u/Mediocre_Garage987

I would love to run a regular group get together for games, dinners, book club, TTRPG, meal prepping, or what have you - but my preferred environment is mostly women, with women setting the baseline vibe, and miscellaneous people of other genders who like that vibe being involved and not lesser in any way. I'm not sure how often that's a thing or how to cultivate that in a transparent and welcoming way. Have you ever been part of a group/club etc like that? What is that called?

It's so normal for me to find the equivalent if you replaced "women" with "gay people", because I know which hobbies my fellow gays dominate in and, if they're the majority in a group, queer people *will* set the tone. I was raised around a ton of gender segregation and so I'm unsure if the same is true with women as a group or if a handful of men etc would change the vibe. (trans women are women.)

Thoughts?

On my way to work in the Park Meigs neighborhood I saw a squirrel that obviously survived a car impact, it sat up and laid down again and I didn't see blood anywhere which is a good start.

Right now a wildlife rehabber is texting me two numbers for rehabbers who care for injured adult squirrels, and when I get those I'll edit and add them. She let me know that the squirrel would have to be delivered to them in a box, and they're 30 minutes away in Walworth.

edit: I've texted Rachel of Chip&Chloe on Culver Rd and we'll see if she answers.

If anyone is willing to go check on it, I will DM them the address. Even if someone could do that and get it into a box or carrier, maybe I could help from there - I just can't leave work to wander around and ultimately find the squirrel didn't make it.

Y'all reading this at work are obviously in the same position as me, but is there anyone down to be the squambulance?

second update: The wildlife rehabbers communicated amongst themselves and Littlefoot Wildlife Rehab is working on getting someone out there. They know it's been a while, but they're going anyway, which is incredibly kind.

My finished attic has this really fun seventies-style plush brown carpet all over - and by fun, I mean fun to skate on. You can actually build up a little bit of speed! It's teaching me to pick up my feet properly, that's for sure. I'm a beginning skater - I did boot camp and then I fell (at boot camp) fell again (on the stairs, black ice) worked in accounting through tax season, got married, and finally recovered from that black ice fall that took out a chunk of my thigh muscle with sheer bruising (I'm a zebra, mostly EDS). I'm skating again and getting fit and ready to do boot camp a second time (my coach is hyped and has waived my fee!).

The attic is a fun place for me to go when I'm not feeling well but want to skate anyway. What I'm wondering is - if I keep an open mind and try to stay in correct form, am I going to learn bad habits over time just because of the physics of carpet? Should I keep it to 2x on carpet between each real skate session to minimize that, or focus on specific drills vs dicking around?

I would love to put some posters up there and make it my derby den. There's lots of natural light, a nice strong fan, and several nooks I could close off with a baby gate where gear and a little bench could go!

Thoughts?

Many of us know what the dentist and our moms say about crunching ice. However, you don't need to chomp down on a solid ice chip in order to experience one of the best side effects: a much cooler upper palate pulling tons of circulation to the brain. Last year I spent almost the entire summer with ice in my mouth, and continued the practice even in the winter while at the office and trying to combat brain fog and under-stimulation. Yes, I did have to talk very carefully around multiple ice cubes to avoid revealing my habit to passersby more than once. Oops.

Some advice:

- use pieces of ice as small or smaller than the littlest piece of currency in your country; you can get this via crushing, melting in drinking water, or freezing smaller portions in the first place.

- make sure the total amount of ice in your mouth at a time is small enough that you could swallow it all safely or spit it out in one go if you had to: this helps prevent choking and panic-crunching if your mouth suddenly needs to be ice-free.

- if you're a compulsory cruncher, something softer like frozen berries or something non-crunchable like a very cold (not frozen) spoon may be safer for you.

- if you can control your crunching but want to crunch a little bit, aerated ice from an ice machine that's on the verge of melting is very fun and less harsh on teeth, more like a slushie

- use careful judgement about recommending ice consumption to children

- ice can make you feel more hydrated than you are, so make sure to also drink lots of water: putting the ice in the water helps with this.

I find ice in the mouth especially helpful for cooling down when coming inside from outdoors.

Be chilled!

Not necessarily sexual boundaries or anything crazy, just day to day stuff. Do you just keep saying "Like I said before, no" forever? Do you at some point refuse to explain boundaries anymore, so they can't debate whether you should have them? Do they change? Was there a memorable moment where a friend like this "got it", because of something you did or otherwise?

If we're hot...

Can't let the birds inside, so:

If anyone has frozen fruit that isn't its best anymore or won't get eaten, consider putting it in a dish on your balcony or in a shaded grassy spot for the birds! A hanging dish is even better for some species and will help to keep rats away from it. The birds will also appreciate ice in a bowl of water.

Oranges always come in overly big bags, right?Consider freezing the extras before or after slicing them in half, and hanging them up for the birds with a piece of string punched through the peel!

You can deter rats, squirrels, and other mammals from just about anything by making it spicy. Meanwhile the birds do not care and will eat it like normal.

Maybe I'll go for a night hike this summer and listen to the owls... I hope the crows are okay.

I got a Lomi at a yard sale for 10% of its retail price (with three boxes of extra filters) and while I am aware that they are not composters, I have wished in the past for a Compost Chopper and have hopes that this may be it.

Has anyone successfully interrupted a Lomi cycle so that it doesn't bother with the heat part and just chops everything?

TW animal predation, parental cruelty

My sister and sister in law have these wonderful adopted senior chickens - and traumatically lost most of them to a raccoon this week. They're trying to help the survivors heal from their state of shock, and doing a wonderful job, but I see them hurting too. My sister cried when one of them went missing, and she doesn't cry about things, she's incredibly stoic and reserved. But she loves animals, and hates to even mow the grass because the chickens like it tall.

Our family abused us as children by hobby farming carelessly and pretending ducks and chickens and rabbits were our important pets until they died horribly, and acting surprised when we were traumatized. They made my sister shoot the whole family of raccoons that killed our first childhood flock. As an adult, the pain of that led her to become vegan but also shut off from a lot of emotional vulnerability.

Seeing this play out again with chickens my mom convinced them to adopt breaks my heart, especially to hear how it's breaking theirs. What can I do for them? What has helped you when yard pets were violently killed, or pets people didn't understand to be real pets died?

Thanks for reading.

I've heard that invasive Golden Oyster mushrooms are taking over in parts of the country, has anyone spotted some around here? I would hate to see our native mushrooms out-competed. I'm a good forager, and would love to help yank these out of our parks and share them around as food.