- Nice Kitty suddenly decided zie is a lap kitty.
- Before Christmas, my windshield wiper fluid started leaking and the tank and lines had to be replaced. $150
- After Christmas, my car battery died and we had to replace it. $150 (DH and DC1 did the replacement themselves, saving on repair costs and time without car).
- DC2 read Charlotte’s Web for the first time and cried and cried and cried. But zie was excited to meet Charlotte’s daughters. Does anybody not have that reaction when reading CW for the first time? DH and I both did the same so many decades ago.
- DC2’s school is doing Scholastic again this year. We just got the second flyer and I dropped $300+. Some of that was for DC1! But we are rapidly expanding our selection of books en espanol.
- We’d planned to get DC1 a bike for hir birthday because zie is too big for hir current bike. But… turns out zie is still too small for the next size up and we didn’t want to just buy a bike without trying it out first. So we had to have a family conference about what to get hir instead after the fact. Zie picked a bunch of Pokemon manga.
- I continue to be worn out from work. I definitely do not want to be promoted to full any time soon because it is already just too much service. Not for a 10% raise anyway. Now, if it were a 40K raise, then I might decide it was worth it.
- I was looking at our electric bill going, man, we’re using a lot more electricity than we did this time last year. What has changed? Then I remembered we bought an electric car
- neither of my kids knows what a tater tot is. I feel oddly uncomfortable about them not having this piece of cultural knowledge… but not enough to buy tater tots.
- Got asked to be an associate editor for a third tier journal… one I wouldn’t ever publish in myself, while not being embarrassing, per se. But it’s like 1/12 of the work I had as an associate editor on a top journal (although finding people willing to review will be much harder)… so should I just say yes? Or do I just say no? [update: I said yes.]
If you buy books or other stuff through any of the links on our site (here or in posts), you'll help us out and we get a cut from Amazon. As Amazon Associates we earn from qualifying purchases.
-
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 
RBOC
January 30, 2019 — nicoleandmaggieHelp me with countertops! (Please?)
January 28, 2019 — nicoleandmaggieGrumpy Nation! I need your help!
So… we want to have countertops made out of quartz (or granite) that look like marble.
There are… options.
Which one?
Home Depot has two companies that make quartz. One is Silestone and the other is Viatera. Here’s the pictures we took at Home Depot and then the one on the right is the two Viatera samples we picked up (they didn’t have any other samples — that third picture shows minuet, a quarter, then rococo, and they’re on top of our current terrible countertop).
The main difference between the different kinds of marble-ish quartz seems to be density and darkness of the grey lines. Rococo is busier than Minuet. White Arabesque is busier than Snow Ibiza and so on.
Also there’s two different types of marble that the quartz is trying to imitate. Calacatta marble is the one with the fat long marbling– it reminds me of bathrooms more than kitchens, and the quartz example counter at Home Depot looked like formica to me (though oddly, there was a great looking formica knockoff– if only you couldn’t see the seams). I like Carerra style marble instead– that’s the one with the shorter lines. (I guess there’s also statuary marble, but I haven’t seen any quartz knock-offs for that– probably some of what I think is Calacatta is actually imitating statuary, but without any additional color.)
One problem that I have is that I cannot extrapolate those small samples to an entire counter. Are the busy ones too busy? The sparse ones too sparse?
Viatera has a great webpage with lots of pictures of their different options. When you click on a stone, it shows you a slab and pictures of completed counters. The Silestone page is a nightmare to navigate. (I am also really irritated with a half-dressed Cindy Crawford [only wearing a top, for tops on tops, get it?] sitting on a kitchen counter on their first page and if you accidentally click it, you see a guy WEARING SHOES standing on top of another counter. I MAKE FOOD ON THAT COUNTER. GET OFF. Also, WTF, aren’t women making most of these design decisions? Supermodels are not doing it for me.)
I found a fantastic discussion on a houzz forum with pictures talking about quartz alternatives for marble.
The prices in the first picture are mostly the “non-sale” prices because apparently there’s some kind of sale going on, but it isn’t an easy to explain one, so I don’t actually know how much they cost or even their prices compared to each other.
What should I be thinking about as we decide on a countertop design? How are we going to decide among all of these different kinds?
How thick?
The internet thinks I should be choosing between 2 cm with 3 cm edging or just straight up 3cm. But home depot only seems to have 2 cm and 4 cm? I’m not really sure that’s true though… How should we decide on thickness?
