Not quite the same, but my Sunday school teacher, who was also one of my parent’s best friends, was my secondary school English teacher. I was always nervous when I got a bad grade in my class, or stepped out of line he’d go tell them. To his credit, he never did, he also didn’t treat me any different to all the other kids in the class. When in church, he was back to being “parent’s friend mode”. Good guy, he was a mentor to me outside of school and I miss him.

Blinking check engine = pull over and call a tow truck. You’ll do even more damage by continuing. As for shaking, it could be a bunch of things and I’m not going to speculate beyond what other people have commented.

As the old saying goes, if you are cold go find the cat. She’s already found the warmest spot in the house. My childhood cats used to fight over a hammock we had hanging over one of the radiators, it never ceased to amaze me how long they’d spend in that thing and the heat never bothered them. If you are concerned kitty is going to burn herself, invest in a fire guard which is a mesh barrier usually used to stop toddlers getting to the fire but is also effective for curious cats.

Emergency light, so you can see when doing your business in the middle of the night. Fun fact, a large number of accidental deaths happen in the toilet.

George W Bush certainly caused more deaths, was just as decisive and is the reason Trump was allowed to happen. OK, so he’s got a bit more of a charming personality and gives Michelle Obama candy sometimes, but that doesn’t absolve him. Doesn’t absolve Trump either, he’s a loud mouthed buffoon who tried to start a Civil War. He has followers who will literally do anything he tells them to do. The idea of him having a second term absolutely terrifies me.

The rule is, if you dress up you get candy. I don’t care how old you are, but you have to be dressed up.

Of all the things I can criticize about Trump, the type of laptop his lawyer for this week is using is far down on that list.

Secondary education did a pretty good job, but I’d say that was more on the teachers than the curriculum. I got very lucky in that regard. My community college for my BTEC, same, the one teacher who taught me how to properly write reports and assignments was really good at ensuring we cited everything properly, and gave extra marks.

I’d just deal with the lack of sleep and be tired the next day.

In theory I could just move back to England, but right now I’m quite happy where I’m at. If a job opportunity came up, who knows?

My wife caught it at work, about six months into the pandemic. Was inevitable, since she works in a grocery store. She woke up with a fever and no sense of taste or smell, and then went downhill with really bad flu like symptoms from there. I started with the same thing the next day. Main illness lasted two weeks, but the worst part was the first week by far. My wife was sick for almost 6 weeks and ended up on an inhaler for a while until her lungs healed. Neither of us got our full taste back for almost 2 years, and our smell hasn’t fully recovered yet either (about 80% now).

We both tested positive again last June, got a mandatory week off work but the only symptom was a mild fever. Wouldn’t have even known I was sick, but a family member tested positive and we’d been to visit so took a test and there I was. I’d been vaccinated by that point, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say the vaccination did what it was supposed to do with keeping me from being sick.

Maybe try changing her litter? Sounds like she doesn’t like it.

Said I could come back the next day, as it turned out I was busy that day so I passed the following day instead. I failed because I got over confident backing out of a parking spot an nudged a cone. Or, as he put it, I murdered a toddler. Fair enough. We did the backing up thing first so I could get that out of the way, the rest of the test was easy.

I’ve never heard of a weird secret code to force you to fail, just relax and don’t run over any toddlers, I mean cones, and I’m sure you’ll be just fine!

The US has no issue with the metric system, and most engineering and scientific people switched decades ago. The military is mostly all metric too. The general public of the US is a harder nut to crack, asking a population of stubborn freedom lovers to change something they’ve known their whole life is damn near impossible.

I switch my stuff to metric all the time, and the usual response isn’t “oh that’s interesting”, it’s nearly always, “the fuck is wrong with you, why would you want that weird shit?!”. If the government suddenly made all weather reports metric, the T-Shirt sellers would all become millionaires overnight from selling anti-metric slogans.

Been using this online handle for 30 years now, I’d say pretty attached!

I’ve tried every other browser, and I keep coming back to Firefox because it’s reliable, has a low memory footprint, and isn’t run by some evil corporation.

On our honeymoon, we went to this 5 star place in Scotland so I could “wine and dine” my new wife. I think the meal ended up being $150 back in 2000 so about $260 now. We both had the lamb and vegetables, the lamb was under cooked and the vegetables were practically raw. The dessert, on the other hand, was delicious and we got drunk on a bottle of wine. We had more fun listening to the group of older guys one upping each other with tales of their yachts. They were also very welcoming to a couple of young kids who were clearly in a place far above their income bracket. So, in all, it was crap food but we enjoyed ourselves.

Glad you enjoyed it, the only one near here is at a place that’s almost impossible to find parking for so we don’t go very often.

At a fast food place, Shake Shack is the best I’ve ever had. Burger Fi is also good, but can be inconsistent sometimes. Now, the best burgers I eat are the ones we grill at home, a local butcher makes a blend mixed with Japaleños and they’re delicious.

The only groups I’m interested in died a death over a decade ago.