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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 17th, 2023

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  • I won’t end up single-bagging a bunch of stuff that could be bagged together (e.g. if they scanned some window cleaner, they bag it separate, not knowing that some dishwasher detergent is coming that it could be packed with).

    Not that it is foolproof but unloading your cart in an organized manner helps with that. Though maybe you’re talking about helpless baggers, I’ve seen plenty of both clueless baggers and customers who toss things onto the belt willy-nilly.


  • Are cashiers in the United States of America really required to initiate meaningless conversations? I’ve also heard of the occupation of a door greater, which sounds even crazier.

    The corporate ideal has their weird idea that everyone desperately wants to have conversations with employees. I think it comes from positive feedback often taking the form of, “Your employee was so warm and helpful and we had a delightful chat about X.” and never, “Your employee was polite and didn’t bother me with needless conversation.” One of the trainings my employer has even includes a scenario, which is presented as ideal service, where the employee ends up chatting with a complete stranger about his dead wife including sharing pictures from his wallet.

    That said, while I’m sure corporate cares none of my in store managers cared when I was a cashier. Indeed, I had regulars who would seek me out because I specifically didn’t attempt to inject small talk into the interaction. I’d still get pulled into it by customers who initiated such but otherwise it was mostly, “Morning. Coupons? That’ll be $X.XX. Have a good one.”



  • Growing up my family would easily drink a gallon of milk or more per day between breakfast cereal and consumption with dinner. If my Mom made cookies, a cake, brownies, or some other traditionally paired with milk treat or something that itself used a lot of milk (such as say pudding) that day we could easily consume two gallons in a single day. So, if you have a large family (growing up mine maxed out at two adults and seven kids) or a smaller family that are heavy milk drinkers you could easily knock out three gallons before they spoil particularly if you start including things like being big fans of pudding, custard, mac and cheese, french toast, yogurt, milk gravy and other milk using recipes.

    Now if it was a single person that is a lot of milk, I think I could probably power through three gallons of milk before it expired but it’d be deliberate high usage on my part and certain not “this is the amount of milk I want to consume” levels.







  • We always camped on some mostly permafrost supported island in the middle of a wetland when we hunted so we avoided open fires. I’ve got lots of memories of that place. Spiders pelting me as they were knocked off the tall grass by our airboats we rode in, the one black bear my father shot that had been eating so many blueberries that the smell hit you in the face when we cleaned it, or my cousin and I being chewed out for sinking part of ‘our’ island when we attempted to build a log cabin. That’s why I think nostalgia is playing a big part in why I miss the dishes so much.







  • We always cut down a tree in the forest - the forest manager makes a map of which parts of the public forest they want the firs and spruce thinned out, so it’s like free forest management. After Christmas we put the tree out by our chickens, who enjoy sitting on and under it.

    Man that brings back some memories. While my family grew up with an artificial tree but my Aunt and Uncle always went out and chopped down a spruce for Christmas and it being Alaska there was no shortage to be found. They were the host for the Christmas Eve get together.


  • I often prepare newer-ish dishes but always filling that template that I mentioned above. We (wife and I) love trying new dishes and that is part of why we do a new country every year. Often the result is “Huh…” and we enjoy the experience even if the dish isn’t a new favorite but every once in a while we stumble across something that ends up joining our repertoire.

    This year I’m going to tweak Ur’s palace cake to serve it as dessert alongside the tiramisù, my sister loves those cheese-based sweets. That sounds interesting. If you are a fan of historical recipes (and this isn’t just a one off) I can’t recommend Tasting History enough.


  • The reasons are different (people moving away and spreading out) but I kinda feel this. My childhood was a Christmas Eve bake potato bar and pies over at someone’s house filled to the brim with relatives with a gift exchange. It is part of why my my wife and I created the Christmas Eve dinner when we got married. I moved across the country and away from my side of the family her family didn’t really have much in the way of traditions so we decided to start one. I look forward to what we call out ‘International’ Christmas Eve every year but it definitely isn’t the same at this point (13 years) it feels like Christmas but it definitely doesn’t feel like the Christmases of my childhood.