Ledo pizza

Ja sam veliki zagovornik lanaca brze prehrane jer imaju najbolju dobro ponekad ne i najkvalitetniju hranu to se mora priznati, ali je najfinija, a mi ljudi ne živimo vječno tako da nije bitno, bitno je da se uživa u jelu.
Za sada u hrvatskoj imamo:

1. McDonalds Dobri stari mek kojeg svi imamo rad
2. Burger King Neki se kunu u njih, ali još nemogu prstići megić
3. KFC Dosta solidni, piletina im je top mora se priznat
4. Dominos Ništa više od prolazne ocjene

Ja svake godine ljetujem u Americi tako da sam bio u dosta njihovih fast foodova i neke bi zaista volio vidjeti ovdje jer su kvalitetni i ukusni, pa ću neke od njih navesti ovdje po redu koje bi najradije imao:

1. Five Guys Najbolji krumpirići i ostale stvari dosta ukusne
2. Chick-fil-A Jako fina piletina, nema bolje
3. In-N-Out Takvih nema nigdje predobri burgeri
4. Papa John Prilično bolja pizza od Dominosa jako dobri sastojci
5. Chipotle Najbolji guac koji postoji bez presedana
6. Carl's Jr Dosta underrated, ali fino do bola dobri burgeri
7. Wendy's Nisu skupi imaju puno corky stvari na meniu
8. Wingstop Puno okusa burgera, skupi ali kvalitetni
9. Taco Bell Imaju ljute stvari za popizdit pazite kad ih jedete
10. Sonic Jako puno stvari na meniu, jako fini
11. Jack In The Box Zlatna sredina, neke stvari super neke ne
12. Arby's Solidno, ali po meni malo preslane neke stvari
13. Popeyes Prava crnačka hrskava piletina ravno iz Louisiane
14. Pizza Hut Lošija od druge dvije, ali ok za ponekad
15. Panda Express Ako volite azijsku nije loše, ponekad ne dovoljno autentično
16. White Castle Par dobrih stvari, ali nisu me oduševili
17. Buffalo Wild Wings Nisam fan, fali im ono nešto
18. Subway Vraća se pomalo u modu, ok može bit ako znate složit
19. Quiznos Lošiji Subway
20. Little Caesars Izbjegavati, dosta loše po meni

Par njih koji ne rade tipičan fast food, kombinacija slastica/pića

1. Krispy Kreme najbolji donuti na svijetu
2. Dunkin' Donuts solidni, ali ni blizu Krispiyu
3. Starbucks Ljudi ih mrze, ali fine stvari zaista
4. Jamba Juice Kvalitetni sokovi svježe iscijeđeni
5. Dairy Queen Razočaran, bolji je ledo snjeguljica na štapiću

Koje bi ste vi najradije vidjeli u hr? Znam da dosta vas nije jelo bolje od Rubelja, ali to ne znači da trebate biti otrovni u komentarima.

I've been eating Ledo's pizza since 1970, and ever since they moved from University Blvd it's been in a slow decline, and after the original owners sold out a couple of years ago, the flagship College Park has not been good.
Specifically, their crusts have been soggy and awful. I've been ordering from the Cheverly store, and if they're not outstanding, they're pretty darn good. The cheese, toppings and sauce are like the original. But while their crusts are better than College Park - anything would be - they're not the flakey, pie-like crusts of Ledo's in its prime.
Has anyone found a branch or franchiser that still makes the complete package: the cheese, sauce, toppings and original flakey crust. I'd travel quite a distance for the real thing.

Multiple ambulance/fire trucks.
No police though.
I hope no one got seriously hurt

I'm from another state, and I just don't understand.

In other words, if you were on vacay in say Miami and you saw a pizza shop advertising “Maryland Style Pizza,” what would you expect to get? A Ledos knock off or something different? Has Ledos become iconic enough to define pizza for the whole state?

Declare Emergency is giving a talk about the climate catastrophe. Grab a friend and come to Ledo Pizza on Knox Rd this Thursday, September 15 at 6pm. We'll tell you the truth about the crisis and how corporations have lied to us. Then we'll talk about our best chance at addressing the crisis - what we can do about it!
If you'd like to help out at the meeting or promoting it, send us a pm!

