn bridges. You will become old and retire, and you do not want the person who reported to you to consider you haggard, so what goes around comes around.
      I am always nice to people even if they are not that nice to me. That is why I could always go back to my former job (even tho I do not like serving subpeenies). Be like me and others. By being nice, you will look nicer as you age.

  6. The Office

    My tweens now love The Office, and I have never gotten around to watching it all. We have a RoKu with YouTube TV, Netflix, and Amazon prime. Not much Office on YouTube TV. Where is there a lot of it that we can get?

    • anon

      According to google, The Office was taken off Netflix, and NBC is holding it back until they launch their own streaming service sometime in 2021.

      • Anon

        …which is available free through Comcast Xfinity – just say “The Office on Peacock” into your remote.

        • Anon

          Peacock is free for anyone, you just have to sign up. Xfinity subscribers get some extra premium content, but I’m pretty sure The Office is available on the free service.

      • anonshmanon

        So much stuff that I was rewatching has left Netflix for peacock recently!

    • AFT

      It is constantly on Comedy Central – is there any way to access that channel through your options?

    • Vicky Austin

      The Office is still on Netflix through the end of the year, I believe.

      • Anonymous

        Yeah, my teenager is still watching it constantly on Netflix. I am so sick of the sound of it that I can’t wait for it to leave Netflix.

    • TV Show Availability

      Here’s a great way to find where any show is available — go to imdb and somewhere under the big picture they have of the show, it says where it’s available.

      It says Amazon Prime for The Office and if you click on the ellipses to the right of that it gives you a list of other options & how many seasons are available there.

      • AnonPara

        This is a great resource too and will tell you where a movie or show is available on which streaming service or for purchase. justwatch dot com

  7. Hygge

    I’ve moved into a big house and I am struggling to make it feel like home. It’s airy and well-lit, so in the summer it was relaxing to open the windows and feel the spaciousness. But since the wind and rain have swept in, I feel like there is nowhere cheery I can comfortably settle in. Hit me up with your best advice for making a soace cozy!

    • Anon

      Add textiles! Rugs, curtains, throw blankets, pillows. You can find them pretty cheaply at places like Costco, Ross, and Home Goods. If it seems dark in the winter, lamps with warm colored bulbs are your friend.

    • Anonymous

      Can you swap in velvet curtains and furry and velvety pillows and throws? Add pools of light from standing and table lamps?

    • anon

      What’s your rug and curtain situation? I love a bright, airy room, but curtains can do a lot to soften a space and make it feel more cozy. Rugs also add warm and texture. Start there before adding the accessories, blankets, etc.

    • Anon

      My favorite spot in our house is an upholstered rocking chair next to a big window, with a bookshelf in arms reach. There are some really lovely mid-century style rocking chairs, doesn’t have to be really old-timey

  8. Anon

    Anyone want to chime in (get it?) on the Ring doorbell? Amazon has them on sale today. I don’t know if I really need all the bells and whistles (can’t stop myself) of the higher level versions. Is the original, cheaper version just as good?

    • Anon

      I love the puns! But Ring will give your information to the cops and it’s all very secretive and sketchy.

    • Anon

      I’m in an apartment and my neighbors across the hall have it. I do not like it because it faces my door and records the comings and goings of everyone in my apartment. I slipped them a polite note that it made me uncomfortable when they first moved in and installed it, but they have said nothing and have not taken it down. We live in a very secure doorman building (packages are held by the doorman) in a very low crime neighborhood, so while it seems to me to be their right to have it, it also feels like an absolutely unnecessary intrusion. If you live in an apartment or your door is close enough to the doors of your neighbors, please consider their privacy concerns as well.

      • Monday

        There are so many examples like this, where one person’s device is recording someone else’s movements or property without their consent. (You don’t even have access to the recordings they are making of your door!) You might have legal options to make them take it down or face differently, but how many people are really in a position to take it that far?

      • No Face

        This is one of my least favorite aspects of modern society. We are being surveilled all day, every day. I hate it.

