Laundry soap allergy cures

Quick context I'm breastfeeding, I'm currently sick with mastitis. We have 4 kids 12, 8, 3 and 6m. Yes we're done having kids. I have baby fever with a 6m old. Husband works all day on concrete with bad knees. As in they need to be replaced. I'm currently trying to throw a birthday party for my older kids on the cheap because their birthdays are in the middle of winter and house is small. Pizza parties are about $100-$150ea and at home $75 for both kids. I have tried talking to him about doing something during their birth months but we were tight. The following is our conversation.
Wife, This party is very important to the kids.
I'm going to need your help. I'm so exhausted from being sick and trying to get son to help is like fighting a monkey for the last banana. I need help cleaning
Husband, This is more important to than the kids hun stop lying to yourself and others. This is more for you than the kids. I was 100% not for it. I help but, for fuck sake I'm not f******g happy about it.
Wife, I'm doing it for them! Why would it be for me? Parents drop off and pretty much run. Nvm forget I asked.
Husband, Wife no one does this
Wife, Does what? Throw a birthday party for their kids because they love them and can't afford a d*** pizza party on the month of their birthdays.
Husband, I never had giant extravagant birthdays. I had family that was it. This concept of kids missing out on things, I don't understand what they are missing out on. They have so much more than I did at their age. NO ITS NOT THEIR D*** BIRTHDAY! It's no one's birthday. We could have done something on there birthday. Never had a problem when we had 2 extra kids over.
Wife, It's not extravagant. Food, cake. pretty much it and play outside. Fine you invite six children exactly like son (very adhd) and try to throw that inside the house no. I just need help cleaning stuff.That should already be done but nobody cares. On the maid of a f****** house.If i'm not doing it nobody else is. I should never even laid in bed on mother's day. I expected too much of everybody. I'm done asking for help drop it. Okay try that with her two friends plus six more. Too much too many people. Literally hamburgers hot dogs and a cake couple of hours. Going all out would've been 100%.Decorations would have been ice cream on top of that would have been me renting a bounce house or something, no. I'm not going all out. I guess what things cleaned up and I can't do anything.I'm sick. I can't get this house cleaned because i'm sick. Now I feel like the bad person for just wanting to clean house. What's the point of having a house and nobody will keep it cleanish. What's the point of cooking dinner? Nobody's gonna eat it.I don't bother coming over pissed off go to tyler'sI'm done. I won't ask you for anything anymore
Husband, Fine wife I will here and work there. I will work till you are happy. You want another kid? Sure let's do it. I'll get a second job to support them all I will not see you ever because I will be sleeping in car after I clean the house.
Wife, I already said don't bother. I'm done asking you for help.
Husband, Wife you make shit more harder on your self than you think then blame it on me or kids. You have more time sitting and laying down than anyone else in that house. Yes you feel like s, WE all feel like s even at work everyone is f**g miserable from allergies and heat. I will help you get s done at home, bit don't think for second that you are god damn Cinderella and I'm the evil step mother. If that's how you want it you get a job and I will be the maid at home. You always make me feel guilty about leaving you everyday to work while you get to stay home. Then say that I make you feel guilty for not doing enough around the house.
Wife, I don't sit on my ass all day long. Breastfeeding, waiting till kids go off to school while I drink my coffee and sometimes trying to get toddler to take his naps. Also, my mind will never function like yours. It's 10x harder for me to do these never-ending chores daily. But yet nobody will lift a finger to help me when I'm sick. You know damn well I'd go to work at the mill if they would allow it. I'd bag all day if I had to. If I do get a job it would only to pay for child care, medical, and food. That's if I'm lucky to make enough to cover all that. Yes I want you home all the time but that isn't going to happen I'm sorry for making you feel guilty for having to go to work. I just don't want to end up like mom and I don't want the house to look like a hoarder lives here. Yes mess is to be expected. I'm not asking for much but everyone makes seem like I am. Everyone lives here not just me.
Husband, I didn't say you do all day. I said out of everyone in the house you do the most.
Wife, Not that I want to either
Husband, Also, I help you quite alot when you sick and in general. But I guys it's just small potatoes to you.
Wife, What I see so you know and inform me what I miss. Mom's asleep leave her alone Mom not feeling good just change their diaper Here's some water Rub my feet or legs occasionally (thank you) Made me cup of coffee Take the trash out on trash day Changing kids diapers What am I missing?
Husband, Wow ok nevermind I'm human garbage. Besides working to pay off everything and buying you and the kids s***, paying bills. I don't do anything.
Wife, I'm not talking work. I'm talking when I'm down and can't do things
Husband, Well you don't communicate worth a s*** for to know what you want or what needs to be done. Just what ever wife.
Wife, You see the mess Dirty counters Sink full of dishes Laundry piling up Dog hair all over the floors Dirty bathrooms It's right there. This it's your home too. Thought you would want it kept to a certain level of clean. Guess we don't think alike on what needs to stay clean or what can be somewhat messy.
Husband, For years I was the only one who did that in a house of 4 adults and I never got help. Praised for cleaning so well that your dad would get sick from eating off them. I was the only one who would clean and now that it's been 15 years roughly I'm the complete ass. I'm the only one who brings home an income. I buy you pretty much anything you want or need. There is sooo much more I can say wife. This is not 50/50 like you want it to be this is 80/20 you don't have much do to at home. YOU SIT AND LET IT PILE UP TILL ITS A PROBLEM. I will be home later and I will do everything. If life is so bad what would you do if I was gone tomorrow? You don't put 8 hrs a day into anything and you spout out that it's not fair that I don't do more. You can give me all the excuses you want, I'm adhd, I can't focus, I need to start as a routine or I can't do it. You did just fine when my mom would yell at you and now she's gone it's my fault pretty much all the time. I'm ending this conversation here. Do not text me for the rest of the day. I will be home at 4:50 after getting dog food and I will stay up till the whole damn house is done to your standards.
Wife, Don't bother I said.You yell at me for not asking for help and now when I do all I get is f*****g attitude. Just go sleep at friend or something. AITA?

The lotus leaf is listed as the greatest cleaning agent known to mankind in wikis and was the religious symbol of countless religions. when dirt is wet and becomes sticky mud it dries caked on and stuck and traps or allows for other air or splashes or spills to sort of stick. nanotech is so much smaller its like a big warehouse of crates having dust settle between them and by wiping and buffing and polishing around you remove some of the dirt hopefully most of it and get it underneath it will go right through and under about anything, got a tarpaulin or umm curtains over the window spray the curtains and unseen fine nanotech SHINES the window beautiful perfect coatings. the thin film is like nonstick frypan stuff but not the teflon stuff its safe diamonds arent teflon so the moisture and dirt wont stick as much and easily clean off or sorta slide down? nanotech like INKS and alcohol dyes (food coloring) or other paint pigment powders and !SOME! clearcoat polishes over a certain hardness rating which are safe for homes as under sapphire 9H or 10H it might be some sort of waste product cheap being sold as something like SCOTCH GUARD which may or may not have those long lasting microplastics which could be tiny serrated or jagged. If something is 9H or 10H diamond or sapphire hardness the few enamels or epoxys that bond that strong are small enough and dense that their structure is so tiny it slips through and under inside things and can reinforce them but doesnt damage round cells in organisms. the same way glass cleaner must be diluted and used everywhere as glass is porous and prehistoric volcanic obsidian glass walking spiders can walk up glass with special microhooks in their feet for the holes in glass look a bit like a golf ball dimples everywhere with tiny hole looks like hair lines through it like imagine those office ceiling panels with the holes in white particle board. So glass cleaner cleans out the gunk or else your windows will have a brownness you struggle to clean out of the glass without a deep penetrating cleaning agent that comes out looking a bit like brown river water thats discolored from the porous rocks in the water having umm tiny microorganisms yep rivers of brown. So a tiny drop of glass cleaner or a couple drops in a spray bottle or a bucket of water and maybe some one or two drops hydrophobic glass coating or quickpaint coat and a tiny drop or two or a single spray of PLASTIC AND LEATHER RESTORER
with these drops of stuff in water in a spray bottle or bucket you maybe wanna find something with a high % percentage of surfactants on the back of the detergent/soap bottle to wipe out germs and uhh its the cleaning component in all bubbling detergents the sort of science and cleaning and germ killing powers of it. Some floor cleaners made for timber floors that might be a little streaky and say like a polish or cure or something that maybe gives timber a little bit of a darker look when used regularly and appears subtly more expensive looking like hardwood but isnt carbonizing its a type of cellular structure bonding that reinforces not prehistoric torture the wood into looking blowtorched carbon stuff chemicals its a cleaning product disenfectant that protects and polishes but it needs some sprays of water then a spray or a few drops then buff it in and then dust mop it dry as its got some mild ANTISTATIC which helps lift up dust.. i found one that cleans like magic at my asian supermarkets but im not recommending specific brands over the other its the science of cleaning. then maybe put in a couple drops or up to a teaspoon of 10H hardness and like spray your laundry on the line or your carpet or whatever.. i do everything.. some products not 9H or greater will use some unsafe superglues which ignite cotton fabrics into flames or other things.. now house construction products like liquid nails brown glue for holding timber together might have a clear version called liquid glass that might be for window glazing or whatever i hadnt checked if its safe to use on fabrics and other surfaces the POINT of it is the NAME might say liquid glass but its maybe not silicon dioxide that the florist uses to keep their plants fresh for 2 weeks longer liquid glass as in THAT liquid glass like on your phones nanotech liquid screen protector you apply several coats of one each day then reapply every 8 months the cheap stuff.. some of the auto ones for cars can last 9 or 10 years. i found lots of bargain store looking products of sites like aliexpress or maybe amazon with brands like glassxkare or fantastic XML and adams polishes for tiny vials of 50ml or less of 10H hardness affordable or fantastic XML for like a big 500ML 9H hardness spray bottle that when sprayed into a spray bottle of water and glass cleaner and a drop of hydrophobic coating and plastic and leather restorer and a tiny drop of timber floor polish cleaner that may or may not make it a tiny bit streaky or splotchy the hydrophobic coatings may also be too hydrophobic you can tell if your spray bottle wont suck up water because the water cant enter the tube but if you spray a couple spray bottles of such tiny drops the nozzle will clog and not spray anymore.. nanocoatings can be tricky i dunno what to do. if its scratch protect films make it streaky and require buffing power tools and youre not loud big tools like me maybe aim it at carpets and couches rather than windows and do those without the floor polish. I've found no sort of uhh possible forseeable reasons for any health issues and my stuff looks and FEELS amazingly better, i think bathroom toilets or tiles or shower and tap fixtures or.. walls and floors and furniture and clothes.. i think id only not try spraying my drinking cups and cutlery but i honestly think i might need to drink the stuff its THAT GOOD. my cats LOVE IT! its kinda scary awesome.. i tried brands of plastic and leather restorer and quick paint coat and hydrophobic glass coating from HGKJ black and green labels. I couldnt tell you how safe it is, i just struggled as im a disability pensioner and saw our really old house falling apart and this damn near reversed a few decades off it and brand new snow clothing and jackets and throw rugs i bought felt BETTER THAN NEW i mean ridiculously better than new. ancient poisons used to clean HALF as good and were feared for being too good and too cheap. But diamonds and liquid diamond are naturally occuring hot springs reactions and the reason monkeys stay in there. its literally pretty much good for all life.
(plastic and leather restorer see leather deep conditioner but better and sorta similar to glass cleaner but a sort of UV protect oil and reinforce that adds the rich deep black color back to PU leathers and those vinyl anime girl figures yellowing from the sunlight and UV will becomes their original selves again or old yellowy car headlight covers get fixed up but so do most paints and timbers and other things. but you wanna seal it in with a nano coating when cleaning it out plastic and leather restorer is used in plastic manufacture and when you peel those clear plastic film stickers off shiny new products they help prevent its slow gradual evapouration and why they look so nice and black and arent just to prevent scratches. several days later plastic and leather restorers super shiny rich deep 'wet hair look for your black pleather chair' will seem to have worn off but its UV protect and other things will still be there and some polishes waxes or coatings can help keep it and its colors and UV protect there a bit longer well the look the restorer itself keeps it like how it was quite a while years? till it goes yellowy or faded again.)
So when we look at the water beading on lotus/lily pad leaves and things, ancient people used saps and old polishes and obsidian blades arrowheads since dinosaurs era. which with 200 times sharper than steel knives carbon nanotech its super dangerous deadly and was mostly all used up and we swapped it all out for modern glasses and glazing and safety glass so we dont slice our selves into piles of body parts on invisible pieces. Since the days of ink and whetstone nanotech advanced impossibly high particularly in volcanic hot springs countrys with samurai swords and caligraphy brush ink. Trying to find the scientifically safest and best possible cleaning products super affordably that might be useful for washing clothes, cars, metals plastics and other things.. are strangely not at the home hardware stores.. you see synthetic diamonds been on the gem market for centuries but too expensive to produce till modern different approaches with lasers and different gas precipitation with super high electricity concentrated over weeks or months or special electrolosys solutions will slowly layer and create diamonds but the diamond solution precipitated that grouped to each other or doesnt perfectly slot into the sort of tetris like bonds of the outer layers of the diamond a bit like diamond growth needs spaghetti O's and we're raining alphabet soup at it till with a bout 30% of the letters having a good chance of sticking. every few hours the solution of sublimation precipitate is swapped out creating a couple oven trays of 'liquid diamond solution' 10H hardness brightness and shines up glass with a thin film of diamond giving it moisture modest water resist we can use graphene to increase water resist and 10H+ hardness and apply hydrophobic coatings.. So who makes lots of these liquid finishes and what are they used for? Most are produced by a car race track owner who insists they protect their cars before taking them out onto the track or a speck of dirt or sand might scratch up the paint. But if i wanted to like power pressure washer spray it up onto my roof tiles and thin out some of that lichen and make them more uhh watertight leaks arent a concern but it might prevent a terrible future. anybody know why its not already a thing and there isnt countless guides on the ideal ratios and stuff? i mean its about as expensive as laundry detergent concentrate and used to be in most of those still is in some developed countries.. its what makes american movie sets look so umm bright and shiny and polished and awesome and makes mansions look like mansions or wealthy look and feel and its where LUXURY COMES FROM. is my cheap poor persons attempt at cleaning my own home not good? even if its mildly bad i think i'd use it forever. ESPECIALLY on things like 100% bamboo bed sheets i bought cheap ones from an australian online retailer and a few coatings of sprays and they felt and looked so dang shiny and awesome. Some bottles of the stuff claim 6 drops coats the car but remember many are diluted or not full strength or dont last long as advertised or a big bottle 500ML might be 3months to a year.. rather than tiny medicine bottle 50ml or 30ml sized 3-5 years most i guess, you need to keep applying a coat very often but having it not be streaky or buffing it in is tough so i maybe shaved years off its coating and thinned it out and just apply a bunch of coats as often product claims 9H its only a tiny % the whole spray bottle and needs many many applications to approach that but it is POSSIBLE theoretically. remember all glass cleaner is blue colored so when you dilute it with water you shouldnt have it fully color the water too much or its TOO STRONG. 80s people cleaned 80s glazing which maybe radium or lead tincture as radiation blocking films were often lead or radiation lined literally as a radiation shield was a.. film of radiation so it lasted years and needed double or triple glazing for expensive high rise buildings and cleaning heaps of smoky 80s glass dredged out horror mud floods of brown sludge that got them accused of dirtying things, though 80s squeegee thingys are really bad unless you reverse them and press down on a microfibre cloth with them for good even pressuer and a nice streak free clean using the back black rubber blade part to make a thin line of glass cleaning cloth good contact i previously saw reverse squeegee you mount cleaning cloths into specifically but searching i cant find to buy it when i tested it out at home with a squeegee that doesnt clip in like that. are there special tools you guys use? whats the secret? also the purple ceramic graphene ones seem awesome but maybe arent quite close to 9H either.. the bright shine of 10H or 10H+ on tiles and glass.. when apply hydrophobic it looks like zero application of anything somehow its gone for days. does anyone have a more ideal ratios specific or specific active ingredient amounts by weight or dilute with stuff that isnt water to help it keep its years of coating? does using a power washer make it not last? or last longer? or apply streaky splotchy? if its splotchy would more coats over weeks get it all consistent?
the liquid diamond stuff is in many countrys water or whatever.. but uhh concerns about silicosis maybe arent a thing at all if you cough it feels like its cleaning your lungs not harming them. Silicosis happens when criminal retards enter a sandblasting sealed room containment to steal the literally raw materials from factories or whatever or they use water cutting and sand blasting and CNC machines and sharpening blades constantly without sealed enclosure vacuum air scrubber filters. thats what wrecks those benchtop workers also they maybe mixing or breathing wrong epoxys and resins or dont seal them with the correct sealants and polishes and finishes.