PART 1 : https://www.reddit.com/CodeGeass/comments/x6ccos/a_critic_about_everything_part_1/
Now the manga part !
​
Lancelot and Guren :
The story of the substitues of the main team of the anime basically. You will follow two novice knights wich are Suzaku's apprentice, and two young Black knights, a scientific and a pilot. The story starts at the end of season 1 and progress througout the whole season 2.
SPOILING PART : Like I said, for me the greteast point is the attachement to the characters. It's really subjective, you can be totaly unreceptive to this, but this link the story can produce is made possible thanks to solid bases. Firstly, unlike in the main show, the character in this story are not really out of the ordinary (except the scientific). We see them fail, especially on Suzaku side and that makes them looks a lot more close to us. Secondly, they feel real, to me at least. They all have a character with qualities and flaws and they are all well defined, and will submit a little evolution. Even though this evolution is pretty classic in most case, with the guy who learn friendship, or the one who will bypass his cliché, the girl realising that in war you have to kill actual people (what a shock) … , it's still really efficient, especially with Schnee who has the most detailed evolution. The presence of some known faces also is useful and simplify a lot the world building,wich is cool considering that this story is pretty short, and i'm not mentioning that this is an easy way to please the audience. But the main thing that brings the emotion and this attachment, is elsewere. Continue reading to the next paragraph to learn more about it !!!!!!!!!!!! So, the plot is really good. The plot twist really caught me off guard in my first read (I read it multiple times), and both ending are really good, feeling emotional both in their own way, with a really handsome epilogue (the look of sad Kallen makes me desperate),. I think that one of the important thing that drives the emotion is the good usage of the violence. To build a character, they will all endure some kind of violence, wich makes us like them in a form of pity. You have the direct violence for Benio with some cute slaughter moments with some gore to it, the psycholigical violence for Schnee because he will endure some good old traumatism on multiple occasions during the story, and Ledo, with a mix of everything, god damn THESE scenes in the flashback are marked in my head, I love this character. And the story also rely on the violence to mark you and get you hooked. You have the racial society for exemple, with Suzaku enduring it over and over, and this manga also reuses some of the most violent scenes of the main show, with the F.L.E.I.J.A. or the geass order events. This violence bring much more weight to what's happening, not only the tragic scenes like the dialog between Schnee and Suzaku just after the F.L.E.I.J.A but also make the more calm scenes even more peaceful and emotionally strong, that's why the epilogue works really well, especially with Schnee when he met Nina and Zero (i'm pretty sure he knows the truth by the end).
In conclusion, I want to reafirm that this is my favourite one, but I also want to point out that this was because I really got personaly involved in the story and the characters, and I may be influenced because it's the first spin-off I read. Nonetheless it's still really good and I will easily recommand it to everyone, especially to people who just saw the main show and want to see more while keeping inside the main story.
Oz the reflection :
This is a story of two people. Firstly, Oldrin, the head knight of the Glinda knights, an antiterrorist organisation founded and managed by Marybell mel Britannia, a princess. Secondly Orpheus (ma boy he is to cool to be alive), a mercenary who takes part in a many terrorist action against Britannia.
SPOILING PART : This was really great ! Characters, story, visuals, lore and universe, it was one of my favourite reads, and probably the best if I had to judge. O1 (the first part) was good, but O2 was great, the only reason I would not recommend it is because it's close to impossible to find O2 translated, but O1 is still a good manga on his own (watchout for the cliffhanger if you can't found O2). First good thing, the characters. They are pretty interesting, and maybe most importantly, it's really easy to get attached to them. I'm pretty sure a lot will likes Leonhardt or to Sokkia, for me it was clearly Orpheus, he is my new husbando, but I think i'm not really original and everyone want to commercialize body pillows of him. Just a little parenthesis, why the fuck we only have bad picture of him when you search on Google ??? He is so fucking cool, stylish and badass in the manga and he looks so boring much worse in the pictures (mostly from the game code). There is a type of character for everyone, even if you like psychopats with not a single spark of light you have Clara Lanfranc, who is a little bit underused in my opinion, we could have learn more about her real intention. On the oz-er end (ha ha) I feel like the realtion between the characters is a bit weaker. Especially in O1, even if they insist a lot on the relation between the 4 knights, I couldn't really feel that they were close, I think it could have been done better. I liked them as individuals but I didn't feel like they were consistent as a group, it may be only me who wasn't receptive but even though they spend a lot of time together, they don't really act friends most of the time. For the Orpheus side, most of his friends/colleagues are anectodic because we don't really see much of them, if you want more you would have to read the photo story.Even the more important relation is strangely built. It's normal for Marybell and Oldrin to have a complex relation but I don't feel that their relation is “achieved” by the end of the manga. It feels incomplete to me, it's normal that their relation is blurry througout the story but in the end, it should have been completed, here in the end we still don't know how both of them really feel. On a brighter side the relation between Oiagros and the two Oz was a lot stronger for me and I would have liked to see it even more. Second positive point, lore wise, it's exactly what you want from a spin-off. It has it own story but still have parallels, it brings new original and interesting characters but we will still see some familiar faces, it develop the universe and it even cover some plot hole from the original, for exemple how did Nunnally escaped at the second tokyo battle or what happened to the Damocles. We learn more about V.V. for exemle and this is very cool. We can finnally see some of his personality (spoiler he is a dick) and what he was willing to do. We will see some new member of the royalty and noblty in general, wich is cool because in the main show and all of the spin-off, they say that the Cour is infested with complot, but in the main serie all the prince and princess like each other, but here we have some good old asshole noblety like we love it. Now for the last point, and the most tainted one, the plot. Don't get me wrong, when you read it it does the job very well, you have some really good plot twist and it's pretty exciting to see it progress. But looking back at it, there are some, let's say facilities, in the plot. For exemple, introducing a masked man is cool, but introducing the character behind the mask just before revealing the true identity is not really a good writing sign. On the same idea bringing everyone at Ashford seemed a lot forced, Orpheus could have easily known that Nina was not here, you don't make nukes at home (sadly) and even if you did you will get quicly contacted by some strange man wearing long coats (or with a bizarre glowing in their sad eyes). And even then they achieve to all be here at the same time, and exaclty at this time there is a terrorist attacks, it's a little bit too much of a coincidence for me. And the last plot point that really marked me is the ending. For me the death of Orpheus made no sense. The injury from Oldrin was clearly non lethal, and he doesn't really have a reason to die, he was not hated by anyone, he hasn't really done any terrible action (compare to the world he is living in and the people who are called heroes by the end he is clearly in positive) and most importantly, he was wanting to live, because that's the last thing Euliya asked him to do and at this point he totally accepted it. To me, it looked like they forced the tragic ending, and to be real it worked, I was pretty sad at the end and I even tried to justify the ending by saying that he decided to die cause he killed Marybell, but when I think (it can happen from times to times) about it now, it doesn't make sense, killing Marybell was the whole plan anyway (and in the end everyone is thinking that Oldrin killed her) and even if he did it to prevent Oldrin from being sad, i'm not sure that losing her newly regained brother would have been as sad as just seeing him plant a knife in the belly of her best friend (wich agreed on this and Oldrin herself was ready to do it).
In conclusion, I want to say that even if I pointed some flaws (it's part of the job after all), they are all really minor and the good clearly overshadow the bad and I would recommend this manga to anyone who wants to know more about the universe or just want a good story in a warm and familial environment. Just a little warning, there is a lot of sexualised scene, and even nudity at some point so if it's something that you don't want to see, be warned.