      • Ellen

        I would not worry if they see people coming and going into your apartement. It is you that must be comfortable with those people, not them. Having said that, mabye they are afraid to open their door and want to see who it is in the hall b/f they open their door. You have no idea what kind of crime they faced b/f they moved in. Even tho you think the place is safe, trust me, there are degenerates that get into the building. If you don’t believe me, watch the vintage movie “Death Wish” where the woman opened the front door in an apartement in NYC and wound up dead. FOOEY on that. Forget privacy. Saftey is more important.

        Be charitable and understand that it is NOT always all about you.

  9. Anonymous

    I want to take advantage of prime day and pick up a kindle but need some help deciding. Is the Oasis worth it? How much storage does an average person need?

    • Anon

      I love my Oasis! But I have also had the most basic version and loved that one too until it wouldn’t hold a charge any longer (I had it for like 7ish years before it died). I never came close to running out of storage, but I love the features on the Oasis, including that it links to Goodreads and also is water resistant.

    • Anon

      I have and love the Paperwhite, except the power button placement. I hit it accidentally all of the time.

    • Mal

      I personally love my Paperwhite because it mimics reading and actual book vs feeling like a mini tablet. It has a backlight if I need it, but has no other distractions/games/etc. :)

    • techgirl

      Another vote for paperwhite. I only need my kindle to hold maybe 10 books at a time max – so storage isn’t an issue. I only keep local copies of the book I am currently reading, and then do a mass download of 7-10 when travelling. I remove it from the device when done, and if I had any reason to need it I’d just restore from the cloud.

  10. Real Estate Transaction - Am I Wrong?

    Closed a few weeks ago on a house in a hot real estate market in the northeast.
    Seller’s left a bunch of junk outside adjacent to the detached garage: a toilet (empty), maybe 12-15 3 feet long old roof shingles, 4-5 long wooden posts, metal bars, some tiles, some other edging material that couldn’t be reused.
    At closing, our realtor (buyer’s agent) was very like “oh you can leave the toilet out and someone will drive by and get it. someone will take it” and then promised that the seller’s agent would come take the rest of the junk. The seller’s agent came and took 1-2 things and left the junk.
    In a fiesty moment, in response to our realtor asking if the seller’s agent took the junk, I replied to the text message explaining that the junk is still on the property. Not my best moment, but I texted our agent that “everyone got paid” and essentially no one was really looking out on our behalf on that day (yes, our lawyer was also on site during the closing).
    Now, our realtors are coming over tomorrow to personally haul away the junk. I think that’s a fine outcome. Obviously they want to make this right.
    Husband thinks I was wrong to press/get fiesty about it. Was I out of line? First time homebuyers, so I have no prior exchange to base this off of except the experiences of friends/family.

    • Anonymous

      Often cities will do a certain # of bulk pickups of stuff like this. That wasn’t an option?

      This is what closing walkthroughs are for. And if they had balked at cleaning, would you have walked away from the house? Hot markets are like that. People get away with stuff b/c they know they can.

    • Anonymous

      You were in the right to be mad, however this is the sellers junk and they should be the ones held liable. Anger should be redirected to the seller

    • Anonymous

      You’re fine. They are being a bit silly/cheap by personally removing the junk. They could have just called 1800GOTJUNK or whatever local equivalent.

      I’d avoid being home when they come by so they don’t try to guilt you/your husband into helping move the stuff.

    • Anon

      Not at all. It was your realtors’ job to make sure this was taken care of. They dropped the ball and now it’s on them. This is the correct outcome.

      Never apologize for using your voice!!

      • Anon

        Ps if any of the building materials left behind match what’s currently in your house, like the tile, you should find a way to store it. You will be glad to have it someday.

    • Anonymous

      Don’t worry about it, everyone has a melt down during a real estate transaction over something!

    • Anon

      Yep, agree that it’s fine. The correct answer was that the sellers cleaned up their own crap before moving out and that the seller’s agent enforced it, but since they left it and you couldn’t/didn’t want to dispose of it, it’s perfectly ok to insist that the agents do it.

