M357 vicodin cold water extraction

Espresso, a strong coffee, offers an energizing experience with its rich aroma, soft crema, and intense flavor. Brewing the perfect cup at home requires a bit of skill and a balance between accuracy and personal selection.
Tips:

1. Go for fresh, dark roast beans for a good espresso, ensuring vibrant flavors and boldness. Grind them to a fine texture, similar to a table sugar.
2. Familiarize yourself with the machine's features and functionalities, as most require preheating for optimal brewing temperatures, ensuring regular extraction and preventing unequal coffee brewing.
3. Fill an Espresso maker with finely ground coffee, aiming for a slight dome. Use a tamp to compress the grounds, applying firm pressure for a consistent puck, as light tamps can result in watery espresso.
4. The portafilter is used for extraction, which involves compressing coffee grounds to force hot water under pressure resulting in a rich, concentrated shot with an amazing crema.

Lastly, practice makes perfect, and with each delicious shot, you become a true home barista.
Enjoy the journey.
If you like it, thumbs up!

I’m talking Nescafé blend 43 or international roast vs cheapest beans. I’m not a coffee snob, I love coffee but I was raised on these instant coffees and I see nothing wrong with them. My husband only wants mocona gold unfortunately. People on here are talking about Aldi beans on here and it’s made me curious. I like the idea of making a big batch and leaving it in the fridge for convenience. Boiling water every time you want coffee shouldn’t use too much energy, right?
Also, I have a coffee grinder and a cold tea or coffee container already, so it will be at no additional cost to me.
What do we all think?

ok lemme start off by saying: yes i do shower daily (every 3 days bc i have curly hair n that shit does not dry quick) and no i do not have diabetes, pre-diabetes, some hybrid of diabetes, or even an unknown type of diabetes. i can confirm this wholeheartedly bc i recently got my blood taken. i weigh 220lbs. im just fat. i dont want this to be taken as like this might be a health concern regarding weight or being asked if maybe im just not being very clean. i mean it may be that idk but it would put my mind at ease if it wasnt related to those.
anyways i really do not know what happened to my body. i feel like im going through puberty again. the sweat problem has been there for idk 3 or more years and its actually kinda weird that i never got that checked out. i should actually.
the sweat problem is basically what is sounds like: i sweat a lot. the kicker is that it has to be winter-cold or november-chilly at most for me to feel like im not burning under the sun on the beach. its so weird because even in 70F degrees weather, i will start feeling kinda warm and start sweating.
at some point, i stopped wearing all types of clothes that are meant to keep people warm from the cold. last two winters, i was seen in a oversized Tshirt and short-shorts + a thin zip up hoodie just in case i got cold. pretty sure it snowed too.
even when now, in may, when its kinda windy where i live, my house feels so hot im actually melting. im locked in my room with a good, strong fan pointed at me, almost at max air.
summer is absolute hell. im on my bed in agony bc of how hot i feel and my sheets are drenched in sweat. (pray for me this summer btw i might be forced to go on a family trip to the beach and idk if ill make it out alive)
also the fact im weirdly always dehydrated?? im probably not because i drink so much water i practically have a collection of empty water bottles scattered in a corner but im just really thirsty all the time so theres also that.
and now something NEW happened to my body that i absolutely hate. my armpits started to stink. okay it doesnt sound bad but hear me out. with how much i sweat, i dont actually smell bad. i dont actually go out anymore i guess?? because i have no reason to nowadays so the only time i put on deodorant is after my shower and leave it as that. well, i put it on when i go out and carry a small one in my bag too so theres also that.
this is just flatout nasty. i woke up one day and it reeked. i didnt even do anything like i was at home the whole time. it was so embarrassing bc my dad talked to me about it, so did my mom, and i could smell it without sniffing myself. i had to book an appointment with my primary care doctor bc this did not seem (smell lol) normal.
armpit yeast??? infection???? honestly idk but i was prescribed this powder that i had to put on every 6 hours. kinda helped but its still there just not as strong anymore.
god this is long but i wanted to really explain the stuff i was feeling health?? wise bc im more curious to know whether there are other girlies out there with the same or similar problems as me, especially the sweating problem (also with the armpit stank, i think i have an idea how to solve/deal with it but any other recs is appreciated too) if someone that also deals with one or both of these happens to come across this relates even a little, i feel like id be a little less alone about mt weird conditions that popped up randomly during my late teens. i always felt so weird and insecure about these two specifically.
but fr what do i do with the sweat cus its actually really bad. cant even wear makeup anymore :(

Making a healthy smoothie is easy and versatile. Here's a basic recipe along with some tips to help you create a delicious and nutritious smoothie:
Ingredients:

• Base: Choose a liquid base such as water, coconut water, almond milk, soy milk, or low-fat yogurt. Start with about 1 cup, adjusting the amount based on your desired consistency.
  
• Fruits: Add a variety of fresh and organic fruits from organic farms sweetness, and nutrition. Some popular options include bananas, berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries), mangoes, pineapples, peaches, or kiwis. Aim for about 1-2 cups of fruits.
  
• Vegetables (optional): Sneak in some veggies for added nutrients. Spinach, kale, cucumber, and avocado are excellent choices. Start with a small handful (about 1/2 cup) and adjust to taste.
  
• Protein: Include a source of protein to make your smoothie more filling and satisfying. This can be protein powder (such as whey, soy, pea, or hemp protein), Greek yogurt, tofu, or nut butter (like almond or peanut butter). Add 1-2 tablespoons or follow the recommended serving size for your protein powder.
  
• Healthy Fats (optional): Boost your smoothie with healthy fats for satiety and to support nutrient absorption. Avocado, nuts (such as almonds, walnuts), seeds (flaxseeds, chia seeds), or coconut oil are good options. Add 1-2 tablespoons or a small portion based on your preferences.
  
• Extras (optional): Enhance your smoothie with additional nutrients and flavor. This could include ingredients like oats, cocoa powder, honey, maple syrup, cinnamon, vanilla extract, or spices (like ginger or turmeric). Start with small amounts and adjust to taste.
  

Instructions:

1. Prepare your ingredients: Wash and chop fruits and vegetables as needed. If using frozen fruits, you can skip this step.
   
2. Add the base: Pour your chosen liquid base into the blender first. This helps facilitate blending and ensures a smooth consistency.
   
3. Layer the ingredients: Add the remaining ingredients to the blender, starting with the bulkier items like fruits and vegetables, followed by the protein, healthy fats, and any extras.
   
4. Blend until smooth: Secure the lid tightly and blend on high speed until all the ingredients are well combined and you achieve your desired consistency. Blend longer for a smoother texture or add more liquid if it's too thick.
   
5. Taste and adjust: Give your smoothie a taste and adjust the flavor or consistency as needed. You can add more fruits for sweetness, more liquid for a thinner texture, or additional flavorings to suit your preferences.
   
6. Serve and enjoy: Pour your smoothie into a glass or jar, garnish with toppings if desired (such as sliced fruits, nuts, or seeds), and enjoy immediately for the freshest taste and optimal nutrient content.
   

Remember to get creative and experiment with different combinations of ingredients to find your favorite flavors and textures. With the right balance of ingredients, you can create a delicious and nutritious smoothie to enjoy as a quick breakfast, post-workout snack, or anytime pick-me-up.

I tried getting this stain out by using oxiclean as a pre-treatment and then washing with cold water. This faded it slightly, but the stain is still there. Tried this process again, except I used a bit of laundry detergent along with the oxiclean. Once again, faded slightly but not removed. This was a kind of pricy pair of jeans, so any advice on how I can remove this stain entirely would be great.