Edging?
Almost all the kitchen countertops we’ve seen online have either sharp rectangular corners or softer “eased” rectangular corners. But there’s a huge wealth of different edging options. Should we just do what everyone else is doing or are there benefits to other forms of edging?
Other recommendations?
We have no idea what we’re doing. Any suggestions on counterops would be highly welcome?
Grumpy nation! Help a grumpeteer out!
p.s. Several of my colleagues have built their houses from scratch and that sounds like a nightmare. I get anxious just imagining it!
Link LOve
January 26, 2019 — nicoleandmaggietw: #MeToo unfolding in government comment forms where DeVos is trying to weaken how schools deal with sexual assault and harassment claims
Potential long term effects of missing a month of pay for government workers.
White house tips for surviving the shutdown without pay
Thankfully this did not pass
The most sobering thing about the racial dot map
I’m not sure what to say about this link.
Links for how minors with anti-vaxx parents can get vaccinated
Metformin use in non-diabetic (non-PCOS/non-IR) obese pregnancy (spoiler: it doesn’t help)
Work is not a calling!
I’m pretty sure that DH was the only guy who has ever been interested in me that didn’t see me as a manic pixie dream girl
I don’t understand modern music
When we move into our open office location in a few months, I am going to get me one of these.
Ask the grumpies: What would happen if trump was impeached?
January 25, 2019 — nicoleandmaggieYou need both: How to change (#notall) bad guys’ minds: A deliberately controversial post
January 23, 2019 — nicoleandmaggieImportant notice: today is a national call about saying no to the wall and yes to end the shutdown day. We need phones to ring or our senators of every hue will think that the only people who care are the Fox News viewers who have been telling them to build the wall. Here is the 5calls script https://5calls.org/issue/end-the-government-shutdown-with-no-strings-attached- and here is the indivisible script and explainer https://indivisible.org/resource/trumps-latest-temper-tantrum-and-showdown-over-wall .
Now back to your regularly scheduled blogpost.
There’s been a lot of talk about whether it’s better to punch Nazis/shun Trump supporters, or whether it is better to listen and gently try to change them. It’s always presented as an either/or. The NY Times and other publications write article upon article about how the left needs to be more tolerant. (Narrator: It doesn’t.)
Here’s my no-research-done opinion. We need the majority of people out there shunning Nazis/Trumpists and a much smaller number of selfless souls willing to be the “good cop” to gently listen to their feefees and to explain to them how to make their way back into society as non-racists. We need people yelling at politicians in restaurants and throwing pies in Nazi faces and dis-inviting racist uncles from dinner and we need a lot more of them than we need that one empathetic person that picks up the pieces later.
At a recent faculty retreat, one of the professors made the point that our students don’t realize their writing is bad until they get bad grades on it. Only then do they start listening to how to improve it. Gently correcting comments are ignored if there’s an A on the front of the first page. In the same way, we need a strong front of letting people know what is unacceptable in society, and then a little bit of gentle direction on how to fix it. But not everybody has to be the teacher. In fact, it isn’t any good if there are no social consequences and everybody accommodates the missing stair.
So go out there and be intolerant of racists! Do it without guilt! If you see one that has reached the bottom and wants a hand up, go ahead and listen (#DeliciousNaziTears) if you want to, but don’t feel obligated. And certainly don’t feel the need to be nice to one who isn’t already questioning. It’s not your job to be the Nazi Whisperer. These people don’t deserve more time than the people that they are hurting.
Book recommendation: So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo. Give it to everyone you know. Then resume yelling at racists and telling them to get on up out of here with their wack opinions.
Grumpeteers, what do you think?
Link love
January 19, 2019 — nicoleandmaggieThousands more migrant children were separated from parents, according to new watchdog report
Young trans children know who they are
A handy way to keep track of your senators’ and reps’ votes on issues important to you. Of course there are other ways to look them up but this has a nice interface.
TW: sexual assault. We all have to survive
Mixed race authors writing books with mixed race characters
Variation in women’s success across phd programs in economics
This is a good description of anxiety
If you liked tough mudder you’ll love the latest obstacle course for adults: navigating your depression
Some controversy about the gilette ad. #1 liked it, but is disappointed that they’re only showing it online, not on TV. Good way to target demographic but not really that brave.