I have been trying to figure out what flares up my skin for years, or why some times didn’t have flares…and I think I might have issues with coconut oil or coconut oil derivatives in products. I recently changed to an olive oil soap from one with very few ingredients that included saponified coconut oil, and a rash I’ve had on my neck for eight months disappeared. I know true coconut oil allergies are extremely rare, but I wonder if this is an irritant for me that I’m just in CONSTANT contact with. Coconut derivatives are everywhere and have SO many names!
Please share your thoughts and experiences! :)

Hi ladies! I'm an international student here in the US and I migrated from South Africa. When I was in South Africa I used the brand 'Dettol'. It's the only brand I could use without my skin breaking out. I have super sensitive skin. I'm even allergic to sun screen (I know I'm not allergic to it as a whole but I'm not sure what ingredient it is, I have tried multiple brands but have stopped as I do not have the money to keep trying). I've tried Dove and it leaves my skin itchy and feeling unclean.
I buy Dettol products from Amazon but they can be expensive and take weeks to come in sometimes. Does anyone have a brand they can recommend. I don't like my soap scented or moisturizing as it causes allergies. Thank you!

So I live in brooklyn, and there seemingly is no laundromat near me that has hot water. You can set the machines to hot if you want, but then you'll take your laundry out of the washer and it will be obviously cold. I have dust mite allergies and problems with sweat stains, both problems seemingly require hot washes. Any suggestions? Not really sure what to do since every google search says "use hot water." Just doesnt seem to be an option for me.

My daughter is 7 yo, she’s 47” tall and weighs around 47 lbs. she has a history of asthma, and seasonal allergies. Currently she’s taking Flovent (2 puffs once daily), Flonase and prn Zyrtec.
A little back story on her. Shes has instances of random bouts of hives (often with no discernible cause.) Her last bout of hives, she had a plain turkey sandwich with just mayo and turkey from a local sandwich shop. 30 mins later, she was complaining of joint and tummy pain. I had her relax on the couch and 30 mins after that when I took her to bed, she had full body hives and a swollen face/mouth. She ended up vomiting once and it was a large amount. It took to doses of Benadryl to calm the hives. She also later reported that during this episode she had chest tightness and a scratchy throat. We were told this was a mild anaphylactic reaction.
Fast forward to present day. Sunday she had scrambled eggs for breakfast and 20 mins later she told me she was itchy and was started to break out in hives. Gave her Benadryl and hives went away and she was fine. The next morning she woke up with another head to toe itchy rash. I got in touch with her allergist and she told me to give her 10mg of Zyrtec morning and night and to update her the following morning. Yesterday she still had the rash and was complaining of joint pain in her knee and ankle. She was sent home from school because she was limping. Her allergist wanted to see her in person. We took her in yesterday and she said the rash definitely looked like hives but she’s perplexed as to what is going on with her. She has no other symptoms (no signs of illness, no fever). Shes thinking serum sickness but she doesn’t totally fit that picture. She told us she wanted to do some research and would get back to us today, but to continue the Zyrtec. My daughter woke up this morning with a worsening rash and was much more itchy today.
We’ve literally changed nothing about her diet or laundry detergent or skin/hair products. Also no new medications. She’s been tested for environmental allergies and was positive for a certain tree and rabbits. Neither of her 2 allergists that she’s seen have felt compelled to food test or any other blood tests. I’d love some other opinions! Here is a photo of her back rash. It’s also located on her face, neck, chest, and some on her legs

Hi everyone! Here with a few quick reviews from Nui Cobalt‘s Critters Collection and two new releases from Pulp!
I made my orders upon each release (Critters on 4/26 and Pulp around Pi Day, can’t find my order confirmation for the exact date.) NC was insanely quick as usual and I received my order on 5/2. Pulp was longer, but the owner did send out an email regarding some delays due to health issues. I appreciated their communication, and the slightly longer TAT doesn’t impact my opinion on their scents.
A but about what I like: incense and resins (I’m a sucker for a good church scent), bready scents, atmospherics, WEED. I adore a good cannabis scent. I can’t partake in it anymore, but I love that chewy-spicy-sticky-herbal-slightly citrus smell. I used to strongly dislike lavender, but NC (and BPAL) have phenomenal lavender notes. I also reall like woodsy, forestry, slightly dirty scents- Haus of Gloi Ploughman is one of my favs for its earthy garden soil smell.
Now, onto the reviews!
Nui Cobalt Critters
Golden Retriever: Sunflower, amber resin, budding dogwood, fenugreek, and fresh-baked bread.
This one has the musky, Frito-like dog paw smell, very similar to Death and Floral’s “Happy as a Corgi on Stilts”- or, you know, taking a whiff of your dog’s paws when they’re trying to sleep. The amber is a great compliment, adding some more warmth and sweetness. There’s a bit of a clean laundry/soap smell in the background, maybe that’s the dogwood? I don’t notice the bread- sad, because I adore a good bread note- but maybe it will come out with a few more weeks of aging.
This is safe, but not in an “opposite of adventurous” way- in a comforting way, like cuddling with your dog on the balcony on a summer morning.
Goat: Sweet labdanum and myrrh resins, Himalayan cedarwood, white grapes, green amber, olive leaf, high-altitude lavender, and lemon verbena.
After a couple weeks of aging this is strong on the lemon verbena when I unscrew the bottle and take a whiff. On first application this is all lavender and olive leaf before a lovely sparkling lemon and white grape appears. This is earthy in the way I imagine myself standing on a Greek or Italian hillside in springtime.
Red Wolf: Skin-warmed suede, sweet cedar resin, saffron, red santal, and glowing ginger.
Wolves are my favorite animal, so of course I had to order this. Did you know wolves have lost 99% of their historic range? While they could once be found as far west as Texas, down into Florida, up to the edge of New York and across the Midwest, they are now found only in eastern North Carolina (at least in the wild).
This is sexy. This is cedar dominant on first application, drying to a lovely woody-ambery scent. I love saffron as a note- it gives a sexy sweet vibe that can pull bubblegum when dominant, here adding just a hint of sweet and floral to play with the wood and amber. I don’t pick up on much ginger- it takes a very big huff to find a tiny grating of it- but this is a beautiful scent.
I’m wearing this at a posh hotel bar, sipping Manhattans and luring men and women in with my passion…for talking about climate change and the importance of biodiversity!
Now onto Pulp!
Ballad: Frankincense, pink pepper, tea rose, sandalwood, white patchouli, garden soil, & musk.
At first sniff on my skin this smells a bit like a nice dry white wine and stays that way on first application, with a hint of clean linen. The garden soil lends a bit of earthy dirtiness to what is otherwise very clean to my nose, and I love that. It dries down to a lovely creamy musk scent, like „my skin but better.“
I think I’m at a garden party at a fancy spa in the countryside, alternating sips of white wine and tea, surrounded by a lovely garden.
Neptune: Clary sage, narcotic jasmine, ambergris, artemisia, palo santo smoke, & a hint of cannabis.
Neptune is truly otherworldly. It starts off woody and musky, herbal with the slightest hint of citrus. Then comes the cannabis! WOW, I expected it to be a lot more subtle, but after an hour of wear it really takes center stage- perhaps not the best to wear to work for its first test drive! But if you, lile me, love Cannabis notes you may also enjoy Neptune. The palo santo comes out at the end, adding a bit of smoke to end your trip around the planet.
There’s a scent by BPAL called Namaste that I often wear during longer yoga practices or particularly hot days; I can see Neptune being a contender for that position in my collection. I’m so impressed by the quality of Pulp’s scents. This is worth a full size.
I’m wearing this in a little sunroom on a second story flat, a room full of orange sunshine, wind chimes and singing bowls and incense burners, engaged in a yoga flow before laying on the floor spinning some stoner metal.
Thanks for reading my reviews! What are your favorite Critters and Pulp scents?