Hey everyone figured I come to reddit for help here is my dilemma, I have lived in the current building I lived in for almost 40 years. I am dealing with an issue where my landlord doesn't provide hot water constantly as in the water will be cold during late night hours or it will be luke warm.
I started to keep a log of it and made numerous 311 calls HPD has come by and issued summonses. Also after I make my complaint I make a video with my phone showing the complaint number and I actually take a temperature reading of the hot water being cold. I have tried talking to the management company, and the building manager and still nothing. We have a live in Super who is as useless as wet toilet paper I have had major issues with him in the past and for my well being its better I don't approach him.
I would like to know what are my legal options in this situation? Should I put rent in escrow and give the landlord notice and fight in court for a rent reduction? I did some research and found a form to submit to court to request a rent reduction to lack of hot water / heat. I feel that is my best option this has been going on for way too long I wanna build up a strong case against my landlord.
I appreciate any help or advice thanks in advance.

“Ready to make history, baby?”
I looked over toward Sheila as she stood on the gangplank leading up to The Burger. I still couldn’t believe she named our research ship ‘The Burger’... emotional relevance be damned.
“It's not exactly history,” I corrected.
“Oh come on! If your survey is right, this trench might run even deeper than the Challenger Deep, and you’re gonna be the first person to explore it! How is that not exciting?”
“Might be deeper, we only have a limited amount of topological data. And even if it is deeper, we’re talking only a few hundred feet at most, it’s really not that im-”
Sheila silenced me with a kiss.
“Nerd.” She teased, and I found myself too flustered to reply. After five years of marriage, she still could leave me speechless with just a kiss. God… how did someone like me end up with a woman like that?
Then again, how did someone like me end up where I was in general? It was honestly a little overwhelming. Standing on the dock, getting ready to board that ship and join the ranks of Jacques Piccard and James Cameron (yes, that James Cameron) as one of the few people to take a manned submersible down to the deepest parts of the ocean. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little scared too. Diving down that deep could easily be a one way trip if even the slightest thing went wrong. My submarine would be experiencing between 600 to 1100 atmospheres of pressure and while we’d tested it over and over again to make sure it would actually be up for the challenge, there was still a lingering iota of doubt in the back of my mind. All that needed to go wrong was one little thing, and that would be it for me.
The scariest part is that I probably wouldn’t even know what had happened… I’d simply be gone… and Sheila would be alone. The thought of that caused a momentary spike of panic in my chest that almost made me want to call this whole thing off.
Almost.
But, then I felt her hand close around mine. I looked up into her bright blue eyes, and saw her gentle smile.
“You’re gonna be okay, hun,” She promised. “You and your team have been running the numbers, right? It’s gonna go just fine!”
I nodded slowly.
“It’s gonna go fine…” I repeated, before she leaned in to kiss me, and gently pulled me by the wrist up onto the deck of the Burger.
She was probably right.
It probably would be fine.
Probably…
The trench I’d be exploring was a fairly recent discovery, located south of Greenland, in a vast stretch of water situated directly between Newfoundland and Iceland. It’d been uncovered during a topological survey in the area, and my team had taken an interest in investigating it further. At minimum, it was believed to descend to about 35,000 feet deep (over 10,000 meters), although the current theory was that it might have run even deeper. Determining the exact depth of the yet unnamed chasm was just one of the intents of our dive. The rest was studying the organisms that might be found down there, and how they might have differed from the ones found in other deep ocean trenches (some variation being expected given the isolated environment they were developing in.)
I had to admit, it would be exciting to see what new life might have developed in a place such as this, especially if it ran even deeper than our predictions… and that excitement was enough to make me chase the fear of the risks out of my mind, even if it was only briefly. While Sheila went to make sure we were ready to embark, I caught myself wandering out toward the rear of the ship where my submarine, The Tempura, waited for me. Did this submarine deserve a better name than The Tempura? Probably. But, this was my project, so I got to name it and since Burger was already taken, Tempura was the next best name I had. I liked to think that the subs namesake might approve… if she hadn’t died fifteen years ago. Shrimp don’t live very long.
As the ship began to depart, I caught myself reminiscing on how I’d ended up here… it really was all because of those damn shrimp, wasn’t it? Well… maybe not all because of the shrimp. But they were certainly part of it. Back when I was a lot younger, I never really gave much of a shit about anything at all. I guess I did have a thing for the ocean… the great, romantic vastness of it. The sense of adventure that it beckoned with. The endless mysteries that lay within its dark depths. I used to read about it all the time when I was a kid and I especially loved the classic adventures: Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and Melville’s Moby Dick… but that love was just confined to my books. I didn’t really have any interest in actually going out and seeing the ocean. Hell, the idea of going to a beach and standing in the sun with my toes in the sand seemed miserable to me. I was happier (although calling myself happy might’ve been a little disingenuous) alone in my room, enjoying the company of books as opposed to people.
Then came the shrimp.
One of my online friends kept them as a hobby. He used to post pictures of his tanks all the time, and I always thought they looked kinda cool. He said that if I was interested in them, I should try keeping some for myself, and during a particularly bad bout of depression, I figured that maybe it might be worth a shot. So, I bought a cheap tank and some cheap decorations, bought myself some shrimp… and promptly watched them die over the next few weeks. That… that bothered me. I don’t know why but… it really bothered me. I’m still not entirely sure how to describe what it was that I was feeling. Guilt? Defeat? Shame? Here I was, trying to set up a habitat for these creatures just to have something to do to keep the suicidal ideation at bay, and I’d failed almost right out of the gate.
Was I just that bad? Was I just that much of a failure? Was this just going to go to shit just like everything else in my life did, because I was just such an abysmal piece of shit who barely deserved the life she had? Had I just not tried hard enough? Was I too apathetic? What had happened? What went wrong?
It bothered me.
It bothered me enough that I made up my mind to just dump the remaining shrimp down the toilet and toss everything. Forget about it. Move on. End of story. But… that wasn’t fair, was it? The shrimp didn’t all deserve to die just because I couldn’t be bothered, did they? Sure, they were just shrimp, but they were alive too, just like me. They deserved to be alive.
I owed it to them to try and keep them alive, didn’t I?
So… I didn’t dump the shrimp.
Instead, I started doing some reading. Started looking into what I was doing wrong and how to do it all better. I actually got really into it and a few months later, I had a nice planted tank. Looking back, it was amateur shit… but it made me happy. I’d even picked out names for my two favorite shrimp. Burger and Tempura. They’d been the last survivors of my original batch, and they were the ones I ended up caring about the most. Caring for Burger and Tempura gave me a purpose. It became an obsession… and that little obsession drove me to finally start turning my life around.
Like I said, shrimp don’t live for very long. Burger and Tempura were long dead by the time I graduated with a degree in Marine Biology. But they were the ones who inspired me to finally get my life in order. Hell, the shrimp were half the reason that I met Sheila. She was something of an aquarium fanatic too… we’d met on a forum, and gotten to talking. I found out that she just so happened to be studying Marine Biology at another school, and we bonded pretty quickly after that. After graduation, I moved to California to be with her and after that, the rest is history. She was my rock. She was the one who always pushed me to be the best possible version of myself… and I loved her more than I ever knew I could love someone.
A glance back at the shore, fading into the distance tore me out of my reminiscing, and I shifted my focus to the present, going over The Tempura to perform some quick checks. My colleagues and I would be checking and rechecking the submarine over the next two days as we made our way toward the dive spot. Considering the danger that descending that deep posed, I didn’t want to take a single unnecessary risk.
I had too much to live for, after all.
***
The day of the dive, I couldn’t notice how excited the rest of the crew seemed… well… Sheila’s usual crew seemed excited. I guess to them, this was just another research expedition, no different than the ones Sheila usually took this ship out on. Lately her research had been focused on the analysis and study of whale calls. Her recent voyages had involved following their pods, recording their calls and playing them back to see how the whales reacted. It was fascinating stuff, but my research was admittedly a lot different than that.
My obsession had drawn me to the denizens of the deep sea. I’d used The Burger for expeditions before, although none of them had been on quite the same scale as this one. Up until today, the most ambitious thing I’d done was send down unmanned submersibles with cameras. Those submersibles had typically returned. We had lost a few early on due to technical glitches, but the past few years had been blissfully uneventful. Logically, this dive would probably be uneventful as well. But it was still hard to get the jitters out of my head.
My team and I did the final checks necessary to make sure that The Tempura was good to go, before setting up the crane to begin lifting it up. In less than an hour, I’d be inside of that thing, descending to the darkest depths of the ocean.
It didn’t feel real.
I felt Sheila’s hand on my shoulder, and looked over at her.
“Moment of truth, huh?” She asked. She probably meant it to sound encouraging, but it just sounded ominous.
“Moment of truth…” I replied.
“You’re gonna be okay, honey. I know you will.”
She reached out to gently squeeze my hand and gave me a reassuring smile that I meekly returned.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be okay,” I agreed, although there was an element of a lie in it. Statistically, yes. It probably WOULD be okay. But there was that lingering anxiety in the back of my mind that just wouldn’t go away. I looked quietly out at the submarine before me and couldn’t shake the thought that it sort of looked like a giant coffin. Unconsciously, I found myself squeezing Sheila’s hand tighter than normal. She just held me close and pressed a kiss to the top of my head, before gently rubbing my back.
“You’ll be okay,” She promised.
“Dr. Jenner, we’re ready for you.” I heard one of my colleagues say.
Moment of truth.
I took one last look at Sheila, and gave her a quick kiss on the lips for luck. She smiled at me, and I smiled back anxiously at her before heading over toward the submarine.
The crew helped me enter the cockpit and get myself situated inside. The cockpit of the Tempura was fairly cramped and not particularly comfortable. Space and comfort aren’t really luxuries you can afford in a submarine like this. The instruments I needed took up a lot of space, leaving little room for me in there… and I am not a very big person.
Once I was inside, they sealed the hatch. Then the diagnostics checks began.
“Grayson, can you hear us in there?” I heard Sheila say through the radio.
“Loud and clear,” I replied.
“Great. We’ll keep in constant radio contact, just to monitor the signal. In the meanwhile, how’s everything looking in there?”
“Green across the board so far,” I said, although I hadn’t finished running all my final checks yet. Ultimately, nothing was out of place.
This submarine was as good to go as it was going to get.
“I’m all good in here,” I said once I was done. “You can drop me when you’re ready.”
“You got it, honey. Let’s get you in the water, run one final round of tests and start lowering you down.”
A short while later, I felt the submarine begin to move as the crane lifted it off the deck and lowered it into the water. The Tempura honestly resembled its namesake in a way, being long and cigar shaped, only vertically oriented instead of horizontally oriented. We’d admittedly taken more than a few design cues from James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenger. Why fix what isn’t broken, after all?
Once I was in the water, a 1000 pound releasable ballast weight would cause the submarine to sink. Releasing that weight was also my ticket back to the surface, and I could either trigger it from inside the cockpit, or, in the event that the release failed for any reason, it would trigger automatically after roughly 12 hours of exposure to salt water.
Ideally, this would be the first of a number of dives I’d be undertaking… and if all went according to plan, the Tempura could be the first of many similar submarines that would allow other researchers to safely and effectively descend to extreme depths. If all went well, this could be a massive leap forward for researchers like me, allowing us to better explore the deepest depths of the Hadal Zone and learn all we could about the ecosystems down there via direct observation.
If all went well.
If.
Through the viewport, I watched as I was lowered into the ocean. A few of the other crew members had donned diving gear to escort me down, and after they did their final checks and I did mine, we were fully ready to go.
“All’s green across the board,” I said into the radio. “You can start my descent.”
“I hear you, honey,” Sheila replied. “We’re letting you go. Have fun down there.”
“Yeah, I’ll try…” I said quietly as finally, my submarine began its descent.
I took a deep breath, and told myself again that everything would go fine. We had checked everything on this submarine. We’d tested it rigorously. I wouldn’t have allowed myself to set foot inside of it if I hadn’t personally assured that it was safe. But anxiety never really goes away, does it? The crew couldn’t accompany me far. After only a few meters, they fell behind me as I sank deeper and deeper into the infinite, empty blue of the ocean. Soon after, the tether was released.
I was officially on my own.
“60 feet,” I heard Sheila say over the radio. “How are you doing in there?”
“Good,” I replied. “Doing… doing good.”
The submarine continued to descend. Through the viewport, I could see a few stray fish, but nothing particularly eye catching. I almost felt alone down there… almost…
“120 feet…” Sheila said.
“Still doing good,” I replied.
The descent continued, as the waters slowly grew darker and darker.
“400 feet…”
Everything around me just kept getting darker and darker. Only a fraction of the light from the sun ever reached these depths… and I’d be lying if I said that darkness didn’t feel a little… oppressive.
“800 feet… still feeling good?”
“Yeah, still feeling good…” I said, although it was a bit of a lie. If anything, I was second guessing all of this, but I wasn’t about to say that out loud.
“1000 feet… still good?”
“Still good…” I murmured. “I hear you loud and clear.”
Deeper… deeper… deeper.
“1500 feet…”
Three miles. I was three miles away from home. Three miles away from Sheila.
“2000 feet…”
Still a ways to go.
“3000 feet…”
By this point, it was fully dark outside of my cockpit. Outside, all I could see was inky darkness. Even the submarine’s lights didn’t really cut through it. And the kicker? Relatively speaking, I wasn’t that deep. Fishing trawlers reached deeper than this. Better to conserve power until I was at the bottom. My descent continued.
“6000 feet… still good?”
“Still good…”
The check ins were becoming less frequent. My descent still continued… deeper… deeper… deeper. By now, I’d entered the Hadal Zone. But there was still so much deeper o go.
“8000 feet…”
This was past the depths that most whales would dive to… and I still had a ways to go.
“10,000 feet.”
This was close to where the ocean floor usually bottomed out… and yet there was still so much further to go. No. I was really only a third of the way there. How long had it been?Not much had happened beyond my descent and a few sightings out of my viewport, but time had been passing. A glance at my watch confirmed it’d been almost an hour since I’d started to sink… and I knew I wasn’t even close to the bottom yet. The submarine continued to descend, sinking ever deeper as I dropped into an infinite darkness that few had ever dared to witness.
“15,000 feet.”
This check in came later than the others. At this point, Sheila and the crew must have figured that no news was good news, and they were right. I just continued to sink peacefully, down into the crushing depths of the ocean.