    • Anonny

      You’re not wrong. Frankly, your realtor should have advised you to not close until it was gone. I would have insisted it be gone to close/at final walk through the night before closing. I’m not actively transacting/repping buyers and sellers right now but I’m a licensed salesperson in MA who works directly in real estate transactions. Closings have been held up for less at final walk through because something isn’t to the buyer’s (reasonable) expectation.

      • Anonnn

        +1 for the future. I’ve held up closings when items weren’t done that were on the home inspection punch list and also held back funds in escrow for things that were agreed to but not done before closing.

    • Anonymous

      This is probably very market dependent. In mine, Greater Boston Burbs, you do a walk thru before you close. What you see there is what you get. If there was a junk pile, I’d have asked/insisted on a $1k hold back until the junk is gone.

      At the end of the day though, someone is coming to get it, and you have your house. Congrats and good luck!

    • anon

      I think your fine. My experience was simlar to yours. The sellers were never onsite and they guy who they hired to cleanup just stole everything good (heirloom silver, apparently amazing wine, wth…) but left behind lots of junk (used medical equipment in closets, rotting food in dead freezers, unlabeled garden chemicals) . A few days before closing I insisted my realtor walk through with me, and after about 45 mins of insisting it all looked fine to him, he finally caved and hired a crew to spend several days cleaning & hauling away. I think the 2 realtors split the cost of the cleaning, but I feel no guilt about that.

    • Anonymous

      I think you should have demanded it be removed or get a credit before closing after your walkthrough.

    • anne-on

      We bought in a not super hot market in the dead of winter (so, theoretically, the sellers should have been thrilled) and they were awful. Would not let us in to measure rooms (literally let us in once, supposedly for 2 hours and came back after 30 minutes and kicked us out), left behind expired food in the fridge and clothing (?!?!?) in closets. They also left a TON of old house junk (shutters, original doors, old windows, etc.) in the attic and garage that we eventually got a dumpster for and hauled out ourselves. Our agent was irate on our behalf and I know she tore the sellers agent (who was also difficult, and had a terrible reputation) a new one. Sellers are just weird and disrespectful sometimes it seems. But I would absolutely have raised it to the agents – this is their job! The sellers agent should have rode the sellers harder to get rid of it OR to give you a credit towards having it hauled away.

    • Senior Attorney

      If anybody is out of line, it’s your husband for having the nerve to second-guess the way you successfully handled this issue.

      • OP

        I know, right? I even shared my cookies after lunch. :-)
        I think he’s cranky because moving is tiring; I can relate. But he also admitted to me that he isn’t as invested in getting rid of the junk as I am. I feel like I can affix a dollar amount to this issue that should not be our dollars to spend. His position is “we will deal with it in spring when we do X Y Z other things”. We had a nice, spirited discussion about this!

      • A

        Agree–you deserve a glass of wine and bubble bath while your DH does the dishes, IMO.

    • Anonymous

      I bought a house once (young single woman) from a couple. The walkthrough was before closing, which I learned was a very bad idea. They carefully removed everything from the house they wanted, and left everything else — food, clothes, garbage, small furniture, whatever. My realtor said oh, she was afraid that would happen. I had to hire people to clean out the junk and clean.

      Social media wasn’t big then, but if this happened now it’d be hard to dissuade me from posting pictures of how they left the house and tagging them. It was a really rotten thing to do to someone and shame on my realtor for suspecting it and not alerting me.

  11. Anon

    Re: the early Christmas thread this morning.

    At this point, “All I Want for Christmas is You” makes me murderous, it has been so over-played. It’s as if there are no other Christmas songs.

    Can we start some kind of campaign to ban it?

    • Anon

      Not going to happen as long as the travesty of a rom-com that is Love Actually is around.

      • Anon

        If anyone is a grinch, I think it’s the commenter taking a light hearted post way too personally.

    • No Face

      Counterpoint: “All I Want for Christmas is You” is the perfect secular Christmas song, tied with “This Christmas.”