Does anyone else get super uneasy being in homes and hotels? I have to buy fragrance free everything - dishsoap, laundry soap, no deodorant, etc. Just walking into other homes and seeing dryer sheets and febreeze, and diffiusers sends me into a panic. I even checked out a low end motel once because they gassed the room with febreeze.
Why are people so addicted to junk fragrance, it's gross.

Living in Eastern Canada, it's not as easy for us (as compared to our American neighbors) to get our hands on perfume samples without paying insane delivery prices. Etiket, based in Montreal, stocks niche/designer fragrances & has samples you can buy for almost every fragrance they sell, so I decided to bite the bullet. I haven't tried much from niche houses, only designer, so I was curious & wanted to try scents in the hopes of finding a possible signature fragrance. I bought 14 samples + the 3 extras Etiket give you (if you ask), but this review only includes 10 of them because I haven't tried everything yet and I also don't want this post to be a freakin novel. I'll probably do the rest in another post later.
About my tastes : I'm a fruity floral, gourmand & fresh type of person.
I made my list by houses (in alphabetical order) so here we go :
Carner Barcelona
Sal Y Limon - 5/10
Nice and fresh citrusy scent, very much beachy vibes, but the patchouli kicks the rest to the curb after 30 minutes. Note to myself : DNB anything with patchouli because that's all it's going to end up smelling like.
Giardini di Toscana
Blu Indaco - 8.5/10
This one had to grow on me because at first its musk felt way too masculine for me. I tried it first on a piece of cotton because of that, then when I came back to it after 1 or 2 hours, it had morphed into something nice and sweet. Tried it on skin and this time I found the musk way less intense. I'm getting almond, vanilla, clean laundry notes. The pepper is also coming through and stops Blu Indaco from becoming nauseating. I like this but I'm not sure if I'd commit to a full bottle, however I'll probably try to get my hands on a travel size.
Jorum Studio
Phloem - ??? / 10
Captivated as soon as I open the vial. First note I catch is amber and it’s an amber that reminds me of Stella Peony by Stella McCartney’s base notes. Then, words that come to mind are pungent, salty and fresh. There’s a slight musk. I’m getting overripe passionfruit & petrichor, with something sour too.
10 minutes post first pray : I’m definitely understanding why some compare Phloem to women’s scent down there, because what I’m smelling definitely reminds me of the female genitalia, minus the animalistic notes of sex. There’s also powdery notes. Clean sweat. This is such a fascinating fragrance.
2h post spray : Anddddd this is where I got disappointed. Phloem turned into something woody and utterly disgusting, I can't even put my finger on what it is but I ended up scrubbing my wrists with rubbing alcohol bc it was giving me an headache.
A very interesting experiment but ultimately the base notes ruined it for me.
Healing Berry - 6.5/10
This is a bucketful of red and dark berries with something that's definitely tannic in essence, reminding me of wine. The blackcurrant and the raspberry shine in this. Strong sangria vibes. It smells very good, it's sweet without being nauseating, it works well on my skin, but for $105 USD / $140 CAD I am absolutely sure that I can find a dupe that's not nearly as expensive.
L'Artisan Parfumeur
Couleur Vanille : 9.5/10
In the words of Lady Gaga, talented, brilliant, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique...This is a fall in love at first whiff fragrance for me. If vanilla grew in the sea, this is what it would smell like. It's iodine, it's sweet, the immortelle notes gives an edge to it, I don't even know where to begin describing this. I know it's supposed to represent Madagascar, but having wandered through small town streets in southern France near the Méditerranée, this is what it reminds me of. I ordered a full bottle.
À Fleur de Pêche - 7/10
I'm so so so disappointed the patchouli ended up drowning everything else, because the rest is gorgeous. Smells just like a peach orchard, this is not an artificial peach, this is fresh, herbaceous, sweet. I've learnt my lesson, I can't do patchouli in a perfume because it doesn't work at all with my skin.
Imaginary Authors
A Whiff of Wafflecone - 5.5/10
This is a well done gourmand, thing is, this doesn't remind me of an ice cream shop at all, this is 100% sugar shack (and I say this as a Canadian). It smells like what maple syrup tastes, if that makes any sense, and I get where the waffle cone title comes from, because there's definitely a hint of that. I'm just not a big fan of maple scent & it doesn't remind me of ice cream, which kind of seemed to be the goal, so that's why I knocked points off. For someone who likes this type of stuff, this would be a easy 6.5/10. Just not my thing.
Malin + Goetz
Strawberry - 7.5/10
I live in Quebec province, where fresh grown strawberries are available from mid-May to late-September. This smells just like our strawberry fields in June - it's green, it's herbaceous, there's a distinct note of well, fresh soil. Absolutely not your typical juicy strawberry smell. There's also some interesting notes like hay and clean wood that, for some reason unknown to me, reminds me of horses, without being animalistic. Freshly cleaned stables. I like this a lot but the staying power is weak and as such, I feel like this would do better in a soap or a candle than as a perfume.
Parfums de Marly
Oriana - 1.5/10
Oh man, what a disaster. The head notes are a perfect raspberry lemonade but not even 2 minutes after getting it on skin, an overwelming powder scent drowns EVERYTHING else and smells like old lady (bass boosted). The 1.5 is for the gorgeous head notes, otherwise this would be a 0/10.
Zoologist
Bee - 8/10
I love a well done honey scent and this is honey on crack. One of my favorite scents is Honey I Washed the Kids by Lush, which is very honey forward as well. If I had to compare the two, Bee is the raw material and HIWTK would be the end product, if that makes sense. This is truly like being inside a beehive, there is nothing artificial or dessert-like about this honey scent, its staying power is strong and there is something floral in the middle and base notes that is incredibly satisfying. I get some orange juice as well in the background. The white florals don't steal the show but rather compliment the overall scent. I can't stop smelling my wrist. However, I completely understand reviewers who said it's too much for them. I could see myself wearing this on a date, but not at a job interview.

I don’t know what to do anymore me and my husband have been together since 2017 we have a kindergartener and less than a year old I work and he stays home with the kids, lately its like I cant do anything right

1. A couple of weeks ago : I was “inconsiderate” for not putting up the baby gate before leaving for work because “I know the baby makes a mad dash for the door looking for me and will fall off the bed” — fair enough I’ll start doing the for the safety of the baby -Yesterday : the baby gate is inconvenient because it’s “encourages” playing on the bed right when they wake up I should make sure they are asleep before I leave so the gate is not in the way — they are always asleep when I leave just like they were a few weeks ago when I was “inconsiderate” for not putting it up
   
2. We’ve recently gotten new furniture so his rule no food or drink on them only water or bottles that close I left a thermos cup with water next to it because our oldest was having allergies and they needed water to help wash down the mucus
   
3. this morning the youngest spilled the water on the new furniture and I was called at work and lectured for 20 minutes about how it was my fault that it happened (not to mention a couple years ago something very similar happened where he left a drink near my new furniture and our oldest spilled on it and when I asked him to be more careful where he put his drinks, didnt blame him just asked to be more cautious, it was my fault for not “watching them properly”)
   
4. He complains about the house being a mess and not being able to clean it during the day while watching kids so he needs to help — fair glad to — but Im expected to come home and take over watching the kids while he cooks dinner and after we eat he goes straight to playing video games.. does he want me to clean while he gets a minute to breathe — again glad to but who watches the kids? If I leave them with him to clean it’s “i’ve watched them all day it your turn” and if I take them with me to clean isnt that exactly what you said was the reason you needed help, you couldn’t do both at once? Am I supposed to? But if I wait until a weekend to clean I’m only putting in effort once a week
   

If I clean for more than one day in a row then I’m not making any time for him, and if I only make time for him I’m not doing enough for our kids and if I pick up our baby I’m holding them too much but if I let them cry I’m not doing enough I have to bring them in the bathroom with me to shower so I don’t have to ask for help, I work 8 hours a day and come home and are expected to watch the kids 100% clean the house and still make sure he feels I’m give him 100% of my attention
Just yesterday I sat with him for 2.5 hours watching shows he gets up to heat up left overs for dinner and I say great I’ve got a few things to do after we eat, we finish and i leave him to play video games while I start cleaning I’ve gotten both the kiddos occupied on ether toys or screen time for a little bit while I do some laundry and pick up our bed room and take out the trash and feed our baby dinner and I notice our oldest didn’t eat the left overs so I make something else and I head off to put the baby to bed 30 minutes later baby asleep oldest fed and it’s now 9:30 I sit back down and watch another hour of shows with my husband before I’ve got to go to bed because I have to leave the house at 7 in the morning to get to work on time all is good I thought I gave him one on one time, I handle the kids needs we all ate dinner, I cleaned a bit and put the kids to sleep and circled back around for more one on on time just so he knew I didn’t forget him and this morning I get a call at work saying I don’t listen to him and I barely spend time with him before running off the bed with the babies, I think he was just generalizing but I’ve tried every single combination I can think of and still some how I’m falling short somewhere even after doing what he’s told me to do word for word and I just don’t know what to do anymore
We’ve scheduled therapy but he’s upset about that too because the money cuz definitely help towards something else (he’s not wrong the budget is tight) but I just can’t see any other way to get through to him he’s being unreasonable

I’m just at my wits end here. I (28f) love my husband (29m) very much. I’m just tired now. We have 3 kids (1f, 6f, & 10f) together, one whom is on the autism spectrum (severe).
I’m technically a SAHM. I have a “part time” job that I work 1-3 days out of the week. My husband has 2 jobs.
My credentials allow me to only work a few days out of the week but it’s the equivalent of his jobs. For example if I work one day, I make what he makes at his part time job that he goes to all week. If I work the 3 days I make what he makes at both jobs all week and maybe even a little more. It just depends on what I want to do. Depending if the week with the kids is heavy I do one day but with 3 kids it takes a lot of my time and energy so I opt for 1 day mostly. It’s just to bring in some cash for the extra curriculars my kids do or house bills.
We don’t do 50/50 but we are like 25/75. I pay for all the groceries, all the utilities, anything our kids or myself and my husbands needs.. he pays the mortgage and a few other things. We have no debt, no car payments.. We are very good with money and have a nice chunk of savings. He doesn’t need a second job he just has it for us to save the most now that we’re young and not just scraping by when we’re old lol plus we want to buy another house soon. He’s been at the second job officially one year next week.
My husband feels like I don’t do anything and that my life is so “easy”. He constantly makes comments like “here let me make your life even more easier” cause I ask him to take out the trash or “you don’t do anything here and we wouldn’t have this if it wasn’t for me” just because he’s upset I didn’t check his car for a sweater he wanted to wear to work and it’s not clean. Then he feels bad and doubles down and apologizes. Mind you, I do All the cooking, cleaning, parenting, kids sports, appointments, etc. I pack his lunch, I iron his clothes for work, I make sure he has plenty of snacks he likes at home so he isn’t grumpy throughout the out the day, I wake up earlier to prepare his coffee before he leaves to work, plus I work my part time.
When I do go to work he does nothing for the kids. It makes me feel bad to say that. I come home and our kids are not fed, not bathed, he just puts them on their tablets on goes on about his day but the second I walk through the door, “they been on their tablets too long. Tell them to get off and go do something with them”..
This last argument has made me realize he has no idea how to be a parent.. he’s always opted for a shift in the middle of the day, stay up all night and sleep all day. Ever since our oldest was born. Now that he has two jobs he hardly sleeps and it makes me feel bad for him. So I try my hardest to make his life easier. He just doesn’t appreciate it and I’m tired.
So a few days ago, after his last big tantrum, I stopped. I haven’t cleaned the house. I cook but I won’t prepare his lunch. I stopped doing laundry. This morning he finally ran out of clothes and he was ANGRY. I told him I had no laundry soap. I ran out a few days ago and he needs to go buy some.
He’s not a bad guy. He works his butt off to be able to keep a roof over our heads. He hardly sleeps now because his jobs are physical and he wants to buy me a new car because we’re expecting baby #4 in a few months. I know he loves me but he doesn’t appreciate me. Honestly it feels like he starting to look at me like I’m a burden..
Now I want to show him what it’s like not having me meet my part of our marriage. If he feels like he does it all then I’m going to let him do it all. I’m gonna let him pay all the bills this month and I’m not going to contribute a dollar. I’m not going to do the laundry. I’m not going to pack his lunch. I’m not gonna let him come home to clean house. If in his mind he does it all, he should do it all, right? So, AITAH for letting him do it all by himself?

