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Thursday’s Workwear Report: Knit Twill Cropped Jacket

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A woman wearing a black blazer, white top, white skirt, and carrying a black handbag

Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.

It’s hard to get excited about blazers and jackets when you’re enjoying the summer sun, but this one from Banana Republic really piqued my interest. I’m often in situations where a suit feels too formal, but I do feel a little more put-together with a topper of some kind. This zippered, cropped jacket is the perfect solution.

I would wear this with high-waisted pants or a midi skirt for the days when you want to be on the more business side of business casual. 

The jacket is $70 at Banana Republic Factory — with 20% off at checkout — and comes in sizes XXS-XXL and XXSP-XLP. It also comes in pewter gray. 

Sales of note for 7/29:

205 Comments

  1. The property taxes for my town were released yesterday. My property taxes are going up 25%, which is just over $4200. I rent out half of my home already and passed on their half of the increase.

    I’m a single mom with 3 children. I’m exhausted from being told I’m rich. I’m not. I have to figure out where $2100 is going to come from. Someone is going to go without and once again it’s going to be me.

    1. can you fight your assessment value? might be worthwhile to look at a few comps and make sure yours is comparable

      1. +1 Definitely appeal. I can only speak to my experience in Illinois but appealing is largely successful. This may not help this year but there are law firms that will appeal for you and charge you half of what they save. But, of course, you keep the savings for subsequent years. There can also be many free resources to help appeals. Ask your neighbors if anyone has appealed successfully and how they went about it.

    2. Does your jurisdiction limit the increase amount for existing homeowners? Mine does, and it is capped at 5% or inflation, whichever is lower. It only jumps the year after a homestead property changes ownership.

      1. At least around where I live in MA, Prop 2.5 which limits tax increases is causing massive issues for towns given the past few years’ rates of inflation. A lot of towns having been voting on overrides and (depending on the outcomes) a few towns have started cutting services. The way yours is structured seems much more sensical.

        1. Also in MA and our town just announced an override for September. I think our town has some waste in it, but not to the tune of the extra $7m we need. I think there are some really ridiculous positions that were added – rant for another day – but that’s like 2-3 FTEs and would be a drop in the bucket. I’m usually pretty override skeptical, but this time I’m just voting yes. There’s no two ways about it – stuff just costs more.

        2. What services get cut? We already have volunteer EMS and fire. Do we disband the police next? I feel that we are mandated to have schools and that is the most expensive thing (but we are also closing schools because there aren’t enough children to warrant schools that are only 2/3 full).

          1. Many school systems need to make cuts. Far too much is spent on things and roles not related to teaching.

        1. My utilities are billed directly by the utility company and are in no way associated with my property taxes.

          Capping the property tax increase rate is one way to prevent gentrification from making homes unaffordable to people already living in them (see OP’s situation, for instance).

          1. That shifts the cost to others though. It makes it less affordable overall, if we think that newer people may be younger, renters, etc. I feel that CA is an extreme example where you get more benefits the better off you are. If my housing cost is based on a house I bought 30 years ago and others’s costs are based on current prices, giving benefits to the first group at the expense of the second is flat-out regressive. Let them eat cake.

          2. +1 to anon at 10:02. My parents house is worth 4x what they bought it at 25 years ago. Not only does this mean their neighbors are paying 4x property taxes for the same services, it also keeps my parents in a house that’s too large for them that would be lovely for a young family. Not sure how capping their property taxes has helped the community at all.

          3. Where I live property taxes are tied to property values which means everyone pulls their weight and it’s not on new owners to subsidize infrastructure for the long term owners. Also helps facilitate turn over and allow for young families to buy homes rather than them being under utilized.

          4. I’m empathetic to both sides. I don’t think the government should be able to increase your cost of staying in your house by 25% in one year. Most areas have protections for renters; a LL can’t increase rent by more than 20% in a year, so why should the govt be able to increase the LL’s costs by more than they can pass on to a tenant?

            But I also think it should catch up over time so you don’t have a huge discrepancy between people who’ve always been there vs people who are moving in. If an increase is capped at 5% per year then by year 5 they should be up to that 25% (by which time there will be more increases I’m sure).

          5. Most areas do NOT have protections for renters, so they will have to leave if it is too expensive.

            Cities have to have balanced budgets, so they have to pass that on in taxes. They aren’t making money by passing along increases. I doubt that the trash collectors, if that is a city service (it’s not where my parents live — they have to pay for that on their own or drive their trash to the dump and pay per trip), are getting anything but a COLA and having to pay more out of pocket for heath care, if they have that.

          6. If assessment increases on existing homeowners are limited and localities can only step up assessments to the actual market value when the property is sold, then the overall property tax rate (% of assessed value) will have to be higher. This means that existing homeowners are not saving quite as much on taxes as they might assume. It also distorts both the buying and selling decisions.

          7. Yeah, and rent control/limited annual % increases is a dumb idea (and I’m a renter). It distorts the market and leads to people “locked into” below market rent that no longer makes sense for them (eg. you get a new job across town but keep your old place with long commute because you are locked into below market rent; or downsizing might make sense but your rent controlled 3 bdrm is less expensive than a market rate 1bdrm). I’d much rather see renter-friendly policies take the form of strict regulation on market monopolies and collusion (re. rent setting algorithms), and significantly limit local ability to impose zoning restrictions, than rent control

          8. I often wonder whether requiring all high school graduates to pass college microeconomics and macroeconomics 101 (not the personal finance courses that are currently required) would have a massive effect on politics. If voters understood what a properly functioning market actually looks like and what the role of government in a market economy is, they would stop voting for candidates on both sides of the aisle who push policies that are just stupid and counterproductive.

