Gift Idea: Omsom Try ‘Em All Set

48 Comments

1. My grades are done!! Time to go home and celebrate!

   1. Yay!

2. This is a great idea and I just bought two to send to friends. Thanks!

   1. Yeah, it looks amazing. Has anyone tried it?

      I wish I had enough time to order it before Xmas. Will bookmark tho.

3. Has anyone tried these sauces? In general what are your favorite premade sauces for dinner? Mine are the Maya Kaimal Tikka Masala sauce. I also kind of use Herdez Guacamole Salsa as a sauce/cheat for anytime the recipe calls for a spicy watery sauce made with avocado.

   1. I love the Maya Kaimal sauces and just ordered these to try them out.

   2. I just dropped some chicken thighs into Secret Aardvarks’ Jerk mariname, and I used the Mina harissa this weekend for roasting some salmon.

   3. we’ve tried them — they’re good! (Omsom). I keep meaning to order more and forgetting.

   4. Goya mojo marinade! (With the usual caveats about marinade and raw meat.)

4. Would you travel for a courthouse wedding in these circumstances? The courthouse has limit for the number of people who can witness the ceremony and there are more than that number invited and attending. Those who don’t make it into the ceremony room are expected to wait outside the courthouse.

   1. This depends so much on the rest of the circumstances. For my best friend ever and we’re all going for a celebratory lunch after? Absolutely.

      For my third cousin who I only see every other Christmas, if that? No way.

      1. yeah, in general this seems like kind of a rude approach, but whether I nevertheless attended has to do with the level of effort involved with the travel and my relationship with the couple.

      2. Same. If you make it inconvenient to attend, don’t be surprised when not everyone can, or is willing to, show up. I put this in the same category as a destination wedding.

         1. They’re probably not going to be surprised. It’s an invitation, not a summons.

   2. Not unless you’re pretty close to the people getting married. Oh this gives me flashbacks to my Mormon sister’s wedding. Mormons get married inside of temples where only other good-standing adult Mormons can go. So a popular thing to do for Mormons is to ask their non-member family to wait for them outside (often with all the kids) so when they come out there’s a big hurray as they’re walking down the steps, and then pictures are taken, etc. Then there’s often a reception later, or in some cases a few days later.

      I did this for my one sister, and would never do it for anyone else. I do not think my Mormon family realizes how annoying the waiting outside is – they think of the temple grounds as such a pretty special place that they don’t get how exclusionary it is. I’m pretty sure my non-Mormon grandparents were pretty offended/hurt by the whole thing. I knew exactly what it was going to be like (having grown up in it) so was more prepared for the ridiculousness of it.

      1. My friend was excluded from her own mother’s funeral for similar reasons (not Mormon but Jehova’s Witnesses). I am anti-religion in general, and stuff like this does not help my views!

         1. Actual Christian denominations do not exclude anyone from religious services. That’s one of Jesus’s big things—including everyone and interacting with people deemed “unclean” by other religious authorities.

            1. +1

            2. +2

            3. As someone who grew up mainline protestant, I agree with you – but note that even Catholics don’t permit non-Catholics to take communion.

            4. Anon @ 8:08 : true, but they do have a replacement rite where non-Catholics can approach the priest and indicate they’d like to receive a blessing in place of communion

      2. I get that it’s religious rules but I really feel like LDS folks don’t truly understand how rude this is. Forget the hurt when grandma or a sibling isn’t invited to witness your wedding, but then to be like come stand outside and acting like the person is sooo lucky to even be on the grounds. I don’t understand why it isn’t more common in that faith to just do the ceremony with bride and grooms immediate LDS family and no one who is non LDS is invited to stand outside. And THEN do a reception with everyone. I mean I have been to weddings before were the ceremony was done privately for just parents and siblings and the party was for everyone. People do this for various reasons but they don’t rub it in by then saying you can’t come in but I expect you to stand outside and be happy doing it.

   3. I don’t begrudge anyone having a small ceremony. I would go if convenient for me, otherwise I’d send best wishes and a gift, as long as they want gifts.

   4. So I got married at SF City Hall and they ostensibly have a limit on witnesses, BUT it’s a public space so they can’t actually kick anyone out. I imagine this is probably similar. If there’s more happening, like a lunch or dinner, I’d absolutely go – there’s something wonderful about the joy of a small courthouse wedding. And fun to be included!

   5. I would not go. In NYC, the courtrooms are old and drafty, and maybe that is a good thing for COVID, but the old smell of B.O. in a room without proper fresh air is often too much for me to deal with. I recommend you reconvene after the fact at a venue that is less likely to smell bad and more likely to prevent you from getting COVID or something else. FOOEY!

5. For the poster last week looking for a less-sweet holiday Starbucks drink, I’ve stumbled upon the following hack. I added the contents of one Celestial Seasonings Gingerbread Spice teabag to my overnight cold brew coffee, and hey presto – a nice iced gingerbread latte with only as much sugar as I wanted (the teabag contains none, I added a teaspoon of white sugar) and no weird intense chemical taste!

   1. This is a great tip! And I have some of that tea in my cabinet right now!

   2. I do this with chai

6. any recommendations on charm braceletes (not chunky)? thanks!

   1. James Avery Jewelers. Some Macy’s carry them in store

7. The individuals may not think about how exclusionary it is, but “the Mormons” do get it.

8. Question as I think about 2023. I really enjoy my job – but I’ve come to see that nothing is ever enough for my boss. It could be that I’m not up to her standards, but increasingly, it seems like she has facilitated a culture of fear/hesitation. I don’t want to leave (yet) – I do want to see how the first few months-first half of next year shake out. However, I’m feeling low on professional confidence – any tips on how to feel better and more confident? Current thoughts include – really prioritizing wellness/exercise, digging into an outside-of-work responsibility (e.g. heading a committee on a board that I sit on)…anything else?