(Posting on mobile, sorry for formatting in advance) That's what I've been telling myself at least. I currently have an infestation going on in my apartment due to birds nesting in the vent. I had no idea this was even a thing until it happened! I wanted to put my story out in the ether and spread some hope, possibly. They are going away, but slowly.
It all started when I saw tiny bugs crawling out of my phone. It was so weird. After a deep dive on the internet, I started seeing more pop up in my bathroom. I realized that this started happening after some birds left their nest in the vent. They were going crazy one night and then left the next day. This is when all hell broke loose and I was living in one of my own worst nightmares.
The first day of discovery, my spouse and I picked up some food grade Diatamaceous Earth, spread that shit on the bedroom carpet and master bath, and slept in the living room for 2 nights. I've never been more grateful for laundry that I procrastinated on because that was our saving grace to have clothes.
What I've learned they hated: Essential oils (esp peppermint, lavender, and clove) Lack of humidity, DE, and dish soap.
EDIT: One thing that helped me when I was cleaning active spaces: Wear tight clothing, lube yourself with Aquaphor and peppermint oil. You'll be able to see them and they won't move as fast. Just make sure to exfoliate when you shower. For those with long hair, use shampoo/conditioner with peppermint in it, like Pureology Hydrate. And blowdry the crap out of your hair and apply leave-in treatments afterwards. You'll be able to fix it when you're done dealing with them.
When we vaccumed the bedroom and bathroom, we made sure to spray the perimeters with Ortho Home Defense. Of course, we also steamed the mattress, changed bedding, all that. We've been spraying our bedding with a mixture of cheap vodka, clove oil, peppermint, and some water just to keep them away.
Within the week, we started seeing successful results. In the meantime, I vacuumed and sprayed Ortho around the rest of the apartment, which afaik, was not affected. That doesn't mean the anxiety goes away and there some that occasionally pop up in the bathroom.
We forgot to treat one room in our apartment and that happened to be the closet where they wreaked absolute havoc and partied in there. We thought that would have been a safe place because there are no vents there. After 20 minutes of trying to investigate the madness, we threw some more DE in there, sprayed Ortho in the parameters we could and closed the door. Girl, bye.
We did contact our apartment complex upon first discovery. Maintenance did remove the nests, but didn't find bugs. Our apartment complex allegedly never heard of this issue in the last 15 years the complex had been around. The pest control they hired was clueless about how to help us, also never heard of this issue, and said he would "look into it" and have an answer in a week, because he only comes out on Mondays.
I called Orkin the same day and waiting on a call back for an inspection and estimate. This has been a week so far and it's driven me to the point of needing anxiety meds. I break down every damn day. We have come a long way though.
My spouse has been my absolute backbone and cannot thank her enough. She tells me to remind myself of what we've done so far and to look at the evidence. The evidence is that they are dying and are going away. I ask yourself to do the same thing if you find yourself in this situation as well. Be diligent and do what you can.
The takeaway from all this: It can and will get better. It's vital to treat the root causes first. These little fucks will multiply somehow, even without bird blood, which is so wild because it's contrary to what I've read. We haven't had any really bite us or our pets, thankfully.
Also, more life lessons: Declutter where you can, properly store your clothes in bins, and get rid of the damn cardboard boxes. I swear you don't need them. Also, dehumidify your space if you live somewhere hot and icky like I do. Good luck out there.

I moved in yesterday and it was the biggest disaster i’ve ever dealt with on a move in day. my mom had to be my co-signed bc my credit is shit and she had been coordinating for a week with the leasing agent who showed me the apartment I was supposedly moving into. well, the things that she promised my mom didn’t happen. and yes it is partially my fault as well but let’s get to the point. when I first got there I was made to wait for over thirty minutes. no biggie I had nothing else to do. as we’re signing paperwork she is kind of snarky and a little rude. she had a maintenance man go check the apartment before I was given the keys (spoiler alert she didn’t even look at the apartment before I signed the apartment). he comes back and says the only repair needed is the fan above the stove is broken but will be repaired by the next day. whatever ok. she also tells me the flooring in my apartment has been upgraded and i’ll love it bc it looks so modern and nice. cool! and the she hands me my key fobs and sends me on my way.
I ask where I’m supposed to go and she points me in a general direction. I’m lost within two minutes but tell myself it’s no biggie and I can figure it out. the complex uses key fobs for everything. gates, door to get in the apartment, mailbox, etc. I can’t figure out the gate but finally do and make it up the stairs to my apartment.
when I walk into the apartment there’s small dead bugs literally everywhere on the floor. I start doing my checklist so I can turn it into the office and notice there’s a HUGE crack in the quartz countertop that looks to be filled in with caulk (terribly done btw), a huge stain on the dishwasher (that I later try to scrub and it doesn’t come off), and the fan in the bathroom doesn’t work. whatever, i’ll add it to the list of things needed repaired and turn it in. again no biggie I’ve had way worse apartments.
I have in unit laundry and when I went to check the washer it smelled SO BAD. so I decided to put laundry soap in and run a cycle on self clean. well, halfway through sweeping and mopping my apartment my washer leaks. so I call and ask if someone can come check it out.
someone does come and tells me when they were installing the new floors yesterday they did not hook the washer back up. not only is my new flooring soaked but he tore up the vinyl so badly that the water has soaked the flooring below it and now I’m worried about mold. I leave the apartment for a couple minutes to update my mom and come back to him leaving with a mop and bucket and him telling me the flooring would be fixed in the morning.
I go and check it out and it’s literally like he did not clean any of the water out from behind the washer and dryer before he mopped in front of it… so I call again and they say they will fix it with the flooring in the morning. bad on my part to come without a big towel I guess but I def should have.
now at this point I’m frustrated between everything not working and trying to set up wifi and being told i’ll need to spend $100 for a tech to come out when I was told that I could set this up by myself. not important but just adds to the frustration of the day!
she calls the girl who leased me the apartment and the girl just doesn’t say anything when my mom is asking why I wasn’t shown the apartment before signing and why the apartment has so many problems. the girl insists she did a walk through and knew all the problems the apartment had and was insistent that they would get fixed (spoiler she admitted she did not do a walk through after my mom asked her if she actually knew what was wrong with the apartment) and instead she receives an email a couple hours later that everything will be replaced. washedryer, flooring, dishwasher with huge stain, and countertop if the crack in it is still visible after they try to repair it.
I’m just frustrated. this was supposed to be a new beginning after having a shitty roommate. today I’m supposed to go into the office with a list of things the leasing agent promised to fix and have her sign it and I’m really just wondering if anyone thinks I need to do more regarding it all actually get fixed? I have no family besides my boyfriend who live in the same state as me. my mom literally lives five states away and so this falls onto me responsibility wise and it obviously needs fixed. advice please?

I'm starting to put together a list of infant care products for once my baby is born, and I'm looking for product recommendations!
I know for something like infant Tylenol or a thermometer, there's not really a "crunchy" alternative, but what about something like gripe water? Is it worth it, is there a specific brand I should look for? What about laundry detergent, soap, shampoo, lotion, diaper cream, etc?
Specific brand and product recommendations would be so greatly appreciated, I'm getting overwhelmed sifting through what's actually good vs greenwashing... for example, I've heard Aveeno and Honest aren't as good as they claim to be. What about other brands such as Earth Mama, Burt's Bees Baby, Dr. Bronners? Any other brands that would be good? Thanks in advance!

(As always, flyers are out Wednesdays, most store sales for the new flyer start on Thursdays)
Adonis

• Crab section (thawed) - $7.77 per lb -- Interesting! Could be fun for making neat meals!
• Coho salmon fillet - $7.77 per lb -- Wow! That's a great price for salmon!
• Sea bass (fresh, free cleaning) - $7.99 per lb -- Fair price for fresh fish.
• Basa filet (thawed) - $4.99 per lb -- Nice! It's not fresh filet, but it's a good price,.
• Chicken thighs (boneless skinless) - $5.99 per lb -- Not amazing, but ok for boneless chicken.
• Grain-fed veal blade roast - $5.99 per lb -- Interesting! It's a more tender cut, more delicate flavour, which might be nice!
• Beef eye of round - $6.99 per lb -- Good and fair price for eye of round. It's possible to find it for less, but it's a hunt. This is a regular Adonis deal.
• Rib-eye steak - $17.99 per lb -- Makes me think of a post I saw this week of a standard prime rib roast in Calgary sold at $55/kg, 27/lb or something. Which is crazy!
• Red greenhouse tomatoes - $0.99 per lb -- Awesome! Great price for tomatoes, but I found the other produce prices advertised were a little lackluster.
• Apricots (fresh) - $4.99 per lb -- Low-ish price for fresh apricots.
• Brick cheese (Cracker Barrel) - $5.77 400g bar -- Not under $5, but still worth snagging a bar if it means skipping a trip elsewhere.
• Cheese Counter - Canadian feta - $1.99 per 100g -- Nice! $2/100g for feta is good.
• Cheese Counter - Tuma - $2.29 per 100g -- Interesting! "Tuma cheese is renowned for its delicate mild milk flavour, and its smooth, velvety and firm texture."
• Cheese Counter - Akawi - $2.29 per 100g -- Ahh, this is a lovely cheese. Not cheap, but it's good stuff!
• Cheese Counter - Fior de latte - $2.29 per 100g -- Good price. This is the stuff you need for a Caprese salad!
• Pâté (Bretagne) - $5.00 for 2 150g packs -- Great price! These regularly go for $4 or so.
• Deli - Chicken breast (Solmaz) - $1.79 per 100g -- Nice!
• Deli - Smoked ham (Olymel) - $1.49 per 100g -- Excellent!
• Deli - Turkey breast (Alzahraa) - $1.49 per 100g -- More great deli!
• Deli - Prosciutto (Negroni) - $2.79 per 100g -- Ah! Nice! Different brand, same great prosciutto price!
• Walnuts and mixed nuts (Cedar) - $4.99 454g bag -- Nice! That's cheap!
• Almonds (Cedar) - $5.99 454g bag -- Good price for almonds!
• Pistachios (roasted, salted, Cedar) - $12.99 454g bag -- Pistachio prices are a little funny. $10/lb is really the price to aim for, but this isn't far off. And it's not uncommon to see 200-250g bags for $7-8 or more.
• Produce Price Rating: Medium, but always has well-priced chicken, the deli meat sale rotations are always fantastic, and just the overall variety of goods is refreshing. Personal favourite store.