These were the depths that one might normally find deep sea fish… and yet I was going somewhere even deeper than that.
“20,000 feet…”
So close…
I continued to sink.
“25,000 feet.”
Soon… and finally…
“30,000 feet. You still doing alright, honey?”
“Yeah… yeah, I’m doing good,” I assured her. I was so close…
By this point, my real work had begun. I’d engaged the lights and begun documenting what little I could see using the on board cameras. Granted, there wasn’t much life at these depths and what little there was, was scarcely documented. Most of what was down here consisted of invertebrates and microscopic life that seemed to float past my viewport.
The light seemed to draw a few creatures in search of food. Small, hardy things that resembled shrimp.
“How’s it looking, Grayson?”
“Dark,” I said, half joking. “We’ve got some life… shrimp. They’re translucent. Can’t get a great look at them… but we’ll see what the cameras pick up.”
“They’ve recognized you as a friend,” Sheila said. I could almost see the smile on her lips as she said it.
“Yeah…” I replied, “Tempura sent them a message, told them I’d be down. How am I looking on depth?”
“35,000 feet… you seeing a bottom yet?”
“No… not that I would until I was there.”
“Damn… how deep does this go?”
“It can’t go that deep…” I murmured, although I really wasn’t so sure about that.
The submarine continued to sink…
36,000 feet…
37,000 feet…
38,000 feet… and then finally, just past the 39,000 foot mark, I finally saw solid ground below me.
Looking through my viewport, I could see a familiar dark brown diatomaceous sludge, covering the seafloor. Microscopic life, likely similar to what had been observed in other deep sea trenches, such as the Challenger Deep.
I needed to gather a sample.
As my submarine reached the bottom, I extended the mechanical arms, pressed flat against the surface of the Tempura, and opened the collection port near the bottom of the ship. Slowly, I sifted some of the sludge into the port. My disturbance of the seafloor kicked up a cloud of the microbial colony, and I could’ve sworn I saw something wiggling through the debris. A pale, white thing, perhaps some sort of sea cucumber? I hastily angled my submarines camera to try and catch a glimpse of it, before returning to my collection. Even in this forlorn place, there was still so much to see! And here I was… completely forgetting my fear as the excitement took hold of me! Few people had ever been down to these unfathomable depths… and yet here I was.
It didn’t feel real but it was! I had reached the deepest part of the ocean!
“How’s it going down there?” I heard Sheila ask. Her voice was a little garbled. The connection down here was faltering.
“It’s beautiful…” I said. “I can’t wait for you to see it!”
“I’ll bet…”
“I’m going to do a sweep of the area, see what samples I can gather,” I said. “What’s my time right now?”
“Three hours. You’ve got nine before your connection to the weight deteriorates and you start to ascend.”
“I’ll make the most of it,” I said. The plan was only to stay down there for six hours, and I didn’t want to push that limit. Life support would only last me for so long, and one little error was all it would take for the ungodly pressure down here to crush me.
I began to move the submarine. Mobility was limited. This thing wasn’t built to travel far. But I still had some limited movement. I recorded all that I could, filming the shrimp that investigated my light, and the things that slithered and crawled through the muck, likely feeding on the carpet of single celled organisms that populated these depths.
The first two hours were… well… I hesitate to call them uneventful, they were actually very fascinating, but little of note happened beyond my recording of a few specimens.
Midway through the third hour though, as I was reaching one of the rock walls of the abyss, I noticed something just above the edge of my viewport swimming away from the light. I could’ve sworn I saw slender, pale tentacles of some sort. Was that a squid? Were there squid down this deep? I wasn’t aware of any species of known squid who could reach these depths… but in this unknown place, what use was the known?
I moved my light and my camera to try and catch another glimpse of it, but whatever it was, it seemed to be gone. Maybe I’d see another one. I still had plenty of time.
“You made a noise. What’d you see?” Sheila asked.
“Something big… I think,” I said.
“Down there? Like a fish?”
“Squid. You wouldn’t find any vertebrates down this deep… the pressure would crush their bones.”
“Jeez…”
I didn’t reply to that, still searching for the thing I’d seen. I shone my light up along the walls of the chasm and angled my camera up as far as it would go. I could see a few volcanic vents, spewing dark clouds into the darkness, and more diatoms. But not much else. Strange invertebrates crawled along the walls. Small creatures, no bigger than an inch long. Related to isopods, perhaps? If I could collect one as a sample, I would have… although taking any of those back to the surface would surely kill them. They were built to live under the impossible pressure of these depths. Taking them to the surface would rip them apart.
I went back to my research, and it wasn’t long until I saw something in the darkness, just on the edge of where my flashlight reached. Trailing white tendrils, snaking their way through the darkness. My eyes narrowed as I moved the submarine forward, trying to catch whatever it was in the light. I saw the shape move, its body turning… I saw its tendrils unfurling. Whatever this was, it was big. It was almost as big as The Tempura… although it was also slender. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought I was looking at some sort of floating debris, but this far down? No. And debris wouldn’t move like that.
This had to be a deepsea squid… or perhaps some other type of cephalopod? Something that preyed upon the various invertebrates down here, perhaps? It seemed to float, just out of sight for a bit, as I tried to get closer. I angled up my light to get a better look at it. The light seemed to shine through it, like some sort of ghost… but I did manage to get a look at it.
Although that look…
That single look made me freeze up.
This things slender tendrils certainly resembled a cephalopod of some sort, but the rest of it… the rest of it looked like something else entirely. Its body was thin, emaciated and translucent, yet despite that it still had characteristics that almost seemed… human. It wasn’t human! Not by any stretch of imagination, but the resemblance was there. It almost reminded me of an exhibit I’d seen in a museum once, depicting a preserved, fully removed human nervous system. I could see a similar shape in its translucent body. Its head seemed almost human as well… albeit with no eyes, and a lamprey like mouth I could only describe as fleshy yet crablike.
Still, despite having no eyes I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was looking at me. And that was when I felt something hit the submarine.
I felt a sudden jolt of panic in my chest. For a moment, I thought that the pressure had started to crush me, but no… no, everything was still fine. Something had just hit me. But what? It didn’t take long before I got my answer.
Another pale creature floated past my viewport, swirling gracefully in the cold dark waters. I watched it for a moment with wide eyes, before noticing its ‘head’ turning slightly toward me. Then, almost instantly, it launched itself at the submarine, darting toward me with blinding speed.
I heard a distinct THUD as its body collided with me, and I could see its pale tendrils pressing against the viewport, twisting and writhing violently. It was trying to attack me. The first creature that I’d seen lunged as well, pounding on my submarine with another THUD. And moments later, I could hear more impacts against the hull. There were more of them… and they did not like having me down there.
“What’s going on?” Sheila asked.
“Somebody doesn’t like me…” I said. “One of the animals down here… some kind of squid, it’s just started attacking the hull.”
“How bad is the damage?”
“Not sure… could be nothing, could be-”
I felt the submarine shake as I tried to move it. The thrusters that pushed me forward weren't responding. Had something gotten caught in it? One of the creatures perhaps?
“Grayson?!” Sheila asked.
“Lost propulsion…” I said. “Fuck… I can’t move.”
“Then drop the weight and come up!”
“No, it’s fine, there’s no other damage, I can still use the port and starboard thrusters to-”
“Grayson!”
I paused. There was genuine panic in her voice… enough to make me realize that even if these things stood little chance of actually breaching the hull, taking the risk would be a fatal mistake.
“I’m on my way up…” I finally said, before reaching out to disengage the ballast weights.
Immediately, I felt myself beginning to rise, although the tentacles clinging to my viewport didn’t disappear.
“We’ve got you…” Sheila said. “Rising up to 38,000 feet.”
The submarine continued to rise, but the creatures clinging to me went nowhere. In fact… I was sure I could see more of them. More pale shapes coming up through the darkness, and these ones filled me with dread. I thought I had been looking at some sort of eerie undiscovered life. But seeing what was coming up toward me now… I knew that I was looking at so much more. The creatures swimming up toward me through the darkness carried weapons… makeshift stone spears and daggers. Primitive tools… but tools all the same.
Signs that these were more than just undiscovered animals.
Much. Much more.
The word: ‘Mermaids’ crossed through my mind, but these were something far different than the ones I’d heard of in folklore. These looked like they’d swam out of the depths of hell itself. Boneless pale tendrils reached for me… and they were getting closer. The pale shapes reached my submarine as I rose higher. I kept praying to whatever God may be listening that the dropping pressure would force them off. The air in a submarine is pressurized, so during normal operation, there should have been no danger of decompression sickness for me.
For them… well… normally I’d feel a little guilty about subjecting an undiscovered species of deep sea mermaids to the horrors of the Bends. But given my circumstances, I didn’t have a lot of other options.
They didn’t let go, though.
They should have. But they didn’t.
What were these things?
I saw a splayed hand press against my viewport. Or… it somewhat resembled a hand. It had suckers on it, like a tentacle and the ‘fingers’ curled open like tentacles. The creature crawled over my viewport, clinging to The Tempura as it rose, and I could see the folds of its crablike mouth opening and pressing against the glass. I could see some sort of bile rising up through its translucent throat, before it secreted it all over my viewport. Was it trying to digest me? Was that how these things fed? How strong were its stomach acids? Were they strong enough to-
The window cracked.
My heart skipped a beat.
“No… no, no no…”
“Grayson, what’s wrong?!”
“They cracked the window… S-Sheila they… oh God… oh fuck, they just…”
“THEY DID WHAT?”
“It’s secreting some sort of enzyme… it’s on the window, it’s… FUCK… I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die…”
“You’re not gonna die, baby! Just… just keep ascending, okay? You’re at 30,000 feet… just keep going…”
I nodded, and kept on rising, although the question of whether or not the rest of the creatures were trying to digest the other parts of my submarine floated through my mind. How much damage could The Tempura take before it imploded? How much longer did I have? The submarine still continued to rise… 25,000 feet… almost halfway home… almost… almost.
The creature outside of my viewport slithered along the glass, searching for a better area to try and digest. Past him, I noticed a few of his companions dropping off. Maybe the change in pressure finally was getting to them?
From the corner of my eye, I suddenly noticed a flashing light. A warning. The hydraulics on one of the Tempura’s arms were shot… what else was damaged?
I checked my oxygen levels. 32%.
I should’ve had at least 14 hours of air. I’d only been down there for about 6 hours… I shouldn’t have been this low.
31%.
No… no, no, no, no… they’d damaged the air tanks!
30%.
29%
“20,000 feet!” Sheila said. “You still with me, baby?”
“Y-yeah…” I said. I didn’t mention my air situation. I didn’t need to worry her further.
The submarine continued its ascent.
15,000 feet.
24%. I was running out of time.
The creatures still clung to the Tempura. How had the pressure change not killed them yet? My oxygen was dropping faster than before. I was hemorrhaging air. Another crack formed across my viewport. I let out a little, involuntary gasp before trying to force myself to stop hyperventilating.
“Grayson, what was that?”
“I-it’s fine…” I stammered, “It’s fine!”
“Grayson what the hell is going on down there?!”
“They’re still on the submarine… they’re still…” I paused, looking at my oxygen levels. “19%...”
“19% of what? Grayson what’s going on!”
I paused.
18%.
“Air… I’m… I’m losing air…”
“That’s fine, you’re going to make it!” She said, although I heard her voice cracking a little. “You’re gonna make it!”
I didn’t answer.
12,000 feet.
11,000 feet…
My oxygen level continued to drop.
15%.
14%.
12%.
9,000 feet.
The creatures still clung to me, as the submarine continued to rise. The one on my viewport was still there, slowly crawling along the glass again. I stared into its eyeless face and swore I was looking at the face of my killer.
7,000 feet…
Oxygen had dropped to 9%. It dropped to 8% before I even got to 6,000 feet. I was going to die here…
The viewport cracked again and I squeezed my eyes shut. The submarine rocked. I was sure one of the thrusters had been damaged. My ascent slowed.
“Grayson, what’s going on?”
“I’m sorry Sheila…”
Another crack spread across my viewport.
“I’m… I’m not making it back up…”
“YES YOU ARE!”
“I’m sorry…” The tears started to come as the reality of my death became clearer and clearer… this was it.
“YOU’RE COMING BACK UP, YOU HEAR ME! GODDAMNIT, I’LL BRING YOU BACK UP!”
“I love you…”
That creatures face pressed against the glass. It vomited more of its stomach acid onto the cracked glass, and I wondered if this might finally be what broke it. Part of me hoped it would be… the one good thing about dying this deep was that at least I’d die quickly. My suffering would be over. Then, the creature suddenly pulled back, twisting and writhing violently. I saw other shapes moving past it in the water, other ‘mermaids’ that had been clinging to the submarine.
Something was agitating them.
Something was scaring them off.
Then I heard it, over the radio… whale songs.
“What the hell…?”
“Grayson, are you still there?!”
“I… they’re finally breaking off. Sheila, what did you do?”
“I’m broadcasting some of the orca recordings we’ve been using. Are they still clinging to you?”
“No! They’re backing off! I… whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!”
The submarine kept rising.
5,000 feet.
4,000 feet.
4% oxygen.
I could still do this, right?
The submarine continued to rise.
3%.
3,000 feet.
2,000 feet.
2%.
1,000 feet… so close… I was so close…
I could almost see the surface through my viewport, rushing up toward me. I tried not to breathe. Tried not to move. All I did was hope.
500 feet.
I closed my eyes.
“Grayson we have your signal, we’re coming to pick you up!”
Sheila’s voice sounded so far away as my submarine finally breached the surface of the water… and with the last of my strength, I pulled the emergency release on the hatch, and threw it open, taking in lungful after lungful of fresh salty air.
I didn’t dare so much as touch the water beneath me… but I was topside again, and in the distance, I could see The Burger!
“We see you!” Sheila said, “We’ve got you baby… we’ve got you…”
“I see you too…” I said through the tears. “Thank you… thank you…” I didn’t have any words left in me after that.
As soon as I was back on the ship, I collapsed into Sheila’s arms, breaking down into tears as I clung to her, terrified that at any moment, some sort of unspoken other shoe would drop and I’d lose her all over again.
“Shh… it’s alright baby… I’ve got you… you’re safe… you’re safe…” I felt her fingers running through my air and I knew that what she said was true.
I was home.
I was safe.
***
I left my colleagues to review the data that the Tempura gathered during its short expedition. As far as I know, they haven’t published anything. I have a few ideas as to why, but I’ll keep those to myself. Let’s just say that some people would rather this information not become public.
I have a feeling that the Tempura may not be diving again for some time, if ever. I will confess that I do consider that a bit of a shame. Despite everything… I would consider it a success. It endured far more stressful conditions than I had expected, and from what I heard, required fewer repairs than I’d thought it would. But, even if it was approved for another dive, it wouldn’t be me piloting it. No. I will never be setting foot inside of that machine again, nor will I ever be returning to what my colleagues have been quietly referring to as ‘The Jenner Trench’.
I can’t.
Every night, I wake up crying after dreaming of pale shapes outside of my cracked viewport, clinging to Sheila and sobbing. I can’t put myself in that situation again.
I can’t.
Instead, I think I’m going to spend the next few years on solid ground. There’s a teaching position available at a local university. I think that might be the best place for me right now. Who knows, maybe I can help some other deadbeat discover a passion for marine biology.
After everything, my love for the sea remains unchanged… I’m just a little more wary of it, these days.