      3. I’m jealous! Ours does not have an official cap, but if it increases more than 10% the burden is on the state to prove the increase was justified. So they just raise it 9.9% year after year.

      4. My state caps increases at 3% for existing owners. We also have overall bad schools (there are some good public schools in a few areas. One county has good schools but also has higher property taxes. This is where I live) and bad roads, so….

    3. I totally empathize. My husband lost his job this spring on top of skyrocketing costs of everything, utilities going through the roof, and a pay freeze for me at work. My kid unintentionally got a ’90s summer’ because we had to cancel our vacation plans. Thank goodness my tween/teen are ‘CITs’ this year so camp was a nominal amount per week vs. the thousands we typically spend. We also cut our discretionary spending back tremendously. I truly don’t know how families are going to keep swallowing these costs.

    4. Our household income makes us “rich” too but as someone online said, “I thought it would feel different than this.” In my city, $120k combined income qualifies you for low-income housing support.

    5. I’m surprised your tenants can absorb $2100 as well. I assume your lease with them allows this, but holy moly, that’s a lot for them too. If you get a reduction via some of the methods listed below, make sure to adjust their surcharge. Sorry you are dealing with this.

        1. Is it though? I rent and would be shocked to get hit with this. The house isn’t my “asset”.

          2. I agree it was unnecessary. We have no reason to doubt the OP and tenants know their lease, or that the OP wouldn’t pass along the tenants’ proportionate share if there is a reduction.

        2. Eeeh, this is tame. There are so many out of pocket things said here this doesn’t even register.

          Also being concerned about the lower person on the socioeconomic ladder is a good thing.

          1. You don’t know that the person is lower on the socioeconomic ladder. There are plenty of millionaire renters where I live – they do it for flexibility so they can travel as much as they want.

      2. Yeah no kidding. I’m very sympathetic to OP, but “their half”? They aren’t the homeowners. They don’t have equity in this home. They are paying a percent of OP’s mortgage.

        1. Sounds like you’re not too sympathetic then. Did you read the part about being a single mother?

          1. No, I am sympathetic. But OP being a single mother doesn’t make what I said any less true.

          2. It’s not a competition though. Who knows that the tenants are better or worse off before this?

            But if you are month to month, this is a risk you run. Commercial leases tend to pass through everything in real time. In residential, it happens one way or another, but often with a lag for tenants with fixed rang for an initial term.

          4. Renters always end up paying for their share of the overhead, which includes taxes. That is not abuse, it’s how the financial arrangement works. I’m guessing OP will simply raise the rent going forward, not hit her tenants with a tax bill (which I doubt would be legal anyway).

          5. If OP’s water heater breaks does she pass part of that cost along to her tenants? What about the dishwasher? In the context of someone renting out part of their primary residence, I don’t think it’s fair or accurate to say that “renters always pay for their share of overhead.” OP isn’t some commercial property landlord. Whatever their lease says is how the financial arrangement works.

          6. Yes, landlords absolutely factor in wear and tear, which would include things like appliance repair and replacement.

          7. Actually, no. We’re not talking about large commercial properties here. There’s a difference between setting your rental rate (which, again, is really determined by what the market will bear) such that you also cover some expenses incurred to rent the property, but landlords who are renting portions of their home do not typically pass on the costs of repairs to home appliances or fixtures to their tenants. It’s not like she’s paying more property taxes or replacing the water heater just because she has tenants – she’d have to do so anyways. And with smaller landlords renting out SFH, rent is what the lease says it is and increases are what the market will bear, not contingent on fixture replacement/repairs the tenant cannot control. I rent a house and the dishwasher broke right after we moved in. You think that the landlord invoiced us for the new one? No. Nor did she raise the rent immediately or in subsequent years to cover the cost.

          8. I think we’re talking at each other, but absolutely nobody here is saying that it’s okay for OP to send her tenants a tax bill for the difference or for a landlord to send a bill for a repair or a new dishwasher. The argument is that things like tax rates and inevitable repairs get factored into the rental amount. The tenant does ultimately pay for it.

          9. I rent, and when I moved in, I discovered that the washing machine had mold. The landlady said I’m welcome to buy a new one, so I did. She said a former tenant had bought the moldy one. I hate this (it was half a month’s rent to purchase and have the machine installed).

        2. But property tax is exactly what tenants should be paying. They live there, use roads and public services just as much as home owners. We ended up selling instead of renting out, but when we looked into it, we found that the local market rent would help us cover not more than mortgage interest and property tax. We’d still have paid off the actual mortgage principal aka growing that asset from our own income.

      3. Tenants end up paying property taxes indirectly via rent. This is how it works. If property taxes go up, landlords raise rent. It’s utterly insane to me that people don’t understand that the way rent is priced is basically costs + small margin for profit.

          1. I’d expect the increase in rent to be proportional to the increase in property taxes.

          2. Did she say that she billed them $2,100, or is she raising the rent by a bit under $200 per month?

        3. Rent is priced based on what the market will bear, which is often well above costs for long-time owners in my region. There are some nice individual landlords who have owned for a long time who price based on costs + small profit margin, but that’s unusual.

          1. Most of the rental propertries in my West LA neighborhood are single-family homes or duplexes that were purchased by families decades ago. The children or grandchildren rent them out at market rate and make a healthy profit since no one has had to pay a mortgage since the early 2000s at the latest. The property taxes are also capped by Prop 13.

        4. So you are all up in arms about passing the tax increase to renters but many of you seem to accept that any locality in the country can increase taxes by 25 percent yoy. Something rotten in the kingdom of Denmark…

          5. 12:43, the increase isn’t the renter’s problem. OP can raise rent to reflect it, but I don’t see how she bills them half up front for her own taxes.