Farm Boy

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless) - $5.99 per lb -- Fair price for chicken breast.
• Wild-caught Argentinian shrimp (23-30ct) - $7.99 340g bag -- This is a good rate on decent shrimp!
• Fresh sausage deal - $5.99 500g packs -- Nice little sausage deal here. Fresh sausage avoids the preservatives!
• Mini cucumbers - $5.00 for 2 6-packs -- Good price for mini cucumber.
• Fiddleheads (fresh daily) - $5.99 per lb -- Neat! These are fun to see on the shelf. Try a fun seasonal item!
• Hothouse tomatoes - $1.49 per lb -- Good price for tomatoes!
• Eggplant - $1.49 per lb -- Great price for eggplant! Often $2/lb or more!
• Zucchini - $1.49 per lb -- Good price zucch! You can find them for less, but you'll have to hunt for it.
• Green onion - $0.77 per bunch -- Nice! It's crazy to be happy about green onions for under $1…
• Blueberries - $2.99 full pint -- Ad is for 473g pints. This is a great deal! Worth snagging some!
• Produce Price Rating: High

Farmers Pick (can be a little late on their flyer) (https://www.farmerspick.ca/flyer-specials)
Food Basics

• Ground chicken (lean, Zabiha) - $3.88 450g pack -- Great price for ground chicken!
• Pork side rib - $2.98 per lb -- Good price for pork rib!
• Pork tenderloin - $2.98 per lb -- Great price for tenderloin. More often found for $4/lb.
• Fresh beef burger patties - $4.00 4-pack -- These are 1/4lb patties, meaning we're clocking in at $4/lb, which is honestly pretty good! Season them up and grill! There's also Selection 8-pack of buns on sale for 1.77. So, that's basically $10 for 8 burgers. That's value!
• Asparagus - $1.98 per lb -- Excllent! This is a great price! And it's not even the 340g bunches, no, this is per lb!
• Sweet peppers - $2.98 4-pack -- Nice!
• Sweet potato and sweet purple potato - $1.28 per lb -- Fair price for sweet potatoes. It's fun to see purple ones get lumped into the same bracket.
• Coleslaw kit (Green Giant) - $5.00 for 2 340g kits -- Great price for salad kits.
• Mini potatoes - $2.98 5lb bag -- Good price for mini potatoes!
• Strawberries - $1.67 454g shell -- WOW! Cross our fingers they're nice AND cheap!
• Cherries - $5.98 per lb -- Decent price for cherries. I like making homemade yogurt popsicles with fresh cherries. Bit if a pain in the ass to pit, but so worth it.
• Brick cheese (Selection) - $4.44 400g bar -- Nice! Sub-$5 bricks!
• Salametti (Matro) - $6.49 300g chubs -- May include other varieties
• Baby genoa (Mastro) - $8.99 600g chub? -- Hard to read the ad, but this is a good deal for a big chub of genoa!
• Mortadella (San Daniele) - $8.99 750g chub -- Works out to $1.20/100g, which is a substantial savings compared to the deli counter or buying it presliced and packed!
• BBQ Sauce and Mustard (Selection) - $1.00 each -- Nice! I personally love mustard and a good BBQ sauce. Might be nice to stock up for that burger night!
• Chips (Irresistibles) - $1.00 150g bag -- I usually don't point out chips and seed-oil-snacks, but this is a great deal!
• Produce Price Rating: Low to medium low

FoodLand

• Beef top sirloin steaks (AAA) - $7.99 per lb -- Great price for AAA steaks. Top sirloin isn't the best place to get a steak cut, but it could be fine. Have a look in-store and judge for yourself.
• Shrimp (31-40ct, Compliments) - $6.99 per lb -- Good price for shrimp, but note that these are small.
• Bar scallops (80-120ct, Compliments) - $6.99 per lb -- These are quite small, but they could be interesting to thaw, pat dry, and sear quick on high heat for use in salads. Or perhaps as a top to a risotto?
• Cucumber - $0.99 each -- Scene Member Price.
• Corn - $5.00 for 5 years -- $1 an ear!?!#@! Are they mad?! Do they not watch the news about boycotts and how consumers are pissed? And then you're going to charge them $1 for an ear of corn? My goodness…
• Produce Price Rating: Medium-high to high.

Freshco (price matcher)

• Bacon (Schneider's) - $3.99 375g pack -- Good price for brandname bacon. Sale also extends to some of their wieners and bologna.
• Frozen burgers (Compliments) - $9.99 1.13kg box (8-pack) -- This stretches us down into a $3/lb mark for beef. Which is pretty good all things considered, but know it's a processed meat. Read the ingredients: beef, water, bread crumb, soya flour, and salt and seasoning. You're paying for recovered meat mixed with bread crumb and flour. And the nutritional info on the pack reads 73% daily value of sat-fat in one 142g burger. A 152g fresh patty lands you at 60%. Know your food!
• Wild-caught Argentinian shrimp (23-30ct) - $6.99 300g bag -- This is a good rate on decent shrimp!
• Sweet peppers - $2.99 4-pack -- Nice!
• Mushrooms - $2.99 454g shell -- Great price!
• Green beans - $1.99 per lb -- Awesome price for green beans!
• Royal Gala apples - $1.49 per lb -- Good price for a nice apple variety. However, you can also sometimes score these for $1/lb if you wait and dig around for the sale.
• Blueberries - $2.49 full pint -- Nice! Another great blueberry sale!
• Produce Price Rating: Low to medium low (more on the medium side)

Giant Tiger (*note the VIP prices; sales begin today) (price matcher)

• Hotdog wieners (Olymel) - $2.47 375g 5-pack -- Sigh… Good price for wieners, but still… Don't overdo it. These are categorically terrible for you!
• Ambrosia apples - $2.88 3lb bag -- Great deal on a tasty apple variety that hits that $1/lb mark!
• Blueberries - $2.88 full pint -- Man! So many blueberry deals! Where are these coming from?!
• Romaine lettuce - $2.88 3-pack -- Nice! Fair price for romaine hearts.
• Baby spinach - $1.97 140g bin -- Good price for 140g. The prices of these bins are the weights are all over the place. Some places charge $4 for the same bin. And then some others charge $4 for 300g bins. Treat carefully!
• Canned tomatoes (Primo) - $3.00 for 2 796ml cans -- Good price for nice tomatoes. Funny enough, in this week's flyer, they advertise the Great Value (housebrand) tomatoes for 1.77 being 50c, but if you buy two Primo cans they work out to 50c less than the Great Value (confused yet? Lol)
• Fireworks - various -- LOL I just wanted to mention they got fireworks and firecrackers hahaha
• Produce Price Rating: Generally on the low side.

Green Fresh Supermarket (Vanier) (check https://greenfreshottawa20.wixsite.com/greenfreshottawa)

• Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.

IGA (price matcher)

• Hotdog wieners (Lafleur) - $5.00 for 2 packs 375-450g -- More hot dog prices for our analysis. I'm noting these to get a sense of what the heck is going on with these….
• Lobster (cooked or live) - $7.75 per lb -- Scene Member Price. 9.75/lb regular. Awesome deal!
• Tomahawk steak - $13.99 per lb -- That's pretty good for a fancy steak cut. I like thick cut steak because you can get that and crust without overcooking the meat. Pro tip: always salt and set your steak uncovered to dry in the fridge. That's what gets you a top-notch crust!
• Veal loin rack - $13.99 per lb -- This is more interesting than a value proposition. Expect a decent-sized rack to run you a pretty penny, but it should cook nicely. Remember to let it rest after it reaches the desired internal temp. Be patient!
• Whole chicken (fresh) - $1.99 per lb -- Great price!!
• Eggs (Nutri, Burnbrae) - $5.79 18-pack -- Not a ground-breaker price. Maybe it's just nice see some price stability in egg prices.
• Corn - $4.00 for 10 ears -- Excellent deal at 40c an ear!
• Cherries - $4.99 per lb -- Awesome!!! Cherries can easily reach into the $8-9/lb range.
• Bologna (Lesters) - $5.49 675g chub -- This is a good price for a chub. It's not fancy deli, but it beats the prices by 2-3x or more given you're paying 81c/100g.
• Deli - Cooked ham (Olymel) - $1.99 per 100g -- Speaking of deli prices, consider this unholy monolith slab of ham versus that slice-it-yourself bologna. This "hamalgum sibling" is 2.5x the price of the bologna by Lesters… Just saying…
• Produce Price Rating: Medium

Independent

• Pork back rib - $3.99 per lb -- Meh price for pork rib… $3/lb is good, but $4/lb doesn't seem worth it when it's largely bone anyway! I'd rather buy the duck they have for $4/lb….
• Atlantic salmon - $9.99 per lb -- Average price for pink fish.
• Beef striploin steaks (AA) - $7.88 per lb -- Good enough price for steaks, but FoodLand had AAA grade for the same price.
• Duck (fresh, grade A) - $3.99 per lb -- Good rate for duck.
• Asparagus - $2.99 per lb -- Meh rate. There's better.
• Strawberries - $2.49 454g shell -- Good price for strawberries.
• Butter (Lactantia) - $5.99 454g bar -- Sigh… I wish butter would come down in price…
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Loblaws

• Pork back rib - $3.99 per lb -- Meh price for pork rib… $3/lb is good, but $4/lb doesn't seem worth it when it's largely bone anyway! I'd rather buy the duck they have for $4/lb….
• Atlantic salmon - $9.99 per lb -- Average price for pink fish.
• Beef striploin steaks (AA) - $8.88 per lb -- Ben là là! Same AA steak, $1/lb more…
• Beef boneless blade roast (AA) - $8.99 per lb -- Ok price for beef… It's kind of meh… Consider visiting local butchers to see what they have going on.
• Duck (fresh, grade A) - $3.99 per lb -- Good rate for duck.
• Sweet potatoes - $3.99 5lb bag -- Great price for sweet potatoes
• Mini-cucumbers - $1.99 6-pack -- "Save $2". Ya, we know Loblaws. I've been saving $2 on these packs for months now at other stores.
• Blueberries - $1.99 full pint -- Great price for blueberries!
• Mango - $0.99 each -- Fair price for mango considering I've seen Loblaws charge much more for them. Also, I expect we'll see some nice sub-$1 deals in the future.
• Butter (Lactantia) - $5.99 454g bar -- More $6 butter.
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Provigo

• Pork chops - $2.49 per lb -- Good price for pork chops.
• Chicken breast and thighs (boneless skinless) - $4.99 per lb -- Good price chicken.
• Atlantic salmon - $8.99 per lb -- Good price for pink fish.
• Corn - $5.00 4-pack -- What?! How can we have these disparities… Maxi has theirs for 33c an ear. That's $1.30 versus $5 for 4 ears… Insane difference in price…
• Watermelon (9lb average) - $3.88 each -- Nice price for watermelon.
• Mango - $0.99 each -- That $1 deal again. "Save $2". Meaning regular price was $3. Insanity.
• Deli - Mock chicken (Gaspésien) - $1.29 per 100g -- Good price for deli, but it's mock chicken. I would refer back to the IGA deal on Lesters bologna. Buy whole chubs, slice it yourself, and save.
• Produce Price Rating: fairly high with few exceptions

Maxi (price matcher)

• Ground beef (medum) - $8.88 1.1kg -- About 2.5lb of beef, which clocks this in at about 3.50/lb. That's pretty good!
• Corn - $0.33 per ear -- Awesome price for corn! It's crazy. Provigo had their 4-packs for $5. Which
• Mini-cucumbers - $0.88 6-pack -- Very nice! A regular "good deal" is $2.
• Coleslaw kit (Florette) - $1.88 340g kit -- Great deal for a salad kit.
• Potatoes (Imperfect) - $4.88 15lb bag -- Excellent!!
• Mini-carrots - $4.88 2lb bag -- This is a good deal given a 2/3lb bag can be $2-3.
• Watermelon - $2.88 each -- Nice price for watermelon, but no weight advertised.
• Kiwis - $4.88 600g pack -- Pretty good. Can be as low as $4, but this is a fair price.
• Apples (Cortland, Empire) - $5.88 4lb bag -- Ok price for what should be over-winter apples. Mind the bruising.
• Fancy cheese deal - $18.00 for 3 -- Check the flyer and in-store for more details.
• Sriracha (Flying Goose) - $3.88 730ml bottle -- Nice! It's a different brand, but the price is right. I wonder what the difference is.
• Silk plant bev - $6.88 for 2 1.75-1.89L jugs -- Good deal.
• White vinegar - $2.88 for 2 4L jugs -- This might be good to get in advance of some pickling plans.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally medium low pricing! This store can post some impressive deals at times.