Hello everyone! Very long post ahead…It’s been 3 months since last D-Day. We’ve had multiple D-Days over the span of 8 years ive lost count how many. Why so many? Because the first 7 years he would confess to things but it would be soo watered down I never truly realized he was a Sex addict as well as a PA. The full 8 years he would mix it up between frequenting massage parlors, bringing call girls to his hotel on work trips, visiting strip clubs and paying for lap dances, and eventually the latest- finding phone prostitutes to chat with and develop an “emotional bond” as well as phone sex. I almost left him but he begged for a last chance and it’s been three months since last D-Day, and he’s finally been putting work into recovery- he has admitted how bad the situation is, admitted he’s an addict, and started going to weekly SA group meetings, and weekly CSAT therapist. This time, I can see actual change because he initiates conversations and constant check in’s as well as daily evening check ins. He has become way less irritable and annoyed in all areas, and more patient and helpful and loving. He has willing put heavy restrictions on his phone and accountability apps, as well as removed Instagram, telegram, Snapchat. He has been very conscious and proactive about how he spends his time- he has developed new habits like absolutely no phone in bathroom/on toilet/in shower. He doesn’t pick up his phone first thing in the morning and has made a “morning routine” of ice bath plunge as well as meditation and prayer, and Bible reading. He is finally fully present with our family and wants to do things as a family, and initiates family bonding activities. He’s stopped chasing his bosses, coworkers, friends, and his parents approval, and focuses on his inner balance. I’ve seen an immense change in him like I’ve never seen before as a person and as a recovering addict. He is doing everything right. However….
I’ve been extremely supportive and loving and his shoulder during this whole time. But now I’m terrified because I’ve been having unexplained rage episodes. We can have a small misunderstanding and it will just throw me into a fit of extreme rage, where I will throw whatever objects are near me, or try to hurt myself for example I slammed my hand shut in between a door on purpose. It’s just this overwhelming sense or hatred and anger just bursting in me and it seems it just burst right out of me. I have never ever in my life felt like this, I’ve always been a meek and kind and sweet person and taken pressure with stride. I see myself from the side after my fits of anger and I think… He really broke me this time didn’t he? I begged him to stop in his addiction and he didn’t, until I was finally broken. I am not the same person I was before, and I know all you partners of PA/SA can relay to this. I see the world now through an addicts eyes- every single woman is a threat, and every single man is not safe, and every child/teen/woman is either in threat of becoming a victim or is already a victim. I’ve also become more cold and cut off people whereas before I would believe in the good and people and was a warm accepting person. However my main concern is the intense fits of rage I feel. Has anyone else felt something similar? What helped or what did your therapist recommend? I’m scared and just feel soo broken 😞