Renya of darkness :
The story of Renya (what a scoop !), a young japanese during the Edo period (around 1860, but you already knows it you damn weeb) who will meet C.C. and who will get dragged in the complex problems of Britannian royalty.
SPOILING PART : I will start with the good points. The first obvious one is that the visuals are very cool. It's obviously helped by the setting with a comibnation of medieval knights and samurai, but you have some really amazing scenes, I clearly remember a scene with Renya having multiple swords at the same time, and that's some good things for the characterization if you can picture well the characters in your head, on the same idea I can clearly see Esteban with his guns for exemple. The same goes for the (numerous) fights, they are pretty cool and enjoyable. Another good point that's a little bit cheated is that thanks to the relative length of this (40 chapters) you are, in a way, forced to be attached to the characters, you see them progress for a very long time so you became automatically close to the character, even if they are not that great. Also the fair number of different people in the team also makes you prefer some over the others, making you more interested in their story. Now for the bad parts. I can summarize pretty much everything in one point, this manga doesn't go dig deep enough his ideas, making everything feel underwhelming. The most blatant exemple is set right at the start, Renya has a curse he need to suck the energy life from others to live. That's a good dilemna for a hero, I was asking myself if he would sacrifice himself or if he would became a bad guy maybe. But no the question is just ignored during the entire story and at the end he just lives happily being a knight. The question is never really answered. On the same idea, it's quicly revealed that everyone in the village of Renya were important people hiding from the world. But this is never really reused beside himself and Claire. I would have loved to see all their friends being important people and for exemple having each arc of the anime being them returning to their people, that could have been really cool for some character development. Talking of wich, even on that point the story isn't pushing hard enough. The characters have really few evolution, you will only see people who change their opinion on other people or maybe changing side but only due to a change of perception more than anything else, there isn't any realy difference in their personality between the start and the ending. Some other little problems, the Geass doesn't make sense, and this story is canon wich makes it even more confusing. In the main show Geass is a power of the mind, but in this you have people with elemental power, and I'm not even talking about Dash or the knight of one. And even the more classic Geass doesn't make sense, especially the “revert priority in ones heart” that doesn't mean anything, you don't have a tier list of priorities in your head and even if you had, reverting it means what ? Like for most of us, surviving is in the top priorities, so everyone touched is gonna become as suicidal as myself ? And last but not least, the fan service is really tiring in this manga, Futaba Sumeragi was annoying as fuck and I was not here to see tiddies, well yes maybe I was but that's not the point ! Plus having characters looking exactly like characters of the anime... I know it's more commercial than anything else, but at least keep it for the ancestors of the characters, Dash looking like Lelouch is plain dumb and I don't want to read strange therory of incest and pedophilia that could lead them to be part of the same family.
Don't go read this expecting to see something in the style of Code Geass. It's just a classical adventure shonen, with the code of this gender and with only some references to the Code Geass universe. You will not found the strategical aspect of Code Geass (quite the contrary in fact) nor the complex relations and characters, but you will find a way more classic journey with some fight and friends along the way.
Suzaku of the counterattack :
A alternate story that take the same base as the main anime but will quickly change and focus on, guess what, Suzaku.
SPOILING PART : Pretty short critic in coming, It's just the main anime but wayyy worse.Just kidding it's not the end of the critic. First of all, the most tragic point maybe, Suzaku is way less interesting than in the original anime. He is not really torned inside like in the anime, and since there is no Euphemia, he has a lot less interesting relations. All the characters are a lot manichean, Schneizel is just pure evil and he has only one very personal objective, unlike in the main show where he is defending his view of the world (it's hard to agree with him but still, he has something to say and supporters). Lelouch and Suzaku are just good people with different methods, there is no more discussion about jutstice are the sacrifice you are willing to make. The same could be said about pretty much everything, Suzaku decide to change side because he found out about the secret of Schneizel, wich was literally just hidden behind a door not even locked. Suzaku also met C.C. without recognizing her, he may not be the sharpest tool in the box but still that's dumb. The way Lelouch is captured is really a shame and an insult to the intelligence of the character, he could have done litterally anything to save himself (starting with going in with a real strategy). He litteraly have a gun. Another exemple is that In the ending, there should have been a battle, but not a single image of it is shown. There is also this moment where Jeremiah makes an ambush to capture Zero and he saved himself by literally just walking away and throwing a smoke. I don't want Jeremiah to be this incomptent. And seeing Suzaku fight with his little armor it's more cute than anything else. Everything is pretty lame I would say, for exemple not a single character is evolving in this beside the protagonist. The only real novelty is in the person Mariel, who replace Cecile from the main show. And I don't understand why they didn't kept Cecile, since they both have a really similar visual and a really similar persona, but most of all they do the same thing, and they could just have applied the story of Mariel while keeping the original character, it could have bring more lore and information and it could have been interesting for her development in the main anime.
For me, this manga got pretty much everything,not wrong, but clearly not right, it may not be bad for you, but for me it clearly was boring. Like I pointed out, it seems like everything has been rushed, the plot takes a lot of facilities and it looks like they were not really any thoughts put in place while making this. Everything is flat, from the evolution of the story to the character development, and that's the only memory I have from it, a flat line, it goes always in the same direction withou any surprises or changes.
Nightmare of Nunnally :
An alternate universe centered about Nunnally and her best friend Alice. Nunnally will met Nemo a strange girl who will grant her some strange powers due to a contract.
SPOILING PART : Firstly, I want to point out that this manga is really good at being an alternate story, it follow the “what if this guy had chose differently” pattern most of the time while still introducing pretty good ideas. For exemple the Irregulars are pretty coold with their stands... no no their geass sorry, not gonna lie sometimes this manga looks more like Jojo than anything else. For real “The speed”, “The order” or “The land”, I was expecting someone to stop time and do long speech instead of killing his ennemies. On the same note, one of the other good point is that everything is badass. You have big fights, really cool characters (special points for the Mao of this universe, really stylish.) and too much miracle and heroic action by square meter to count them. The relation between Alice and Nunnally is pretty well maid, even if it is a bit predictable it's still do the job pretty well and it's really cute to see them interact and it can be touching from time to time. On the other hand, for me the weak spot of this is the plot, that achieve to be confusing while using a lot of simplicities. The most clear exemple is obviously Rolo, it illustrates perfectly what I just said. They introduce him in an overly confusing way, but in the end it was just a way to put very very artificial suspens and questionning for the viewer and the payoff is not worth the waiting. You have a lot of shortcuts made by the plot, with powers not being consistent and being able to do exactly what you want them to do at the exact moment, and a lot of things looked artificially forced into the story, especially the ending. Like in the end all the problems vanish at the same time and everyone is happy, just like that, there is no sacrifices, not a single problem. And the fact that Charles just accepts everything to be the choice of Nunnally, pls wtf. He litteraly ruined the world for everyone to defend his view of life,losing basically everything and is just like, well okay if you say so I agree, guess i'm just gonna leave.