Metro

• Pork back rib - $2.99 per lb -- Good price for pork rib. It's that magical $3/lb mark. It's hard to find rib for less. And, I wouldn't pay over $3/lb.
• Beef top sirloin steak or roast (AAA) - $6.88 per lb -- Great price for AAA grade beef! They also have "platinum angus medallions" for 8.88/lb.
• Fresh sausage - $4.99 per lb -- Great price for fresh sausage. You can spend $1/lb more and get organic stuff by Dubreton.
• Cucumber - $0.77 each -- Awesome!!!
• Cauliflower - $2.99 each -- Decent. Not amazing, but decent given a head can go for $4-5 easily.
• Portabella mushrooms (Belle Grove) - $6.99 4-pack -- Hmm, I'll have to keep an eye out for prices on portabellas. This doesn't seem that bad off the hop. I know sometimes you can get 4-6 packs for about $4-5, though. But, you have to hunt around town for deals like that.
• Blueberries - $1.99 full pint -- Great price for blueberries!
• Cherries - $5.99 per lb -- Nice! Fair sale price for cherries!
• Watermelon (15lb average) - $9.99 each -- Trying to make sense of these watermelon prices. This isn't as good as some other deals. But considering on the same page they advertise 1.49/lb for sliced watermelon, it suggests this watermelon could cost you up to $22.
• Butter (Selection) - $4.88 454g bar -- $5 butter.
• Produce Price Rating: High. Kinda like Sobeys. You can see a 50% average mark-up compared to a lot of other stores. It's nice produce, but it costs you.

No Frills (price matcher)

• Beef burgers (No Name) - $9.99 1.36kg 12-pack -- Just more frozen burger musing. Basically much like the Compliments ones we saw earlier, but 113g each, but with more sugars and funny ingredients, and the same amount of sat-fat! (And they skip mentioning that 75%-ish daily value number for the sat-fat). Like, what the heck are "onion extract" and "corn syrup solids". Do they squeeze the onion and throw away the rind? And isn't solid syrup just solid sugar? lol....
• T-bone/Wing steak - $6.99 per lb -- This might seem like a good deal, but it's ungraded beef. Why pay this price when metro has AAA-grade steaks for a smidge less?
• Picnic pork shoulder - $2.44 per lb -- Excellent price! These are AWESOME for smoking and braising for pulled pork!
• Ground chicken or turkey - $8.00 870g pack -- Not bad. Works out to about $4.20/lb or so.
• Ground beef (lean) - $6.00 450g tube -- Really a meh price for "tube meat".
• Steelhead trout fillet - $9.99 per lb -- Standard pricing for pink fish.
• Asparagus - $2.99 per lb -- Ok price for asparagus. I expect better from No Frills.
• Green beans - $2.99 per lb -- Same with the green beans, I expect a bit better.
• Cucumber - $0.99 each -- Good price for cucumber.
• Mini-cucumber - $3.99 11-pack -- Fair price on the 11-pack. Meanwhile, Maxi has the 6-pack for 88c… Sigh…
• Watermelon (9lb average) - $2.99 each -- Good price for melon.
• Ataulfo mangoes - $5.64 5lb case -- This should work out to about 8 or so mangoes. Good deal.
• Pineapple - $2.99 each -- Good price for pineapple.
• Brick cheese (Armstrong) - $5.49 400g bar -- Hmm, ya, seeing some 50c to $1 upward pressure on cheese pricing a little everywhere….
• Earth's Own plant bev - $3.79 1.74-1.89L jug -- Good price. Regular floats well into the $5-ish ranges.
• Dry pasta (Italpasta) - $1.25 750g packs -- Good price for dry pasta. Stock up a little. Maybe there's a potluck pasta salad in your future.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally quite low, selectively amazing for some items.

Produce Depot (usually a little late on the flyer) https://producedepot.ca/

• Ground beef (lean) - $4.99 per lb -- Fair rate for ground beef. Considering No Frills is selling 450g tube meat for $6, I'd buy this in a heartbeat. It's just not stock-up pricing.
• Beef New York striploin steak - $12.99 per lb -- I wish they'd mention the grade, but if it looks nice, it could make for a nice BBQ item.
• Whole atlantic salmon (fresh) - $6.99 per lb -- Now, it's not filet and deboned, but it's a heckin' deal for salmon.
• Wild-caught squid - $8.99 per lb -- Perhaps there's calamari in your future?
• Hothouse tomatoes - $1.29 per lb -- Great price for tomatoes!
• Green and red leaf lettuce - $1.69 per head -- Great price for leafy greens!
• Sweet orange peppers - $0.99 per lb -- AWESOME price for peppers!!!
• Brussel sprouts - $1.49 per lb -- Fantastic price for brussel sprouts! Often over $3/lb.
• Blackberries - $1.49 half pint -- Good deal for blackberries. Lots of blueberries going around, though.
• Red seedless grapes - $1.99 per lb -- Fantastic price for grapes! Often $4/lb.
• Peaches - $2.49 per lb -- These are from the USA. It could be a they come out a little tough. Leave them on the counter to ripen, but eat them fast after that!
• Cheese counter - Landana smoked cheese - $2.39 per 100g -- I'm partial to smoked cheese. This could make for a nice fancy burger topping.
• Deli - Genoa salami (Mastro) - $2.59 per 100g -- This isn't fantastic pricing, but fair. A 600g chub can clock in at $10-12 or so, this deli counter pricing is fairly competitive.
• Produce Price Rating: Medium-low with very competitive specials on a shortened flyer. The small flyer is nice because it doesn't uselessly feature $6 heads of cauliflower and extremely high-price items that are either a confusion on the consumer, or an insult on the injury of not being able to afford supreme quality items.

Real Canadian Superstore (price matcher)

• Beef rib-steak (ungraded) - $7.88 per lb -- More ungraded beef at graded prices.
• Pork tenderloin - $3.49 per lb -- Fair price for tenderloin.
• Duck (frozen, grade A) - $3.99 per lb -- Fairly regular price for duck.
• Golden Pompano (frozen) - $2.88 per lb -- This is advertised a lot at the RCSS. I've never seen it elsewhere. Does anyone have experience with it?
• Dressed Tilapia (frozen) - $2.88 per lb -- Dressed means tail and fines removed,
• Potatoes - $5.50 10lb bag -- Great price for potatoes.
• Corn - $0.40 per ear -- Awesome price for corn. This is probably loss-leader territory.
• Watermelon (11lb average) - $3.99 each -- Good price for a big melon.
• Pineapple - $3.00 each -- Good price for pineapple.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally medium-low pricing, selectively amazing for some items.

Sobeys

• Chicken thighs (boneless skinless) - $5.99 per lb -- Fair price for boneless chicken. There's better out there, however.
• Beef striploin steaks (AA) - $8.77 per lb -- Scene Member Price.
• Beef sirloin tip roast or marinating steaks (AAA) - $8.99 per lb -- Hmm, striploin AA versus sirloin tip AAA… Might be a toss up. Sirloin is leaner and has less marbling. But AAA might lend to a tenderness. This may be give and take, here…
• Lobster (live) - $10.99 per lb -- Scene Member Price.
• Pork chops - $3.49 per lb -- Not a great price, really, but it may be your option if you're stuck with Sobey's this week. Ad mentions it includes roasts.
• Picnic pork shoulder - $3.49 per lb -- We saw No Frills offereing this at 2.44/lb. A $1/lb more isn't great, admittedly. But, it's an option.
• Asparagus - $2.44 per lb -- Good price!
• Green beans - $2.67 per lb -- Good price!
• Bok choy - $0.99 per lb -- Amazing price. I don't get how other places charge $2/lb+ for choy, and then you have Sobeys of all stores swooping in to corner that side of the market.
• Asian pears - $0.99 per lb -- Awesome price!
• Brick cheese (Cracker Barrel) - $5.77 400g bar -- More of this elevated cheese pricing… Hmm….
• Produce Price Rating: Generally a high price store, especially for produce. Some items are 50% more than more value-oriented stores. Kinda like Metro, some of the deals can be quite good.

Super C

• Chicken breast (boneless skinless) - $4.44 per lb -- Awesome price!!
• Atlantic salmon - $9.88 per lb -- Standard sale price for pink fish.
• Pork tenderloin (marinated) - $3.44 per lb -- Good price. Not amazing. But, pre-marinated? Hmm, makes for an easy meal.
• Corn - $1.88 for 5 ears -- Awesome price!! Under 40c an ear!
• Broccoli - $1.33 per crown -- Very good price for broc, especially if the crowns are nice. A good crown can easily range over $2.
• Radishes - $0.99 per bunch -- Nice! A good addition to salads or veg trays.
• Green onions - $0.99 per bunch -- Fair price for green onion. It's hard to find it under $1.
• Mini-carrots - $0.99 340g bag -- Nice!
• Mini-cucumbers - $1.99 6-pack -- Fair going-rate now for mini cuce. A very welcome change from charging $4 for these packs.
• Mini-potatoes - $1.99 3lb bag -- Good price for mini potatoes. There's still better value in regular size potatoes most of the time. But, sometimes, these sales can negate that value proposition. Plus, these are nice a thousands ways to Sunday. They cook very quickly, and are great oven-roasted, steamed, and BBQ'ed with other veg.
• Apples (Empire, Spartan) - $3.99 3lb bag -- Fair price for apples these days, it seems. I think we'll be hard-pressed to find certain varieties for under $1/lb for a while.
• Strawberries - $1.63 454g shell -- Awesome price!!!
• Pineapple - $1.88 each -- Fantastic!
• Oranges - $2.99 3lb bag -- Good price for oranges!
• Mangos - $0.99 each -- Good price. Mangoes should clock in at around $1 each. Enough of these $2-3 mangos…
• Cantaloupe - $2.99 each -- Good price/fair sale price for cantaloupe.
• Cherries - $4.99 per lb -- Wow! Great price for cherries!!!
• Brick cheese (Black Diamond, Ptit Quebec) - $4.87 400g bar -- Nice to see we still ahve sub-$5 cheese options this week.
• Fancy cheese deal - $18.00 for 3 -- Apparently includes 20 different varieties.
• Produce Price Rating: Generally low, but can creep into medium for some items. But, there's always something decent available!

T&T Supermarket https://www.tntsupermarket.com

• Produce Price Rating: Usually very competitive, catering to Asian cuisine. Warning: their newest sales start on Fridays - so this is a late advertising of their sales.

Walmart

• Ground beef (lean) - $3.97 per lb -- Excellent rate on ground beef! Make your own burgers!!!!
• Chicken or Pork kabobs (Marcangelo) - $7.87 480-640g 8-packs -- It's basically $1 a kabob. That ain't bad for a ready-to-cook item. But, note that this translates essentially into 8/lb at worst, or 5.50/lb at best. There are WAY better deals on pork and chicken around.
• Asparagus - $2.97 per lb -- Fair price for asparagus.
• Corn - $0.32 per ear -- Best price on corn this week!
• Potatoes - $4.97 10lb bag -- Good price for a 10lb bag.
• Coleslaw kit - $2.77 397g kit -- Good price for a decent-size slaw kit.
• Strawberries - $1.84 454g shell -- Awesome price!!!
• Pineapple - $3.97 each -- Not bad. I like to see $3, and less shouldn't be taken for granted. Remember, it takes 2 years to grow a pineapple. One bad fungal disease and we should see these shoot up to $6-8 a piece. Treasure well-priced pineapple!
• Brick cheese (Armstrong) - $4.94 400g bar -- Another $5 brick cheese sale.
• Produce Price Rating: A little all over the place. Some really good prices between a lot of average pricing.

