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Coffee Break: Secretary Desk

I have often recommended over on CorporetteMoms that if you're working in a small place, particularly with kids (and you don't have a home office), you need at least a secretary desk — you can close it up and not have to worry about people getting into it. When I was looking online recently, I saw some really cool, modern secretary desks with very slim profiles, and I think they could be great if you've been working from home and want to upgrade to a better desk without spending a lot or using up too much space. This desk is around $200 at Target, Amazon and Home Depot. Secretary Desk

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Sales of note for 12.13

  • Nordstrom – Beauty deals on skincare including Charlotte Tilbury, Living Proof, Dyson, Shark Pro, and gift sets!
  • Ann Taylor – 50% off everything, including new arrivals (order via standard shipping for 12/23 expected delivery)
  • Banana Republic Factory – 50-70% off everything + extra 20% off
  • Eloquii – 400+ styles starting at $19
  • J.Crew – Up to 60% off almost everything + free shipping (12/13 only)
  • J.Crew Factory – 50% off everything and free shipping, no minimum
  • Macy's – $30 off every $150 beauty purchase on top brands
  • Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off, plus free shipping on everything (and 20% off your first order)
  • Talbots – 50% off entire purchase, and free shipping on $99+

And some of our latest threadjacks here at Corporette (reader questions and commentary) — see more here!

Some of our latest threadjacks include:

148 Comments

  1. For those of you who don’t know what a secretary desk is…the folding cardboard standup desk is not a secretary desk…..

  2. Such a cool picture. Shame none of the links go to anything similar to what’s pictured.

    1. Yes, I would like more information on the white desk in the picture. I hate it when an article is illustrated by something that seems to be the recommended item, but turns out not to be, and you can’t get information on it.

      1. I found this desk! It is indeed from Nexera, but it is called the Boss Secretary Desk, and the price is $420 CAD, at least on the Nexera website.

    3. I am working from home at my grandma’s secretary desk, and it’s really been nice to gather everything up at the end of the day and tuck it away. It also has great storage.

  3. Anyone else noticed that everything is funnier lately (in that 1-am-at-a-sleepover way)? I can’t stop chortling at this morning’s ridiculous thread that basically said that if the fat fatties would stop being so fat within the next two weeks, they wouldn’t get sick from coronavirus. My friends have reported feeling similar – all the random memes or Trump fails we’ve been sharing have actually been leading to real, tears-in-eyes laughter. Small silver lining, I guess?

    1. I had a can of cider yesterday and it hit me like I hadn’t tasted alcohol in years. I was in the SILLIEST mood. My husband couldn’t remember the word for water chestnuts and called them a crescent wrench, and I lost my mind laughing. So, yes!

    2. No. That thread made me very sad and I’m sad it’s being brought up again.

      1. Same. I’m sitting here in NYC and hearing the ambulances go by, and thinking that every ambulance contains a human being. Nothing about that thread was funny to me.

      2. I’m sorry to hear that. Gallows humor really helps me sometimes (when situations are so absurdly terrible you can’t help but laugh), but please do collapse the thread if it’s too hard today. Everything is tough for all of us and we have to do what we can to get through it.

        1. I’m fine, I don’t need to collapse the thread, I’m just saying unlike yesterday’s humorous post, this wasn’t funny or an attempt to be funny. It was just cruelty. I’m glad you were able to laugh at it, but by bringing it up again on another post you’ve just invited more similar hurtful commentary.

          1. Yeah I can see that. It’s not my intention to invite hurtful commentary, though. That poster is like a cartoon villain to me and I genuinely found it tragi-funny that such a person could exist.

      4. OMG I had skipped that thread until I went back to look at it just know. Some of the people here are just truly awful human beings.

        1. Right? I’m speechless, honestly. What in the world makes someone completely lack all empathy for others?

    3. I have a suspicion the instigator on that thread is the same lovely individual who used to post about how Trump is awesome because she was making so much money in the stock market. She probably got up this morning and checked her portfolio balances and went into a tailspin. And also, she’s a garbage person.

      1. +1 on this.

        But that’s all trump supporters right? They’re selfish. Not grocery-shopping -with -children “selfish” but actually don’t care about human suffering that doesn’t affect them. Kids in cages?! Who cares?! Dead people who weren’t me?! Whatever! Probably serves them right!