          7. She said she has to figure out where 2k is coming from, not 4k. Presumably she has to pay her taxes up front and not through the duration of her rental period like normal renters.

            It sounded a lot like she’s billing half of her property tax up front. If true, utterly obnoxious landlord behavior.

          8. I think some of you are being overly literal. I assumed she was raising the rent to make-up the renter’s half of the property taxes.

          9. At least in my area, the assessments come almost a year before the tax is actually due, so she doesn’t necessarily need the money immediately. Just a way to get it before the bill is due, which could come through increased rent payments.

      4. Since rent is set by supply and demand, whether OP can pass on this expense and keep the tenant long-term depends on several factors we don’t know–whether the tenant is paying market rent now, whether the tax increase affects the whole community or just OP’s, whether there’s a nearby community with cheaper rental properties, etc.
        If you’re a landlord, though, the rent for each unit should cover its proportionate costs (by square feet), including taxes, insurance, maintenance, and loan payments (allowing for vacancy). $2100 is a lot for anyone to absorb, but if everyone’s property taxes are going up, the tenant will either pay them indirectly through rent or move to a community with lower taxes.

        1. Not the OP but I got my tax bill just now and it’s due in January. IDK that I could recover that difference between now and then. BUT this is why mortgage companies escrow for real estate taxes and round up and make sure there is a cushion. People should do this also if they don’t escrow for taxes. It’s hard to come up with $$$ on the fly but not if you have 12 months to work in a cushion.

          1. I assumed OP was “passing on” the $2100 in the form of a monthly rent increase, not a request for a one-time payment. Reading the original post, that’s less clear. I’ll trust that OP knows the terms of her own lease, but a residential lease in which the tenant directly bears risk for taxes, insurance, etc. (like a triple net lease) would be very unusual.

            The escrow cushion is a good idea, though my bank automatically calculates a 10% cushion and sends me a check if there’s extra when they run the escrow analysis. A 25% increase in one year is a big jump.

      5. I’m the OP. Most leases are annual and the rent paid is an annual amount. The monthly amount is the payment plan to pay the rent.

        Of course if I got a reduction I would pass it on to my tenants. The maintenance portion of their rent wasn’t increased because they agreed to shovel snow instead of hiring a company to do it. This should enable me to cover the cost increases for the roof and other projects that must be done to keep the home safe.

        The way rent control works is that they allow landlord to pass on property taxes and insurance costs but the rent portion can only increase by the CPI of the local area. I’ve not increased their rent because they agreed to give up snow removal.

        I couldn’t be more fair if I tried. My tenants are great and I’ve reminded them to please vote accordingly in elections.

        One reason for the big increase is the pilots granted in town to luxury rental buildings who have 10% affordable housing. I am angry I’m subsidizing this when the developers are making $$$$. The tenants should be able to apply for a credit to the property tax portion of their rent with the cash going back into their pocket, not the people able to afford rent of $5500 a month for a one bed apartment.

        2. “Most leases are annual and the rent paid is an annual amount. The monthly amount is the payment plan to pay the rent.”

          I have never heard rent described this way.

          1. It usually looks like this in the lease—this is the total amount you owe broken down to X amount over the rental period.

          2. No, no it doesn’t (unless maybe this is something specific to your jurisdiction?). I have rented all my life and have never seen monthly rent described as a “payment plan” in a lease. I’ve not seen an annual amount broken down to x/month phrasing in a lease either. Nor have I seen this in any commercial leases I’ve come across as a lawyer. The concept of monthly rent for a term of x months and a “payment plan” for a sum certain you owe are just different concepts. Annual leases are common but by no means the only option.

    6. Ouch! Please research how to appeal your assessment and appeal the valuation if you can find something to go on. I am in the process of appealing mine. The assessors’ office has already met me in the middle, but I was so convinced by my original appeal that I appealed again for the full reduction I requested. That one is still pending.
      Houses in my rural area are all vastly different combinations of finish levels, square footages and lot size, so I made a simple spreadshet showing the assessed values of of my continguous neighbors improvements, calculated per square foot, and of all the lot values that were 5 acres or more, calculated/acre, and just averaged them. My sq. ft and per acre assessment was wildly out of line, so I requested a reduction to average. Going through online property tax records, you can easily see who has appealed and who has not-the outliers clearly have not appealed.
      Even if you have no grounds to appeal, that’s a crazy increase. I am a big fan of local government generally, but a lot of them really, really need to reign in their spending.

      1. +1. We have appealed several times when the calculation seemed outrageous, and it’s been granted each time.

        1. This. We fight our assessment every year. After about a decade, it’s kept our assessment about 20% less than our neighbors that don’t appeal.

      1. +1 three kids and an income producing two family home? That’s rich people stuff. And the taxes are somehow under 5k? In what world could or should they be that low? Everyone says you’re rich but you don’t have a few grand to spare? Okay…

        2. It sounds like it’s a $4200 increase. If that’s a 25% increase, that would put the property taxes around $20K per year. That’s very high. ($833 of the tenant’s monthly rent would have to go toward property taxes alone if the tenant’s unit is covering half the costs of the property.)

          2. Being charitable to the OP, my guess:

            She was married. They had three kids together. She got to keep the house in the divorce. Staying in that house keeps the kids in the school system with their friends. It’s a big house that she cannot really afford, so she rents out a large chunk of it: in-law suite, walk out basement, that type of thing. Or maybe it has five bedrooms; she and her kids take 3 (two kids share), and the renters take the other two. Renters get a nice suburban home with a big yard and a driveway in a safe area. She gets to keep the house and keep the kids in their school systems.

