If your aunt has a garden, some native flower seeds could make a nice gift— at my local garden center they run about $1-2 per packet. Tie up a few packets with some rustic twine, and you’re good to go. If it’s in your budget, add a small hand trowel or pair of gardening gloves. Note: take a look at what gardening zone she lives in and check the seed packets to determine how the plants would fair in that area.

I forgot to plug the nonprofit Common Sense Media— I frequently check this before watching movies with my fam so I can get a heads up on what themes to expect and gauge whether it would be appropriate for my kid at the moment. The site has rating systems that are pretty detailed: not only info about profanity, drug use, and violence, it also has ratings for representation, gender messages, and educational value. There’s even a “Talk to Your Kids” section that has discussion suggestions specific to that movie. The site isn’t specific to movies, either— it covers books, television, games, etc.

Amazing list!! There are a bunch on here I hadn’t heard of before, so thanks for sharing!

Of those I’m familiar with, I think a heads up is warranted for couple of films in your “As Safe as Can Be” section: Office Space (one of my faves) has lots of swearing and some suggestive dialogue (the million dollar question scene comes to mind) and Groundhog Day has lots of references to suicide and one or two makeout scenes.

Also, I watched Happy Gilmore recently with my 11 year old, and she was mortified by Happy’s “Happy Place” dream sequence (I had completely forgotten about that part), so just an FYI that it gets a bit spicy (and weird).

I always clock flag and bumper sticker choices in my neighborhood for a similar reason.

The Princess Bride and O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Mildly annoyed that the graphic artist didn’t bother to manipulate the “mugshots” to reflect actual height. Makes it look like if anyone in Trump’s admin that is 5’8” and a half… straight to jail.

Interesting. I haven’t read Dust yet, but I thought the first two were fantastic reads. I also really like the TV adaptation so far. I agree it doesn’t fit well into the hard science fiction subgenre. I would categorize the books as soft sci-fi— focusing more on the social aspects of an isolated society with limited resources where technological advancement is restricted. I’m more of a soft-sciences nerd though, so I get it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

I’m not sure what you mean about the premise of “wool” in the story though? Are you wondering why it is important enough to be the book title? To my knowledge, the name of the first book is not solely derived from the wool pads used by the cleaners… this first book is actually a compilation of shorter novellas “woven” together (haha)(the author’s titles allude to this: Proper Gauge, Casting Off, etc). I particularly like the author’s juxtaposition between these textile-related terms/concepts and the alternate definitions that lend themselves to the dystopian setting of Mechanical and the Silo in general.

My MIL raved about Lessons in Chemistry and was excited to share it with me. I was shocked by how poorly written it was— perhaps it’s a decent story (enough people were enamored with it that it made it onto several best seller lists), but the execution was so bad I couldn’t even finish the first chapter. When asked, I ended up just telling my MIL it wasn’t my cup of tea and crossed my fingers she didn’t want to discuss plot points or anything that would make it obvious I hardly cracked the spine.

“I heard she slept her way to the top”

Employee-owned, but yes— love that about them!

• Coffee: has to be local, recently roasted
• Salted Butter: from 100% grass fed cows (Kerrygold or Kirkland’s New Zealand are the easiest to find here)
• King Arthur flour

I, too, have resting Finnish face.

“Is that rain?”

It looks so happy!

“Cuz” was early 2000s

Reminds me of reading Macbeth in high school:

My dearest cuz,/ I pray you school yourself – MACBETH, IV ii

The Yellow Stocking Tales blog has a neat list of words used by Shakespeare and how the meanings have changed over time (or haven’t changed, in the case for the word “cuz”)

Do you have separate accounts? If she pays for her own meal with her own money, nbd. But I’m guessing since you’re planning a future together you’ll also be commingling your finances at some point (if you haven’t already), and with this in mind I urge you to have regular financial planning and check-in sessions with each other to mitigate frustrations over different spending habits.

I didn’t have parents who were great with money, and I don’t naturally have a great head for numbers, so when I got married I had a lot of learning to do. My husband is the complete opposite and stays on top of things much more than I do, but financial spending, saving, and planning are important to be on the same page about. Personally, if I know we’re saving money for a particular project or trip or something, I make much better choices in the moment.

In your specific situation, my advice would be to agree on an amount you want to spend on the outing beforehand so you’re on the same page. This still gives her the option to modify her order to her tastes, she just has parameters to work within. If she completely disregards that agreement, you can always step it up old school with the money-in-an-envelope method, where you can’t fall back on a debit or credit card if you “accidentally” go over (although if I were in your shoes going this route, I’d stash a card on me for emergencies, but make her sweat just enough she feels the burn of her mistake).