Fiona West (u/fiona_west21)

Posts

I always thought buying store brand spices was a downgrade until I did a side by side blind taste test

My girlfriend called me out for being a snob about spices about 6 months ago. I swore the name brand stuff was way better. So we did a blind test with 5 common spices - oregano, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, garlic powder. She made two identical pots of chili and swapped the spices without telling me which was which. I guessed wrong on 4 out of 5. Only got cinnamon right because the store brand seemed a little weaker. Now I save roughly $12 a month on spices. Has anyone else had a similar moment where their expensive habit turned out to be placebo?

3 comments

c/backpacking-routes•

fiona_west21•2d ago

My worst trail day ever turned into something good

Last August I was hiking the Highline Trail in Glacier and about 6 miles in my water bladder sprung a leak inside my pack. Everything got soaked, including my map which turned into a soggy mess. I had to stop and dump out all my gear on a rocky slope just to figure out what was wet. A group of hikers from Missoula came by and one of them had an extra dry bag they gave me. I ended up hiking the rest of the day with them and they showed me a cutoff that shaved off 3 miles of switchbacks. The bladder failure was a total pain in the neck but meeting those folks made that day weirdly memorable. Has anyone else had a gear failure that ended up leading to a better experience on the trail?

3 comments

c/banking-and-payments-community•

fiona_west21•5d ago

That moment my card got declined at a gas station in Phoenix at 11pm

I was on my way home from a delivery run and my debit card got declined for a $32 fill-up, turned out the bank flagged it as fraud because I had bought gas 3 hours earlier in a different zip code, and it took 45 minutes on hold to get it sorted - has anyone else had a bank's fraud alert cause more problems than it solved?

3 comments

c/auto-mechanics•

fiona_west21•6d ago

That time a transmission line blew on me at a rest stop near Flagstaff

I was about 150 miles from home on I-40 when I stopped for gas. Popped the hood to check things over like I always do, and BOOM, a transmission cooler line just burst. Hot fluid sprayed EVERYWHERE, all over my hands and the pavement. I had to crawl under there with a pair of pliers and a piece of hose I found in my truck bed to bypass the cooler just to limp it home. Has anyone else had a random highway failure ruin their whole day like that?

3 comments

c/everyday-epiphanies•

fiona_west21•25d ago

Realized last week I've been folding fitted sheets wrong my whole life

Honestly, I was just trying to put laundry away at my sister's place in Tacoma. I've been doing the whole ball it up and stuff it in the linen closet thing for 30 years. But last week she showed me this weird method where you tuck the corners into each other and then fold it flat. It took like 2 minutes and the sheet actually looked like a square. Ngl, I felt kind of dumb but also really relieved. Has anyone else had that moment where you find out a basic life skill you thought you had down is totally off?

3 comments

c/budget-friendly-meals•

fiona_west21•29d ago

That time at the county fair in Iowa wrecked my grocery budget assumptions

I went to the county fair in Des Moines last summer and saw a guy selling a whole roasted chicken for $6.50. I thought, no way that beats my home cooking. But I bought one and it fed me plus leftovers for three days, and I spent maybe $12 on ingredients alone for my own bird. Has anyone else found a cheaper option at a fair or market that made you rethink your normal meal prep?

3 comments

c/coffee-enthusiasts•

fiona_west21•1mo ago

Is the pour over bloom phase actually worth the wait...

I skipped the 30 second bloom on my morning brew last Tuesday to save time and honestly the cup tasted almost the same as when I do it right. Could the whole bloom ritual just be coffee snob drama or am I missing something in my taste buds?

3 comments

c/cybersecurity-tips•

fiona_west21•1mo ago

Spent 3 hours making a 'strong' password last week and my brother guessed it on try #2

I thought I was being clever using a line from my favorite obscure poem from 1987, but apparently he knew I was into that poet and just typed in the first stanza, so now I'm wondering if there's a secure way to pick passwords that aren't tied to your actual life history?

4 comments

c/everyday-ethical-crossroads•

fiona_west21•1mo ago

Finally got my neighbor to actually talk to me instead of just waving after 8 months of living here

I tried that whole 'ask for a cup of sugar' trick I read about online and it worked way better than I expected, but now I feel weird about whether I actually needed the sugar or if I just manipulated her into a conversation.

4 comments

c/binge-worthy-shows•

fiona_west21•1mo ago

That one show I binged in 3 days still has me questioning reality

Last week I was parked for a mandatory 34-hour reset outside of Billings, Montana, and I started watching "The Leftovers" on a whim. Three days later I had finished all 3 seasons and honestly I still don't know what happened in some episodes. Has anyone else watched something that left you more confused than when you started?

3 comments

Posts

I always thought buying store brand spices was a downgrade until I did a side by side blind taste test

My worst trail day ever turned into something good

That moment my card got declined at a gas station in Phoenix at 11pm

That time a transmission line blew on me at a rest stop near Flagstaff

Realized last week I've been folding fitted sheets wrong my whole life

That time at the county fair in Iowa wrecked my grocery budget assumptions

Is the pour over bloom phase actually worth the wait...

Spent 3 hours making a 'strong' password last week and my brother guessed it on try #2

Finally got my neighbor to actually talk to me instead of just waving after 8 months of living here

That one show I binged in 3 days still has me questioning reality

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