TW: blood loss, retained placenta
Well I got my home birth vbac, plus much more than I bargained for!
I'll begin by including that today is my actual due date so baby boy was right on time and I was full term. I'd had bouts of braxton hicks and prodromal labor off and on for the last few weeks, with one very convincing false alarm last week, resulting in me calling the midwife and her assistant over. She checked me out and I was sitting at 3cm, fully effaced but there were no other signs of progress.
In the days leading up to yesterday however, I had passed some noticeable mucus clots and was spotting a bit here and there. I tried not to think about it too much because I know you can lose the plug well before labor and I was just hoping at that point that it would be painfully obvious when I finally went to real labor.
So yesterday I couldn't catch any rest whatsoever. I wasn't sleeping great at night so I had taken to just napping as needed around the clock. But yesterday I couldn't nap for the life of me. I had this nagging anxiety that I really needed to rest so I ended up taking unisom around 5pm and making myself go to bed. I proceeded to wake up every other hour either hungry, thirsty or needing to pee. This is uncharacteristic for me because usually once I fall asleep, I'll stay asleep for at least a few hours. I was miserable.
I dozed off again and around 10:30, a contraction woke me up. It was a bit more intense than braxton hicks but it didn't have the same searing intensity as the worse contractions last week. So I got up and started pacing around to see if they would ease up. I rotated through a series of exercises meant to keep baby in a good position (a la Turning Babies) and they didn't seem to let up so I finally started timing them around 11. They were averaging less than 5 minutes apart and lasting about a minute.
This was starting to feel real. I called my husband who was working late and said he needed to get home asap because I was fairly certain things were really happening. I continued timing the contractions for a full hour and sure enough, they were staying steady so I called my midwife over. From here on out, my sense of time is super vague and warped. I really knew it was finally happening because I suddenly understood what they mean about not being able to walk or talk during a contraction, plus I felt like I was in this liminal space of being and nonbeing - like I was hyper aware of my body and the pain, but I was removed from it in order to cope.
By the time the midwives got to our home, my husband and best friend were there, I had already labored on the toilet, in the shower and on the couch in rounds. They took one look at me and knew it was real, and immediately took turns helping me and setting up the birth pool. I'm guessing I labored in the pool for about 5 hours, because it was ready around 2am and I stayed in there until after the rose. The pool really helped my labor progress and at one point, my midwife noticed that the sounds I was making were getting lower, more intense and drawn out.
She checked me again and sure enough, I was at a 6 and counting! She said, "Now might be a good time to call your moms, we might have a baby soon!" I think it was around that point that my water broke as well, as there was a good bit of mucus and bloody show floating around the pool. Our moms showed up shortly after, along with my teenage son, and I labored a while longer, taking turns holding our moms hands. They kinda started making me anxious so I got out and slowly moved through various labor techniques. Ultimately, I ended up sitting on the couch with my legs up on the midwife's legs, holding myself behind the knees with each push.
After about 12 hours of hard labor and no medication other than some motrin and ginger, he crowned with a beautiful head of curly dark hair! My sweet boy was born a couple pushes later and I immediately knew that I had torn. The ring of fire is a whole other ball game when you tear. The midwife tried to wait for the afterbirth to come away for about thirty minutes but each time I pushed I lost more blood. I started getting dizzy and losing color and we ended up at the hospital for 4 blood transfusions and to surgically remove the placenta.
I was too out of it to get the full run down if the placenta was actually fused to my uterine wall but they were able to get it out quickly in a 15 minute surgery. They were worried that it might be fused to my c section scar and if that was the case I would've ended for a partial hysterectomy. After the surgery I woke up cold and shaking profusely, begging for blankets and a warm compress for my boobs because they were so cold they were like hard as rocks. After they tried to warm me up I spiked a fever, plus losing so much blood had deflated my veins so they had stuck me all over trying to test my blood volume after the transfusions.
I was in surgery and recovery for a good while so the baby was with daddy and fam the whole time. They rode in the ambulance with me and when we got to the hospital we asked if they could give the baby donor milk. They said we'd have to admit him in order to do that and I was hesitant but they've been really respectful of our wishes. I said no vaccines, no bath, no circumcision, no formula and no taking him from us. We're just now letting them take him to the nursery so we can get some sleep. It was pretty hairy there for a while but we made it and he's perfect 🤗
Tl;Dr had an amazing physiological birth but tore severely and had a retained placenta. Ended up in the hospital for blood transfusions and surgery to remove the placenta.