        I’ve had some grim thoughts yesterday. I really don’t see this pandemic ever affecting rural or red American. I think the red hat crowd sees this affecting urban (read minority) communities and shrugs. Or calls it a win. What’s a few thousand dead New Yorkers to them?

        My purple little suburban new york town has rallied behind our hospital. I got a lump in my throat reading that most victims are Lantinex and I’m really concerned the already palpable anti-immigrant sentiment is going to spark something terrible very soon.

        1. I don’t know about that. I live in a blue community in a very red state, and the smaller towns around me are quickly running into Problems with a capital P. It’s spreading there, too; this is not just an urban problem. Which is why it’s infuriating that we’re one of the few states without a stay-at-home order and municipalities are handling it on their own.

        2. I read this morning that something like 1 in 10 rural counties has reported at least one death, and The vast majority have reported cases (I don’t remember the exact stats). Coronavirus is going to effect rural areas, just a little later, and they are probably the least equipped to handle it.

          1. Right. You think urban hospitals aren’t prepared to handle this? Hospitals in rural communities are going to fare far worse. Social contact between people is far less random than it is in even small cities. Which is how you could easily see entire families wiped out by the virus.

            I totally agree with OP’s point that Trump supporters are basically selfish a-holes, but I disagree that rural communities won’t be affected. They are. 14 cases were diagnosed just days ago in a rural assisted living center in my state.

          2. That’s kind of my point though. We’re seeing deaths of now 800 people a day in New York and nine out of ten rural counties haven’t lost a single person. No loss of life at all? That’s pretty unscathed. I don’t mean to make light of anything, every death is a tragic and horrible, obviously. But it’s in no way the same problem.

        3. The worst outbreak in my state (GA) is around Albany, which is a small city surrounded by really rural areas. I think all of our first deaths were in rural areas too. Just bc of low population density there aren’t as many people affected and the spread isn’t as fast but it’s been devastating to them, especially given the poor healthcare infrastructure.

        4. +1

          This pandemic disproportionately affects poor people and people of colour. And who are the people who are living in homeless shelters or public housing, with poor living conditions and sanitation, who are more likely to get sick? Immigrants, people of colour, LGBTQ people, etc. Tr*mp supporters don’t care if poor black people die.

        5. Nursing homes in rural communities are either getting hit hard or are terrified of getting hit hard. I think about the home where my MIL was for 7 years, and the home where my mom spent the last 6 weeks of her life, and neither one could have prevented a large-scale outbreak.

          The cases in the facility in WA that indicated community spread before any travel-related cases were identified were a harbinger of what was/is to come. The ownership group for them also owns a number of other facilities across the country, including several in Kansas and Missouri, where the virus has taken hold. The first COVID death in Kansas was a resident of one of those facilities. The largest cluster of cases in the state is at another one.

          Here, at least, many are grappling with the realization that small towns aren’t protected. It takes only a single delivery of groceries to a local store by an asymptomatic carrier to infect the clerk and then the community.

          1. Rural hospitals are in trouble for sure. So many are already on the edge financially and this is going to do some in. Scary times we’re living in, although I’m glad to see some (hopefully helpful) actions by CMS to stabilize and increase Medicaid and Medicare payments.

        6. What a horrible thing to say about fellow Americans. How dare you challenge what other posters say when you are crowing about people with different political views than you dying?

          BTW, look up where the “children in cages” started. Do you recognize the name Obama?

        7. A red-state relative of mine told me at the early stages that this was way overblown and probably just because it’s election year (surprise, he’s a Trumper). Then all of a sudden he’s posting about ensuring his 90 yo mother is kept isolated and safe. I so want to rub it in his face that this is real, and his red state is now being hit (=one of the dumb governors), but I just can’t take any glee in being right. I will say that of my (few) red-state Facebook friends, not a single one of them has the level of sophistication to understand, even conceptually, the kind of mathematical modeling that’s being done to predict the curve. They really did not get “flatten the curve” at the outset, and kept repeating tired comparisons to the # of people who get / die of the flu. They’re not math-literate.

          1. Lol if you still believe in the models you’re not “math-literate” and you’re sanctimonious.

      2. Yeah, my favorite part was when she decided that the marathoner described as being in perfect health was in fact not healthy because long distance running is not healthy. I think we’re being trolled

        1. What about the 1 year old baby who died from covid maybe not dying from covid because it was from a “rough” neighborhood.

