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We love our bosch and will stick with this brand unless the brand quality deteriorates. It's so quiet you can barely tell it's running at all and it doesn't have hidden controls.

I agree with ScubaHogg above. Went to Vienna in August in 2017 or thereabouts before it was even as hot as it is now, and it was completely miserable with temps in the mid 90s almost every day. No A/C on public transportation and it was stifling, although fortunately our hotel had A/C. I wouldn't touch Europe in the summer now, except for the Scandinavian countries.

I run/walk/hike outside all winter after having discovered kahtoola microspikes. They are very easy to slip on over your shoes and give you great traction in ice and snow. I do get a bit unhappy running when the temperature gets into single digits or below, but we don't get too many of those days. 20s and 30s are nice and refreshing with a good hat and gloves.

My Uncle likes to drive his Porsche around in eastern TN, and he's a local. I think you'll be fine.

If you do go through the Johnson City area, maybe stop in at Jonesborough (Tennessee's oldest town). It's a nice little town nearby with a historic downtown, a storytelling festival, a summer concert series, and some nice little restaurants in pre-pandemic times. If I had to pick a spot to live in East TN, that might be it.

My parents live in very East Tennessee around the Johnson City/Unicoi/Bristol area. My father's family is all from East Tennessee so I spent a lot of time there as a child (we lived in Texas) and now go to visit them regularly from where I live in New England (usually, in non-pandemic times). They have a lot of New England transplants moving into their area, often to retire. The locals complain about their driving, as I complain about the locals' driving :-) You would be amazed at how inexpensive it is to go out to eat compared to the Northeast. Very very good cheap southern food and the right kind of gravy (creamy, white, sausage based), although perhaps not if you are concerned about your cholesterol. The BBQ is ok, better than New Englan...

My pre-pandemic routine used to include a couple of morning runs each week, but now I run nearly every morning, and go walking most evenings. Where I am on the CT shoreline, in July mornings are usually >80% humidity but in the 60s or 70s by 6 or 7 am. I get up and start my 3 mile run usually between 6 and 7 am, and walk another 3 miles or so, plus or minus biking if I want to get to a breezy running spot on the hottest mornings. I am outdoors for up to 2 hours in the morning, but the UV index is generally 0-2 since I finish by 9 am. I wear as little as possible in the summer because I do run year round and while I find running in 30-degree weather to be refreshing, I do not find 75 degrees and 95% humidity refreshing. If I must be outside ...

The area around Beacon, NY (on the Hudson River) is lined with apple orchards and several wineries that are nice to visit this time of year. There's also a modern art museum (the Dia) and the Storm King art center/outdoor sculpture park. You'll also be near some nice sections of the Appalachian Trail and the best BBQ I've had outside of Texas called Roundup Texas BBQ in Cold Spring, NY.

I take notes on everything and store them in a single Word document that is ongoing from my first day of employment and always open on my desktop. When something needs to be done, I open an appointment in Outlook and block off time for it. Sometimes these are recurring appointments. I am also a programmer so I make copious notes/comments within my programs, and I have a desktop filing system with a naming convention that uses a brief project description followed by date.

I agree with Hawkeye - my itinerary to Thailand was similar, although over 10 years ago so I don't remember all the details: Bangkok (grand palace, temples with various buddhas, loads of delicious street food and coconut drinks, night markets, water taxi with various stops along the Chao Phraya river - stayed longer in Bangkok than would have wanted to in order to deal with some visa issues my sister was having, but there was lots to see) Chiang Mai (elephants, nice and cool) Ko Samui (loaded up on delicious seafood, massages, beaches, water buffalo, rented a moped and tooled around the island - a bit dangerous since they drive on the other side of the road, but fun) We planned our itinerary on the fly using internet at the hotel in Bangkok...

I've been to nearly all these places and just returned from a trip to Germany/Austria earlier this month. Here are my thoughts: niterary: Day 1 (9/2) Arrive Munich from KEF Day 2,3 (9/3-4) Munich - While in Munich, you may want to see Nymphenburg or one or two of Ludwig's castles as day trips in Bavaria, as suggested by others. Munich itself I don't think you need more than a day to see. Day 4 (9/5)-Pick up car at Welt in the AM, drive to Salzburg. Overnight in Salzburg Day 5 (9/6) Salzburg , Overnight in Salzburg - I wasn't overly impressed by Salzburg, not sure you need two nights there unless you're planning to use it as a base for Eagle's Nest. Day 6 (9/7) Berchgaden/Eagle Nest/Konigsee. Overnight in Werfen Austria - Very much enjoy Eag...

I also agree with the general consensus on Waterbury, with one caveat - if you like Turkish food, there's a great Turkish place in Waterbury called Sultan's. It has a belly dancing/fire dancing show on Saturday nights, I think, if you want to see that, but the food alone is a good reason to go.

Waterbury isn't Watertown, though. Watertown is farther from Hartford, about 15 minutes west of Waterbury. I would not bother with going to Hartford if I were staying in Watertown; there is much more to do in the Litchfield area than you could use up in a weekend or two. There's certainly plenty to do in West Hartford/Farmington Valley area (and several great happy hours in West Hartford in particular - I'm going there this afternoon actually), but it's harder to get to from Watertown than Litchfield is.

