Posts by Mahal
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This, this, all of this.
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I managed to offend my boss a few years by mentioning her husband, rather than her partner. They've chosen not to marry, and she told me this quite firmly. I haven't made that mistake since.
My social circle contains a bunch of different arrangements, from the long-term partnership where they don't live together (blissfully happy), domestic partnerships, civil unions, marriages...
Me, I got married, and I took my husband's surname because I wanted a significant degree of separation from my previous family - we wanted a significant event that said this is us, we're in it for the long haul, after a few various crappy years. It worked for us, but I wouldn't dream of assuming that it'd work for everyone else too.
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My housemate avoids gluten where feasible, which meant I needed a substitute for flour when thickening up sauces in a hurry. In most applications, I find dried potato flakes - cheaply obtainable in enormous packets from my local Asian shop of all places - absolutely brilliant. As a bonus, dried potato doesn't do the clumpy-mess trick that flour occasionally pulls.
Unrelated: when I have odds and sods of leftover fresh herbs, I squash them into an ice cube tray, cover with water, then freeze. The taste is almostfresh, and perfectly acceptable for e.g. pasta sauce, chucking into a frypan with potatoes/bacon/capsicum/sausage for brunch... Sage in particular keeps well this way, and I am a BIG fan of sage-fried potatoes with eggs for a lazy weekend breakfast.
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It's been quite some time since I cycled; but I wore bike shorts with a decent chamois, and cycling shirts from Ground Effect. They didn't look spectacularly stupid. Mostly I wore them because I like having pockets available for my phone, cash etc - and women's clothing, including sporting clothing, has a chronic lack-of-pockets issue. My winter top (long sleeved) was a horrendous shade of hi-vis green, which made 6/7am rides to work less fraught, summer tops were a entirely boring dark red. I also had cycling shoes/pedals, mostly because a kind friend bought them for me.
Cycling gloves were a given for me, too; I've since sold the rest of my gear, but I've kept the gloves because I like them so much. -
-delurk-
Have chipped into the hat. I get a lot out of reading PA, I'm happy to help!
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Judging from the lawnmower chorus in my neighbourhood, the appropriate activity on Waitangi Day is gardening. I split my time between a book in the hammock, shifting rocks, laying weedmat, contemplated the lawnmower a couple of times but didn't actually fire it up, and retreated indoors to the Internet (and a G&T) about 6pm after being stung by a wasp.
It was a pretty good day, actually.
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OnPoint: MSD's Leaky Servers, in reply to Sacha,
This outlines the basic process. Note, it's not quite what Keith will have done - he started with File->Open in Word, instead of opening an Explorer window - but the process is the same thereafter. It's something you can do in any office that uses a Windows network (depending on the security your IT department puts in place). I couldn't find screenshots with a quick google, but it'd be easy enough to whip up.
On a Mac it's even simpler; open a Finder window, look under Shared in the sidebar at the left.
(For context, I work in tech support, as a fledgling admin - frankly even my skillbase is sufficient to avoid this sort of fustercluck.) -
Capture: Cats Love Cameras, in reply to Tom Ackroyd,
That is one gorgeous shot.
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Top to bottom you have:
The 17-year-old sweetheart who adopted us at our previous flat.
We now have three SPCA specials. Candy is as neurotic as the average calico.
Boomer (big cat) is a 7.5kg bruiser, and the sweetest, talkiest cat I have ever been owned by. Yes, he's sitting on Tigra.
Tigra isn't very bright. This is generally her favourite position when I'm at my desk. -
Email from my (UK ex-pat) husband yesterday (we're in Auckland) - "Snow. In Symonds St. What the...? I thought I left this kind of weather behind!"
Pleasantly warm night owing to oil heater turned up a notch, sheepskin moved from floor to bed, and deeply appreciative cat nestled somewhere in the middle of the duvet.
