emptyhands

I've been working on bel canto with a vocal instructor for months. I enjoy it and have definitely improved, but I'm having SUCH a hard time mentally with my mid-range break, and weakness around those notes. Advice and/or commiseration welcome.

I would love some stoic discussion and perhaps guidance.

My spouse was very recently blind-sided by receiving a letter with no warning from a business that he is/was a part-owner in. The other three business partners, one of whom was one of my closest friends (Chantal let's say), and another of whom is very intertwined in our social group (call him Shawn), wrote in this letter that they'd all been in serious discussions together for five months to perform a surprise takeover and kick my partner out of the business.

We were in absolute shock. The reasons listed in the letter were not solved by kicking him out, and could in fact have been remedied with a casual discussion. After consulting

I see lots of posts about people finding great 'clean' skulls and bones out in the wilderness. I have some of those, but additionally I live in a small farming community with an old-fashioned local butcher. I'm friends with the owner of the shop and also with one of the employees and they message me when they get stuff I might like. Today they gave me a little goat that died shortly after birth two days ago. He's now in water in an outbuilding so he can macerate. I live in Canada so it's too cold to do much else until spring. Who else does the whole process? What do you have on the go, and what techniques are you using?

Hi all. My partner and I are both quite introverted. We bought a big house in a rural area and this is our quiet refuge, along with all our pets, from the outside world. My parents live about 2.5 hours away and are lovely people. But my mom. Oh my god. She is the most extroverted person I've ever met. She 'collects' people like baseball cards. Loves 'em. Loves being surrounded by noise and friends and activity, ALL. THE. TIME. More and more, when they come for a visit, my parents are arriving on Friday before I'm even home from work, and are still here Monday morning when I leave to start a new work week. It's exhausting and traumatizing to me and my partner. We're 'on' all weeken

I have a very good friend who has been fat all her life - let's call her Belle. Her parents are both overweight and have various serious health concerns relating to their weight. Her husband, Beast, whom she married about five years ago, is also very overweight and has serious health concerns connected to his weight. He too comes from a fat family. Belle is right around 5 feet tall. Her husband is well over 6 feet tall. In the six or seven years that she's known Beast, Belle has gone from a somewhat stable morbidly obese weight to very noticeably fatter, and gaining all the time. I presume that it's easier to overeat with a large companion who shares her enjoyment of food. Her close-

I live in very rural farm country in Canada. I usually run on an old rail bed that is bordered by woods, a river, and cow & horse pasture land. A herd of cows had escaped from a hole in their fence along the dirt path, and some farm hands were in the process of rounding them up when I ran past. What they didn't see was that two cows had wandered around the corner, down the path, and into the woods - which was also my running route.

Many people are intimidated by the size of a cow once you get up close, especially if the cows are freaked out (like in this case) but it's really not hard to get them to go where you want. I called, cajoled, and herded them back in the direction of the

We give our spent grains to a friend with chickens and goats, and they love it. I would also love to find a use for trub instead of just throwing it in the compost. Anyone have any ideas?

I walked away from a formerly close friend (this is the narcissist - let's call her Leigh) maybe two years ago after being treated unkindly over and over again. After the final straw at the end of the friendship, I just went no contact. Blocked her from Facebook, all the usual stuff, and moved on.

We live in a very small town in a very rural part of Canada. Social circles intersect and there's no getting around that. A newer friend, Laura, who missed out on the drama at the time has invited Leigh to a party that she also invited me to. My husband and I are a lot closer to Laura and her husband than Leigh is. I rarely bring up these particular past events because I hate drama, so I t