u/VirtuallySober

I know this is a classic to many, but my introduction to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings was the movies. Three action packed, gorgeous movies with incredible scores. Absolute cinema to a 11,12,13 year old.

Of course I was curious about the books after seeing them so I remember picking up the hobbit fresh off of seeing RoTK in theaters. Underwhelmed was an understatement. I wanted action and adventure and grand battles and I remember DNFing after the troll fight, unsure why there was 10 pages of a feast but only 1 page for a fight.

Fast forward to now and my toddler (3yo about to turn 4) and I read every night to bed. On a whim I bought a nice copy of The Hobbit with illustrations and started to read to her every night. It was a bit darker than I anticipated which required me to often have to subtly skip words or sections which were violent or scary, however overall it was the perfect book. It took us about 8 months of reading a few pages every night. Most nights it'd be the second book we'd read, her choosing the first. Whenever she chose it first was a night I knew she was just trying to fall asleep ASAP and she'd be out within a couple paragraphs.

She loved the picture of Smaug in the book, regularly having me swap back to the full page picture of him and then she'd gobble up all the gold on the page. She also loved the songs, frequently asking me to find one to sing which I was more than happy to oblige (I can't sing at all but doing a low 'dwarf' voice worked for every song in the book).

As we got to the last few pages she kept asking "how many pages did we read?" and I'd say "340 pages!" and she'd go "Wow, that's crazy!" Finishing it felt monumental and bittersweet. She really enjoyed the book. Loved Smaug and loved Bilbo. She started calling her brother Bilbo because he was short with curly hair and big feet.

Anyways, since then I've been trying to fill the void with another book and... failing.

I've tried Tale of Desperaux (this one seems great but she's not into it), Narnia (not nearly as fantastical so far, hard to get her into it) and I looked at Redwall (a bit too advanced). I was really taken aback by how well structured the hobbit is. She loves the songs, the supporting characters jump off the page (she was aware of Gandalf, Bilbo, Smaug, Bard), the songs were plentiful and really helped with engagement and lastly the illustrated version was just enough to keep her engaged without it being purely a 'just words' book. Also the narrative style worked super well with each chapter feeling self contained as a story. It made it really easy to recap events when we'd pick up after a hiatus. Finding something to replace it has been super hard. I didn't respect this book growing up but now I see it for the masterpiece that it is.

Small family of 4. We recently opened up a little space that used to be just shelves and turned it back into a bench. I want to get a table that fits in here. One pictured is about 48'' and sits well but it's old and beat up and I want to get something a little bit nicer.

Price range is about $250-$300 which I'm sure limits things but I'm not sure what wood types are "best" at that range? This is my first time doing a project like this so I'm quite ignorant and could use some help. thanks!

Been on the hunt for some new sunglasses. Price range would ideally be $100-$180 or less (used is fine).

Currently I've been using the Oakley EV Paths for a couple years and while they're good, I find that they really seem to love fogging up and pooling sweat into my eyes.

I'm trying to find some aesthetically pleasing sunnies that fit that sleek form similar to the EV Paths or Junya's but perhaps at a lower price point. Other styles would be fine as well though I at least want some wrap around lense for side glare and then lense quality to be good enough that it helps see things like roots and rocks when trail running.

Would love to know what everyone's running in these days that are a step up from Goodr/Tifosi.

Like, I never see deep or thoughtful insights ever being discussed here in a positive light. Anytime a new movie comes out I read r/movies discussion and inevitably whatever the opinion is in that sub, this sub will have the exact opposite. Mostly in a snobby “I know more about film than anyone” way so its just trashing a movie in 500 characters.

would love to see this sub get back to actual film discussion and dissections vs just shitting on whatever just came out.

I've got a 3yo girl and 1yo boy.

Like many of us here I'm well aware of my shortcomings as a human. Since having my daughter I immediately set about trying to identify and correct all of my issues which mainly come from childhood emotional neglect and manifest through low self-esteem and a poor ability to process and understand emotions. I'm in therapy and really working hard towards righting the ship.

With the kids early on I recognized my anger issues where a small thing would set me off and I'd reply poorly, with a quick yell or "what happened!?" Lots of other stuff there to unpack but I was keenly aware of the struggles that I was experiencing and passing off to my kids.

One of the most important things I learned from this sub and therapy was the process of apologizing. After a poor emotional outburst I am always quick to apologize and recognize that it was not appropriate. So far this has been good and I've felt good about the progress, until last night.

Last night my daughter was just playing around with the 1yo while I was cleaning up after dinner. Suddenly i heard a snap sound and then she let out a cry and ran to the bedroom. Immediately it felt like something bad happened and she was hurt so i ran into the bed and she was sitting on the bed on the verge of tears. I asked her if she was okay and what happened as I was looking over her for ouchies. Then she looks at me and says "I broke the glasses" and my wife comes in showing me that she'd stepped on a pair of sunglasses of mine and they broke.