          3. To be fair to OP, I think this could be hard even without a “cash flow problem.” We have 1 kid in a LCOL area and are objectively rich (paid off house, generous retirement savings) but would still have to adjust our lifestyle significantly if our property taxes suddenly went up by $5k. We could literally afford it but we would feel the strain and with 3 kids in what sounds like a HCOL area, OP’s mandatory cash outflow is presumably a lot higher than ours.

          4. Anon at 12:48pm, that is exactly what’s happened.

            I’ve taken my lunch and walked over to city hall to ask them to explain and check my math because I wasn’t expecting a $4200 increase for the next year. Absolutely insanity.

            The kicker is the insurance increased $1200 for the year. The increase in rent is to cover the proportional costs of increased taxes and insurance. I have good tenants and decided to suck up the extra costs I’m incurring for fees such as the lead inspection which was $250 for the tenants unit.

            I’ve saved up since January to cover a 10% increase, the rate they went public with. I’m extremely frustrated because the town won’t give me the rate for a disabled parking spot which would save me $200 per month. I’ve messaged the mayor to ask for a meeting to discuss the towns decision to not grant me the lower rate because I use a placard and not plates.

  2. I need a small and ideally all wood bookshelf for children’s books to keep in the living room. Any recs for something attractive that isn’t a total POS quality wise? Been striking out at estate sales and FB marketplace for two months so it’s time to buy new.

    2. I would look to Amish businesses for this. On the off chance you’re in northern NJ, I recommend Derbyshire’s solid wood furniture in Wayne. We bought some excellent quality bookcases there over 20 years ago and they’re still going strong.

      1. And if you can’t find one near you, I have ordered furniture (including bookcases) online from these guys and they’ve delivered it from OH to NC (though shipping might be too expensive for a single bookcase). If you don’t see exactly what you want, they’re willing to customize: https://amishoutletstore.com/

    3. Is AptDeco available in your area? All my bookcases are from room and board and purchased through there. I have bought from room and board directly for a few items and they are amazing, but bookcases tend to be readily available used on aptdeco in my city.

    4. The Ikea Hemnes line has been my go to for years. Quality is good, lots of pine, and not terribly priced. I’d do the cabinet so you can shut away the toys. It paints fairly easily if you decide you’d rather have a pop of color.

  3. Greece recs in Athens:

    Restaurant Atlantico (the freshest seafood I have ever eaten)

    Monastraki Flea Market ~ blocks of local goods & foods

    1. Greece OP here – thank you!

      (In case anyone else cares for recs themselves, on our prior trip, we adored Thes Greek Creative (and based on Google reviews, it has *really* held up over time – we are going back) and also had a great meal at Mani Mani, which had been written up in either the NYT or WSJ shortly before our trip and lived up to the review.)

  4. What would be a nice couple of weeks getaway for a mid-50s couple coming from Louisiana and staying in the US? I am day dreaming of places my husband and I could spend quality time together. I don’t want to go anywhere that I would have to worry about ticks or traffic. Someplace relaxing with good food, easy nature hikes, and some neat things to do like a cool museum, botanical garden, some water would be nice but not required. Have done Florida and Alabama beach trips many times. I always daydream about going to Maine, Vermont or Rhode Island but I am afraid of ticks. Flexible on time of year.

    1. Asheville? I’m not sure what it’s like there now post flooding. If you haven’t visited Georgia or Charleston yet that seems like low hanging fruit.
      I adore Vermont and Maine, and ticks really aren’t a huge deal as long as you check yourself after outdoor activities and wear reasonable clothing when hiking (long pants, long sleeves, socks over your pants) – which trust me, you’ll want to do anyway to avoid bug bites.

      1. Can confirm have hiked and camped a lot and no ticks in the area around Asheville. They need tourists! Fall will be high season, but it is pleasant now. Biltmore Village is cute and walkable. I like Brevard, with a chill walkable downtown with lots of restaurants and shops. But there are lots of places around Asheville. The Charlotte airport has a lot of flights and you’ll need a rental care anyway; Asheville has a smaller airport also.

      2. Yes, I think Charleston is no. 1 on my list – seems the most do-able. Asheville is also up there!

    2. Maine. I live in the woods along the coast here, and hike regularly with my dog. Tick season is almost over, and even so, I don’t get any ticks when I either wear insect repellent clothing or put on bug spray (I like the newer picaridin bug sprays), even in the height of tick season. I haven’t found a tick on my dog in weeks, unlike earlier in the year, so I know they are really dying off. There are great coastal hikes in Camden and York as well as Acadia, and the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden is a magical place. Come the first few weeks of September and you hit a bit of a lull between summer tourists and leaf peepers. If you are looking farther out, come the last few weeks of May or the first week or two of June – the ticks aren’t out yet, and neither are the tourists (at least not en mass!).

      1. +1 on ticks. I’m in MA and it’s just part of life. Bug spray, tie your hair back, and wear appropriate clothes. We’ve only found one tick on a kid this year and that’s 1 more than last year.

      2. +1 I have lived in the Northeast my whole life, and am a hiker and rock climber. I’ve only ever had a tick on me once, and it was from gardening in underbrush. If you’re not bounding around in tall grass it’s not even a consideration. If the most outdoorsy activity you’re doing is easy hikes, it’s extremely unlikely you’d see any.

    3. Napa or Sonoma? Sedona?

      Acadia in Maine should work if you stick to the carriage paths, though. They’re wide and well-maintained and you’re walking (or biking) on stone dust. Not zero tick risk (nowhere in the mid-Atlantic or Northeast is), but I think the risk is negligible if you take common-sense precautions. It sounds like you’ve always wanted to visit Maine and it checks all your other boxes, so why not? Fly into Portland, have some great food, walk around the Head Light, take the mailboat around the harbor, and then head up to Bar Harbor.