    • anon

      l’ll tale any of the other Christmas songs before I willingly listen to Santa Baby!

      • Vicky Austin

        hard same. Way too many “fun, jazzy” choir versions of that in my past!

      • pugsnbourbon

        I have a list of about seven Christmas songs that I will tolerate the Wham’s Last Christmas is one of them. For some reason I just love it.
        Nearly all other pop-holiday music has been ruined by multiple seasons in retail.

    • Anonymous

      I am on board to ban them all, and if we have to do it one by one, so be it.

    • anon

      I know it’s a classic, but the 12 Days of Christmas drives me NUTS. Even as a child, I loathed the repetitiveness!

      Oh, and Santa Baby is just ick.

      • Snarky

        I can’t stand the drummer boy.
        (Ducks)
        A song without words is a crummy gift. And a song about a song with without words, wherein you mimick the sound of a drum, is just pathetic. Also who plays drums for a newborn baby?

        Oh and that “marshmallow world” song? Where “the sun is red, like a pumpkin head”? What? What was in your marshmallows lady?

    • Anon

      Instead of banning it, replace it with better Christmas music. Ana Gasteyer’s Christmas album Sugar & Boozed is fantastic with lots of original fun songs.

      • Anon

        I will definitely check that out! I am sick of all of my Christmas music even though it’s objectively great (all the original classics plus some Ella Fitzgerald)

    • Anon

      Uh, I am a total grinch (avoid celebrating Xmas as much as possible) and even I can’t help singing along to that song. May it live forever!

  12. Duckles

    Thanks for the birthday ideas last week! I ended up doing a day trip to hike and get lunch out and it was perfect.

  13. Anonymous

    Appropriate tip for a laser hair removal session? I bought a package, didn’t tip during the first session because I paid in advance and tipping didn’t cross my mind until seeing little tip envelopes on my way out and being totally unprepared. I believe I will have the same technician(?) each session.

    • eertmeert

      My laser spa told me that the tip is built into the price of the package. Maybe you can call and ask?

      • Anon

        I think the fact that they put out tip envelopes is a pretty clear sign that tips are not built into the pricing structure.

    • anon

      I didn’t realize tip was a thing, because I had mine done at a doctor’s office… so went several sessions without tipping. Eventually I did two large tips: once at Christmas and another at the last session.

    • Anonymous

      It’s not a gym, it’s a spin studio. Gyms in my state have been open for 90 days, and I go two or three times a week. Shrug.

    • Anon

      It sounds like there were no masks? I’m not going to the gym now either but in the US at least most gym outbreaks seem to be in places that don’t require masks.

    • Anon

      Anecdata is so great! Here’s some more: I’ve been going to the gym once or twice a week since June and no one at my gym, including me, has gotten sick.

      • Anon

        How could you possibly know no one at your gym has been sick? In the US, contact tracing only considers someone a close contact if they were within 6 feet for 15 minutes, so most people at the gym aren’t your contacts. I don’t think gyms are necessarily that dangerous, but “no one at my gym has gotten sick” is a silly statement because you really have no way of knowing.

  15. anon

    Any bullet journal people on the board? If so, what resources do you like for getting started? I’m using this less as a way to organize my life, and more as a way to express some creativity and track the things I’m doing for my own enjoyment.

    • Anon

      My bullet journal isn’t going to win any prizes for beauty but it keeps me on track.mine is simple 1 on the daily entries I write the date and day of week at the top and any known appointments to the right. Then I make a list of to-dos and fill it out as the day goes along. Before I stop work for the day I fill out tomorrow’s starting to-do list and appointments so that they’re on the top of my mind.

      I also do the year and month planning advised in the basic method but only for broad planning like blocking off time for travel (RIP) and vacation and things like that.

      It’s really the daily stuff I can’t live without.

      I will use some of the back pages for various projects. Like I have a page where I keep track of my daughter’s college costs, because I will need that for my taxes (documenting what came out of her 529 account and why) and another few pages for an occasional summary of what all of our bank and retirement accounts hold at approximately quarterly points in time.

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