I decided to try the Gryph & Ivyrose Seal the Deal(TM) Moisturizing Balm after I had been experiencing a wrist rash for about half a year. It was suspected to be a metal allergy, but the rash unfortunately persisted months after I stopped wearing the suspected bracelet. The rash was annoying, a little embarrassing, and I was willing to spend more to try make the allergy rash go away sooner. I found this balm in the Saks Fifth Avenue online store for US$49 before tax. Gryph & Ivyrose is based in Miami, Florida, United States. The Seal the Deal (TM)…
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When I decided I wanted to try the Bétta Carry me! baby carrier, I had been looking into baby equipment marketed in Asia. Many of the baby carriers marketed in the US were just were not comfortable for me. Problems included carriers being too long, too heavy, excessive leftover tail length after tightening, straps lying in uncomfortable places, waist-based types set too high if secure and just better positioning my infant to scream in my ear, etc. Being a shorter torso-ed Asian woman, I hoped that a baby carrier from Asia would suit my Asian body better. (A similar concept…
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I was using VLC media player recently. It kept pausing playback. It was on a Lenovo laptop, and this potential fix for this VLC issue on specifically Lenovo computers solved my problem: This “Zero touch video playback” is supposed to stop things from playing when your computer thinks you are not presently using your computer. I am glad the setting is easy to disable.
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Before we begin, when we talk about gold here, we are talking about 24k gold specifically. Taiwan, being part of Asia, prefers 24k gold. There is often a cluster of gold shops in larger cities in Taiwan. They will display their gold buying and gold selling price prominently. I think it is per gram, but I have forgotten for the moment. Any gold piece in a gold shop has two numbers: a gold value listed as weight and an artisan cost in Taiwanese dollars. Because the cost of gold fluctuates day to day, they multiply the listed weight and the…
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In my most recent trip to Japan in 2023, I purchased baby cooling gel patches from Pigeon, a line of baby products made in Japan. These patches, typically used for fevers, are a somewhat popular item with Japanese mothers that can be purchased at most drugstores and some Don Quijotes. It is easy to pack away; the box is neither very expensive nor large and can be squished without issue. To further reduce weight/volume, one could consider taking out the contents— which are labeled— and trashing the box. The penguin-decorated gel patches are designed for use by babies (For those…
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I was very disappointed when I pushed a sweater aside to discover chocolate clumped on my carpet. For one thing, my daughter should have told me that she dropped chocolate from her ice cream instead of playing with a sweater, tossing the sweater on the stain, and wandering off! (I suspect that was the sequence, because the chocolate was not on the sweater at all.) For another thing, why was she in my nice music room with a chocolate-coated ice cream bar in the first place?! Fortunately, having handled similar situations— usually because of Small Sophie— I knew what to…
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When you are getting billed by a medical service but you are sure that your insurance already paid or some account under insurance, such as an HRA, already paid, call your insurance company. Once upon a time, when I naively thought I could resolve such matters myself, my family called Labcorp three times without any resolution regarding two bills that had already been paid through my HRA. The first call was handled by someone who was tricked into paying a second time for the billed service on one of the invoices. I made the second and third calls. In the…
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My roughly one-and-a-half-year-old (or 20-month-old for more precision) daughter got her new 1/32 violin. I began trying to teach her. I was honestly not expecting very much, and that is what I got. Of course, a violin session begins with having the violin not in the case. Small Sophie had trouble removing the bow from the case. It has to be pulled out sideways, but she became frustrated trying to pull it out forwards. After the instruments were all out, I began by playing a few melodies she likes, such as the Alphabet song and the Elmo’s World theme. She…
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In the year that Young Sophie was 0-1, or 2022, we chose to buy a season pass for Sesame Place and a membership for Longwood Gardens. We also considered the Turtleback Zoo (https://turtlebackzoo.com/admission-hours/), which gives free admission to those under 2. Sesame Place We chose Sesame Place for a simple reason that I am sure many other parents of children aged 0-3 understand: Our child likes Sesame Street. And Elmo. Sesame Place grants free entry to those aged 23 months and younger. The cost of one visit with two adults and one baby would total something like $50 Tickets x…
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At 17 months old, Small Sophie finally gifted me with a mess on a white carpet. (She thought it was a game to run away as I chased her with a diaper. I got tired and rested. She also stopped— and made her mess. And stepped in it. Yuck!) Until today, I had been fortunate enough that my daughter had only poo-ed out of her diaper once, and that was on hardwood flooring. Hardwood is easy; pick up the offending object(s), wipe the floor, and let dry. Carpet is different, and white is especially annoying to get stains on. Fortunately,…