LittleBluberry

I could use some soup suggestions, I'm supposed to be feeding my 18 year old salt and fluids. Soup seems a logical solution.

Thanks!

Good luck with Ikea... When we went there a couple of weeks ago there was a line just to get in. Wasn't too bad, but maybe bring a sweater.

Despite it being terribly impractical, I backed for one model because it looks like a more forgiving way to try out 3D printing than actual minis. Plus I can learn how to wire lights with my 11 year old, she's really into learning circuitry. Now I just need to ask one of my 3D printing friends for help and advice.

Nice to see some friendly faces, too. I'm getting the feeling my life is going to be crazy this fall. Not sure if this is going to mean more or fewer minis painted--if I make noise it distracts my middle schoolers and apparently they might both have ADD. The struggle to be keep everyone productive is real. Oh, and there's rain today in Washington. So we can breathe again at last!

The Bones metallics are much better than the original MSP, but I'm not going to argue that other brands can be even better. I do prefer Bones over, say, P3 since the P3 metallic paints fall out of suspension in about 2 minutes. Out of curiosity, how many coats did you do? Dragon Bronze is from the Bones line and it shouldn't be awful, but I don't have a bottle to compare.

I find the extra hours of winter daylight help. As does having skylights in my house. But then I was far enough north that I only got to watch the sunrise from school classrooms and sunset walking home at 3pm. I've been as snarly as a wolf myself these days... I've hit my breaking point with my oldest daughter because she only cares about other people and her so-called friends mostly care about themselves. Time to make some new elfing friends.

Sooooo.... You're ready to move to the west coast? I have to say, I was not sad to have snow go from a constant thing to a once in a long while thing.

The cool factor is tempting, but not having a 3D printer already I'm not sure how to judge how difficult it would be to actually get them printed. Which makes the effort required a lot more significant.

I think the poor air quality is causing increased fatigue for a lot of people. For those of us who are doing school completely online, it's somewhat comforting to know that there are upsides to being isolated. I'd love to see rapid testing done at the schools, I think that's the only way to make in person school work. Hopefully we can get there soon.

I can sort of relate. Hubby's work is going really well, he's super happy about it. My job (supporting online school for two middle school girls) is not going nearly as well. Not necessarily my fault since they don't want to be home schooled. But hey, hubby doing well at work helps take the edge off, we might be able to afford a really nice vacation when we're actually able to go on vacation again. I miss having a cup of coffee with a Coffee Crisp. Can't go visit my parents and stock up on goodies anymore, I'm dangerously close to ordering Purdy's online. Our poor worn-out Saturn SL got donated to public radio this summer. It had driven a lot of miles and it just needed way too many repairs. It was the first car we ever bought new and we had it for almost 23 years. Bittersweet decision, that.

It's amazing how many medical appointments kids seem to need. Probably doesn't help that my one child is going to be seeing a fifth specialty department at Children's Hospital. We've seen psychiatry, pulminology, endocrinology, orthopedics and now it's on to cardiology. My poor, sweet, cursed child.

1. Warm the water first 2. Use a small amount of ointment 3. Shake vigorously. You'll only get a suspension not a solution, but it works well enough. And I'm grateful that my days of never-ending sinus infections are behind me, it's been years worth of allergy shots, sinus surgery, etc, but it's been a good couple of years since I needed antibiotics and I'm honestly thrilled. I'm so glad you're getting better! Probably the combo of smoke and pneumonia was Bad News. And yeah, times were rough when we had our first, and the cost of medication for both mom and kid was stressful. So you have my sincerest sympathies, and I hope you guys have better times coming soon.

So very much this. I got antibiotic resistant pneumonia when my oldest was just turning 1. Probably because the doctors back then were on a crusade to reduce antibiotic use and didn't give me any soon enough. These days I always push for a 14 day course because it's either that or take the stronger antibiotics when the first course doesn't work. (My immunologist tortures me with a 21 day course when I get a sinus infection, which sucks.) If it's just your sinuses, you can help things along by adding a small amount of mupirocin ointment to one of those squeeze bottles of saline rinse. It can help flush out those sinus infections that are just starting or stubbornly refusing to resolve. But again, pneumonia can be fatal and can cause permanent lung damage, so if the antibiotics are done and you're not getting better then you should ideally see a doctor again.