I'm getting choked up just remembering it because the stomach drop I felt from her feeling fear and sadness not from getting hurt, but from hurting something that was mine just absolutely devastated me. I interpreted the moment as her being worried about me reacting angrily to the situation. My wife thinks she was just being aware of something happening to something "important" to me and that's why she was sad. I doubt that but regardless, that reaction just completely devastated me. I immediately hugged her and told her it was okay and I wasn't mad but I had to leave the room and go outside so I didn't cry.

So far in my parenting journey I've been acutely aware that I'm laying the emotional foundation for whats to come in their life. I want nothing more than to help foster a sense of self worth and self confidence in my kids. This was the first time where I felt like I was seeing a mirror of how my emotional dis-regulation was potentially impacting my kids where she was more worried about my reaction than anything else.

I always see these types of threads pop up on my favorite running subs so I figured I'd post one here.

Let's just get the obvious items out of the way:

• Yes, it's a bad idea to run [camelback/piestewa/other-favorite-spot] in the middle of the day during summer
• Yes, you'll need water and probably double what you think

When to Run
I'm rather lucky with this in that I have 2 kids so my window of running is pretty much "when they're asleep".

IMO the best time to run during summer is as early as possible. I find that even after the sun goes down, its still repressively hot. Starting your run between 4:30-5am means you're running at the coolest time of the day and you'll be able to enjoy at least an hour or two of no sun/minimal sun running before it starts cookin'.

Now with that said, everyone schedule is different and not everyone is able to run at this time. I do think choosing the proper gear and route planning can keep you safe and hydrated and able to run no matter what. I'm able to do 3-4 hour runs in peak summer by being smart and safe with proper gear and planning.

Gear
This is where I think the biggest differences can be made to turning heat running from the worst thing ever to a pretty manageable experience.

• Sun shirt or similar long sleeve: sunscreen is great but being able to just protect yourself with a hat and sunshirt is much easier and more practical than reapplying sunscreen on runs. Bonus points: wetting the sunshirt at water stations feels great.
• Ice bandana: This is probably THE biggest thing I've incorporated into my running routine that makes a difference. Stuff a bandana with ice (or buy one specifically made for it if you want) and then wrap it around your neck. This has helped me stay cool (possibly a psychological result from the blood cooling to the brain as it passes through the ice bandana) and honestly just feels great as the cool ice melts over my body during activities.
• Hydration pack/vest/belt: Another big item. Unless you're just running in front of your house in a 1mi loop then you should probably be bringing along water and a phone in case of emergencies. I use Salomon running vests and I also have a Raide running belt which can carry a lot of water while also not feeling as restrictive. BONUS: I use running flasks instead of a bladder and love to completely freeze one of the flasks overnight. I start my run and by the time i swap to that flask, it's ice cold water that just... nothing tastes better.
• Electrolytes: You're gonna sweat. Water isn't enough. I like to pregame with some electrolytes (skratch is my favorite but you can find others/make your own to save $$$) and then have a flask with electrolytes and a flask with just water.

Route Planning/Where to Run

Another critical thing is changing up your running routes. Even with ample water and other support, I always err on the side of caution and adjust my running route to be in smaller areas (3-4mi loops) that I can easily get back to my car or house instead of really long out-and-backs. This way I can refresh on water, ice, etc without too much of a hassle.

Some of my favorite areas for this type of running:

• Dreamy Draw
• Usery/Pass Mountain (Levee Trail loops are a godsend)
• South Mountain (Pima Trailhead offers a great hub for 1-5 mi loops)
• Murphy Bridal Path (nice and shaded - corrected thanks u/hikeraz)

Pace/Elevation
Run at a slower pace and tackle less elevation than you normally would. Your body is going to be working harder to cool down so you should plan to account for that by doing less than you normally would through pace and elevation changes.

First time playing Resident Evil 4 (been playing a few of the games after having never touched them when I was younger) and I've been progressing nicely.

I'm on chapter 14, it seems like I'm nearing the end of the game. The whole time i've sort of missed a few of the requests for spinels so it took me a while to amass 30 to get the upgrade ticket. The way the store looked, I thought it was going to cost me 80k PLUS the upgrade ticket to get the 5x upgrade for my pistol. I've had the money forever, saving up for the past few chapters (while getting other upgrades that I could afford) and then finally got another blue target request to get the ticket.

My jaw dropped when i went to the option and saw that it was either 80k OR the ticket lol. I could've been saving so much ammo up to this point. Tragic.