I also forgot to mention that if you're doing the CT wine trail in the Litchfield area and stop by Sunset Meadows winery in Goshen (I recommend the wine and chocolate tasting there - they use Fascia's chocolates out of Waterbury - delicious chocolates but not worth the drive to Waterbury because it's not a nice drive and not a scenic facility), just down the road from them is another dairy farm called Thorncrest which also makes delicious chocolates. That's worth the stop. And you should check to see if there are any festivals in the area going on when you visit. For example, Bethlehem CT has a wonderful garlic fest if you're into that sort of thing. As for Woodbury (mentioned above), there is a great bakery there called Ovens of France. Yo...

I also live in Connecticut. I agree with the poster who suggested Litchfield. If I were staying in Watertown, I would spend all my time in Litchfield county. I think you can easily stay within an hour radius and not run out of things to do or eat. Litchfield itself is only a short distance from Watertown - maybe 15 minutes - with a nice little downtown and Arethusa ice cream (dairy farm with a farm to table restaurant and very good cheese and ice cream). It also has a few good restaurants and you should take the free tasting tour of the Litchfield Distillery. I don't care that much for bourbon, but they give you a taste of maple syrup aged in bourbon barrels and it is delicious. There are a couple of blue signs directing you to nearby winer...

Thanks for the sale reminder! I only have one arcteryx item - their Calla dress, which is a flattering, lightweight, easily packable dress with pockets and good sun protection great for travel and frequently out of stock. Now I have two, one in a different color

I would take a pay cut, yes (and I have in the past taken a small reduction in overall benefits, although not in base salary, to work from home full time). The past 8.5 years I have worked remotely at least a couple days a week (the last 3.5 years have been 100% remote). I do not miss office companionship whatsoever - I have a small group of co-workers that I meet with regularly for happy hours, exercise, and long weekends at the beach. I also belong to a gym and a yoga studio and volunteer sometimes in my community, so I do not lack for social activity. I am also much more efficient, relaxed, and fit working from home, and I have access to a great food selection and a number of private bathrooms. I would not give it up for anything. I woul...

Have a similar household net worth although we're in our late 30's/mid 40's, and I just upgraded one 15 year old car for a lightly used, 3 year old Honda Fit. Paid $7k cash. Our old car hadn't become a maintenance headache yet, but if yours has, I'd say it's definitely time to replace it. I'm not a big car person and don't see much reason to spend $30k on a car, but if you can pay cash, I don't see why you can't afford it. Otherwise you might want to consider spending less. You should be able to spend half that and still get a new car if you pick the right model.

We also just bought a sectional sofa at Raymour and Flannigan after looking at most of the stores you mentioned: Macy's, Ashley, Bob's, Pottery Barn, JC Penney's, Costco. We might have gone with Costco except that by the time we were ready to buy, the in-store couches had been replaced with Christmas decorations, and I find it difficult to purchase a couch online without being able to see it in person. We liked the wide selection at Raymour and Flannigan best out of all the stores we visited, and felt the furniture was higher quality compared to Bob's and Ashley. We took advantage of the Columbus Day weekend sales and the store manager gave us an additional discount, which helped; we elected not to purchase the protection plan since it's ju...

I have a 2001 Toyota Echo that is starting to accumulate some issues and looks pretty beat up. I decided it was time and got a 2013 Honda Fit this week. I found a lightly used one with 36k miles on it for $7200, so it's not breaking the bank. It's worth it for the peace of mind, although I could probably get another 100k miles out of the Echo if I absolutely had to. I like to buy used compacts with low miles and keep them for 10+ years.

There are a couple of cousins' weddings I wish I had gone to several years ago. I think it was a combination of money and vacation time that held me back, but I regret not having made more effort to go. Since then, I realized I was going to more and more funerals and needed to show up for the happy occasions, too. I have reformed and now go to graduations, retirements, and other get togethers as often as I can.

I also regret not taking the train from Lauterbrunnen up to JungFrauJoch and the other high peaks when I was on my honeymoon in Switzerland. It seemed expensive at the time, but it was probably worth it. If we go back someday (and we would like to), I will not make that mistake twice.

I'm not sure what you mean by "primitive" camping...We've been to Acadia once before but just spent a couple of days there on our way up to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. We're planning another trip there this August/September and will be camping there for three nights. Lots of hiking trails within the park, Bar Harbor is a nice town, and as the previous poster mentioned, we also stopped in Portland on our way up.

I was in southern Spain this spring and thought it was very inexpensive (certainly compared to France, which was where we went next). We found a hotel for 3 with a full kitchen right on the coast for $279 for the entire week. We went across the street for groceries and ate several meals in our hotel/on the balcony overlooking the sea, and that was very inexpensive. Alcohol was very inexpensive as well. Wine, certainly, and we picked up a bottle of limoncello for less than 5 Euro (exchange rate was almost 1:1).

We went last year in November, and it was great - the weather was quite comfortable, the views were beautiful, and the seafood was delicious. Just a day trip for us; we were staying in Tuscany. I'm not sure what Frommer is all cranky about...I actually went because a friend from yoga class told me it was worth a side trip.

I am wondering what any of you would do or have done in a similar situation to my own: Last summer we hired a national painting company to paint the exterior of our home at the cost of roughly $8500, including some carpentry to replace damaged wood. We had been living in the home for 7 years, and the old paint was starting to peel due to age. 6 months after the contractor finished painting the house, we were dismayed to observe widespread peeling of the paint on three sides of the house, down to the bare wood. We contacted the company, and one month later they sent out a representative from their franchise and also from the paint supplier, who collected some samples of the peeling paint and said they would test it in their lab. They said we...