Random Questions

If he’s still in the kitchen I make him turn it off, but if he’s elsewhere I turn it off for him and go tell him about it. I’ll start making him go take care of it regardless of where he is. I’m hoping the spray bottle and/or snow pushups will get it to stick. I’ll also talk to him about thinking of the timer as a turn-the-oven-off alarm and try to get him to turn it off before he takes the food out.

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I went through this when I got a new oven. In my head turning off the timer was the same thing as turning off everything. I had to set an alarm on my phone to remind me to turn it off until I got used to the proper routine.

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Another thought:

When my dad was teaching me to drive, the process for turning off the car included turning off the lights. (I am an old, so automatic lights did not exist. That warning bell that the lights were left on also did not exist in that car.) The first time I said “But Dad, the lights aren’t even on!” He told me it didn’t matter, I had to turn them off. Making turning the lights off an action I took every time I turned off the car meant I never drained the battery because of leaving lights on (until 15 years later, for a different reason).

Maybe husband should practice turning the oven off every time he leaves the kitchen.

Pre-ETA:.

I like this! It is what I try to do in my kitchen.

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Yep, “turn off the oven” has to somehow become an automatic behavior within the process of getting food, before leaving the kitchen.

For me, the challenge is multi-fold:
(1) by shutting off the timer, our brain is already thinking we have completed the ‘turn cooking off’ step
(2) sometimes when you open the oven and take food out, you DON’T want to turn the oven off (food is not ready, taking some out & leaving other food to warm, etc.)
(3) the end goal is eating the food - any behavioral steps in the chain along the way are easy to skip if they are not essential to eating food [e.g., unlike when you get food that needs a spoon to eat, like soup, if you forget the spoon, you go back for it]
(4) the oven doesn’t beep or have any specific reminder about turning it off, whereas the timer does.

This is why many newer ovens have automatic shutoff modes - because it is a really common mistake for us to make.

I’ve tried to make my habit - turn off timer, turn off oven, then get food out. If I need to turn oven back on again, it’s NBD. This usually works for me (unlike in my story on my journal).

Some people would do well to set a second timer to remind them about the oven for right after the first one (on their phone or in-home “smart” listening/privacy invasion device).

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Yeah… those things. Never getting a smart home system. Laptop mics are physically disabled. Phones get turned off once work is done for the day. Am I paranoid?

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Partner is of a similar mind, so I’m always shocked when people voluntarily have in-home listening devices or keep their phone location turned on all the time.
:woman_shrugging:

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Pro tip: if you frame your laptop screen with washi tape it looks nice and covers the camera.

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I had to turn location on for a minute for something to update on my phone yesterday and realized last night that it was still on. I was so mad at myself.

We’ve also been looking into getting a new tv because our old one is starting to fail and has shadow-imprints for a while, but all new tvs are “smart” tvs. Uuugh, no thank you.

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:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: I turn it on to play Pokemon Go and then off again all the time. My phone likes to question that decision but I get uppity at it and remind it that I am in charge. Still. Mostly.

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Groooooss. Maybe Goodwill will have dumb TV options?

Does anyone know of a good way to treat cooking oil stains in tshirts that have already set? Looking online it seems like it’s always talking about treating it as soon as the oil makes contact with the cloth, we’re waaaaaay past that point.

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If you find out let me know? I’m terrible about changing/using aprons for cooking.

Repeated washing seems to help but not 100%. Or even 85%.

Dawn dish soap as a pre-treat is supposed to help.

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Fire. You burn the t shirt and get a new one without stains.

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I’ve had some luck with iterating rounds of applying detergent, letting it sit a while, and then washing. Also recommend Dawn as an oil remover.

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Mr. Meer just got this shirt and had only worn it once. Kiddo also lost a jacket at day care the first day he wore it, so it’s not a great week for clothing in our household.

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Have you considered nudism, as a family policy? You could save a lot of money.

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Not if you factor in bail money for the public indecency charges :wink:

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Doukhobors go naked. It’s a religious freedom thing. Plus they make amazing borscht. I see no downside.

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Massage therapists throw baking soda in the wash when the sheets are getting gross (with regular detergent).

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