This is for entertainment. My FIL turned 91 last week. My wife (69) drove up to visit. A niece and nephew (20s) and BIL (late 50s) went up to visit. I had the idea of sending up an iPad and doing a big family Facetime group call. My wife didn't think it would work. I lined up the equipment, did a test run with a BIL and a nephew, trained my wife to answer the d@mn phone. To my wife's surprise I pulled this off. All four siblings (children) online. All but one nibling (grandchildren) online (the missing one is a PITA - not because she didn't sign in but because she is a PITA). Four great grandchildren.

Singing happy birthday was an utter disaster that had everyone rolling on the floor. We'll have to practice that ahead next year. Apparently worrying about the tech was the wrong priority.

The really funny bit is that someone has butt dialed the entire Facetime group twice since. Not FIL as he has a dumb phone and his end was my iPad sent up with my wife. Definitely not me, as my phone was sitting in it's charger on my desk when it went off. I have some suspects. Doesn't really matter.

The upside is I know who in the family is Johnny on the spot to answer calls.

All together now: "Happy birthday Paul!"

edit: typo

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My mushrooms didn't last long. Please forgive a lengthy post - I want you to have the context. I'd value thoughts.

I bought two 8 oz boxes of whole mushrooms. Washed them^(1). Sliced them. Single layer on a sheet pan with parchment paper in a low oven at about 135°F all day (about 12 hours)^(2). They seemed dry but not crispy when I took them out. No apparent problem when I put them in a Lock-n-Lock plastic container for storage. Within a month they were soggy in the container.

Please see footnotes.

My thoughts so far:

Use a salad spinner after washing mushrooms before slicing.

Turn on convection fan during drying.

Dry them longer despite consistent Internet content that four to eight hours is enough.

Your ideas are more than welcome before I kill mushrooms again.

-----------------

1. All indications are that washing mushrooms making them soggy is an old wives' tale. Harold McGee is a pretty credible source. Link.

2. We have a dehydrator. I want to use the oven. I have a constituency (long distance cruising sailors) for my cookbook. Drying mushrooms is of value for off the grid cooks and a dehydrator is too big an ask on a small boat. MODS: This is not self promotion or any other sort of spam (rule #2). I don't charge for the book and I regularly cut and paste from the book on a wide range of sailing ( r/sailing, r/SailboatCruising ) and cooking ( r/Cooking, r/cookingforbeginners , r/CookingForOne , and others) subs.

BGE says two hours.

Spa Rd closed. No access in or out from Hunt Meadow, Harness Creek Overlook,or Ferry Point. Major gas leak. Latest projection for access 2pm, possibly 3pm.

@ u/jfrenaye

Dev v. user

I just found your sub.

My contribution coming in is that a 9x13 casserole is a lot of lasagna especially for a small family or a couple. If you double that recipe you can make three 9x9s or five 8x8s and feed the freezer.

My lasagna: https://auspiciousworks.com/Lasagna.pdf .

Observation without judgement: Eastport Kitchen has moved a lot of sandwiches from sub rolls to buns. I shopped the menu today for a possible lunch. Surprise!

What may well be the worst customer service I have ever received.

In fairness to Verizon, this store, like most Verizon stores, is a franchisee "authorized retailer" and not corporate Verizon. There is no corporate Verizon store anywhere in the area.

The telephone number is answered by a call center. The direct phone is not available to the public and when the call center calls for an inventory check the store doesn't answer anyway. The call center has no insight into inventory. Corporate Verizon customer service also has no inventory information.

I had an order for replacement hardware for Verizon FiOS Internet and TV. The store was out of stock. Of the two employees in the store, one was technically deficient and a poor communicator (I helped a customer who was struggling with the implications of a new phone with USB-C instead of USB-A on her existing charging). The manager was aggressive and abusive and blamed ME for being in his store and for his inventory. He tried hard to send me to the store in Edgewater (same franchisee apparently) and assured me that he speaks with the store manager there every morning and knew they had the device I needed. He lied. I called Verizon corporate (itself not a good customer service experience) who called that store, managed to get them to pick up, and determined they also where out of stock.

I ended up having to drive to Odenton for the equipment I needed.

While I'm not impressed with Verizon in general, the Hillsmere "authorized retailer" is to be avoided at all costs.

There are signs on Spa Rd that the all lanes of the road will be closed for 24 hours around Sunday July 12. I've done some Google searches without help. Does anyone have any insight into what's going on? I assume and hope there are plans for emergency services, but are we really all going to be trapped in here for 24 hours?

This may be DIY adjacent so if mods think it shouldn't be here please let me know and I'll remove it myself.

For background, we live on a peninsula so electrical power has one way in. No submerged cables from adjacent land. When we get weather we lose power. Five or six times a year. If power goes out it may be out for a few hours or a few days. We have a very high water table so we depend on sump pumps. Our power backup is definitely rudimentary DIY. 5 kW gasoline generator, jugs of ethanol free gas, and labeled extension cords for sump pumps, freezer, fridge, and my office for Internet and general charging. Battery lamps and propane heaters. USB fans and power banks for ventilation.

The issue at hand is that if we lose power shortly after going to bed we may not notice in time to avoid a flood by the time we wake up. I bought a little dongle that plugs into a regular power outlet and that--with batteries--alarms when the power goes off. The (stupid) thing has started chirping randomly. I've confirmed that we aren't seeing short drop outs (that process was definitely DIY).

I'm fine buying a more reliable product or building something myself. In the meantime I'm experimenting with moving the existing device to other outlets to see if I have an outlet problem, the solution to which will definitely be DIY.

Standing by for input.

Sidebar for the camera commentary.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHR/comments/1ud0v87/wa_wfh_banned_from_walking_pads/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

This is definitely a First World problem.

In my opinion Sam's Club has their act together with tech. Website, online shopping for curbside, online shopping for delivery, Scan & Go in store and for gas. I've never heard of Synchrony Bank (the issuer for Sam's Club cards) before but they support digital wallets (in my case Apple Wallet on iPhone). When I try to add it the message is "The issuer does not yet provide support for this card." Okay, fine. Any prospects? Insight? Wild guesses?

Seeing more posts and comments that are politics.

When we (moderators) see them we'll remove them and give you a temporary ban to get your attention.

We can't be everywhere, so as always we depend on members of the community to report posts and comments that aren't appropriate. Keep the flotsam and jetsam out of r/sailing .

Fun quiz for the day: what's the difference between flotsam and jetsam?

When I take a picture with iPhone (iOS 26.5) I get a photo and a short video. Every time.

1. Is there a way to stop taking the videos?

2. Is there a way to go through all my existing Photos and delete all the videos?

Ordered Sunday morning. Delivery promised today (Memorial Day). Dropped on my front step this afternoon at 2.30. Notice of a package from my doorbell, text from Amazon, and email from Amazon all immediate. No drama. Just here.

Situation normal.

You may now return to your previously scheduled programming.

This is a vent. I highly doubt anyone here can do anything about my grievance.

We ran into a woody chicken problem from our previous source that was cheaper than Sam's Club. Sam's MM has not had the problem and tastes good. Sadly, they've changed their packaging to an odd sort of vacuum sealing (not really vacuumed). See here. Each package has eight breasts. We bought two packages to get our stock back up to our usual levels after dealing with our inventory of woody chicken. The new packaging is awful. Made a huge mess opening it up for portioning and freezing. Took nearly twice as long to break down as the previous Styrofoam trays.