While I was reading it, I was not really liking it, but now that I have to critic it, I had a bad time trying to find argument to defend my view, and then, the truth stroke me like a 747 on the 9/11 (oof), this manga is a good action story. It has all the classic up and down of an action show, notably the plot facilities to force the protagonist into heroic situation. But me I don't really like action show, when there is a fighting scene, I'm reading in diagonals like we said in france, it's not really interesting me. So this show is overall pretty good and I thing the majority will enjoy it, but I recommend this especially to people who like the pew pew between giant robots.
Tales of an alternate shogunate :
The story take place in 1853 (yay ninja samurai and bushido) and the plot revolves around Suzaku and Lelouch (what a surprise) where Lelouch led the Black Revolutionaries (I have some kind of deja vu feeling) and Suzaku happen to be is enemy and his best friend at the same time (can't remember where I saw that)
SPOILING PART : I found it really enjoyable, cute and badass at the same time thanks to the art style and story for one part, and the setting and character design on the other hand. It's pretty short so it was a rapid and pretty pleasing read,maybe not interesting but pleasing and even funny from times to times. Like I said the first good point we saw is the visuals ; they have all a cute face and at the same time wear very cool historical japanese outfit ; especially Lelouch, he is looking so badass with his … katana … and … japanese dress ? Sorry i'm not good at japanese culture, or any foreign culture in fact but this is great, seeing Suzaku on a wooden rooftop with a katana in his hand at midnight is not a thing I was expecting to see, but damn it now I realise, I needed that. Another good point of this is that it his pretty funny. You will find it if you continu reading but I didn't liked at all the comedy centered spin-off. But this one, I don't know why but I the humor worked a lot more on me, with for exemple the historical references or the fact that suzaku is so broken that he can fight knightmares while having only his sword (please nerf him). Even some of the worse jokes made me smile, like the fact that Suzaku discover zero identity due to some horrible taste in pizzas. If you search well you can also find some references to the main anime, with for exemple milly and shirley showing up at a pizza restaurant. Talking about the plot, there is not a lot of things to say really due to the shortness of this manga. I could not say that this is a really original one (quite the opposite in fact) but it's doing the work we ask him to do. There is still some interesting point, like for exemple Lelouch having an important place in the governement at the start of the story, but it's not really exploited. Like said in the first part the plot it's cute, by that I mean it's simple, light hearted and goes in a straight and probably too much predictable line. Especially with the Lelouch and Suzaku relation that we can summarize as : “You are a criminal,so you are my enemy ! Yes but i'm doing this for the greater good ! Oh ok best friends now ?” Yes it's stupid, if Suzaku had thought about it just a little bit they could have avoided most of the problem. I know he changed side due to Euphy telling him about the bad guy but anybody with a brain cell could have tell who was the villain, even Rivalz or Tamaki (ok only if they can work together and have extra time to finish the exam). Obviously, in a short story like that pretty much every character is superficial (Anya literaly has one line of dialog) but I would have liked just a bit more about the bad guy, like he is showing up just in the end like a flower and we know litteraly nothing about him, he is bad because he is bad and he is only purpose is to being bad, it's not like he want power, he is just the bad guy. Obviously no time for character development or background of any kind and we don't even know exactly what his abilities or competences are.
Long story short (haha) the main problem of the show is that it is to short, but in the end, it's probably what make the charm of the tales of an alternate shogunate.
NO MORE SPOILING PART BEYOND THIS POINT since I won't need it for my critic.
Code Geass;Re :
A story that takes place during the very last part of the second season, focused on Lelouch mostly.
My critic will be really short cause I don't really understand the point of this because it's only what we see in the anime. You have like one orignal dialog at the start and a cryptic ending, wich is mean to connect with the 4th movie. So it's to create a link between a movie, and an inexistant manga. Logic. And I think that the only point of this, to connect the universe. In these you have references to Oz the reflection and to Renya of Darkness (but not to Lancelot and Guren i'm sad). There is also clarification on some points of the last part, like the fact that Lloyd knew about the requiem or Suzaku learning about the very little incident due to a poor choice of word and a princess in the wrong place at the wrong time.It would have been better for it to have more unique things to it if you ask me, even if it had to be shorter because I read it just after watching the show and it was only a mere repetition. Overall,the 15 chapters are split between scenes we already know and flashback we've already seen.
Knight for girls / Queen for boys ; comedy anthologies :
It's just a compilation of short stories written by indepent author. Well hum... let's say I didn't liked it. Before starting the torrent of hatred I just want to clarify, it's not for me but there is surely a public for this … thing ? Since it's the only manga spin off that has been officially translated and sell in France there is surely an audience for that, I guess ? I don't know how I can recommend that to someone. Maybe if you like to see how terrible things can go ? No I really didn't liked any of this, it was a pain to read it. Even if you are in despair to find content I don't know if I would tell you to read these books.Before anything let me tell you a story about me. A story about pain. When I was searching for the different medias that led to this post, I stumbled upon this 2 comedy anthologies. I was like, “hell i'm never gonna read that” but at the same time the site was telling me they were only 5 chapter each so I thought that it would be not a good read, but short enough so I can endure it. God knows how much I was wrong. Quickly it was revealed that there was not 5 chapters but 5 BOOKS. EACH. So a total of 10 books. But the fun part comes now, each book was TWO HUNDREDS PAGES long so I was in for a comfortable read of TWO THOUSANDS pages. From the start I was not going in with the flower on the rifle like we say in France. Now for the actual critic. First of all the story were bad as fuck. But not bad in a classic way, even the construction of most stories is bad. So much time there is no start nor end, not even things happening in between. They are all ranging from a little bit better than bad to absolutely terrible. To take an exemple I opened one at random just now (to prove my critical honesty this is clearly not the worse one). It's starting by Schneizel organizing a party and Guilford saying he wants to get closer to his princess. Not a good start but not a bad plot either. But then the Black Knight comes in but, watch out plot twist, they were just there to join the party. End. Like litteraly nothing happened beside Guilford imaginating how he could make a move to approach Cornelia. Oh and the story just after is Rivalz trying to take picture of a naked Lelouch with too much scene looking like a rape or bad sex jokes. There is a lot of moment where it's disapointing because you have a good start but it will close to never come to a good following. I remember one time where Diethard told Zero that they need to work on their public image. That's a good point, we don't see it often it could be interesting, I want to read that ! But it continue with a parody of power ranger (yes I promise it's true). You could argue that's logic because these are comedy but firstly a comedy can have an intersting plot and secondly there are a lot of stories that are not comedy in theses two books ! To be honest, they were still from time to time more sentimental moment that had touched me but that's too much of a minority and even in them it's most of the time only the ending that really touching because they use key moments of the anime so it's a little bit of the easy way but still working most of the time, for exemple you have multiple time when a story starts in the past of a character and finish with the scene where he or she is dying wich is very efficient to touch your public. I clearly remember one wich starts as a banal flashback in the aries villa and finish with the last thought of Clovis, a story all about the love he had for his brother, really cute and sad. But worse of all some of the stories litterally enrage me. Not only you will see your favorite characters being tottally wasted throughout this painful trip (Rolo and Kallen for me who were transformed in to nevrosed fan) but there are some stories that will be direct injection of pain to you. Intravenous injection style. For exemple you have this one time when you see all the young royal family making jokes about ejaculating