    5. Do you care about mainland US? Don’t forget about Puerto Rico (combo of Vieques + San Juan would get you quiet nature and beaches plus city and history), or the USVI.

      1. Did not have these on my radar but now I can’t wait to do a deep dive into Puerto Rico! Thanks!

      2. Oh, thanks for mentioning – did not have these on my radar! Can’t wait to do a deep dive on Puerto Rico!

    6. If you always daydream about Maine, Vermont, or Rhode Island . . . go there. Find a time of year where ticks aren’t an issue, and move the day dream to reality.

    7. Santa Barbara, but maybe not for quite that long. If your hotel budget is big enough you can stay right on or near the beach and walk to restaurants, wine tasting rooms, and shopping. Some of the hotels also have bikes you can borrow. I spent a week there for work and never got in a car.

      1. Also the Central Coast, north of Santa Barbara, is lovely. I would rent a car, though, and do a road trip from Santa Barbara up the coast to Cambria. When you get there, have lunch at Linn’s Fruit Binn (get some olallieberry jam to take home), and do a tour of Hearst Castle. On the way, there are a ton of wineries in Paso Robles and Santa Ynez. San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay, and Pismo Beach are nice stops. Solvang is a touristy Danish town but there are great wineries in the vicinity. Bell’s Los Alamos is a Michelin-star restaurant about halfway between Santa Barbara and Cambria. And all of those places will be way way cheaper than Santa Barbara, which has gotten wildly expensive. If you’re interested in specific hotels or wineries, drop me a line at seniorattorney1 at gmail.

        1. Totally agree with all of this advice. The Genevieve Hotel in Santa Ynez is a good base.

        2. Love all of the ideas for these places out west! Have never been west of Texas so these all sound interesting!

    8. Austin, TX fits the bill but I’m not sure about a couple of weeks.

      With a few weeks, I’d do a national parks road trip out west in either late spring or early fall (so when school is in session). Start in Jackson hole, WY with the Tetons. Go to Yellowstone for a week or two. Then up to Glacier NP and stay in Whitefish.

    9. Somewhere in California? There are ticks in CA, but it’s a lot easier to find places to hike without them and they’re much less likely to give you Lyme disease than in the NE. I spent years hiking in CA and only got ticks once or twice, so I think you can easily avoid them if you stick to the beach or the desert or anywhere with well groomed trails (but not Pinnacles National Park, I’ve never gotten so many ticks in my life as I did on a creekside trail there). Or go to Maine or Vermont when it’s nice and cold in the winter and they definitely won’t be an issue.

    10. This is Northern California, I’m partial to the russian river towns and the Mendocino coast. Napa and Sonoma also work and with a few weeks you could bounce around and do all of it. I’d also stay in SF for a night or two, just take Waymo or Uber and you won’t need to think about traffic or parking. Stay at the Huntington Hotel on Nob Hill and take a spa day.

    12. Another vote to go to Maine. I’m really paranoid about ticks and we spend our summers in coastal Maine. It isn’t a big deal unless you plan to go camping or bushwhacking through the woods. In 40 summers in the Acadia area I have yet to have a tick embed in me, although I do change clothes and shower immediately after doing any riskier activities. They like tall grass so you will not find them on the granite mountains in Acadia.

      1. Two weeks in northern New Mexico in September could be fantastic. Spend time in Santa Fe & Taos for great food and cool museums. Maybe spend a few days in the Jemez mountains or Angel Fire for hiking. Day trips to Los Alamos for history and Madrid for gallery hopping and funky shops.

    15. Ok, this is unorthodox, but hear me out–NC road trip, starting with a few days in the Triangle area of North Carolina (Durham/Raleigh/Chapel Hill), then to the coast for water or to the mountains for mountain hiking. All 3 of the major universities in the Triangle have nice gardens (JC Raulston Arboretum for NC State, Sarah P Duke Gardens for Duke, and NC Botanical Gardens for UNC), plus if you time it right (they are only open for like 2 weekends every season), Juniper Level Botanical Gardens is not far. We have good food. We have easy strolls in the woods (or go 2-3 hours west for mountains). The North Carolina Art Museum punches above it’s weight for our size, and the NC Science Museum has cool dinosaurs.

    16. look up Jen Hatmaker, she lives in Austin and for the last 4 years has done a month in July elsewhere in the US in cute little towns. Here’s where she’s gone: 2026: Orillia, Ontario, Canada (Lake Simcoe)2025: Yachats, Oregon2024: South Haven, Michigan2023: Lambertville, New Jersey2022: Grand Marais, Minnesota / Aspen, Colorado2021: Bar Harbor, Maine

      1. +1 i do similar solo trips and have basically been following her around the country. she picks great places!

    18. I live in Louisiana, and DH and I are in Asheville now. It has everything you’re looking for. It’s beautiful and relaxing and has great food, welcoming people, and easy nature hikes. There are fewer museums, but there is a pinball museum downtown (I haven’t been). The NC Arboretum is beautiful and has gardens and easy trails. You can tube, raft, kayak, etc. on the river, or you can go out to Lake Lure or one of dozens of nearby lakes, or you can hike to waterfalls. It’s also in driving distance (admittedly, a long drive) and is extremely dog friendly, so if you have a dog, it’s fun to bring them.
      Best of all for this time of year, the temperature this morning was 58 degrees, and I was in heaven when I took the dog for a walk. Fall and spring are great here too, but I don’t need to escape the heat the same way.

