No. And yes. It's always sudden.

Tara ,'Storyteller'


Natter 78: I might need to watch some Buffy for inspiration

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, butt kicking, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


msbelle - Aug 15, 2025 6:40:30 am PDT #8803 of 8813
I remember the crazy days. 500 posts an hour. Nubmer! Natgbsb

Vanilla yogurt is my go to. Skyr is my current favorite.

Also team oatmeal, I’m lazy and do plain instant with the aforementioned yogurt mixed in. Doesn’t look very appetizing but tastes good, fills me up and is higher fiber, lower fat, and fewer calories than the breakfast sandwiches I had been having every morning.

I have become the person I never thought I would who has virtually the same thing for breakfast and lunch most days. In the last year I have just become exhausted from daily choices and decision making.


Jessica - Aug 15, 2025 7:59:54 am PDT #8804 of 8813
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

I skipped two weeks! (Even though this version of the board works great on mobile, this site is firmly and forever entrenched in my brain as belonging to the Big Internet, not the Pocket Internet.)

This year's Canada vacation was...not relaxing. Two days in, my Dad had a health scare which turned out NOT to be a heart attack, but we didn't know that until a week after he went into the hospital. (Post-viral myocarditis, which is less scary but still not AWESOME.) Because he needed long-term treatment to recover, my parents returned to the States 6 weeks earlier than planned, which meant most of my vacation was spent (a) worrying about my Dad (b) helping to close out their house and (c) cooking for my entire extended family almost every night instead of trading off with my Mom. Adding insult to injury, the day my parents left the island, we drove over a sharp rock on the way to their cabin and got a flat tire! And since it was Saturday before a holiday weekend, we had to scramble like mad to get CAA out to the island to put the donut on (I tried using the kit in the back of the car to change the tire myself, but it was on a soft dirt road and the little mini-jack wasn't up to the task) so Ethan could drive the car an hour to Canadian Tire before everything shut down for the next two days and left us completely stranded.

And even once that all died down, the wildfire smoke ruined our chances of seeing shooting stars (under clear skies we would have seen an INCREDIBLE show from peak Aquariids and Capricornids plus early Perseids!!) or any good sunsets. And while obviously "I watched several disappointing sunsets from the private beach of my ancestral summer home" is a very diamond-shoes thing to be bummed about (on the grand scale of Things Climate Change Has Ruined, this is...not a real problem), my personal mental health depends on a yearly infusion of Good Canada Sunsets, so...yeah.

Being back at work has NOT HELPED. I would like a do-over of all of August, please.


Jessica - Aug 15, 2025 8:03:16 am PDT #8805 of 8813
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

I don’t like most flavored yogurts (and really hate sweetener that’s not sugar or honey) so I just do plain Greek yogurt

Back in the day, you used to be able to buy not-very-sweet lemon yogurt in quarts, and one of my go-to breakfasts was lemon yogurt over a bowl of Great Grains granola cereal. But lemon yogurt these days is SO over-sweetened when I can find it at all, and only available in the single-serve packages (which are just slightly too much for the amount of cereal I want).


Steph L. - Aug 15, 2025 8:19:40 am PDT #8806 of 8813
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine

And while obviously "I watched several disappointing sunsets from the private beach of my ancestral summer home" is a very diamond-shoes thing to be bummed about (on the grand scale of Things Climate Change Has Ruined, this is...not a real problem), my personal mental health depends on a yearly infusion of Good Canada Sunsets, so...yeah.

I don't know; I don't think it's very Diamond Shoes to be like "I looked forward to family vacation in a really lovely place, and then stressful shit kept happening and vacation was not as restful and restorative as I hoped it would be." That sucks to have a trip you were looking forward to go all pear-shaped.

I don’t like most flavored yogurts (and really hate sweetener that’s not sugar or honey) so I just do plain Greek yogurt

My favorite thing about Greek yogurt is the super thick texture. But, despite my sweet tooth, the flavored yogurts are kind of too sweet for me. But I dislike artificial sweeteners and I don't really care for unsweetened yogurt, though. (And you are thinking, "Steph, you created your own quandary; please post about something else." But wait!)

Chobani makes a lower-sugar version (named Chobani Less Sugar) of about 4 flavors that doesn't use artificial sweeteners, but is less aggressively sweet than regular flavors. The less-sugar version has about 5g of added sugar, versus about 11g of added sugar in the regular. It's a good compromise.


-t - Aug 15, 2025 8:31:18 am PDT #8807 of 8813
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Oh, man, Jess, that's pretty rough! Yeah, that August was not up to specifications and you should be able to return for a full refund

Intrigued by the Chobani Less Sugar option. I used to get a yogurt sweetened with fruit juice that was also not too sweet but it's been gone for probably over a decade now. I still miss it.


Steph L. - Aug 15, 2025 8:37:02 am PDT #8808 of 8813
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine

Intrigued by the Chobani Less Sugar option.

It comes in vanilla (excuse me; *Madagascar* vanilla & cinnamon), strawberry, blueberry, and peach. (Those are the flavors at Kroger; the internet tells me there's also lemon and raspberry, but I haven't seen those. I'd love to get the raspberry one!)


Jessica - Aug 15, 2025 8:40:47 am PDT #8809 of 8813
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

"I looked forward to family vacation in a really lovely place, and then stressful shit kept happening and vacation was not as restful and restorative as I hoped it would be."

Thank you for making me sound so reasonable :)


Jessica - Aug 15, 2025 8:42:30 am PDT #8810 of 8813
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

There IS a Chobani Less Sugar lemon flavor, but it's really hard to find in stores (at least, where I live). Why does everyone want vanilla and nobody want lemon??? Lemon is delicious y'all, come on.


-t - Aug 15, 2025 8:54:29 am PDT #8811 of 8813
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I was just yesterday telling myself to stop complaining because the free yogurt work sporadically provides did not have any peach flavor only mango, so I will keep an eye out for all the flavors!


-t - Aug 15, 2025 8:58:05 am PDT #8812 of 8813
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Here's a first world problem: I found a restaurant in Alameda that has biang biang noodles on the menu (including a cumin lamb option!) that I have been impatiently waiting until payday (today) to be able to order to pick up and now their ordering site is throwing an error. I may have to call them!