Costco (Note that these are the online/shipped prices - reduce each item by $3 for in-store pricing)

• NOTE: NEED TO REVISE - --
• Paper Towel (Kirkland) - $27.99 12-roll pack -- 2-ply; 160 sheets
• Paper Towel (Bounty) - $27.49 12-roll pack -- 2-ply; 86 sheets
• Toilet Paper (Kirkland) - $25.99 30-roll pack -- 2-ply; 380 sheets
• Toilet Paper (Cashmere) - $24.99 40-roll pack -- 2-ply; 250 sheets (on sale)
• Dish soap (Dawn Platinum) - $18.99 2.66L -- Food Basics often has this jug for $10!
• Laundry detergent (Purex) - $24.99 9.24L -- 250 loads
• Garbage bags (30 gallon; large) - $15.99 100-pack -- Amazon has Glad standard 74L bags, 100-packs for $23, sometimes less if on sale
• Countertop green bin liners - $21.99 125-pack -- Amazon has Glad Compostable green bin liners 100-packs for $18, sometimes less if on sale
• Produce Price Rating: I need to do a proper check to be sure, but I find it's pretty average. There's an illusion of getting a good deal because of the bulk. Just be careful.

Jean Coutu (new sales start Fridays)

• Produce Price Rating: I have to start checking these just in case...

Shoppers Drug Mart (new sales start Fridays)

• Produce Price Rating: Sometimes they have cheap butter, eggs, and milk on weekends.

Some additional references!

• Grocery Review Google Drive Location https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xhLvBP1smXb1eSnxAW5yyBjO2aYFLJHC?usp=sharing
• Cooking Tips and Recipes https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TCcHm9y0kWIa3x18hznKN2ix0BPcUv-m?usp=drive_link
• Google Maps list of the Grocery stores in Ottawa https://maps.app.goo.gl/YT7cZmv8vMQWU4J59

PART ONE THOUSAND AND TWELVE
[Previous Chapter] [The Beginning] [Patreon+2]
Sunday
Lucas stretched and yawned in bed, taking a moment to enjoy the complete lack of needing to rise before his hand stretched out in search of Boyd.
And once again, that side of the bed was empty.
Biting back a whine of dismay, Lucas rolled until he was face down on Boyd’s pillow, breathing in the cologne they both now wore. The detective in him quickly deduced that Boyd had been gone a while based on the chill in the sheets. He curled his hands around the pillow and hugged it tight, wishing it was the big mountain of a man himself instead of this weak substitute.
As thrilled as he was about Boyd finding a new career that he was so passionately driven about, he was equally happy that his fiancé took his responsibility to his clients seriously. Still, would it have killed him to sleep in just one morning instead of abandoning their wrecked bed the morning after their engagement party?
After several minutes of wallowing, he finally accepted the inevitable that no amount of wishful thinking was going to make Boyd appear and climbed out of bed. He removed his snore rings and took a quick shower.
Once he was dressed, he felt a little better.
The next thing he had to do was strip down the bed and remake it. They’d been very busy last night, which was why he’d only just woken up at—his gaze fell upon the clock— DAMN! It’s nearly lunchtime!
“I’m gonna kill him for letting me sleep in so long,” he muttered under his breath, carrying the linen through the apartment and into the kitchen, which doubled as a laundry on their end. After nine years of living in this layout, he didn’t need to see over the pile in his arms to know precisely where he was, and with the load balanced on one arm, he turned at the right moment, opened the massive frontloading washing machine and stuffed it all in.
“Hey, Unca Luke!” Maddy’s shrill voice had him leaping into the air, slamming the door shut and swivelling around in front of it to hide the evidence. “Didja pee the bed?”
His brother and his niece were sitting at the island, Maddy with her breakfast of honey-and-cream-covered waffles, which were only half-eaten, and Levi patiently waited for her to finish since the plate in front of him was empty. The latter was grinning at him as only a brother could.
He’d forgotten all about them staying over.
It took a hot second for what Maddy asked to register with him, and when it did, his mouth dropped, and he glanced at his brother, who was twisting himself into a pretzel to avoid laughing out loud. Asshole. “No, Peaches,” he said, glaring daggers at Levi for not even trying to help him out. “Boyd and I like clean sheets every day, and it’s not fair to make somebody else wash them for us, is it?”
Bright red ringlets of hair swayed as the little girl shook her head. “Daddy makes me fix stuff too.”
Lucas moved the three feet between the washing machine to his brother sitting in Mason’s seat at the corner. “That’s because Daddies always know what’s best.” He wrapped an arm around his brother’s neck in a loose chokehold and gave him a noisy morning kiss on the cheek. “Ain’t that right, Daddy?” He said that last word in a sultry purr the way Robbie would, and the reaction from Levi was priceless.
“Fuck off with that shit, you prick!” his brother swore, shoving Lucas away with all his might.
“DADDY!” Maddy squealed in horror, and Lucas clapped his hands together once behind Maddy’s chair and raised his clenched fists in victory. He’d been angling for one swear word, maybe two to distract young Maddy from his not-so-discreet linen run. Three was a veritable home run.
Snickering quietly to himself, he went back to the washing machine, loaded it up with soap and softener and turned it on. Then, he walked over to the wooden box under the window. ‘Just think what you want,’ Charlie had told him at the party. ‘It’s a Nascerdios box that Robbie fills up throughout the night.’
He stared hard at the box while he considered his options, settling on a plate of breakfast tacos with seasoned mince, fried eggs, tomatillos, shredded lettuce, and cheese wrapped in soft tortillas buttered with a thin spread of mashed avocado.
After the last month, it didn’t surprise him in the least when he opened the lid and found that exact meal sitting there, waiting for him. Maybe the quantity, since they were piled three high, but not the meal itself.
The same could not be said for Levi when Lucas turned around with the plate in his hand. “Robbie had that ready for you too?” he asked, as Lucas grabbed a glass from the cupboard and placed it and the plate in his regular sitting place adjacent to his brother before sliding into his seat. He knew Levi wasn’t questioning Viola since the box itself was made and gifted by someone with the last name Nascerdios.
The veil was an ass.
“I told you; he did most of the catering yesterday, too,” Lucas said, reaching for the jug of juice. He was curious what it would be today. Yesterday, it had been orange and mango juice, with apple the day before.
A quick sniff made it most likely grapefruit.
He tightened the roll on the first taco and lifted it to his lips, enjoying the flavours that exploded in his mouth. Because Levi had finished whatever had been on his plate, he was watching him eat as if he’d never seen it before. It finally clicked why. “You want to try one?” Lucas asked, nudging his plate towards his brother. “There’s plenty here if you want one. Too many, if anything.”
Levi didn’t need to be told twice and reached over, using his fingers just as Lucas had. “How did he learn to cook so well?” Levi demanded, almost fitting the whole thing in his mouth.
“He’s always cooked,” Lucas answered, fudging things slightly. “When he was growing up, cooking was his chore while his mom was at work. He only stopped because Mom refused to let him help in the kitchen.”
“I would’ve fought that a lot harder if I’d have known he could produce this.”
“Yeah, you and me both, bro. Even when we were upstairs, he was forever watching the cooking channels for new ideas.” Lucas didn’t want to mention that these days, Robbie only did so to critique the so-called experts. “Have you seen Boyd?”
Levi shook his head. “I was assuming he was still in with you. If I’d known you were in there alone, I’d have sicc’d Maddy onto you.”
“I can wake Daddy and Unca’ Austin good!” Maddy said proudly. “I gets me a dolla’.”
“Ssshhh, Peaches. That’s out secr—wait. Does Uncle Austin pay you, too?”
Maddy was adorable the way she looked at Lucas like he would intervene for her. “Sorry, baby girl,” he laughed, eating another taco. “You’re on your own.”
The two brothers bantered as Lucas ate, with Levi stealing another taco, bringing Lucas’ total number down to five. Maddy told them both about wanting to be a vet, and Lucas knew precisely who to blame for that. Still, it was better than her previous choice of ‘stripping’ the way Robbie and Angelo used to. Levi’s meltdown over that revelation had been priceless, even if he, too, was firmly in the ‘fuck that noise’ camp.
When he polished them and half the juice off, he poured the last into Maddy’s cup and put his things and the jug in the dishwasher. “You can hang out here if you want,” Lucas said. “The guys and I are heading out this afternoon to play some ball over at Angus’ place, but if you call Austin and find out Pepper’s roommate is still with him, the TV over there has…”
“Every cable channel imaginable, I know. Charlotte—”
“Charlie.”
“Charlie told us last night.” Levi sat back in his seat and stared at his brother. “What do you make of Larry, Luke? Does he have kids?”
“Why?”
“He watched Maddy for me last night while I was having a shower, and Maddy loves him. You know how picky she is about people she doesn’t know.”
“I know he’s married to a career soldier and was one too before being assigned to us. I’m not sure about his past, but he’s a good guy and ridiculously protective of those either in his charge or that he happens to care about.”
Levi grunted. “Charl*—lie* said so too. He certainly knows his Spongebob.”
Lucas squinted. “Why all the questions?”
“Just thinking out loud. If he’s going to be here all the time with Robbie, and Austin and I get called into the house together, it’s always been a struggle figuring out where we can leave Maddy on short notice. We don’t exactly have time to drive all the way over to Queens to drop her off at either Mav’s or Mom and Dad’s. I mean, so far, we haven’t needed to, but it’s a constant concern.”
Lucas frowned at him. “We’ve been here for years. Why didn’t you ask before now?”
Levi seemed suddenly uncomfortable. “You know…” he said, gesturing to the ceiling without finishing that sentence.
And just like that, Lucas did understand.
Six men, all sharing one shoebox-sized apartment with two of them being sex workers, was not where anyone would want to drop off a little girl. Even if Lucas did vouch for all of them and swore they’d all be protective as hell over little Maddy. “Look, I can’t speak for them specifically, but Charlie’s here under house arrest for the next ten months, and Boyd now works out of his studio, so technically, someone will be here all the time. There’s not a chance in hell we’ll turn you away.”
“I’ll ask her and Miss W before we go.”
Lucas looked at what the two of them were wearing. “You know, I could duck out and grab you and Maddy some clothes just as soon as I check in with Boyd, if you like.”
He watched Levi look down at the shirt and boxers that were a little big on him width-wise and across at Maddy, who still wore Charlie’s favourite Giants’ shirt.
“That’d be good, thanks,” he admitted.
“I’ll get extras, and that way, she can have a few changes of clothes here. Actually, do you want me to grab you some spare stuff too?”
Levi stiffened in his seat. “I don’t need you to buy me clothes.”
Lucas wanted to slap him in the back of the head (and would’ve if Maddy wasn’t there). “Stop,” he commanded instead. “I’m already going to a clothes shop. It’s not going to be anything fancy, and if you hate it, you can swap it out with your own stuff later.”
Knowing his brother was still uncomfortable, Lucas waved his hand at the kitchen. “Seriously, Levi, look around. Look at how I’m living, and I’m not paying a dime in rent. Llyr won’t let me since we’ve been looking out for Sam for years. Let me do this for you, so you’ll always know you and Maddy have somewhere safe to go.”
Levi glanced around, his lips tightening before he finally nodded, unwilling to say the words out loud, and Lucas clapped him on the shoulder. “We’re family, dumb-ar—dumb,” he amended, with little ears sitting on the other side of his brother. “Dumb-dumb. I meant Dumb-dumb.”
Levi chuckled and patted his brother’s hand. “I appreciate it, bro. We’ll chill here until you get back. Don’t rush … apparently, you have a gazillion cable channels to choose from, and Maddy doesn’t want to leave until she’s seen them all.”
“I don’t think you’ll live that long,” Lucas laughed and headed back to his room to grab his gear since he was now leaving the apartment. As he clipped and slid everything from sunglasses to his wallet, keys, phone, badge bifold, and ankle-holstered BUG, he almost envied women with carryall handbags that could be grabbed on their way out the door.
Almost.
* * *
((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I’d love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗))
I made a family tree/diagram of the Mystallian family that can be found here
For more of my work, including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.
FULL INDEX OF BOB THE HOBO TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!