      1. Second this. The San Juan Islands are some of the most beautiful, relaxing landscapes in the US.

  5. Current Sienna owners: what trim level do you have and do you think it is the right balance of fancy and functional?

    1. Not a current Sienna owner, but when I bought one, I got my preferred level of trim by adding dealer-installed leather seats to a lower trim (an XLE, IIRC). The only 2 features I cared about were an electronic sliding door, AWD and leather, and this was a much more economical option (at the time) than getting the level that included factory-installed leather. This saved me thousands that I did not have to pay for features I did not care about.

    2. I have the XLE, and think it was the right choice for me. The 360 camera in the platinum would be nice, but I didn’t want the fridge or the vacuum. The woodland and limited were not really available in my area, but didn’t seem to have anything over the XLE that I would want.

    3. Current XLE owner and it’s everything we need except it doesn’t have the 360 camera, which I would have loved. The “SofTex” seats are somewhat cheap feeling, but it’s a minivan and gets all kinds of mud and crumbs and stuff all over it, so it’s probably a better choice than the real leather. If you asked my kid, she’d say the only thing she wishes it had was heated seats in the back.

      But for to get both those features (360 camera and heated 2nd row), you’d have to get the Premium trim, which is like 15k more, so not worth it in my opinion.

    4. XLE here as well. But what’s included in the different trim levels changes from year to year, so a Limited from 8 years ago could very well be missing features that a 2 year old LE has. The things that matter to me – power doors, rubber floor mats and a “wipeable” seat material, zoned climate control (3 zones min). If I could pay extra to get all those and no touchscreen infotainment system I would do so, but car manufacturers have decided that we all need massive touchscreens, even though buttons are safer and cheaper to repair.

  6. I haven’t bought a TV in 11 years. There’s nothing “wrong” with my current TV, but I’m thinking about an upgrade anyway. I’m leaning towards a Samsung Frame TV, but I’m reading mixed things about it. I’ll admit here that I’m mostly doing this for aesthetics. I don’t care about having the best image or some crazy sound system. I live in a small apartment and I want to make my TV area both more attractive and a bit more streamlined. So does anyone have the frame and do you love it/hate it/totally meh on it?

    1. We have the Frame and I love it. I had to fiddle with the settings a bit to get rid of the weird home video look, but now that I have that ironed out the image quality is fine. The Frame is so much sleeker than a regular TV. The best part is that all the cables (power, antenna/cable, streaming stick, BluRay player, soundbar) connect to a box that you can hide in a cabinet. The box connects to the screen with one very thin, unobtrusive cable.

      The audio from any flat TV is going to be terrible without an external speaker system. We paired our Frame with the Sonos Beam soundbar, which is not huge but produces decent sound. We don’t actually watch the TV much and use the Beam more for music.

    2. I love my frame TV! It looks gorgeous in my living room, I always get compliments. I also don’t care about the latest tech/sound quality etc, but I will say my movie buff husband is perfectly happy to watch movies on it every Friday night.

    4. I’ve heard a couple influencers comment that when it is on art mode, it looks less like a TV in photographs than in real life, so in instagram, store website pics, etc they look nicer. That ties to my impression when I am visiting friends who have them – it looks like nice art but definitely still a digital screen. All that said, I still want one for my next TV :)

      1. To this point, we have one and like it, and I think how much it looks like art vs a TV in real life depends on (1) decorating choices in the room (if it’s above what looks like a TV stand, it’ll look more like a TV; if it’s above a couch or a credenza or something, more like art) and (2) what you choose as the art for the TV. I haven’t totally cracked (2) yet, but in general, I think foregoing virtual matting and matching the scale of the TV to the scale of the art you choose both help a lot in trending towards “art” rather than “TV that looks art-esque but still a TV but better than a black rectangle”.

      2. This is true–it definitely looks more like a TV in person than in photos. It is still the least obtrusive TV on the market.

    5. We have one and we’re happy with it. Full disclosure – it is not our main tv, but it does get used regularly. I like the option to display art so it doesn’t look as much like a tv when it’s not in use. There are a lot of options and I think you can also upload photos. We’ve been happy with the picture. We did add a Sonos soundbar to improve the sound and it is definitely better, although I don’t know that I would have done that if my husband hadn’t wanted the improvement.

    6. Have it and love it because it’s pretty. TVs are eyesores in small spaces and this is 1000% worth it.

    8. I also don’t love looking at an off tv. It can suck the energy out of a room. Samsung Frame sounds like a good option, but you might also explore interior decorating tricks like painting the wall behind the tv a dark color or using a motorized lift to hide it behind a book case when not in use.

    9. I have one and love it. It still looks more TV than art to me but much better than the black rectangle before. I’ve had several people in my home who were not familiar with the concept and were amazed it was a TV and not art. I would absolutely purchase again.

    10. I have a Frame and like the look, but I absolutely HATE the interface and the remote. It lags frequently and is pretty glitchy. Ours is two years old, so maybe newer ones are better. Our cheap Roku tv in the basement has a much better interface.

    11. We have one and love it. +1 to the comment about getting some good external speakers to go with it. It also really cuts down on reflection and glare, which was an added bonus since we have so many windows in our living room.

    12. Adding to the Frame fans. I use it more for the art than watching actual TV. I leave it rotating art anytime I am home and it brings me incredible joy. Mine is above the fireplace so at a glance it does look like art vs a TV.

  7. Looking for two NYC recommendations: somewhere near MSG for a pre-concert dinner, and someplace for a fun breakfast or brunch the day after in the same general area. The group has one picky eater and some folks on a budget. Ideas?

    1. It’s not the best area, food wise, but I think Korean BBQ is always fun and not far. Keens Steakhouse is good but not for a budget. There’s also a Roberta’s right there and the pizza is great and could work for your needs.

