PiecePractical

So funny story. The workhorse of my kitchen is a cheap-ass enamel Dutch oven that my wife impulse bought at a grocery store 4 or 5 years before we moved in together. After we got married, I decided to get her a LeCruset replacement for our anniversary the year that cheap one bit the dust. We've lived together ten years as of this summer and I still haven't had to shell out for the Lecruset. We use that thing at least twice a week, maybe more in the winter months and this thing shows no signs of quitting. At this point we're so attachted to it that when the enamel does go, I'll probably drill holes in it and keep it as a flower pot.

Seconding the notes in enameled cast iron. I have some and I love it to death but it's not great as general use, is nothing resembling non-stick and most importantly for OPs question, it's fragile as glass (because it's literally covered in glass). Metal utensils will lead to scratches and chipping of the enamel and once the enamel chips, it's trash unless you want to risk having glass in your food.

I'm also curious about your carbon steel though. I was under the impression that carbon steel pans were nearly as fussy with seasoning as cast iron. Is that not the case?

"Bro, we hitting the bar tonight?"

"Hell yeah! I'm three beers away from extra heavy drinker status this month. Let's get that AB-Inbev cash!!"

(Sounds of chest bumping)

Ooof. Current job has a big problem with that.

I'm in facilities for a company with 2 dozen buildings. We're big enough that we have a drafting department who needs to sign off on all of our drawings and documentation. For reasons that are always changing, they never want to convert the contractors' schematics for remodels into something that can be shared. If we're lucky, the contractors are willing to share prints with us directly more offen, we just have to hope the labels are still there when it breaks and/or ring out individual wires. Huge waste of man hours on our end but every time we suggest fixing it, the drafting department insists that it can't be done for whatever reason. Our department has offered to handle these schematics several times but, "that's not in our scope".

They will switch jobs before things come crashing down. All they want to show is a slight uptick in sales or revenue to take credit.

I used to work in field service for a machine tool company. One of the machine brands I serviced had a couple years in the late nineties that hated to work on. The machines were always cheap but those years were egregious. Corners cut everywhere and the original parts were so shitty we'd usually have to retrofit shit from a different year. Eventually bumped into a guy who'd worked on them at the time who explained the history. The owners of the company at the time were about to sell out to another manufacturer and they wanted to jack up the profits before the sale so they cut every corner they that they didn't think would be noticable before the sale.

The brand stayed afloat for another ten years but everyone I know who was in the industry at the time said their was never any coming back from the damage two years of shit machines did to their image.

Worst part about was, because the machines didn't start having issues until after the company sold, the new owners got all the blame and got stuck with bill for all the warranty work. Literally no incentive for anyone else to not do exactly the same as the original owners.

Yeah, I also met my wife online back when you'd lie about meeting someone online. Spent our first couple years telling people we met "through a friend of a friend".

I'm guessing this was around the time you guys met since she introduced me to StumbleUpon shortly after we started dating.

Have you ever read Command and Control by Eric Schlosser? I've never read anything that made feel so terrified and hopeful at the same time. The number of close calls (that we know about) that we've had but, cooler heads (or random chance) saved us at the last moment is both horrifying and grounds for having a fair amount of faith in most people to do the right thing with these things. Of course, the amount of times we were saved by random ass chance is absolutely terrifying.

Yeah, I was a field service tech at a machine tool distributor for 15 years. One day about 7 years ago I realized that more of our customers than not were involved in some kind of arms manufacturing. Everything from components to military armaments to places making parts for AR-15s. Didn't start that way but the business drifted into that market over time.

I decided to move on and it took me all of 5 years to find a position that; a) I was qualified for, b) paid enough that I wouldn't lose my house and, c) was relatively safe from drifting into the customer base as the last company.

I don't even have kids and this whole process was absolutely terrifying. I can easily see how someone with a family to support or less stability in their life wouldn't feel like leaving was a possibility.

I think if it were over 100 it would be almost always be a yes. But to be entirely honest, t probably depends a lot on the day and the mood I'm in. There are days I might do it for one or two. On the other hand, there are days when I think the planet probably needs fewer humans so yeah, as bad as it sounds to say out loud, it depends entirely on the type of day I'm having.

Today, I think it'd take at somewhere between 10 and 20. I guess I'm feeling optimistic.

Last month I picked up a grab bag at a used bookstore store in my old home town. I plan to grab one at random until I get through them all. So I don't know what I'm reading this month but I know it's something from this bag.

I've finished "Dance if the Hag" and "Pennterra" so far. Just started "northern stars" today.

I don't know that visibility is Mastodon's biggest problem. I've talked to a lot of people who tried it but just didn't find it easy to use and just bailed. I think people expecting it to be diet Twitter and getting frustrated when it isn't as populated or user friendly is a bigger issue at this point.

Condolences, that really sucks.

There wasn't sad food to go along with it but, my wife and I had a very similar experience. My nephew passed away after 3 months of trying to repair a heart defect (HLHS specifically). My SIL, her husband and, her other kids had been living with for the past six months because we lived near the hospital he was treated at. Their extended family spent a lot of nights with us as well.

The day after he passed away, they all went home. My wife and I are child free so we were just alone in this quiet, empty house that had been loud and crowded since we found out our nephew was going to be born with a bad heart. The weight of the past months hit us all at once and we sat there sobbing for what felt like hours. It's been like three years and I still get teary thinking about it.