      4. You’re referring to me and nope — wasn’t me. Health conditions or what people do or don’t do to take care of themselves aren’t my area. And hate to break it to you but neither I nor anyone who really gets the market is freaking out because we knew to sell in February when the world was shutting down and it was inevitable it would be worldwide. I mean what other signs did anyone need besides 2000 Starbucks stores closed in China along with Disney, Wynn properties etc. Took profit then and by low again.

        1. I’m so confused as to why someone who is sooo financially savvy wastes her time on a website like this, shouldn’t you be tending to your private island? I understand that most flights are cancelled for public health reasons but surely someone of your stature has a private jet.

          1. Chill. I barely post here anymore. It’s been months. I’m chilling at home and trading and decided to check out what you idiots were saying after market close and responded since you mentioned me. See you in another 3-6 months.

          5. The market reacted super slowly – it was hardly a surprise to many people that shares were going to crash. Honestly, if I had a financial advisor and they hadn’t warned me, I’d have gotten rid of them – it was not unexpected.

        2. So wait. Are we great again yet? Because I don’t think we’re so great but I’m not a stock market whiz.

          Also, I don’t believe you. Didn’t you post about things being better than 2016 like right before the world ended?

    4. Not sure why its news that the US and most western countries have an obesity problem. I took my kid to the pediatric ER once and all they had were bariatric-sized wheelchairs (she couldn’t walk). My kid looked so much more weak and delicate at something like 60 pounds in a wheelchair that large. It is the default setting for grownups but I was surprised for kids.

      1. Please just shut up. Covid-19 is not an excuse to just casually bash fat people.

        1. Like it is not news. And not unique to the US. IDK why the morning person bought it up even.

      2. I can think of some obvious reasons why they might have purchased a lot of the larger wheelchairs vs. the smaller ones.

    5. Yes definitely the 1am sleepover feeling… if you want to giggle, look for the video of a the Vegas man jumping over a balcony railing onto a car and slipping off (not injured). I couldn’t stop laughing. My friends asked if the ‘rona was making me stupid.

    6. That thread was disgusting. I know someone who died, early 40s, not overweight or unhealthy or a smoker.

      Many people are also likely to die worldwide due to lack of access to medical care, or inability to stay home because they need income…not because they are fat.

      1. And even if they are fat, their lives and humanity are just as valuable as anyone else’s, and their deaths shouldn’t be written off as acceptable collateral damage for the economy or someone’s convenience.

        1. Exactly. I cringe a bit at defenses that include “…and he wasn’t even fat” because that should have no impact on how we view a preventable death. An overweight person in their early 40s dying is also a tragedy.

        2. I thought the latest research was that obesity can be bad when it signals an underlying condition that is bad, but that healthy fat people have to worry more about things like arthritis than whether they can fend off a virus. I’d like to lose weight, but my doctors say it just isn’t evidence based that it would make much difference to my health. The underlying process that causes type 2 diabetes can also cause obesity, but the whole idea that obesity is itself the driver isn’t, as far as I know, at all current. I think that poster was clinging to the ideal of an illness that we can control.

          1. This. There’s actually been a ton of recent research that basically discredits the assumption that obesity automatically means health issues. A thin person who doesn’t exercise is often higher risk than a BMI-qualified obese person who regularly exercises. Doctors who are up to date on the most recent studies have moved away from suggesting overweight/obese people lose weight. One, that’s generally not a helpful prescription and isnt’ really actionable, often adds stress which research shows make weight loss more difficult. Two, there are better ways to treat underlying conditions with lifestyle changes. Often times those lifestyle changes (e.g., exercise, diet changes) will ultimately end in weight loss but making the focus solely on weight loss tends to backfire. And the weight loss in and of itself isn’t always going to solve the underlying health issue especially if the weight is lost in an unhealthy unsustainable way.

    7. I will get called horrible names for my opinion and for full disclosure, I am overweight too. I understand the difficulty in losing and maintaining a healthy weight. Obesity doesn’t make some one’f life less valuable.

      However, when I see the pictures of people who are not above sixty and have lost the fight against this disease, vast majority of them are obese or very overweight.People who are fit and healthy have also died, but they are very few in number. I am convinced that obesity certainly increases the risk of death for this particular disease.