on each other (funny isn't it ! Kids and sperm) or when Schneizel try to LITTERALY RAPE Lelouch, and it's not metaphorical or anything he really did it. But one (oh boy this one) that will probably haunt me until the end is this story, where we learn that Euphy was in fact in love with Lelouch the whole time and you have this final scene that is always here even when I close my eyes where you see Euphy on her death bed,holding Suzaku's hand while thinking about Lelouch. Secondly, it's not funny. It's probably me who is not receptive to this, but there is, in my opinion, deep flaws in the humor most of the time. I didn't laugh much while reading these, let's say one or two times by books (200 pages if you didn't remember), and most of the time it was not even due to the story, there was some good translator jokes (I don't know who did the french translation but he needs a price asap just for this : https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/512976907717836801/1004077661724872784/trad..PNG ) or it was just a nervous laught due to the nervous breakdown I was facing. Don't get me wrong, I know there is a public for the cringe humor and the “what's happening make litteraly no sens so it's funny” type jokes but, I sure we can all agree to expect more from 2000 pages of unstoppable and unavoidable cringe waves that surge on my less and less sane mind. And there is so much times where the thing that are supposed to makes us laugh are not even jokes but things like “LOOK, Jeremiah is talking about fruits ! LOL ! CC loves pizzas ! I'm dying xddddd”. (ok i'm maybe a little bit rude on this but that's their fault, they started). I (again) opened it randomly just to take an exemple. On this one the only joke is that cecil is wearing a dress. Litteraly. Or some time it's juste Lelouch being bad at physical activities or piloting the only joke of the story, times and times again. Oh there is also this time when Guilford search in the private stuff of Cornelia and found her underwear XDDD LOL. Also a reference is not fun on is own, there is a lot of jokes based around references, but you can't just make a reference and be like “ look ! It's like the stuff in this other stuff ! Didn't see that coming haha”; you need to add things to the reference, makes paralels or things like that to it to be funny. The same goes for the meta jokes. I like meta jokes most of the time, it can be a good way to calm down from the story and it's always surprising, wich is one of the most important part of a joke. But here they are all missed. It's hard to clearly explain why and how, but they are clearly not working most of the time. I remember this time when Nunnally ask Suzaku if he could become the protagonist of the next show. . . . You were exepecting an end to the joke didn't you ? It's like this most of the time, same as with the references, they put a meta joke and are like “ahhh you see, the situation is all flippely flipped” and never do the actual step to make the joke funny. Ok now let's be a little more serious after all this fun we had. I'm gonna go a little bit wokist here but there is so much bad message underlying everywhere. I didn't talk about it until now but in the queen for boys one you have so much story revolving about the worse fanservice you can think of wich is really disgussing me (but I would be foolish to not recognize that there is a big public for this type of things). You have entire chapters just about the girls (and only the girls) where they are just cosplaying or wearing specific clothes, you could see it just with the cover in fact. I'm precising only the girls because the knight for girls serie is a lot less sexualised,even the artworks are miles safer than the queen version. And obiously you have the little jokes here and there with terrible mentality behind like this time when it's says that Cecil is “less” of a women because she don't know how to cook, like please stop. I know these books are very old, mentality evolved and all but I cannot ignore it.
In conclusion, I want to say that this is not all bad, from times to times you will have one good story or one good joke but it's so rare, so drowned of the flood of terrible stories, bad jokes and mostly toxic environment of fan service that reading clearly doesn't feel worth it.
Lelouch the tutor :
Welcolme to a world without geass, war or secret identity ! (without fun if you ask me) where Lelouch has to become the tutor of C.C. in Ashford because if she had bad grades she's gonna get kicked from the school and Marianne would be mad ! (what an exciting story line, the stakes are sky high).
Even though it may not look like it from my introduction, I didn't hate Lelouch the tutor, in fact it was more enjoyable than I thought when I saw the title (I was just recovering from the comedy anthologies a this point). To clarify, this is a romantic comedy, with each chapter being pretty independent (except the last ones). I'm not into romantic comedy, in fact i'm only reading and watching depressive things to match my character building. Logically you can deduce that I didn't liked it. But it was cute to see Lelouch and C.C. taming each other, the romance is not going in a straight line either, with Shirley being in love with our beautiful protagonist. A great thing in this is that this not only a romance story but also a very strong friendship story with all the Student council being represented, we even have Euphy as a student in their friend group. It's wholesome, it's enjoyable and all but I think it would not have suffered from at least a little bit of contradiction, for a story to be good you need to have problems to overcome. I was hoping that it will come in the end with the arrival of my sure guy Rolo wich is just a random little brother with 2,75 phrases said in total (he is always getting bullied poor of him) but it was one more time what I call a false adventure. This is happening everytime in this. What I mean by that is you have the base situation,then a problem comes and …........ PLOT TWIST in fact there was no problem, either it was a misunderstanding or the character just don't give a fuck and the situation hasn't moved for an inch most of the time. You can remark that this exactly what I am blaming on the anthologies and you will be absolutely right (you are following well). But I still take this one over the anthologies any day of the entire millenium, the character are better used (except Rolo but it is what it is), you have cuteness and wholsomeness in place of the straight disgust that is inspiring me the two anthologies and you even have basis of a story even if in fact not a lot of things happens let's be honest. If you like romanic comedy style and want to spend more time with the characters it could be a good option.
Lelouch of the shred guitar :
Lelouch has to learn how to play guitar to play in a the music festival of the Ashford academy.Sadly I didn't found the last chapter, i'm crying out loud in my room non stop since 2 months.
This was clearly, for me at least one of the funniest, if not the funniest of all (ok it's the only comedy manga I liked beside Tales of an alternate shogunate). Not gonna lie I didn't understood all the guitarist joke (I only how to play saxhorn) but still find a lot of the jokes really funny. The characters are pretty cool, (Kallen with a bass is so cool) and I found the aestethic in general to be hilarious especially the outfits. I remember litterally laughing with the lyrics of the song Lelouch has written, I don't know if it's meant to be a parody (but i'm pretty sure it is) but I found it to be an accurate description of what a young dark emo rocker (myself so) could write. It's maybe not jokes that will work on everyone but on me it did the job. And compare to the other comedies, it has a real story with Lelouch struggling to progress and the problems the group will face (now i'm hyped for the last chapter, I want to know which group will be the best). If I look back at it, there is probably flaws that I have not mentioned,for exemple I remember that C.C. annoyed me more than maked with her martial training, even if the background that she is a guitar prodigy that only play classical things was pretty funny in itself. But I prefer to keep the good things from it because for me the good clearly override the bad in this one. It may be more of a niche humor but it worked well on me, give it a try and you might have a good time.
Barcode Geass :
Lelouch, Suzaku, Kallen and Ohgi (+Arthur) are working in a little convenience store but their turnover is at risk when Britannia, a giant supermarket is built next to their shop.
I only found the first few chapters and to be entirely honest I din't returned the internet to found the rest, I really didn't liked it. At first, this story was a short in the comedy anthologies (not the best omen if you ask me) and already in the short I found the joke too long. I don't think that the base of the story were solid enough to hold a short joke so imagine an entire book. Nothing really interesting to say, the plot is not interesting it's not funny (for me at least) the characters are annoying and totally stupid... You will have a hard time just founding it and i'm pretty sure the reward will not be at the height of your expectancy, even if they are at ground level.
​
PART 3 : https://www.reddit.com/CodeGeass/comments/x6ccr1/a_critic_about_everything_part_3/