Trip report for 2 weeks husband and I spent in Belize - April 20 to May 4
Breaking this down into 3 parts, this post is about our time in Placencia. Ask away if you want any details.
Day 5 San Ignacio -> Placencia

• Mayawalk Tours shuttle to Wild Orchid in Placencia. We rented a “studio with ocean view” When we walked in with the host for him to show us around there was a little kitchenette that was fully loaded with all we needed, table and a small futon…. Luckily their definition of studio is different from ours and there was also a large bedroom with a king size bed. Cute, clean little place, with AC. Beach a minute walk from our door. They provide bikes, SUP, kayaks etc all with your reservation. There were a couple other apartments in the building and houses around us but it was lovely and secluded, being far from town, we were basically the only people on the beach. We did have upstairs neighbors one night and you could hear some walking around etc, but not bad. We were there on the off season, so it may be more crowded other times of the year. There was a picnic table outside our apartment, but that isn’t comfortable for long term relaxation to sit outside. We drug a couple of the chairs by the water up to our room so we could have a place to hang out outside, but not at the water.
• Apartment was about 3.5 miles from town, there was only one restaurant that was open and within walking distance. Grabbed a couple of the bikes and headed into town for dinner. This is when we realized 3.5 miles each way on beach cruisers would be a longer ride than originally thought. Made it about 1.5 miles to Turtle Inn and ended up having a great pizza and drinks at their beach bar and restaurant.

Day 6 - Placencia

• Called around for a golf cart rental, ended up using Barefoot Services for a full day rental. Their office was walking distance and we received a nice clean cart.
• Spent the afternoon downtown. Parked the cart, and walked around drinking & snacking at a few different restaurants & bars. Public beach was nice there.
• Stopped by the grocery store and grabbed food, snacks & drinks for the next couple of days.
• Dropped off the cart and walked to Hobbs Brew Barge for some beers and dinner. Walked back to the apartment.

Day 7 - Placencia

• Dove the Silk Cayes with Go Sea Tours. They have a great operation, lunch was served on an island between dives and rum punch poured on the boat ride back. Loved Benji the DM. I would recommend and dive with them again.

Day 8 - Placencia

• Beach & relaxation day at the apartment
• Took a taxi downtown, ate at Omars, rumor is they have the best conch fritters in the area. Spent a couple hours walking around, getting drinks at different places. Taxi home.

