When we originally got Comcast, there was no other competition so they wouldn't negotiate. Then competition came in at a lower price and the first time I spent a couple of hours with them on the phone. Then it got a lot easier. My wife told me that Americans don't like to haggle (it's customary in a lot of countries) and that was true for me but I got used to haggling. We've had Comcast for 11 years now and $30/month really adds up over time.

We go to H Mart in Burlington.

My wife liked an Asian grocer on 101A in Nashua but they had a fire a few months ago and aren't in operation now.

We used to go into Chinatown but just go to H Mart these days. It's a lot more convenient.

I call them every two years and tell them I want to pay $50/month and they say okay. That's $50 total inclusive of fees, taxes and whatever else. This gives me 200 Mbps down and I'd guess that it costs them $10/month for the service.

Calling them every two years is a pain but I try to keep repeating costs to a minimum.

You have to take sexual harassment training in the corporate world either every year or every other year. Managers have to take additional training because they are in a position of power. This is in addition to security training, records retention training and training on the actual work that you do. I do not know how you can not know this stuff in the modern workplace.

I'm unaware of a shortage of single women - you just have to make yourself attractive enough and have interests such that you can meet them. Or do the online dating thing. This was after my time but one of my sisters found her husband through online dating. Sometimes you find people via word of mouth too.

I didn't see the doctors that much but my wife was happy with the deliveries.

We had both of our kids at St. Josephs. We used a OB/GYN practice across the street or near across the street. One of the deliveries was quite problematic but they got the job done. I have gone to St. Josephs for a number of procedures myself and everything went smoothly. I prefer St. Josephs as you don't have to deal with parking - shouldn't be a big concern but it is if you need to visit frequently.

If I expected a problem, I'd go to Brigham and Womens.

You could ask your parents as they had to deal with the legal stuff which isn't necessarily trivial.

I have not had it yet and nobody in my friends and family network have had it but it's probably a matter of time.

Merrimack; just got back from running outside in 26 degrees. It will take me a while to get used to this. I have been running mostly at the YMCA when it's this cold but they're closed today. We had a big tree come down but it's in a place where it do any damage. No power outages; it's just cold.

One of the reasons for the housing shortage in New Hampshire now.

Merrimack - my daughter is there and she told me that there were no problems last night. I drove to Boston to my mother's house and stayed overnight - it was a challenging drive. Checked the house and went around and picked up branches from around the property this morning. I'll see how things are in a few hours when I return to NH.

My wife sent me a picture of Marina Bay Sands in Singapore at the manicured gardens and told me it was 32 degrees C (90 F) there and sent a bunch of pictures.

I was at the Exit 11 interchange off the FE Turnpike and noticed that the lights were flashing yellow and that there was a utility truck on the sidewalk. So it looks like a power problem. I would assume that you have one side flashing yellow and another flashing red if there is power.

Young, healthy, probably has excellent health insurance coverage, athlete. You have everything going for you and you can still get sick and die. The rest of us had better take good care as we don't have her advantages.

It may not be for Brighams but there are other brands that I only mostly see in the summer.

We use an undersink filter which removes the Chlorine taste - that may be an option you can look into.

We buy it at Market Basket in Nashua but it's a seasonal thing.

Include receipts to show that we're tax-free.

Gore-Tex has found another process to waterproof stuff but I've heard anecdotally that it doesn't work as well. So there is other stuff out there. I don't know if it is damaging or not.

There is a way to expunge arrests and, maybe convictions but I think that the Legislature did some kind of review of this many years ago. I do not know what the status of this process is. I believe the result of the process is that you can answer "no" to the question, "Have you ever been arrested.". Nothing you can do about search engines and newspapers though.

Good luck. I don't really like marks for getting arrested without conviction as it results in reputational damage.

My mother died recently and she left a 4 bedroom house in a Boston suburb to her 7 grandchildren. Our job is to decide what to do with it as there is some interest in the grandkids to keep it. There is no real pressure on a timeframe. The house isn't in great shape but it is in a great location and neighborhood. It would likely be a teardown because it was built in the 1920s and people with the money to buy it want modern infrastructure.

My understanding is that this is happening a lot in the Boston suburbs. One nice thing about the Boston suburbs is that people living in the area want good schools and will fund them. But they won't necessarily pay for other stuff that can be put off.

We live in NH and the thing that stops us from buying the place is the age and MA taxes. I go down once or twice a week to maintain the place as does a sister that lives nearby.

You're not really double-taxed. You just pay the highest rate of the two states.

We only got about 4 inches in Merrimack but it was heavy and wet but it felt decent clearing the cars and shoveling out. It was nice to start out with an easy snowstorm as we'll be getting higher amounts for sure. I can't believe the amount of precipitation that we've had in Southern NH this year. Lakes and reservoirs are currently at very high levels. There's another inch or so this morning but I think that it will all melt in a few hours.

It is nice to be able to call a contractor and get work done but most people don't have the spare cash for $10K to $100K remodels. And, even if you do have the money, you may choose not to spend it on a remodel. You have to spend money for necessities like heat, roof, painting, plumbing, electrical, windows, driveway that require regular (though not frequent) maintenance. You have to spend time and money on landscaping, snow removal, maybe trash pickup. If you want to see this at a higher level, look at Newton, Waltham, Lexington and other Boston suburbs. There are a lot of old homes coming up for sale because elderly folks are passing homes on to their children. A lot of these turn into teardowns because the homes were built 100 years ago and it is just very hard to remodel into something that modern buyers demand.

I'm surprised at this given how little snow we've had this week and that Monday, Tuesday had above freezing temperatures. Good job police!

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Authorities were the place where politicians stuffed their friends, donors and campaign workers and these were good jobs at good wages with pensions. And MA has to pay those pensions now. So the Authorities have one hand tied behind its back. My recollection is that MBTA ridership has been declining with more WFH. I looked at the vacancy rates for Boston office properties and I think that it's around 25%. So there certainly doesn't seem to be a need for high-speed rail. What would make sense is to turn that office space into residential units. Probably unpopular with the owners as office space is typically more valuable.