      For brunch, I would head further to Chelsea or Nomad. If you have a large group, make a reservation.

    2. Turntable Chicken Jazz is a KTown spot near the Garden that’s affordable and has great vibes. Not sure what type of picky your picky eater is, but there are definitely things that someone who only likes familiar, “American” foods would eat.

      Bourbon & Branch is right by MSG and has a solid brunch on weekends.

    4. There are lots of places in Hudson Yards. A place called Little Spain that I’ve been to a bunch for work lunches. It’s on the highline and easy – and you can get to MSG in about 4 minutes walk.

  8. When I was a teen with a new license, I yearned for a VW Cabrio. I never got one — first new car was a minivan that has been going strong for about 20 years. Now, I have a choice for my next car. Another minivan wouldn’t be a bad choice — more safety features and more reliability than the current one, but without the stains and cracking seat leather. I miss the absolute devotion I had to the Cabrio — locker pictures, having the brochure from the dealer, envisioning my picture-perfect life. In 2026, what cars make your heart skip a beat? I want to plan some test drives and see what is out there. Midsize SUVs would be OK, but no giants. And no super-low cars — elderly parents can’t easily get in or out. I saw what I thought was a Thing or a The-Gods-Must-Be-Crazy Range Rover and wondered if there’s a modern equivalent.

    1. If I didn’t care about price, gas mileage, or fitting it in my garage, I think a 4Runner would be fun.

    2. I don’t love cars like this. But I share your affection for convertibles. A little mini cooper might be in my future as a third car. My current mom car is a Lexus rx 550. My beloved bmw x3 caused too many mechanical problems when it got old so I was relegated to Japanese cars by my husband. Anyway this car was an attempt at a somewhat stylish mom car. It’s not as cute as a Range Rover in my opinion and I miss the bmw handling. My friend says her x7 handles like a dream.

      Isn’t it weird how cars can feel stylish? My mom is always driving car that I think are painfully dorky. Currently it’s some kind of electric Cadillac that looks like a rav4.

      1. To be fair, it seems that everything looks like a RAV4 these days. I’m not spending 2x RAV4 money and sacrificing Toyota reliability though just to get a worse more expensive RAV4.

        1. Haha fair. Last time it was this awful electric mustang rav 4!

          Before I had kid I had this cute basic mini cooper. So fun to drive! The only downside was that it made baby boomer men irrationally angry. I remember I drove to a small courthouse one day and head this fat old boomer just raging about how stupid it was that my car was small. I’d love to explore the psychology there.

          2. My father was old enough to be a parent to boomers (although I’m Gen X), and he disliked small cars because he thought they were unsafe. To be fair, small cars in the 60s and 70s were actually unsafe due to lack of airbags and other safety features we take for granted now. My parents were also sticklers for seatbelts before that was popular, which saved our lives in a 1970 crash.

        2. Exactly–all cars are boring, most are unreliable, and even the fancy expensive ones seem cheap. We are buying a RAV4 because there really is nothing better available.

          1. All cars are boring? Maybe to you but not to everyone. You state your opinion as if it were fact. There is a Jaguar XKE convertible that is a permanent exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. That museum has had many automobile special exhibits over decades. Clearly some people find them interesting and perhaps even beautiful.

          2. OK, clarification–all currently manufactured cars under say $100K are boring. A BMW is no longer any more stylish than a Toyota.

    3. I have a mini cooper and love it so very much, they make a small SUV version called the countryman that would meet your needs and are very fun cars.

    4. It’s not a pin up car, but I really do love my BMW X3. It has all the get up of a fun sporty car but is comfortable for my middle aged self to drive and get in and out of. Never what I thought I would buy. Always thought it would be a mid-life impulsive mustang purchase (which I had fully spec’d out).

    5. I am Metro Detroit born and bred. There is NOTHING that makes my heart skip a beat more than a Corvette.

      1. I thought that about sports cars and after having a RAV, I don’t like having to lower myself into cars anymore. I do like Thomas Magnum’s Ferrari though.

    6. I think the Audi A5 with the sport arc is an elegant looking, beautiful car. The RS7 is beautiful in a more powerful way. The latter is also far, far beyond the reach of this government lawyer, so I’ve got my eye on the A5. If you like a manual shift I’d note that 2026 is the last year of the Jetta GLI having that. I had one and it is a sports car in disguise. The GLI is an entirely different car than the standard Jetta. The GLI is really fun to drive and gets good gas mileage. Downsides are high road noise, for me that I hate the flashy red lip on the front, and that current models have a substandard sound system compared to the Fender system of yore. I still think the GLI is the best bang for the buck out there if you are looking for a sporty fun to drive sedan.

      1. The Audi A5 is very low to the ground and very costly to maintain (like all Audi’s). It is extremely fun to drive (my husband has one) but those are two downsides that would keep me far, far away.

        1. Thanks for the heads up but I’ve had some Audis so I’ve got a good idea of what I’m signing myself up for. I am considering it as my midlife crisis thing, something that pleases me and will just make me smile each morning. The Audi dealership does loaners when your car is in for service. My present car, a gaudy (in my opinion) Cadillac, purchased only because at the time it was easier to appease a controlling now-ex husband who cared too much what I was going to drive, comes from a dealership with a “customer always gets a loaner and it’s the current model of what they drive” policy. I am now so spoiled by that I won’t consider purchase of a vehicle that doesn’t come with a loaner policy.

