Laura Holt

For us it's roundabouts. Used to be relatively uncommon and now they seem to be part of any new road's game plan. And I agree with you this is not the way to go with the kind of people who seem to be on the road now. "Rules are for suckers" kind of drivers.

My SIL had been trying to fire an employee for the past year for various infractions but had no success because nothing ever rose to a fireable offense in the eyes of HR. Until last week when he verbally and physically assaulted an employee in another department. HR had dragged its feet BUT all the complaints had been kept on file. It's too bad that they had to wait until another employee was actually hurt in order to do anything though 😡. But in any event I think @RealHousewife this is exactly what happened in your situation as well. One complaint won't do it (usually) but I am betting there was already a file open on this guy.

One of my favourite memories of driving with my late sister was the way we would go around and around Robin Hood's barn in her efforts to avoid making left turns. Makes me smile now, at the time it could be a little maddening!

TDVDS adjacent - I saw an episode of Mad About You this week that had "Alan Brady" on it. Carl Reiner was awesome and they did a few little nods to TDVDS, they had Jamie crying just like Laura at one point, and then at the end Alan Brady was trying to get Paul to trip over the ottoman. I think the episode would still have been funny if you'd never seen TDVDS, but less funny than it was if you know what I mean.

This is the one! Yes, I couldn't put my finger on the episode where I felt Phoebe crossed over into mean girl territory but this was the one. I am guessing we were supposed to see this as flaky Phoebe being unaware of boundaries and what is better left unsaid but that's not how she came across to me.

I liked Mike but by the end of the series I wasn't too crazy about Phoebe. I can't off the top of my head come up with specific instances but I have this memory of feeling that Phoebe was not so much flaky as bitchy.

Brown Butter & Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes - this definitely sounds good - well anything would sound better than celery mashed potatoes! but seriously I'd actually try this some day.

I didn't link the recipe my husband found because he didn't end up trying it. He opted to make celery mashed potatoes instead. It was not good...

I know Pioneer Woman gets a lot of flak for some of her recipes but I have to say at least when I look at her stuff it's mostly ingredients I will actually have in the house! That said a few years ago when we moved I went through my cookbooks and got rid of most of them when I realized I looked through them but I never actually used them. Good old Betty Crocker is now my go to for basic recipes (and for reminders of how long to cook a roast and at what temp). Mostly though my recipes are in a file folder for the ones I use again and again. If I want to be creative I'll go online but they can be so tricky. My one rule of thumb for online is if the writer says "family favourite, my kids stand up and cheer" it's probably not very good 😄!

Our Canadian history in elementary school focused on the 4 Fs - fur, forestry, fishing and farming. In high school the Canadian history course I took ended with confederation! Honestly, looking back this was truly pathetic.

Moishes kosher dills are the ones I dream about and are so hard to find.

Along the lines of hosting for Christmas we're now having my niece and her family stay with us. They were going to have to try and find hotel accommodations for their family of 5 because of reasons too complicated to go into here. Always drama at the holidays.

Definitely true for many members of my family, not however, for those who served during WWII. You remind me though of another reason why Remembrance Day may have been less important to many when I was growing up. We saw a very unpopular war being fought every day on the news. And Canada, along with a few other countries, became a destination for so-called "draft dodgers".

I think that's a good point, the further you are away from seeing active military members the easier it is to forget that there even is a military. Until something happens of course. Canada didn't have a draft and was only very peripherally involved in Vietnam but I do feel that there was a lot less attention paid to honouring veterans and those who died serving their country back "in my day". I think, at least in part, the renewed interest in remembering these wartime sacrifices came as the men who had fought during WWI all reached an age where at each ceremony there were less and less of them. And now, of course, this is happening with the men and women who served during WWII. Whatever the reason(s) I am glad it is happening and that schools are making sure that children know more about these past conflicts than I did at that same age. ETA: Also, and I can't say this is true for all of course, but the two men I knew best who were veterans of WWII, my grandfather and my FIL, both never talked about the war until the very last years of their lives. It was something they had put behind them. I think if this is true for others who served that may explain, to some extent, why more veterans of that war now attend the ceremonies and are speaking out about their experiences.

Another day another book banning, Florida School District bans a Steve Martin book