Day 9 - Placencia -> San Pedro

• Had a 2pm flight from Placencia -> BZE -> San Pedro. Flight left at 2pm. Having no idea, we got to the airport at 1pm and were very early. Tropic Air had a nice waiting room, fast Wifi, cold AC. We were the only 2 passengers on this flight.
• When we landed at Belize City, Tropic Air was able to get us on an earlier flight than booked, so our layover was the time it took to get off the plane, check in for next flight, go through security and make it to the gate. About 10 minutes. They also contacted the company we were renting our golf cart through on San Pedro and let them know that we would be landing earlier than planned.

Placencia was beautiful, beaches had some sargassum (Wild Orchid did have staff raking up when we were there) but it wasn’t bad. We would stay there again, but would prepare better if we didn’t have a car, i.e. have the shuttle driver stop at the grocery store on the way in or a longer term golf cart rental. Favorite meal was the pizza at Turtle Inn, nothing else really stood out. I’m sure there were a lot of great restaurants we missed, but we took advantage of having the mini kitchen.
Total Spent in Belize for 2 weeks - $6,175.24 (does not include travel expenses to / from US)
Placencia Breakdown: $1,662.71

• Transportation - $582.78
• Accommodations - $358.52
• Eating & Drinking - $378.76
• Diving - $342.65

After dinner, with the cookware cooled down, I put a drop or two of dish soap and then pouring a mug of hot water into a baking dish, example lasagna, the non burnt tomato sauce breaks down, but do the same with cold water and it takes a while. Even the same with pouring hot water slowly; and dumping cold water into the baking dish. Thank you.

"You sure I can't convince you to share that recipe?" asked Kord. He was digging into his breakfast with Trixie seated next to him at the dining table. 'Molenoid Pancakes' were one of Kord's favorite dishes, even though he had no idea how Pronto made them.
"A chef's greatest tools are his recipes, giving them out freely is completely out of the question," replied Pronto dramatically.
Next to Kord sat Trixie who had stopped eating her own usual breakfast, cereal, and was looking around the room. "I'll go try waking up Eli," she said as she began getting out of her chair.
"I wouldn't bother," interrupted Kord in between bites. "I already tried, he's pretty much out cold."
"It's only natural, we were up late yesterday helping out with the Frostcrawlers, and it didn't help that Eli accidentally fell into their glacial water," said Pronto.
"Accidentally," said Kord sarcastically. Remembering how a certain someone misfired and hit Eli in the back with a Flatulorhinkus slug, sending him off the ice pathway he was standing on.
"Morning," interrupted Eli as he walked shakily towards the living room.
"Hey, sleeping beauty, though it's not really the morning anymore," joked Trixie. "Want some cereal?"
"No, I'm alright," he said as he grabbed a seat on one of the couches.
"Good, I never understood why you two enjoy that stuff anyway, let me make some pancakes for you. Kord can attest to their deliciousness."
"Sure can," said Kord happily as he took another bite.
"Thanks but it's fine, I'm not really in the mood for breakfast anyway," said Eli as he switched from sitting to lying on the couch.
Trixie, Kord, and Pronto shared a concerned look with each other.
"You feeling okay, dude?" asked Kord.
"I'm fine, I...just gotta get some coffee in me," he replied as he slowly got up from the couch.
Just then, the hideout's distress system activated, and footage showing a scuffle involving Blakk's men popped up on their holodisplay. It showed ghouls flying in all directions and citizens fleeing...
[COMPLETE BELOW]
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English: frost

1. the state or temperature of the air which occasions congelation, or the freezing of water
   
2. severe cold or freezing weather
   
3. frozen dew
   

––––––––––––
Translations

• Catalan: gebrada
  
• Esperanto: frosto
  
• French: gel
  
• Galician: xeada
  
• German: der Frost
  
• Hindi: तुहिन
  
• Italian: gelo
  
• Portuguese: geada
  
• Romanian: ger
  
• Spanish: escarcha
  
• Swedish: frost
  

––––––––––––
Join our new subreddit for language learners @ /LearnANewLanguage

So about half a year ago while I (27 AFAB at the time) was at work my arm began tingling. It happened while I was crocheting so I attributed it to poor posture but took note of the time (just after 3pm) and continued working until 5pm. By the time I got off work my pinky and ring finger on my right hand became difficult to use. I drove home (hindsight this was really stupid of me to do) and an hour later when it hadn't gotten better I asked my brother to take me to the ER.
While there I told them that given the symptoms I was having (numbness on one side, and partial paralysis) and that I had started a new birth control a month prior that I was worried about the possibility of a stroke. They checked for the more obvious signs of stroke (facial droop, delayed eye dilation, blood tests, etc.) and noted that I had weakness in my right arm as well as tachycardia. They asked my brother about my behavior and if I was acting off, which he said I was not.
When the blood tests came back they informed me that my d-dimer was elevated. I wasn't told how much it was elevated. They referred me to CT to check for a pulmonary embolism. CT showed a normal healthy chest and I was sent home with a diagnosis of pinched ulnar nerve.
Over the next two days I proceeded to be incapable of eating or drinking anything, if I slept it was not for more than an hour at a time and I woke up in a cold sweat. My arm went from tingly and partially paralyzed to dead meat attached to my body. I could not move it, and could only lift at the shoulder. I woke my brother up at 3am to take me back to the ER. I informed them of the new symptoms, as well as the worsening of the previous symptoms.
This time it felt very dismissive. I was not being heard. I got sent to MRI to check again for a pulmonary embolism which again showed nothing. I told them I felt like I had really bad brain fog and my arm felt like it was in ice water. I was told this was normal for a pinched ulnar nerve. They gave me nerve glides to do, a prescription for 600mg of ibuprofen, and a referral to a neurologist. I asked them before I left if it was a good idea to fly as I had a vacation starting the next day, I was told it was fine.
So I went on my vacation, flying from one coast of the US to the other. It was 7hrs after I landed and was picked up from the airport where it started to go downhill and rapidly.
I still couldn't eat, and I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep so I bummed a gummy off a friend and started getting ready to go to bed. After this is a complete haze for me but I will list the events as I was later told:

• While walking to bed I blacked out. This was me dropping while I had my first tonic-clonic seizure of the night. My friend miraculously caught me and made sure I didn't hit my head, while my other friend took charge of the situation.
• My seizure lasted approximately 2 minutes, and when it looked like I was coming out of my postictal state pretty quickly they decided to drive me to the ER
• At the ER I had another seizure while they were taking me to get a CT scan of my brain. After this I was taken to MRI. I was considered medically confused and was incapable of staying still. I was given two doses of Ativan to try to keep me still long enough to get something from the MRI
• MRI was sent to a neurologist at another hospital who was able to see on the VERY blurry images that I was having a stroke. She teleconferenced in to assess my state, asking the nurse to essentially check if I was brain dead. My friend who was with me the entire time was the one to actually wake me up.
• I was then transferred to a bigger hospital's ICU for care when I was stable.

I dropped on Tuesday night. I remember bits and pieces of Tuesday night, and the following Wednesday, but I was not conscious and aware until Thursday morning. I woke up, realized I had a catheter, and I was PISSED.
In the few hours after the medical staff learned I was actually with it. I was informed not only that I had a stroke, but that I had a rare form of stroke. It was a Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis. They were shocked that the previous hospital had not continued to look for something and dismissed me. I was then informed that my d-dimer was 1.03 (where a 0.50 was the maximum threshold for a normal d-dimer), my glucose upon being admitted was severely elevated, and they didn't know how bad it was because they had not yet been able to get a clear image of my brain.
Throughout my ICU stay I learned I was extremely lucky to be alive, you can't trust every doctor, and to always be accompanied by someone who will advocate for you. Also birth control sucks and my friends are amazing.
I spent my 28th birthday in the ER.
I now live in the state where I was finally diagnosed properly and I am communicating with a lawyer for a malpractice lawsuit. I have had up to 20 appointments a month just for things related to my stroke and am coming to terms with things that just might not get better. I'm taking 4 different medications for the after affects of the stroke, and I might just have to remain on 3 of them as it's possible I now have an epileptic disorder. We wont know for sure until my brain is given more time to heal but my recent EEG still shows abnormal brain activity.
I think overall I have a pretty solid case, especially given the shock of the paralegal as I explained what happened. But sometimes I second guess it and it worries me.