   Caveat that it’s a busy season of life – DH has big job with travel, and we have two kids (2 and 5). However we do have family help/support nearby and can scale up on childcare when needed.

   TIA and Happy Holidays!

   1. As I’ve aged and logged more (many) years in the professional world, I have come to see that the ways managers behave is about them. Yes, I know, people tell you that all the time. But I understand it in my gut now in a way that I did not before. One example: criticism that is inconsistent is one tell-tale sign (shows that the work itself is not the issue, the way a manager is feeling is coloring how s/he responds to that work).

      Bottom line: it’s not about you, and don’t let her derail your plans. If you want to stay where you are for other reasons (benefits, ability to look without pressure for the next thing, ability to say you were there X years, whatever), then stay. Don’t let her win by caving to something that isn’t about you.

      Also, other people totally know that it is she and not you. Others in your own office. Others outside your office. Once you leave, they will all tell you they saw it all along. So don’t think everyone else agrees with her. They don’t.

9. How many times per week is a normal amount of times to stop up a toilet? We have the same toilet in 3 bathrooms. DH causes this in the en suite bathroom we share multiple times per week. Was not always thus. IDK what is going on, but I feel that he should see a doctor about this after the holiday rush. My guess is that he isn’t b/c he is embarrased, it is the toilet’s fault, and he is afraid that something is Really Wrong. It’s not a problem in the other bathrooms and I feel like I’m not the problem (of course I do, but when he has work travel, this doesn’t happen).

   1. Unless there are some details you’re leaving out, it probably is a plumbing issue – your house’s plumbing, not his. I imagine you have a partial blockage in the sewer line just down from your master toilet.

      If he’s using a ton of toilet paper, he should be flushing more than once per session, i.e. the “courtesy flush”

      Whatever you do, don’t use so-called flushable wipes. They’re not really flushable. If you use something like a wipe, put them into the garbage.

      Google fatbergs if you don’t believe me.

   2. Are you on a septic tank or city sewer?
      I’d snake the drain either way before attributing it to a medical cause.

   3. My dad, his mother, my daughter and I all had/have this issue. Childbirth mostly fixed it for me but unclear if it will return when I’m older. We’ve all seen doctors and they’ve all said there’s nothing really to do. I’m not sure about my dad, but my daughter and I go regularly – every other day at least. We still clog many normal toilets. Pressure flush toilets help a LOT. We haven’t had a clogged toilet at home since we got a pressure flush. Best ~$200 I ever spent.

   4. Zero times… though if it is more volume than average, I 100% flush before I’m completely done to clear the bowl.

   5. Yeah, my first thought is this sounds like a partially blocked drain or vent issue and not a spouse issue (unless he’s got actual health problems, or blocked thrones follow in his wake at all other locations, too).

   6. We had a similar problem. My husband backed up our upstairs toilet almost daily after moving. I didn’t understand how this was possible. He doesn’t clog other toilets. We did a sewer scope (we had just moved into the house) and ended up having to spend 10k to line our sewage pipes from our house to the street because there were some cracks forming. Our house is from the 50s and the clay pipes were reaching the end of their lifespan. I don’t know what the exact term is, but it was basically putting a stent in the sewage pipes.

      Anyways. This solved our problem. But it was an expensive fix. I’d try the cheaper fixes first.

   7. I mean, if he thinks something might be wrong he should see a doctor. But based on what you’ve said, I would blame the toilet. Does he have better luck with another toilet in the house? Do you have any small kids who think it’s a toy-let? Who might have flushed something inappropriate?

      I am having horrible flashbacks. We moved when I was 14 and I couldn’t poop without clogging up the toilet in the kids’ bathroom in the new house. The toilet was very difficult to plunge as well. My parents thought I had some moving related stress issue and said I needed to poop more often? To be fair I was super stressed but it was just because I was 14, not because we’d moved. I became anxious about pooping anywhere lest I embarrass myself by clogging the toilet. Well, I finally reasoned that it must be the toilet because prior to the move I had no such problems. I quietly decided to just avoid the cantankerous toilet.

      Fast forward: my sibs independently concluded this toilet is a jerk, and as adults we all years ago warned our spouses away from the jerk toilet after my poor BIL backed it up and plunging was a bear.

      My mother recently, finally agreed with us that the toilet is at fault. 14 year old me was quietly vindicated.

   8. If it only happens with one toilet, it’s the toilet or the drain line and not him.

   9. How many times per week is it normal to break the toilet seat by sitting on it? We fixed the issue by getting a plastic seat instead of wood.

10. Big storm coming where I live, and our power isn’t greaT on clear days. So – any recommendations for a power generator?

    1. Probably too late if a big storm is on the horizon, but I have a home solar plus battery system and I highly recommend it over a generator. Even just a home battery system could help with outages that are hours to days.

       Or, if you just need to power a few things, there are large portable batteries one can buy from a retailer like REI that wouldn’t have the CO poisoning risk and fume exposure of a generator.

11. What is the funniest music video? Does anything beat the Rudd/Fallon remake of Spin Me Right Round?!

    1. The original Total Eclipse of the Heart.

       1. Oh that’s good choice!

          I love a lot of 80s videos because they are terrible. I don’t think these top Total Eclipse at all, but on the less ambitious end of the spectrum, Journey’s Seperate Ways involves a lot of perpendicular talking. And very tight jeans. Kansas’ Dust in the Wind brings together Fashion and campfire in a way you never expected.

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