How I fought through burnout and found a new career
Amazing paper art (h/t revanche)
I am hooked on these videos
Ask the grumpies: What the heck happened to Toys R Us?
January 18, 2019 — nicoleandmaggieLeah asks:
Trying to understand leveraged buyouts: why are they done, and why, legally, can it happen even if the people in the company don’t want it to happen? One of my friends was making noise about how Toys R Us didn’t go under due to a bad business model. He said it was due to a leveraged buy out and the company being saddled with debt. How does that even work?
We don’t really know. Which isn’t to say that people don’t know, I mean, there’s definitely some knowledge that Mitt Romney’s company killed it by doing a leveraged buyout in 2005, but we don’t really understand the whole leveraged buyout thing and why it’s allowed given that it can destroy companies at minimal risk to the hedge fund doing the destruction. Seems like something government should be regulating better, but isn’t.
Here’s a brief explanation on why Toys R Us went under from CNN Money.
Here’s bloomberg with a longer explanation.
Here’s NBC News.
More detailed info on how leveraged buyouts are supposed to work and that it didn’t in this case.
The Atlantic also explains at length.
Do you want to read about a buff male nanny?
January 16, 2019 — nicoleandmaggieI didn’t think I wanted to read this book. I almost never read contemporary hetero romances. But I found this author’s twitter and the book seemed delightful.
Rafe: A Buff Male Nanny, by Rebekah Weatherspoon (from The Ripped Bodice bookstore!)
It also gave me the chance to try out our library’s new way they’re doing ILL. Hence, this chat log:
Me: much as I feel silly about the title… I really do recommend RAFE: A buff male nanny. One thing I like about it is that neither of the main characters is hiding a deep dark secret that could change everything if only they knew . . .
#2: The employer-employee thing isn’t squicky?
Me: I didn’t find it squicky but YMMV. One reason it wasn’t squicky was cuz they put it out there before he got hired. Like he said, “I’m really attracted to you, but I promise I will never let it affect how I care for your children. Knowing that, do you still want to hire me?”
#2: That’s better than her saying that.
Me: Yes. In fact she didn’t admit she was attracted to him for a little while after (although she was!). *And* he never did let it get in the way of loving those little kids.
The next one she’s writing is the best friend’s story, which we just get a hint of at the end of this one. I really want that one.
Like one of the last lines in the book, after it’s all happily ever after, 2 years later, is the best friend sending a text to the heroine.
The other characters show up in other books of hers, as romance series tend to go. But I want to read Xenia’s story next. The author’s note at the end says that the others will eventually get their happy-ever-afters, too.
#2: Nice
Me: It was remarkably un-angtsy, all things considered. Like when the woman gets angsty, she texts her friend, who cheers her up.
#2: Yay
Me: also they both have good relationships with their parents. Their family relationships aren’t simple, but these days they’re pretty good!
There is an awful ex. Don’t worry about him too much though.
SO…. give it a shot. Has anyone else here read this book or this author?
DH researches cooktops
January 14, 2019 — nicoleandmaggieHere is his final report:
TL;DR: gas cooktop, Samsung NA30N7755TG @ ~$1400.
Note that reviews do not seem very useful. Professional review websites do not review all the options, e.g., only reviewing 36″ cooktops, not 30″ cooktops, or they tend to parrot back Consumer Reports, or they have a clear bias without seeming to cover all aspects (e.g., everyone should go induction). Reviews on online stores (e.g., AJ Madison, appliancesconnection.com, amazon, and Home Depot) are not in high numbers, tend to be copied from each other, often are acquired through promotions, do not go into great detail, and are either 1-star due to failure or 5-star because there’s no failure. All cooktops seem to have failure issues…sometimes broken out of the box, other times completely failing after months or 1-2 years, but it looks like gas cooktops have fewer quality control complaints than induction cooktops.
I mostly used the above-mentioned four websites to shop around.
I would rather go with my gas cooktop top pick over my induction top pick, but the electrical engineer in me wishes that wasn’t the case. If we decided to re-wire that outlet for a 40 or 50 Amp circuit (it is currently 30Amps), then I would want induction instead.