      It is not possible reduce weight in a short duration of time. So the best thing we can do is to stop catching it by practicing very strict social distancing and using this as a warning and start getting to a healthy weight.

      1. Please leave. No one needs this. Have fun starving yourself but don’t dump this on the rest of us.

          1. I turn away from anyone exhibiting cruelty and selfishness and feel I gain plenty. I am sorry your life is so vacant. You got attention for posting these terrible views, which I’m sure was what you were after. Have you gotten enough attention that you can now go away and bother other people? If not, will you let us know what your attention threshold for going away is? I like to have goals to work towards. Thanks.

          2. Well..when you are busy imagining things an internet stranger’s life, it is hard to have any bandwidth to look at the facts.

          3. But this isn’t “truth” this is anecdotal arm chair science. I wouldn’t be shocked to hear that obesity ultimately may be a risk factor (like many other risk factors) that make someone more likely to have a bad case of COVID-19 after there’s more data available but laypeople making such conclusions based on pictures of people who have lost their lives to this virus is not helpful.

          4. You are confusing weight with health. A person may have higher risk due to being older, being a man, having asthma or having genetically predetermined high blood pressure. Those are the primary contributing factors, not weight per se.

      2. It is a fact that many people who our over weight have other health complications. It is also a fact that people with underlying health conditions are more vulnerable to this virus.

    8. My boyfriend got a bit drunk last night, and I somehow didn’t notice until 11:30 when we were heading to bed, and when I realized it I said “you had a lot of juice, didn’t you?” and said “I had a lot of juice” and then we started giggling, and then just cracked up laughing. I’m not even sure what we were laughing about!

      But fat shaming isn’t funny. That’s just rude.

    9. Thanks, Pure Imagination, for starting this fight all over again under the guise of some other comment. You are clearly very tense and anxious this week, but can’t you find somewhere else to dump all that anxiety?

  4. we normally have one cupboard location for candy and snacks. The rest of the pantry space is normally my territory, since I do the cooking. DH doesn’t know where anything is. Now I buy significantly more snacks (more variety and indulgence makes up for no eating out, also I shop for 2 weeks at a time), so I started hiding them in the boring shelf where we have dry pasta and canned stuff.
    Now DH is home all the time, so he felt snacky and found the hiding place of the brownie bites…I have now come up with a tertiary hiding place, let’s see how long that will last…

    1. I am fully irrational snack hide-er, and I feel your pain! The china hutch and my bedside table are usually sucessful. Also, buy stuff you like and he doesn’t!

      1. Yes to the random drawer in the china hutch! I’ve also resorted to in a plastic tub (sealed) under the guest bedroom bed, and in the hall closet above the coats.

    3. How about in an empty box of tampons in a hall closet? Behind a pile of frozen veggies in the freezer (I love frozen chocolate and cookies)? In an emptied container of oatmeal?

      1. yeah, I have a costco big box of canned tomatos but there was only one can left, so behind that are the chocolates now. We’ll see if he finds them. It feels like a slow game of hide and seek. Or maybe our version of easter egg hunt…

    4. There may or may not be a half-eaten Ritter chocolate hazelnut bar in my most boring home desk drawer that generally holds greeting cards, and my husband is never going to accidentally find it looking for a greeting card.

    5. I really do not care for chocolate unless I have my p*riod or are close to it, and consequently have a stash of 2-3 chocolate bars on a high up shelf where kiddo can’t find them. My husband found and ate them once and I full on sobbed. He replaced them and STILL asks me before he eats anything he thinks I might be stashing away, ha!

    6. Oh I love this – exactly in the same predicament! Why is that (anecdotally) many husbands have no control? I find it funny how my husband often says that he’d prefer not to have treats in the house but then, if we do have them, he can’t save them for later. I, on t he other hand, like to have some in the house in case I feel like some one day. Solution? Hiding them well!

  5. So, I’m in a work lull and actually had time today to see what my kids have been doing for homeschooling (basically worksheets, no actual instruction; zoom meetings are for kids to wave to each other and say hi and how bored they are). Big urban public school system (that I am now totally second-guessing myself for even picking). The math seems . . . nonexistent. I asked my 5th grader to do a division problem (dividing a 3 digit # by a 2 digit #) and OMG I feel like she has either forgotten everything she has been taught or has never really solidly learned this stuff. [I had similar concerns re my 4th grader, but she was always on my radar due to being good on concepts but *still* shaky on things like multiplication facts.] I know, it’s schooling in a crisis. My kids read on their own, but I feel that math is so cumulative that they are just going to get further and further behind. I think that if we work a bit each day doing problems, we may at least not have them regress. I guess I should be grateful for the eye-opener?