I have to say, I'm really, REALLY looking forward to fall. Rain would be nice. But I'm grateful that at least it hasn't been both hot and smoky, that was a possibility but apparently the smoke is bad enough that it's keeping the sun from warming us up. My sympathies, @redambrosia, having pneumonia and heat and smoke really does sound like you've got the worst possible scenario.

I hope it went well! Sucks to have to wait so long for the result, though. At the suggestion of friends, I turned on our furnace fan only. Because that's the best filter we've got, and having the air moving helps it not feel so closed in. At least it's not hot, although that's probably because the smoke layer is so thick that the sun is quite effectively blocked out. It's still strangely apocalyptic out there, though.

We've actually had very few problems with Zoom, Teams, Telehealth, etc. But the middle school has a complicated suite of programs all working together, or rather maybe not. The community college has got it together, there's a Discord for my 18 year old's Japanese class. Not sure if they will have class via Discord, but I guess we'll see.

Her sister's got no problems. They go to the same school. I think there's just a configuration issue with the youngest's account or something. They did step up and provide Chromebooks, which is awesome, but it's extremely challenging to roll out all digital learning in the time frame we've got. Normally it would take a team of specialists six months to a year to design and roll out something like this. The school didn't have that kind of money or time.

Well my sample agrees with your sample. My angsty now-18-year-old listens to a lot of Nightcore. Of course you also had a daughter in choir, as I recall, which might be a related factor. When I was an angsty teen I *did* listen to Simon & Garfunkel, mainly because those guys understood being depressed. The smoke is so bad here that the aforementioned angsty teen's get together with friends was cancelled. (It was supposed to be a meet-up at a park.) And seriously, I can't keep up with you guys. I've apparently got to trouble-shoot every Zoom meeting my sixth grader has because half of them won't work. Among other things.

Semi-pro tip: you can get probiotics in little packets that you can mix with any liquid. I used to make a sippy cup probiotic concoction to feed them in between antibiotic doses. Helps prevent those awful diaper rashes. My two youngest are only 21 months apart. For a while it seemed like one of them was always sick, and since they played together all the time and shared everything, once one was sick you knew the other would be too in short order. The youngest had so many ear infections we actually had her checked for hearing issues because she wasn't talking much. Turned out it was just because her sister talked enough for two kids so she kept her mouth filled with her thumb. Now she spends all her time hiding away listening to music/YouTube and drawing. Angsty teens, man.

Thanks! I think I'm going to just dig out a sacrificial Bones mini and test colors on it. Because I've done a fairly nice job of prepping the intended piece and I don't want to experiment on it. Sounds like Sephy has a sinus infection, which as I recall is often caused by the same bacteria that causes pneumonia. My little girls had a lot of those when they were little, it was not a fun time. Having had pneumonia multiple times, I'm glad you're on antibiotics. Mucinex can definitely help, but drink lots of water! Lots and lots! it only works if there's enough fluid in your system to thin out the congestion. Sorry you're both so sick, it somehow seems to be part of having small children.

I do have a little color wheel, GreenStuffWorld sent it in an order once. I just... Well let's just say that while I know how to mix colors, I'm not good at mixing highlight or shadow colors that look right with existing colors. (Especially for cloth where I'm trying to do nice blends.) I'm going to try and push myself, but I've been relying on triads for a long while. @Pegazus, I would happily take that snow from you. Being trapped inside due to wildfire smoke really sucks when most of the normal places to escape to are restricting access.

Thanks! Yeah, you pretty much summed up my thinking. Clouded Sea is a really pretty color, but it's just that mix of grey/blue/teal that doesn't quite match anything else I've got. Maybe I'll try taking another blue-grey and add a touch of one of the marine teal triad colors. Mixing colors is not my forte, though, so I might just end up switching to an easier grey. I had really wanted to take Corporea's color theory class online, but it was going to be a little painfully early with the time zone change.

If it makes you feel any better, last year I loved your class even though I felt awful through all of it. (I was having a lot of stomach issues last summer.) I even used some of the techniques recently to sculpt a tiny, tiny flower that I never could have done before.

So I'm attempting to actually paint a nice character mini for my daughter in an attempt to distract myself from the crappy things in life that make me ragingly angry. I could try and start a WIP, but I'm not sure if I'll keep up with that. I'm wondering, though, if anyone has any suggestions on what would make good shadow/highlight colors for the Clouded Sea paint from RCon? I'm planning on doing a soft, cool color scheme with greyish blues, greens and purples. And I really like the shade of Clouded Sea, but I'm not sure what might go well with it. Oh, and hey, still alive and all that.