Disclaimer: Not all Norwegian people are like that. These are just my observations & experiences & perhaps other people might disagree with me and that’s ok.

1. There is no individuality in this country. Everyone talks, dresses, thinks, acts the same way. Their houses all look the same. They use the same phones, they drive the same cars. I’d say that everyone even wants the same things, has the same goals. They don’t have any unique family traditions. You’ll see a trampoline in every single house garden. People expect you to conform to their Norwegian ways and if you don’t you’re branded as a weirdo and freak of nature. People have the same hobbies.
   
2. Norwegians are the worst gossipers I’ve met in my entire life. It’s actually quite funny because they are seen as these calm, peaceful, introverted people but they talk shit about everything and everyone behind their backs while pretending to like them at the same time. When they get caught and get confronted about their judgmental & two faced behaviour they constantly use words like “ I didn’t mean it like that”, “ it’s just an expression in Norwegian” ( when it really isn’t), “ I wasn’t judging I was just making conversation”, etc. When you get past through this bs & successfully call them out they will say that in Norway it’s normal to gossip.
   
3. Family life is horrible and exhausting. The in-laws are up in your ass*s all the time and it’s even worse if you are a woman married to a Norwegian man. Prepare yourself for unsolicited advice and judging your ways of parenting and living because you simply aren’t Norwegian. If you don’t behave a certain way especially for Norwegian families, it creates too much drama. They keep meeting up all the time, like good families, but most of the time they just sit there talking about the same things over and over again, old gossip or just silence.
   
4. They are passive aggressive and that stems from the fact they are incapable of showing their true feelings or expressing their actual thoughts. They hate confrontation. This creates dishonesty and just bad situations overall. When you call them out on their rudeness and condescending attitude they get so defensive and start pulling out words & sentences like “you have misunderstood me” “, “I didn’t mean it in a rude way” “I was just giving you advice”, “I was just being kind”, “oh it’s because I don’t speak English very well you don’t understand me” when in fact 99,9% of the population here speaks English very well. And when you try to explain to them that you haven’t in fact misunderstood them you’re painted out as this horrible person who is accusing them of things “they didn’t mean”.
   
5. People will show you they speak English and then proceed to only speak in Norwegian, ignore you and just speak to your partnefriend/ whoever you have next to you who speaks Norwegian even when the conversation regards you too and it’s important to you. Which brings me to my next point.
   
6. Everyone speaks English, but you will never fit in here, if you don’t speak Norwegian. Groups never try to accommodate you by having everyone speak English, because they don’t really want to. They want to speak Norwegian. That’s okay that they like speaking their own language in their own country, it’s their right 100%, but first of all I find it extremely rude if it’s a person who is just visiting the country and just sits there in a group of people feeling excluded because nobody puts the effort to speak English. Secondly even for a person who lives in Norway and is the transitioning position of learning the language it is still rude because they still might not understand a lot of Norwegian. They also do something really horrible, you might speak English with them and when they want to say something they don’t want you to know they switch to Norwegian in front of you. It’s always funny when you know the meaning of what they just said and you translate for them and they end up feeling embarrassed.
   
7. Norwegians truly believe their way of doing things is superior to other people’s ways. If you disagree with them they will make sure they get their way. They believe they are entitled to be the advisor on a situation as if they are the holder of wisdom, knowledge, experience, they never listen, especially to outside perspectives because they are so conforming and used to their own ways. Anything else just shocks them.
   
8. They think they will die in the heat. They actually think hot weather is dangerous. My MIL thinks it’s dangerous for our child to be in the Mediterranean during the summer. They keep blabbing all the time how cold the weather in Norway is and are for some strange reason proud of it in a way (maybe because they think it looks “cool” that they can endure cold weather?) but once they must be in a hot country they are scared of it and talk about it aaaaall the time.
   
9. They throw and waste so much food.
   
10. The drinking problem is obvious to everyone.
    
11. They are extremely stingy to the point it’s a bit sad. Even inside their own families they Vipps each other for simple things such as being dropped off somewhere with the car or buying a bottle of water. I’ve never seen this before in my life anywhere.
    
12. They pride themselves for being introverted, cold, unfriendly and not talking to strangers and I never understood why they think it’s something to be proud of.
    
13. Good luck finding friends here. They only stick to people they’ve known since primary school times, they have already created their own social bubbles and you’re not welcome in them because you don’t go way back. This is a problem even Norwegians themselves face.
    
14. On the positive side of things Norwegians will return things they don’t belong to them, they will make sure to at least find the owner of a lost item they’ve found, they are good at keeping the crime rate as low as possible and a safe society for everyone.
    
15. One might say they are nationalistic and that it’s bad but it’s actually interesting and nice to see them celebrating 17th of May, wearing their traditional clothes, being happy and enjoying themselves.
    
16. They like to be close with nature and are very active people. I would not say that their diet or food they eat is particularly healthy but they like to keep in shape and do outdoor activities a lot.
    
17. There is high social mobility.
    

Edit: Jeg snakker norsk nå, ikke flytende men godt nok. Jeg snakker om de første årene når jeg ikke snakket norsk enda og jeg fortsatt sliter med språket. Det er 100% naturlig for man å ønske å være med i konserasjoner. Det er også veldig trist å se familien min besøke oss, være på familiemiddager eller andre arrangementer og ingen snakker til dem på engelsk! Beklager men de kan ikke snakke norsk og de vil ikke lære norsk fordi er det ikke nødvendig til dem! I tillegg, som jeg nevnte, snakker jeg ikke norsk flytende så jeg forstår ikke medisinske termer, det er for avansert for meg. Jeg fødte for ikke så lenge siden, jeg går til legene eller helsesykepleieren med mannen min for barnet vårt, jeg nevner at jeg foretrekker om samtalen er på engelsk, de snakker engelsk og så bytter til norsk og snakker kun med mannen min for barnet vårt og ikke med meg.

So we have this kitten that came from a feral cat mom from the local neighborhood so we had her checked out from a vet. She did have diarrhea when we got her. Kitten did have a fecal test positive for for Giardia, was treated and since the fecal test has tested negative. Once the treatment had seemed to work her poop started to become solid but then has since taken back to diarrhea. She has had some vomiting and some loss of appetite but she does still eat and drink water just not as much when she was pooping solid. We have supplemented with some organic psyllium husk (as suggested by our vet to help with the pooping and it has helped some) and today switched from food with chicken as the protein to now a fish to see if that helps. She has been good about litter box ever since we got her but then suddenly started peeing/pooping in places she shouldn’t. So we believe she has a uti but she is too small to extract urine from to test so we are going ahead with antibiotics at the suggestion of our vet.
Just looking for advice or ideas or just anything we can do to help her or anything to ask our vet.
• Species: Cat • Age: 12 weeks • Sex/Neuter status: no spay/neuter (too young) • Breed: Common cat? • Body weight: 1.8lb (she lost weight since first visit and working on it) • Your general location: Utah

I chatted recently with an online domme who wanted to test my obedience. She ordered me to tie up my little clitty TIGHT so the head was bulging and purple and sensitive. Then I had to rub sports heat Balm into the head and balls and leave it for a full minute. This was all on live video The first few seconds were fine but then the pain hit!! It was unbelievably agonizing!!! It felt like my cock and ball's had been dipped in liquid 🔥 I just barely managed the full minute but I was screaming and tears were running down my cheeks. The second the time was up I threw myself into the shower and turned the cold water on as hard as I could. It took AGES for the pain to go away and even the next day I was still in pain. She laughed her head off and called me a good doggie so it was worth it!