Category Archive

communicating

STFU: How can I deal with one family member who always ruins holiday parties?

I’m slated to host Christmas Eve at my home again, and last year it was fun… except for one uncle ruined it with snarky comments and flat-out negativity. He bitched about the food, the tackiness of the decorations, and the gifts people gave.

At the time, I was more concerned about hosting duties and making sure my family was having a good time, so I just tried to roll with it. Nobody in the family had the guts to say anything, except to talk about it after he left.

This year though… fuck that, I don’t want any of that shit in my house.

How do I keep his horrible attitude in line in my own home?

How do I get my mother-in-law to stop addressing things to my non-existent married name?

My husband and I have been married for six years now and most of the family is fully aware of the fact that I kept my last name — actually, I’m sure my in-laws are well aware of this. But my mother-in-law keeps addressing mail and checks to me as if I had changed my name.

You are your own shareholders: How quarterly relationship meetings strengthen our marriage

My husband and I recently celebrated three months of marriage. The perfect way for a programmer with a mind for finance and an accountant to augment the occasion was, of course, a quarterly meeting. It may sound crazy, but this is our first step in always making our marriage a priority. Here’s how quarterly meetings foster open and honest communication while strengthening our relationship…

Help! How do we minimize backlash when kicking out a toxic roommate?

I currently live in a house with four roommates and our lease is up at the end of October. Here’s our problem… Everyone wants to stay in the house, but none of us want to stay with our one roommate. The other three of us want to kick her out, but we aren’t sure how to without backlash. What is a good and formal but polite way to tell her she isn’t wanted anymore?

How to use your camera to find a bathroom in a foreign country

When in a country where you can’t speak the language, take pictures of signs for an easy-find reference!

How to deal with a bad landlord that just doesn’t care…

My husband and I really love our three bedroom upper duplex, and we get it for a really great price. The problem is that our landlord, a property management company, could not care less about anything that we contact them about. What are your tips on dealing with landlords that just don’t care?

How we’re renegotiating our marriage with our yearly “relationship summit”

For our anniversary we have our “relationship summit” or our “State Of The Union” address, where we renegotiated our marriage each year. We talk about where we are and what we want and if changes need to be made. But what’s more important is the time when we come to “I want to stay married to you for another year.” Here’s how it works…

Send postcards to yourself: Keep track of your travels with this hack

This is my mom’s fantastic idea for tracking experiences while traveling. How many times have you promised to keep a travel journal only to return home with most of the pages left blank? If you’re like me, that’s happened a few times. On top of that, how do you go about displaying your travel souvenirs when you get home? Developing photos is nice, but are you going to label them to remember everything? My mom’s solution: Postcards to yourself.