NOW HIRING Ledo Pizza - Prep Cook-https://gethiredinflorida.us/restaurant-food-service/ledo-pizza-prep-cook-8106216649/?utm_source=SocialAutoPoster

Hi friends! This is my second money diary for this sub - if you missed my first one from January 2021, you can read it here. The TL:DR of my life changes: I switched jobs twice, lost 20 pounds, and W. and I have moved into a bigger place that we love so much more!
Section One: Assets and Debts
Retirement balance: ~$29,000 in the 401ks from my old companies (which I plan on rolling over into one consolidated one now that I just set up my third) and ~$17,500 in my Roth IRA (thanks to my grandparents). I just set up my new 401k for my new job, where I am contributing 10% pre-tax with a 3% employer match.
Equity: no equity currently, I rent and do not own a car.
Checking account balance: I keep this around $5,000, but it fluctuates depending on what bills I just paid.
Credit card debt: $0, as I pay off my bills every month.
Student loan debt: technically still $9,500, but as you'll see from my savings allocations below, I have the money to pay it off, I'm just letting the money gain interest while the freeze is in place.
Stocks: $1731 in stocks from my first company, as well as miscellaneous stocks that I was gifted as a child. I still don't know how much they're worth.
Investment account: $375 in an Ellevest account. I'm just dipping my toes into investing and it seemed like an easy way to do it.
Savings: I have several savings accounts that I bucket out for different purposes.
Emergency fund: $2685 (I used some of this for moving costs, looking forward to replenishing it)
Student loans fund: $9559 (which will pay off my loans before the freeze ends)
Life insurance premiums: $66 (I use this to budget monthly for the annual payment, I just paid this year's premium)
Future fund: $200 (I just started this, as W. and I have talked more about getting engaged!)
Fun savings: $1085 (for splurging on nicer dinners, concert tickets, etc.)
Travel savings: $602 (self-explanatory)
Section Two: Income
Income progression:
After writing my diary, I spent most of 2021 in the same job, though I was itching for a bit more progression. I did get a slight income bump of 2% after my review, but I felt a bit underpaid.
In the fall, I began both internally and externally interviewing for new positions. I accepted Job #2 at Company #2, which was an advisor role on a team adjacent to my previous team. The salary was $85,000/year with a 10% bonus. I wanted to negotiate for a higher salary and tried, but management basically told me to take it or leave it. I took it, because I wanted to be on that team, but I was a little salty over it. I took a few initial phone calls from external recruiters across the winter, but nothing really stood out to me and I didn't pursue opportunities at that time.
I had really settled into my new role when, in April, an external recruiter at Company #3 reached out to me on LinkedIn with an opportunity that sounded too good to be true. I decided to see the interview process through, but it took some time because my schedule wasn't super flexible. I honestly thought I had bombed the case interview, but at the beginning on June they offered me an advisory consultant role, starting at $115,000/year with variable bonus! I decided to take the leap and joined the team at the end of June. I thought this would be a nice challenge for my career, as I would be supporting a sales department now. I'm still onboarding into the new role, but I do really like it so far :)
Monthly take home:
I made $2,770 in my first full paycheck in this role, after the deductions listed out below, so I estimate I will be making $5,540 monthly. I get paid every other Friday, and I am not sure when I will get my variable pay yet as my sales incentive plan hasn't been given to me yet!
Medical: $53.56/paycheck
Dental: $5.70/paycheck
Vision: $2.67/paycheck
401k: $442.31/paycheck + 3% employer match
HSA: $38.47/paycheck
Side gig take home:
Like my last diary, while I don't have a proper side gig, I am a book blogger and get sent books for free! I also have gotten back into product testing, so companies send me products to test in exchange for honest reviews. Sometimes they are new products that aren't on the market yet, and sometimes they are ones that they're trying to understand why it is or isn't selling. In the past month, I got to test a few items: a perfume, a face mask, a skin cream, and a protein powder.
Section Three: Expenses
Monthly expenses:
Rent: $1300 for my portion of our new place! I pay a little more than half, plus our utilities. We upgraded by almost 300 square feet and have a patio now, plus we're allowed to get a pet if we want.
Water: $25 flat fee
Electricity: I budget $100 for this. Last month, the bill was about $75.
Fetch package service: $12
Wifi/cable: $150.25 - no, I never cancelled the cable that I said I would last year… at least sometimes I watch it now out of guilt?
Netflix: $16.47
Apple TV: $4.99
Hulu with live sports, HBO, Starz, Showtime, and Disney+ add ons: W. pays
Amazon Prime: W. pays
Spotify: $9.99
Fitbit Premium: $9.99
Unlimited boxing membership: $179
Nail salon subscription: $40
Nuuly: $93.28 for six items monthly. I am testing this out right now, but depending on how many work events I have to travel to/attend I might switch this out for Rent the Runway for more work-appropriate attire.
Google storage: $2.12
iCloud storage: $2.99
Monthly savings:
Investments: $50 to Ellevest on top of my 401k contributions
Emergency fund: $200
Life insurance savings: $245
Future fund: $200
Fun savings: $100
Travel savings: $100
Annual expenses:
Life insurance: $2880 (budgeted for monthly)
Ellevest basic: $12
Harvard Business Review digital + print: $120
Stich Fix style pass: $49
Twitch subscriptions: $400 (I support four streamers on a monthly basis)
Day 1 - Wednesday 7/20
7:30am - My alarm goes off and I grumble, immediately snoozing and getting 15 extra minutes of cuddles with W. We both haven't been sleeping well with the heat, so the snooze is necessary. Afterwards, I lay in bed checking my emails and reading some articles on Reddit and HBR.
8:30am - We come to the sad realization that work is actually starting, and both sit down at our respective laptops. W makes me a coffee, which I sip on while trying to figure out what I need to do today. After about half an hour, I realize I want breakfast, but don't want to make it, so I ask W if he wants a smoothie. I place a mobile order from South Block (PBJ smoothie with extra peanut butter for him, Strawberry Passion for me) and use my $5 off coupon that I have saved ($20.90). I throw on A&F jeans, a printed sleeveless blouse from Loft, and camel flats to make the five minute walk to pick them up. Exactly what I needed!
10:15am - I'm about to win girlfriend of the year, because while reading some content for work I get an email that W's favorite podcaster is coming to DC in the fall to give a talk. I immediately drop everything and buy us front row tickets because I love him and he deserves it ($112). I then get back to reading before my 11:00 all hands meeting.
12:30pm: Out of my all hands meeting and I am starving. I slice up a peach and get myself some Trader Joe's peanut butter pretzels (aka the best snack to ever exist) and have those while taking a break to scroll Instagram and chat with W about his day and tell him about the tickets I bought. He's so excited!! We're just about out of food in the house, so we also decide on ordering some Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.
2:45pm: I realize I still haven't booked my hotel for an upcoming work trip I have to Toronto in a few weeks, so I log into our corporate travel site and book my room at the hotel everyone who is traveling is staying at ($545 expensed) before I forget again.
4:00pm: I dial into a client call to shadow and take notes. This is one of my first official client calls in the new job, so it feels very exciting! I take a lot of notes, and my coworker who invited me to join pings me on Teams throughout to make sure I'm understanding why he's asking certain questions, which is so helpful.
5:15pm: Off my call, and the wings have arrived! W ordered them so they'd be ready when I was. He's a gem. We eat while watching a stream on Twitch, and I answer a few work emails that come in on my phone. My manager invited me to join a strategy call tomorrow, which I'm excited to shadow.
6:00pm: W and I boot up our favorite video game and play through for about an hour. We've been put in tougher lobbies recently, so I try not to be too hard on myself when I die. We manage to get a win, so we end our session there.
7:15pm: Cozy in the bedroom with leftover cheesecake, we watch the last two episodes of season three of Peaky Blinders. It was such a twisty end to the season, I can't wait to see what happens next.
10:00pm: W and I brush our teeth and watch an episode of the Simpsons to wind down. Good night!
Day 2 - Thursday 7/21
6:30am: My workout alarm goes off, and I quietly sneak out of the bedroom to get ready to head out to boxing. Today is med ball day and I'm working on lifting heavier, so I grab a 15lb ball instead of a 10lb ball, only to regret that choice almost immediately once I see what exercises we're doing. Too late, can't chicken out now!
8:15am: Home and sweaty from my workout, I give W a good morning kiss and hop in the shower. Afterwards, I get dressed in a ruffled denim dress from Old Navy and sit down with my coffee to get to work. As I work through reading some content I need to learn, I also make myself two slices of sourdough toast.
10:00am: Dial in to my weekly team meeting. We do a lot of debriefing on deals that have closed, as well as some planning for our team trip to Toronto. After the meeting ends, I throw on some lofi beats on Spotify and get to work reading more materials.
12:30pm: I'm a fly on the wall for a strategy call my boss forwarded to me. Afterwards, I dial into another meeting, this time with my boss and the other two members of my team who started in the spring. We're working through talking about different concepts in a safe space before we have to do it for clients, which just reminds me how much I still have to learn.
3:45pm: I'm feeling mentally fried, so I take a break to watch a little bit of a stream on Twitch and slice up a peach to eat with some more Trader Joe's peanut butter pretzels because I am a creature of habit. I answer some emails as they come in.
5:45pm: Mani/pedi time! I go for a nice nude pink on my toes and a black French for my fingers and catch up with my nail tech for a while before having to answer more work emails on my phone. The client who we spoke to yesterday wants to push up our presentation from Wednesday to Monday, so my coworker adds a meeting to my calendar for tomorrow morning for us to discuss strategy and what slides he needs me to create. My nail salon subscription covers my pedicure, toe topcoat, and nail art so I only owe for my manicure today ($44) and I venmo my nail tech her tip ($25).
8:00pm: Home from the nail salon. W is watching a stream on Twitch in bed, so I crawl in next to him for cuddles. I make sure to sip my water, because I feel a little dehydrated. We have a chill night and I head to bed by 10:30.
Day 3 - Friday 7/22
6:30am: Usual morning workout alarm. I get dressed in a cute Girlfriend Collective set and head out for endurance day (my least favorite). This class is coached by the founder and she knows me, so I keep getting called out when I try to sneak in a break. My abs are on fire and my legs are jelly by the end of class. I hobble home for a shower and coffee.