The deciding reason between my two top picks is that the gas cooktop’s layout is just so much better, with a good burner in the front-right (the big burner is in the very center so I’m not as worried about scorching the wall). In comparison, the induction cooktop’s two front hobs are each only 6″ diameter, and our normal pans are 8″. So with the induction cooktop we would end up cooking on the large back hob 90% of the time. I am pretty sure I will find it very annoying to have to reach back to do stir-frying, flip pancakes, etc. I do wish the gas cooktop was only 4 burners, instead of 5, but I guess if they’re going to put the big burner right in the center then they may as well put burners in each of the corners.
Both of the below cooktops have the power I want. Neither seems to stand-out in terms of quality or brand-name. Both would fit (though we may want an extra half-inch of countertop front-to-back for the gas cooktop). Gas has open flame which I’d really rather avoid, while induction has a fan/noise which I would somewhat like to avoid. I am mostly ignoring the fact that we would need new pans for the induction cooktop, because it would be so much easier to keep clean that I would be happy to get new cookware. An unknown about induction is whether or not we would be ok with the controls (on/off/power setting etc)…I’m guessing we wouldn’t have a problem but some reviews are negative about induction cooktop controls.
Gas:
For gas, there were three main points.
First, I wanted just 4 burners. Second, I wanted a high output on at least one burner, at least 18+k BTU. These two wants are hard to find together. Nice 30″ wide cooktops (i.e., ones with a high output burner) almost invariably have 5 burners, while 4 burner systems are almost invariably low-output. I care more about the high output, so that wins out over the number of burners.
The third main point was that space/installation constraints prevented several models from working…primarily spacing constraints to the back wall, or from the top of the counter to the top of the silverware drawer under the cooktop. The top of our silverware drawer is 5″ below the top of our current counter.
It would also be nice to have dishwasher-safe grates.
My final pick was:
Samsung NA30N7755TG (black stainless steel) or NA30N7755TS (stainless steel) for ~$1400. 5 burners. 22k BTU center burner. Dishwasher-safe grates (according to Home Depot– Samsung says not so much). Explicitly requires less than 4″ from countertop down to the top of under drawer. Comes with griddle and wok grate.
Note that it requires 2&7/8″ from the back of the cutout to the back wall.
It does not state how much countertop is required from the front of the cutout to the front of the countertop…we should be fine with the current countertop size but would probably be better off with another half-inch of countertop.
Consumer Reports gave a 36″ Samsung gas cooktop its top rating…and it looks like this is the newer version of the 30″ model that corresponded to that 36″.
My runner-up was:
Cafe CGP95302MS1 for $1400. 5 burners. 20K BTU center burner. Dishwasher-safe grates. Explicitly requires less than 4″ from countertop down to the top of under drawer. Comes with griddle. This model was roughly the same price as my top pick, the same layout, and the same space constraints, but it has a bit lower output, and it requires a total of ~5.5″ of counter-top behind and in front of the cutout, which means a total countertop depth of 19.5+5.5=25″, while our current countertop is only 24.5″….that’s probably not a big deal since an extra half inch of countertop might be nice anyway.
Induction:
For induction, there are four main concerns.
I want just 4 burners or as close to that as possible.
I want a high output on at least one burner, at least 3500 kW with boost, and I wanted that burner to be 10-11″ diameter.
I want to be able to fit the silverware drawer, which is currently 5″ below the top of the countertop.
I want to keep the current 30 Amp circuit breaker, which eliminated most of the high-end (i.e., high output and large diameter burner) options. If we relax this constraint we get a lot more good cooktops to consider, but random websearching suggests that would add a few hundred dollars to installation.
Spacing from the front of the countertop, and from the countertop to the wall, can also be an issue…but it’s less of an issue than for gas cooktops.
This is a good FAQ: http://theinductionsite.com/selecting-induction.php
This website had a good collection of info
http://theinductionsite.com/buildin-residential-30-inch-induction-units.php
Induction cooktops have built-in fans that automatically turn on to keep the circuitry cool. They can also make noises due to motion and flex in the pans. They also require space for airflow in the cabinets below the cooktop…that shouldn’t be a problem for us because that volume is mostly empty and open.
My final pick was Bosch NIT5068UC for $1500.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bosch-500-Series-30-in-Induction-Cooktop-in-Black-with-4-SpeedBoost-Elements-including-Two-3-700-Watt-Elements-NIT5068UC/304812437
Runner-up:
-Bosch NITP068SUC for $2400, which meets all the requirements above, and has a somewhat nicer layout than the NIT8068UC…but $900 is a big price difference.
Comments, Grumpy Nation?
subscribe to RSS feed
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 