So, I feel a duty to add my story as this site was my saviour during our “situation” as we like to call it. In February this year my husband started itching, the itching was so bad it kept him awake at night. A week or so later I finally had a look at his bare back and he was covered in spots and scabs. At first we thought it was chicken pox, scabies looks very similar but as he had already had chicken pox it was possible but not common to contract it a second time. I will ever forget when it dawned on me what he had, it was the absence of anything on his neck or face that led me to search google and discover scabies!! At first we were mildly amused, little did we know the nightmare that was about to begin. We had scabies confirmed by a private doctor who gave us a prescription for permethrin and off we went thinking ok, we will just apply this cream, it will be sorted and we will just get on with our lives. We managed to bypass the prescription and get permethrin for £10 a tube but as we had 2 teenage kids at home we needed at least 2 tubes each for the first round and another 8 for the second, supplies are hit and miss in our area so we had to ring various chemists for stock. We were already into the £100s after the private doctor and the permethrin but felt confident it would work. I stripped all the beds, bagged up our clothes, did the treatment expectantly and cleaned our home like a mad women. The following week we did the same again, every day in between i cleaned daily, vacumed and decontaminated our home Just incase there were any of the blighters Crawling about. By the way scabies will turn you into a paranoid cleaning Machine. I purchased a box of 100 latex gloves. You will need these!! 3-4 days after the second treatment I had new marks and so did my husband, we had followed the instructions to the letter but permethrin had not worked, we spent a further £160 and completed 2 more treatments a week apart then sure as eggs 3-4 days later it started again. It was as if we were just numbing the scabies then they would re-emerge after 3-4 days. I could literally time when I would see new evidence they were still on us. Our 2 kids (late teens) never showed symptoms and seeing as we don’t share a bathroom with them and our house is quite big we decided not to treat them further. We zoned the house so there were rooms just myself and my husband used and I wore gloves around the kitchen or if I needed to go into their spaces. Next treatment we tried was Derbac M. Again we followed the instructions to the letter and 4 days after last treatment there they were again!! I was beside myself with endless cleaning, washing, drying and stripping Bed sheets, it’s exhausting mentally and physically. It was while I was at the hairdressers following another, what I hoped was a successful treatment that I realised they were on my scalp!! Do not listen if anyone tells you they don’t go above the neck they do!! When my hairdresser added dye to my scalp it was incredibly painful, not a feeling I have ever had before and on further inspection I had track marks and burrows On my ears !! It made sense that most of my marks were on my neck upper back and arms now, they had infested my scalp. In frustration I searched this site for an alternative treatment, my doctor would not Prescribe ivermectin and offered me a dermatology appointment but I would have to Wait 6 weeks and still couldn’t guarantee ivermectin. I ordered in desperation benzyl benzoate from an online pharmacy, try to get the lotion rather than the oil, I bought a litre from Irish pharmacy for about £50 and I arrived in 4 days. We applied it head to toe, face, ears and scalp morning and night for 3 nights and 4 days without showering inbeween, everyday I stripped the bed, hoovered the mattress and the bedroom along with my normal decontamination cleaning routine I did every day. Right from the start I blasted all our dirty laundry in the tumble dryer on high heat for 30 minutes then washed on a normal wash cycle, I also tumble dried our pillows every day, we slept apart for 2 months so as not to reinfect each other on the off chance that one of us would be cured before the other. I also made a solution of vodka, water and tea tree oil that I sprayed on carpets, rugs and upholstery every day and after reading online decided to iron our mattress every day too. As I said this situation will drive you insane, the fear that you are never going to be rid of it is real and the fact you cannot see them makes it an unfair game. We waited 9-10 days before our second treatment of BB and again we did 3 nights, 4 days without showering inbeween, the BB cream stings a little in delicate areas but it soon wears off. I also bought cheap toothbrushes from the supermarket 25 pence for a pack of 2 for between toes and toenails. On day 4 I was checking for new marks but there were none, I have had in the last 4 weeks a few scratches and a peppering of tiny scabbed spots but I am happy to trust and believe it’s post scabies, neither of us are itching, we have not had post scabies itch but I think this is because we didn’t do multiple treatments of permethrin . We are now 4 weeks clear after a 9’week battle that almost broke me’ BB was the key to our cure just make sure you apply it literally everywhere. Sub note, our electric bill is over £1500, this has cost approximately £2000 due to 9 weeks of washing and tumble drying for hours, we still don’t know how my husband caught it we were in Egypt mid January but he also had a chiropractor appointment early Feb and he said there was no cover on the treatment bed so we can’t quite nail it down but was one of them. I never had it to the extent of my husband, he was covered head to toe in tracks but I did catch it from sharing a bed before his diagnosis. I hope my story helps someone as I in turn was helped enormously by the Reddit community.

Hi. I am embarrassed and at my wit's end and angry at my body and I don't know what to do at this point. This may be long, and it is as much of a desperate plea for help as it is a rant at some points. It will definitely be TMI. I apologize in advance.
My vagina stinks by the end of the day, every day. Often it takes far less time to get stinky than "the end of the day". I would describe it as sometimes a strong ammonia, sometimes fishy, sometimes bitter smell that lingers in my pants and is horrible. I have done so much research and I can't figure this out. This has been going on for at least a year at this point, after a lifetime of never having an issue and having what I would consider a healthy vagina- generally either odorless or at most a little bit soumusty after a long day. I have an IUD which has been in place since 2020.
I got a call-in treatment for oral metronidazole before all this testing- a few days into treatment, I had one day of my formerly unstinky vag before I experienced wild, possibly unrelated symptoms and had to visit the hospital. I was told to stop my course of antibiotics then, and quickly Stinky Vag™ returned. I went to urgent care and tested for BV and STDs and came back clean. Then I went to my gyno and tested for BV, all the STDs, mycoplasma and ureaplasma, everything I've read about on reddit or medical studies or sketchy sites and it all came back clean. She referred me to some natural women's health place that doesn't take insurance, so I can't afford that and don't know that I trust that anyway.
I have tried lactic acid gel. I have used boric acid suppositories, at first daily when I was hoping for a cure and now only on occasion (they provide a short term break from the stink for the day after, but do not resolve symptoms and I was tired of dealing with leakage and PUTTING SOMETHING IN MY VAGINA EVERY NIGHT). I tried vitamin C suppositories. If you're thinking maybe it's because I keep putting stuff up my vagina, don't worry, I've had plenty of time in the last year to try nothing and hope my system self-regulated eventually. (It didn't.) I have switched to scent-free detergents. I use cotton underwear. I shower regularly. I sleep without undies. I assure you, I wash regularly. I have tried no soap and just washing with water, tried pH balanced (unscented) soap, then plain freaking Dove, and nothing has gotten me anywhere. I take a high dose of oral probiotics, and drink kefir and eat other fermented things. I drink water. I am sick of throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. I don't want to keep having to think about this.
Symptoms: Odor (aren't you surprised?) Sometimes when I wipe, the paper is very yellow. Odor is way worse if I've been sweating around my inner thighs (which is pretty much everyday I'm in public).
What's wrong with me? Why did all of my tests come back clean and yet my vagina. Still. Stinks. Please help me. If you know anything, any next step I can take, anywhere else I can ask, anything at all, please.

This is the first time I’m talking of this to anyone or on any platform and it’s just because I’m so ashamed of what has happened to me. When I started high school I was a straight A student in all honors classes. I had long pretty black hair with blonde highlights, I was a healthy weight and I loved wearing cute clothes. I barely went out and I focused on my studies and loved myself a lot. The end of freshman year my abusive mom called the cops on me after an argument we had, and the absolute worst had happened. Instead of taking a moment to understand the situation the cops took me to juvenile detention and I stayed there longer than I should have, about 2 months. I contracted scabies from there and the nurse there said it was just allergies from the detergent they use. I left riddled with scars all over my body and the anxiety I had there made them worst because of the picking. I had no support and I was so young and lost to everything going on. My own mom who called them even begged for me to come home just one day after but there wasn’t anything she could do. My grades dropped tremendously from then on I was so depressed I gained so much weight and I could barely take care of myself anymore after, I still can’t. I have to wear long sleeve shirts and pants to cover the scars I have but when someone saw them at school I was immediately treated like an outcast and everyone treated me like I had a disease, I go to a very big American school. I already cured the scabies after leaving detention but the scars still remain. I’ve dealt with severe depression since 11 years old, I’m very shy and quiet, to me my looks and grades were I all had to show. I know “looks aren’t everything” but the way people treat me now is definitely different from how I used to be. I just want my life to be how it was before but I know it’ll never happen. I have scars on my body that remain for life. From everything that happened I couldn't fight the mental battle anymore and ended up smoking weed as well as a few opioids something that me from freshman year would have never thought of doing. I don’t do those things anymore but I fell into a very dark route. I did online school and finished so I’ve been at home. I attempted suicide a week ago and I’m home now from the hospital. Anti- depressants and therapy hasnt worked for me. Some people have it worse than me I know, but I used to be a good kid and so pretty, in just a short amount of time my life has spiraled into nothing but emptiness and regret. I just want to be myself again but my body and mind is damaged enough I feel like it’ll never happen. I don’t have really have anyone to talk to about this, I sit on the internet seeing all these girls my age living normal lives something I so easily could have had. Please someone tell me if my body will ever be normal again, and how I can get rid of my scars. I just want the old me back.

This is the first time I’m talking of this to anyone or on any platform and it’s just because I’m so ashamed of what has happened to me. When I started high school I was a straight A student in all honors classes. I had long pretty black hair with blonde highlights, I was a healthy weight and I loved wearing cute clothes. I barely went out and I focused on my studies and loved myself a lot. The end of freshman year my abusive mom called the cops on me after an argument we had, and the absolute worst had happened. Instead of taking a moment to understand the situation the cops took me to juvenile detention and I stayed there longer than I should have, about 2 months. I contracted scabies from there and the nurse there said it was just allergies from the detergent they use. I left riddled with scars all over my body and the anxiety I had there made them worst because of the picking. I had no support and I was so young and lost to everything going on. My own mom who called them even begged for me to come home just one day after but there wasn’t anything she could do. My grades dropped tremendously from then on I was so depressed I gained so much weight and I could barely take care of myself anymore after, I still can’t. I have to wear long sleeve shirts and pants to cover the scars I have but when someone saw them at school I was immediately treated like an outcast and everyone treated me like I had a disease, I go to a very big American school. I already cured the scabies after leaving detention but the scars still remain. I’ve dealt with severe depression since 11 years old, I’m very shy and quiet, to me my looks and grades were I all had to show. I know “looks aren’t everything” but the way people treat me now is definitely different from how I used to be. I just want my life to be how it was before but I know it’ll never happen. I have scars on my body that remain for life. From everything that happened I couldn't fight the mental battle anymore and ended up smoking weed as well as a few opioids something that me from freshman year would have never thought of doing. I don’t do those things anymore but I fell into a very dark route. I did online school and finished so I’ve been at home. I attempted suicide a week ago and I’m home now from the hospital. Anti- depressants and therapy hasnt worked for me. Some people have it worse than me I know, but I used to be a good kid and so pretty, in just a short amount of time my life has spiraled into nothing but emptiness and regret. I just want to be myself again but my body and mind is damaged enough I feel like it’ll never happen. I don’t have really have anyone to talk to about this, I sit on the internet seeing all these girls my age living normal lives something I so easily could have had. Please someone tell me if my body will ever be normal again, I just want the old me back.

Hi all,
I'm about to get a Septoplasty and mini FESS (to remove a fungal ball that's been causing chronic sinusitis).
I just want to see if there's anything I should add to help with recovery. I've done some research but want to make sure I haven't missed anything.
So far I have - Humidifier (I also have a range of essential oils if anyone would recommend I use any?) - Lip chap - Tissues - Panadol (Australia's Tylenol) and ibuprofen - Lots of pillows - Nasal aspirator (like used for babies) - Q tips, facial cleaning wipes and cotton pads - Loose, comfy clothes. All freshly washed - Microwave meals, I've opted for all softer meals and soups. - Lots of ice packs - Bottled water

• I'm pretty prone to infections, so freshly washed bed sheets, towels, hand towels, ect all in laundry sanitiser. Antibacterial body and hand soaps. Hand sanitiser. Will also wipe down all surfaces like door handles and switches with antibacterial wipes, wash floors, Glen 20 the whole house the night before surgery 😂
  
• I've been told I'd be provided everything I need for after surgery care like nasal sprays, rinses, pain medication, gauzes, ect after the surgery.
  

Thanks everyone!