    1. Chillllll the f down. They’re just trying to figure out how to do something.

    2. Fwiw my arithmetic has always sucked and I legit have a lag reciting my multiplication table. But geometry, algebra, and trigonometry? I aced them all. Does your kid struggle with all types of mathematics?

      1. OP here — for K-2, she seemed to fly through everything easily and I didn’t have to get involved. Starting in 4th, she seemed to struggle — word problems were more complex and you had to read carefully. But for other things, I can’t tell if things were ever taught (vs expected on homework), were taught poorly, or perhaps she just tuned out. She had no earthly idea how to divide fractions (you pop in a denominator if one is missing from the # on the right, flip it, and multiply) and flailed on pre-test homework. I explained it in maybe 15 minutes and she got it. But from some e-mails with her math teacher I was still never really clear on what they are supposed to know or what the expectations even are; they won’t tell you if your kid is struggling but they will just give a quarterly grade of F (but you are never really sure what material the F was for) or whatever. It is so opaque that I have wanted to scream before but now I want to scream and throw things. Math homeschooling may just be something we need to do (but I’m aiming blindly) going forward. Private school for 2 kids is about $60K, which is out of budget as both parental workplaces are reducing salaries now instead of doing immediate layoffs. Ugh.

        I don’t suppose that there are any reddit homeschooling math boards for people who are neither religious or hippy homeschoolers, just parents trying to help?

        1. What on earth is this nonsense? No. You shouldn’t homeschool. You don’t know what you are doing or how to teach math and are judging this all on a plague situation. If you kid has been failing math all year 6 months ago was the time to deal with this.

        2. You might find it helpful to look at the Common Core standards for math for fifth grade … this site has an explanation and associated worksheets, etc. that are helpful to give you a better sense of the work: https://www.education.com/common-core/fifth-grade/math/

          I’m not sure where you are located, but your state/district website likely has more specifics.

          This site had some good recommendations for math programs/sites (like Khan Academy, Mathlicious, etc.) that can help supplement.

          But ultimately, I would recommend not getting too concerned right now. I think the best thing we can do for kids is just keep their love of learning alive as best as we can!

      2. +1. DH was never interested in mastering arithmetic, then got so good at algebra that the teacher accused him of cheating. Now has a science PhD. The way we teach math is not very appropriate for developing the math skills that would be useful in life.

      3. And as a counterpoint, I could memorize math facts with the best of them. But I couldn’t do actual math to save my life. Even getting Cs in algebra took effort.

    3. I don’t know if this is helpful, but there are math tapps are out there for all age ranges, and are gamified. I typed in “math games” into the app store and a bunch of options came up for all ages. My mental math is okay but not great, and I use these to perk up my skills. Really basic stuff, and enough options that one or two of the options might work well for your kiddos.

        1. I don’t know if it’s any good for math education, but I do like to play KenKen.

      2. Check out Khan Academy, too… it’s totally free and the lessons are short and presented in a way that I found made a lot of sense. I used it quite a bit to knock the rust off my basics when returning to school. There are lessons for everything from counting to multivariable calculus.

        1. +1 to Khan Academy. They recommend that everyone start at the beginning and quiz their way through the parts they know, so they can fill in any gaps in their knowledge from previous grades along the way. Theh have a helpful homeschool timetable that is not intense, too.

    4. They’re kids. It’s a pandemic. It’s okay if they aren’t memorizing long division.

    5. Are you sure they’re having that much trouble, versus simply not being engaged at home? I can barely get my daughter to do anything and I know it’s not because the skills fell out of her head. It’s because she just can’t be forced to care. She’s at home. At the kitchen table. She will probably never see her current teacher again in person while in her class. I mean, maybe your child is having real trouble. But this also may not be the best insight into what she actually knows.

    6. Math is not taught in the same sequence as it was when we were kids. I learned long division in second grade, in a crummy large urban school district in the 1980s. The curriculum in my kid’s school district doesn’t introduce any multiplication or division until third grade, or long division until fifth grade (fourth grade for a lucky few). So it’s likely your fifth-grader is just now seeing long division for the first time.