    7. I think the Audi A5 with the sport back is an elegant looking, beautiful car. The RS7 is beautiful in a more powerful way. The latter is also far, far beyond the reach of this government lawyer, so I’ve got my eye on the A5. If you like a manual shift I’d note that 2026 is the last year of the Jetta GLI having that. I had one and it is a sports car in disguise. The GLI is an entirely different car than the standard Jetta. The GLI is really fun to drive and gets good gas mileage. Downsides are high road noise, for me that I hate the flashy red lip on the front, and that current models have a substandard sound system compared to the Fender system of yore. I still think the GLI is the best bang for the buck out there if you are looking for a sporty fun to drive sedan.

    8. Current cars are so boring! I have long envied the 00s boxy, small SUVs (jeep Cherokee with almost right angles, old Rav4 and CRVs with the tire on the back).

      I just got a 2026 Chevy Trax which I’m quite happy with. I love having a crossover, and I don’t hate the design (which is a lot of praise for me in 2026…)

    9. I’m someone who relates to cars on a very practical level, so a lot of “aspirational” cars are things I would never ever want to own because they just don’t have a lot of utility for my life. That being said, I’m really interested in the Slate auto – it’s a really interesting way to try and shake up the auto market, and it could be really fun to get a “custom” build for such an affordable price. Hasn’t actually launched yet, so for now I only watch, hopeful that it is a functional and reliable car, on top of their marketing hype.

    10. had to sell my Subaru Crosstrek to get a bigger mom car and I miss it so much. every time I see one my heart thumps. Just the easiest cutest thing to drive.

  9. Reposting to avoid mod.

    I just found out (in the newspaper) that my psychiatrist of nearly 20 years has lost her medical license because she had an inappropriate gardening relationship with a patient, whom she started treating when he was a minor. I had an appointment with her a month after her license was suspended in state A and she did not mention the suspension (she is also licensed in state B where I live).

    I fully recognize this is not about me, but I feel horrified and deeply hurt and betrayed. Any tips on moving forward emotionally and logistically? I will, of course, be finding a new provider

    1. I like to focus on logistical details before I deal with emotions. So, first order of business is finding a new doc and then getting the records forwarded to ensure continuity of care. Get a first appointment, ensure any prescriptions are under new doc’s name. Then cancel any future appointments with old doc.

      I have no idea how to handle the emotions, but maybe new doc will have advice.

    2. Ouch, this hurts! A 20 years old therapeutic relationship is meaniful and I’d feel betrayed too. Is there anything you didn’t love about your treatment? Look at this as chance of making improvements, a new doctor will bring a fresh perspective, know newer treatments, look at you and your life without the biases that slowly accomulated in her vision through decades. And take your time to find someone new, don’t settle, you’ll see them for a long time, so it’s worth the bother of testing multiple people (and now you are not confined to your city in your search, but probably the state)

    3. You are probably upset because you didn’t somehow detect that she was a bad person. But 1) predators are experts at covering their tracks and appearing to be nice people, and 2) in the context of brief and focused doctor-patient interactions, what clues would even have been there?

    4. Eh, people who go into that line of work tend to have a zillion issues of their own. I wouldn’t be shocked and just know this going forward.

      1. Yeah. As long as you have access to the prescriptions you need, that’s the main thing, right?

        I don’t need my doctor to be a good person, I need them to do their part with my medical care. But I wouldn’t blame you for looking for someone new.

          2. I would think that if a doctor loses their license in one state, they’ll likely also lose it in the others eventually, but perhaps I’m wrong there.

        2. Yikes, what this doctor did isn’t just “bad person” sort of thing, like being mean to waitstaff. This is a serious breach of fiduciary duty. Committing this sort of malpractice (deliberately!!!) that is bad enough to get your license yanked is really, really bad. That’s not a good doctor, and it’s a serious red flag. I’d be worried about their ability to provide care to me. Psychiatric care is about more than just “access to prescriptions.”

      2. Yes, (very) anecdotally, a number of the social workers, therapists, and psychs in my orbit have some really big traumas and personal issues they haven’t fully dealt with. I can understand how that may draw them to their chosen profession, but a not insignificant number seem to be very messy people (or worse).

        1. Sadly, this is really true in my circles too, and I work in medicine. We joke about it, but it is not funny.

    5. Having been in a similar situation, it helped me when I learned that people who do this kind of thing not only groom their victims, they also “groom” their community. They develop a kind, empathetic, professional, etc. persona so people don’t suspect they would do bad things.

      1. this. creeps and groomers are rarely like that 24/7, they’re usually very good at putting on a charming front. Makes it even harder for their victims to come forward or be believed.

        OP – someone who would do the things they did is not the kind of person who’s going to admit that to their other patients. Focus on getting your records and new care established.

  10. does anyone have any good recipes for imitation crab or garden cucumbers? we tried the “california roll jar” the other day and weren’t impressed, we have a surplus of Spacemaster cucumbers from the garden.

    2. No but our local sushi spot says you must use kewpie mayo to make a good California roll.

    3. To use cucumbers, maybe things like Greek salad, watermelon cucumber salad, cucumber sandwiches, chicken pita wraps, use as “chips” to top with/scoop up chicken salad, tuna salad or cottage cheese, skewer/layer with a tomato slice and a slice of cheese …

      I’d quick pickle some, but I love pickles.

    4. I tried making crab rangoon in the air fryer and it was … fine but I ended up with a LOT of leftover filling. It was so good on crackers.

    6. The Emeril Lagasse sweet/spicy pickle recipe! I’ve tried a lot of different ones and this one is the best.

  11. What are your favorite ways for making powerstrips look nice when they’re just coming out of the wall and not underneath a desk or table you can secure? one in my bedroom and one by our TV couch

  12. i’d say K-town but that’s probably not great for the picky eater. i’ve always liked the Tick Tock diner but haven’t been there in years.

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