10:00am: My coworker and I discuss what slides we need prepped for Monday. I promise to start in on what needs to be done after my 10:30 call, which is actually a weekly coffee chat I have with my DC best friend, A. She vents to me about an interview process she went through at my old company, which did not go well. She's trying to pivot what she does a little, so I offer to find out if we have any similar openings at my new company.
11:00am: Slide time! I make a coffee and slice up my last peach to snack on while building out the deck for our client call on Monday. I haven't done one like this yet, and I feel myself getting overwhelmed as I try to work through it.
1:30pm: I have a check in with my peer buddy about a call I'm shadowing with him on Monday. It's quick and low key. After that, I get back into working on my slides. I message my coworker after about two hours that I've done what I can find and put sticky notes on the slides where I had questions. He messages back a few minutes later that he's heading out to volunteer for a while and that he'll review my slides over the weekend. I take that as a good sign that my slides didn't look initially horrendous.
4:30pm: I am mentally wiped, so I lace up my sneakers, grab my reusable bags, and head out to Trader Joe's to do some grocery shopping. I get a lot of stuff to cook across the weekend, including meats, cheese, bread, some frozen goodies, and two bottles of Chandon Brut ($120.51). On the way back home, I pop into the Brew Shop to grab a four-pack of 1911 ciders ($13.77) because it's been a long ass day. When I get home, it turns out W had the same idea because he had popped out to get us tallboys of cherry limeade Bud Light Seltzers. He unpacks the groceries while I change out of my sweaty clothes - it was almost 100 degrees out!
6:30pm: I get to work cooking dinner, which is burgers tonight using some of the supplies I picked up. I top mine with spinach and avocado, and W adds truffle aioli and cheddar cheese to his. We eat those while we watch this week's episode of What We Do In The Shadows. I'm loving this season so far.
8:00pm: We boot up our video game to shoot out the stress of the week. Apparently we both really needed it, because around midnight we're still playing and probably a little tipsier than we should be. We switch to watching a stream on Twitch while I make us some frozen gnocchi to soak up some of the alcohol, which I have while chugging a bottle of water. We head to bed around 1:30am.
Day 4 - Saturday 7/23
6:00am: Too early. I go to the bathroom, take some Advil, and head back to sleep.
8:15am: Well, apparently I am up. I wash my face, throw on jeans and a ruffled tank top, and head on out to the farmer's market. While there, I stop and pick up white nectarines and cherry tomatoes ($9.55), a baguette ($3), a bouquet of flowers ($6), steak strips ($14.95), and a breakfast sandwich for W and pomegranate lemonade for me ($17). I take it all home, sweating the whole way as I sip on my lemonade.
9:00am: I make myself a cup of coffee and put away the farmer's market goodies while listening to an old episode of Law & Order SVU. I change into a cute printed Free People dress I rented from Nuuly and use a little mascara as my only makeup.
10:15am: I call an Uber to meet up with some friends for brunch at Nina May ($14.49). It's a group of four of us and we have "brunch club" once a month, or else we'd never see each other because we're so busy. I start off with a cappuccino and get their smashed cheeseburger and a peach margarita for my meal. We have a grand old time catching up, including discussions of a trip for next year to maybe Vegas or Tulum. One of my friends puts the meal on her card and says she'll venmo us all later. I call another Uber home ($11.93).
12:30pm: W is at the gym when I get home, so I just lounge around and scroll on my phone until he gets back. We both shower because it is too hot to stay sweaty. My friend venmos me for my part of brunch ($49.62) and I giggle, because she could have asked for a straight $50 and I wouldn't have cared.
3:15pm: It's Scarface day! W and I have a tradition of watching Scarface with mozzarella sticks and champagne in every apartment we move into, and we've decided it's time to do it in this one. We pop open one of the bottles of Chandon Brut and W places a Ledo's order for a well done pie and mozzarella sticks. It's a glorious afternoon in the air conditioning as we drain both bottles of bubbly.
7:00pm: Back to gaming! We play our favorite game for a while, and then try booting up a new one that we've seen a lot of people playing on Twitch. It's a lot of fun, so I buy the season pass ($8.47) for some extra rewards.
11:30pm: We crawl into bed with Gatorades, ready to watch our favorite content creator's new video, only to discover that he hasn't posted today. Big sad energy. Watch an episode of Hot Ones and pass out around 12:30.
Day 5 - Sunday 7/24
9:45am: Holy moly, I actually slept in for once! W has been awake for a while listening to his audiobook in bed. We make coffees and decide to have a lazy day. It's supposed to be very hot today! W orders us lattes and treats from Peet's - coffee cake for me, chorizo flatbread for him. We enjoy them while watching this week's episode of The Orville. Seth McFarlane is a genius.
12:00pm: I call my mom to catch up. I fill her in on how the new job has been going and we chat about our upcoming vacation to the family beach house. I haven't seen my family since April! I can't wait to see them.
1:15pm: Off the phone with my mom. W joins me in the great room and we watch American Ninja Warrior while we make sandwiches using the meat and bread I bought at the farmer's market yesterday. Delicious.
3:00pm: I check the weather really quick to see if they were wrong and it'll be nice enough to read by the pool for a bit. 98 and humid. LOL not going to happen. I return to the cozy cocoon of blankets and air conditioning. W and I decide to watch some movies that have been on our "need to watch" list. We watch Spiderhead, then follow it up with Cleaner. Both are really interesting for different reasons! At some point, W heats up some leftover pizza for himself and I get myself a piece of Trader Joe's brookie from the kitchen.
7:30pm: What to do, what to do… we debate watching a third movie, but decide against it and start up Mythic Quest on Apple TV. We're huge IASIP fans, and Rob McElhenney does not disappoint in this one. We probably watch five or six episodes and call it at that.
Day 6 - Monday 7/25
6:30am: Usual weekday routine, up and off to boxing! After class, I head home for coffee, a shower, and settle in at my desk. I have one big block of meetings today, so I check in on my inbox to see what came in over the weekend. I'm still not used to the sales mindset of sending emails over the weekend, haha.
9:30am: I dial into my first meeting and discuss how my coworker and I are going to divide up asking questions to a client. Afterwards, my manager and I touch base as to how I'm onboarding, and he lets me know I should get my sales incentive plan soon! I'm curious to see what that'll be like.
10:45am: We present our deck to the client we spoke to last week. She seems interested!
11:00am: I dial into my second client call. It does not go as planned, and as soon as the client hangs up my coworker calls me on Teams with a "WTF???" vent for about five minutes.
12:00pm: W joins me in the living room for our lunch break. I have a snack of cheddar and pita crackers. I'm feeling really unmotivated to work today. I'll blame it on the heat. Halsey's second makeup line drops and I place an order ($43.20). I get an eyeliner, two eyeshadow sticks, two lip/cheek tints, and a package of makeup wipes.
4:30pm: I wrap up my work for the afternoon. I got through some more work, but it was interspersed with a lot of phone scrolling. I realize I haven't seen my charging cord for my iPad, and order a new one online before my trip to Toronto ($50.88). W tells me he's really craving nachos, so he orders us some to split for dinner, paired with a burger for me and a quesadilla for him. When it arrives, it's really disappointing. We make a mental note to never order from there again.
7:00pm: We move into the bedroom and finish up season one of Mythic Quest because we have no self control. It's too good to not binge! I go to sleep around 10:00.
Day 7 - Tuesday 7/26
6:30am: Usual wakeup, but W gets up with me because he goes into the office on Tuesdays. I chat with him while he showers, and then I head out to boxing. It's strength day and I choose to push myself with some heavy weights for incline lat lifts. I regret it.
9:00am: Showered and in front of my computer wearing a comfy combo of Beyond Yoga bike shorts and an oversized washed burgundy A&F boyfriend tee. I work through some edits on a document my boss sent me while making two slices of sourdough toast, which I eat with one of the white nectarines I bought at the farmer's market. Oh, it's so good. I'm honestly really bad about eating fruit, but the farmer's market has definitely changed that for me.
11:30am: My peer buddy pings me and asks if I want to help out on a task. He needs help researching a few organizations that we're considering reaching out to. I take notes on where to look for the research and get started. I throw Law & Order SVU reruns on the TV for while I work.
1:00pm: I listen to an all hands call about our upcoming conference in the fall. I have no clue if I have to attend, so I mark it down on my calendar, just in case. I also add a few things to an Old Navy cart for my upcoming vacation: flip flops, a crocheted dress to use as a swim coverup, and a knit tank top ($50.02).
4:00pm: Time for my biweekly check in with a member of my team. She and I talk through some general slides I'm creating for our team to use. She has some good notes for me, which I start to implement.
5:00pm: W is home from the office! He picked up a frozen pizza for himself on the way home, because Tuesdays is fend-for-yourself day for dinner in our house. I looked at everything in the kitchen and can't really decide what to make. I eventually settle on a pseudo burrito bowl made with instant rice, black beans, some shredded cheese, and pico de gallo.
6:00pm: W and I watch Last Week Tonight, and then his best friend calls him. W excuses himself to the bedroom to take the call, so I decide to throw on my favorite Twitch streamer and just vibe out for a bit, scrolling through Reddit and Twitter. I get bored and do a bunch of crunches. I'm trying to build up my abs.
7:30pm: W is off the phone. We try to decide what to do and come up dry, so we just embrace the binge watch more Mythic Quest. I resist the temptation to get ice cream out of the freezer.
10:00pm: Bedtime! Good night Reddit.
Weekly Expenses: $615.29
Food + Drink: $249.30
Fun / Entertainment: $120.47
Home + Health: $6
Clothes + Beauty: $162.22
Transport: $26.42
Other: $50.88
Lastly, reflect on your diary!
This was a fairly typical week for me in my new normal. It was slightly lazier than usual because of the current heat wave in the area, which probably saved me a trip to a bar or restaurant because we didn't want to leave the apartment. While I wasn't planning on buying tickets to an event this week, that's fine by me because I have my fun sinking fund now!