    7. It’s not really news where the US ranks in math education. I have talked to plenty of students who ended up turning to Khan Academy since they weren’t really learning in school. (That’s just one example of math instruction that works better for some students; alternative math education is a whole rabbit hole you can go down if you want.)

      1. I’m in the Bay Area. I’m a math person in industry. My kids’ pediatrician and I were chatting about the state of math education in the Bay Area, and she said, “anyone with math skills can go into tech and earn 5x as much as they would teaching. Why would anyone teach high school math?”

        And she has a point. I only taught high school math for one year before finding a business job.

        Khan Academy has been great for my teens. My daughter’s AP Stats teacher, while a nice guy, could not explain the Central Limit Theorem and suggested his students just look it up online. Very frustrating, since the CLT is basically the foundation of stats, at least at the high school level. The class got worse from there and my daughter basically learned Stats from Khan. (Not me!)

    8. FWIW, every child in America is in the same boat. Whatever your child isn’t learning is what all the other children out there aren’t learning.

    9. We home school and my husband is the math geek so my 3rd grader is doing 5th grade math books and is way smarter than me at math. I have to get a calculator to check the math he does in his head. They don’t do Khan Academy because that doesn’t work for them because they need to write it out to understand it. If you are looking for suggestions – and if you aren’t then just ignore this – we focus on lots of numbers facts and flashcards almost everyday; word problems, adding and subtracting money and time; and I make them do “shopping math” to calculate how much something is on sale and the taxes. Also Life of Fred is a reading math curriculum that we do for “fun”. I don’t get it really but my kids (1st and 3rd) think it is hysterical. Fred is a 5 year old boy who is math professor but still is a 5 year old boy. You can order the Fred books online and some libraries have them. We use Rod and Staff for math which is very much 1950s math style that focuses on repetitive drills and constant review of previous lessons. It has worked great for us.

      1. I recommend Singapore Math workbooks or the Korean national curriculum (if there are any resources in English), along the same lines.

    10. I worked through college as a babysitter in NYC. Four or five families I knew well enough to tell you that ALL of them had math tutors for their kids. At fancy private schools (Dalton etc.) No one knows how to teach math. Get a tutor and don’t worry about it.

    11. I teach grade 5 math and I don’t think your daughter sounds unusual. Multi-step processes ramp up in grade 5 and students have to be jolted into paying attention to instructions, even if math is usually easy for them.
      As a parent, I know that my kids need to be doing math at home often. If your kids are not bringing home homework, (when school is in session) you should be making them complete some supplemental activity a few times a week.
      Even with a competent teacher, there are limits to the amount of one-on-one time each student gets. Parents can provide that time, if their child’s academic success is a priority.

  6. What is your favorite or most helpful question to ask at an interview? Staff attorney position at a legal aid nonprofit.

    1. I like asking about the flow of work. Is it pretty steady or are there busy periods interspersed with slow ones? That tells me a lot about what the day to day vibe is like.

    2. “Why are you looking to make a job move?”

      Any applicant should have a solid answer. When they don’t I get useful information.

    3. I like to ask what they see the person in the role doing in the first week, 3 months, 6 months and a year out from the start date (while clearly stating that any of that is subject to change on a moment’s notice). That gives me an idea of that day to day and longer term deals/projects the group works on, and also what the inspirational goals are for the role, or if it’s going to be a “flat” position that never really grows.

    4. What does success in this role look like to you? What qualities or actions differentiate a “good” job from a “great” one?

    5. I like asking, why did you initially come to this company, and why have you stayed?

    6. “How is success in this role measured?” is one of my go-tos.

    7. Oops. I meant interviewer questions, not interviewee, and was definitely not clear- there was a total mix in the answers about which side the questions are on. Thanks, all!

  7. What kind of job should I be looking for (ha) if I dislike being a litigator but like being a lawyer? I was a long-term judicial clerk at the trial court level. I loved new, complex issues but eventually got bored of cases that seemed like all the others and were destined to go nowhere.

    1. Staff attorney at the appellate court? Appellate division of a litigation firm?

      1. How did I miss that? I finished Season 3 last night. The finale was AMAZING.

        1. Zoikes, that finale. Still recovering. Also, every night I watched an episode I dreamed that Helen was in charge of the national pandemic response. Every. Night.

          1. LOL she would just murder anyone who showed signs of the virus. I have 2 more eps to go!!

    4. I switched from litigation to regulatory work. You can do it in the private sector or government. It’s a lot of problem solving and lots of new issues.

    1. My favorite blanket ever is a sherpa throw blanket from Costco – it’s soft, huge, and thick and was $20 or $25. I don’t know if they have it at the moment though.

    4. The Nordstrom At Home Kennebunk Bliss. They’re less than $20 right now. Between me, my grandma, my mom, and my 2 aunts we probably have 6-8 of these blankets and all love them.

    6. Not what you asked for, but I have a super soft heated fleece blanket from bed bath and beyond that looks like a throw blanket minus the electrical cords. It’s a grey fleece temperpedic. I run so cold, and it feels great to adjust the heat level especially in the evenings when I watch shows.

  9. At the risk of being a fat fatty who deserves to die from Covid-19, what are your favorite dessert recipes? I have flour and sugar and all that stuff, no yeast, running low on baking powder and haven’t been able to get any in my most recent grocery deliveries.

    I made the vegan chocolate cake from the new Joy of cooking and it’s a winner. (Bonus: uses baking soda and vinegar instead of baking powder)

    What have you been baking?

    3. Chocolate-chocolate chip cookies (King Arthur Flour Double-Shot Mocha Chunks – SO good) and standard hershey’s chocolate chip cookies. Challah (the second prove was OK but not great). A box of brownie mix from TJ’s that had been in my pantry!

      The vegan chocolate cake – I would increase the cocoa powder by a little bit (1/3 c over 1/4). I’ve made that cake for years – my grandma had the same recipe!

      1. I think the recipe in the new Joy of Cooking does use more cocoa. It has been made and devoured twice in this house. (Two teenagers two adults)

    4. Lol I’m loving your first sentence (as a fellow fatty who is choosing to not snap my fingers and become thin by tomorrow). I like lemon bars and Smitten Kitchen’s salted caramel brownies for treats. I’ve also been enjoying making bread, but you said no yeast and I’m no expert on non-yeast recipes.

      1. how selfish of you not to snap those fingers. Says me while hiding snacks.

    5. Google “Amish cinnamon bread”! It’s more like pound cake so there’s no yeast. It’s pretty amiable to substitutions, and the recipe I use makes two loaves so you can freeze one.

    6. I’ve been baking my way through the Smitten Kitchen cookbooks. So far I’ve made her challah, brownie roll out cookies, salted butter rice krispies treats, and lemon pie (I think this is on the site? It’s fabulous). Also baked the the lemon ricotta cookies by pinch of yum (trying to use up the massive tub of ricotta my husband bought) and making chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream for easter.
      If you try again I find challah is MUCH better with 3 rises (an hour-ish rise after braiding) and double egg wash (once right after braiding, once right before the oven).

      1. I’m OP. I haven’t made the smitten kitchen recipes you mention but two of you posting about that site reminded me that her key lime pie is the best key lime pie I’ve ever had. I have everything but the whipping cream… hmm…..

        1. also consider the Smitten Kitchen chewy chocolate chip cookies. I have been making them for a decade

    7. You know, I don’t bake that much in the spring, but I think Easter weekend might be a fine time to make a nice fruit pie, either raspberry or blueberry.

      OR, oh my god, of course, why didn’t I think of this sooner? I should make a cheesecake! Maybe blueberry with a bit of lemon . . .

      1. Under ordinary circumstances I would demand you invite me over for that cheesecake.

    8. Jumping on the Smitten Kitchen train…don’t know what it is but so many of her recipes are calling to me right now, too! I’ve made the everyday chocolate cake and the lemon cake (both on the site) in the last couple weeks. I’ve also done the Test Kitchen chocolate chip cookies and some sticky rolls, and I plan to try gingersnaps and have my favorite lemon berry cobbler for Easter.

      1. Ooh those look good! And very customizable … could do a citrus glaze on top instead of the sugar.

    10. Back when I was going to parties, I hit upon what I decied will be signature dessert – the Smitten Kitchen chocolate olive oil cake, with the glaze from the Smitten Kitchen plush coconut cake recipe (just coconut milk and powdered sugar) topped with unsweetened, flaked coconut. It is so, so good (and vegan, for those who are interested in that).

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