I moved to North Carolina from Maryland. One of the things I miss most is Ledo's pizza . Does anyone else think it's as great as I do ?

Greetings all good people of Connecticut. We are in search of the best pizza of CT. But please do not answer this if you do not think that it's the SAUCE that makes a pizza. Cheese is good. Bread is fine. But the SAUCE is the BOSS!
​
Now that there is only 5 people left in the room, I look forward to your suggestions. Living near a Haven, I have not yet been especially impressed with the sauce used. My family's bias is no doubt coming from Maryland where Ledo's sauce was, granted, sweeter than average, but BE-A-U-TI-FUL!
This whole "certain tomatoes from certain regions of Italy" done in New Haven is all well and good for tradition, but left my taste buds wanting.
I thank you.

Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance FERS: $26,350.78
Mortgage: $1459/month (I live alone with two dogs)
Savings account balance: $82,000
Checking account balance: $3,028
Credit card debt: None
Student loan debt: I paid off my student loans
Section Two: Income
Income Progression: I've been working at my current job for 7 years, my starting salary was $52,400.
I took two years off between undergrad and law school. When I graduated undergrad, we were in a recession. When I graduated law school, the market was oversaturated with lawyers.
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
$5,205.54
Section Three: Expenses
Mortgage: $1459 Electric $300 Peloton app: $14 Wifi/Cable: $130 Water: $0 (I have well water) Cellphone: $150 Car insurance: $156
​
Day 1
6:40am Wake up and get coffee before logging into our branch meeting. The window measuring guy comes during the meeting. I eat Oatmeal with raisins and blueberry yogurt with blueberries while editing some memos. My mom (M) is staying with me this week while she gets new floors in her house.
11am- I start bodypump but have to log into a work learning hour at 11:30 so I listen to that while doing bodypump. My work has virtual work out classes we can log in to for free.
12:40pm- Lunch consists of tuna with Cucumber, onion, and celery, tortilla chips and salsa/guacamole, and a cabbage chopped salad
1:25pm- Go to Frank's with M and my younger dog, Z, to get my neighbor a plant since she just had surgery. The pansy is $5 but we also get vegetable plants including lettuce, tomato, Cucumber, eggplant, peppers, greek oregano, a tea plant and two loose sweet potatoes. $62.64
2:42pm Head back home and drop off plant to my neighbor. I climb in bed with my laptop and do a little more work.
4pm- I take my elderly dog, Y, into the bathroom for another bath. He has another infection so hopefully I can avoid taking him back to the vet for this one. I still have medicated shampoo leftover from his last infection. We have to let the medicated shampoo sit for 10 minutes. I sit outside with M and we turn on the fire table. I get a package delivered with a dress. I get free dresses sent sometimes in exchange for pictures. After awhile, I feed the dogs and put potatoes in the oven while M prepares eggplant and put that in the oven as well.
5:00pm- I sign up for a free webinar on toxins for next week. Lately I've been trying to reduce scented products and make small changes to improve my health a little bit. I snack on a piece of Greek Easter bread my dad brought me last week and look for something to read on my kindle. I start reading a book called Fallen that I've had under my Kindle unlimited list for awhile (Kindle Unlimited subscription was gifted to me for Christmas). It's not really keeping my attention so I download Pretty Little Liars book 1 from the library. I recently finished watching the series and am obsessed! I message with friends on my phone for awhile and relax by the fire.
6:00pm- The eggplant and potatoes are done so I put steak in the oven that we bought yesterday at the butcher. I get the outside table out and ready for dinner
7:10pm- We put everything away outside for the evening and I heat up a piece of cherry pie from the freezer. We watch the last episode of Ravenswood on the CW app.
9:00pm- I see kindle is giving away 10 free books in honor of World Book Day so I order one and then watch the Real Housewives of Orange County Reunion
10:15pm- I started reading the Pretty Little Liars book and then go to bed.
Daily Total- $62.64
Day 2
6:30am- Y has come back and forth to my door wanting in and then out. I finally get up and take care of some work before I have an all day virtual training.
9am- The training begins! I get my Oatmeal and yogurt breakfast ready while listening to the training and feed the dogs. We have several break out rooms and its very interactive.
12pm- Lunch break! I hop on my spin bike for a 30 minute peloton ride and get lunch together. I heat up leftover spinach quiche from Easter and a cabbage chopped salad. I also grab a couple of pieces of chocolate from my Easter candy. I also drink an iced coffee with Oatmeal milk.
1pm- Back to the training. We jump right into a breakout room but I'm still finishing eating. I present during one of the sessions. The training seems to drag on. One of the attendees does a meditation practice at the end so thats nice.
4:00pm- Finally finished! It looks like it's going to rain and I'm going to a Cocktail crawl happy hour soon. I see that I sold a shirt that has been on my Poshmark forever! Im only getting $6.33 for it but better than nothing. I relax for a little bit then start getting ready for the cocktail crawl.
4:50pm We arrive at the cocktail crawl. I already paid for it a couple of weeks ago ($15). You basically walk around to different restaurants and they give you an appetizer and drink. Food included a slider, meatballs, chicken taco, fried zucchini, a mozzarella stick, and some fried chicken thing. Drinks included a glass of wine, cup of beer, prickly pear margaritas, New York Sour and an Old Fashioned. The wine was too sour so I didn't finish that and the Old Fashioned was gross. M didn't drink all the drinks since she was driving. We also ordered churro donuts and plantain chips with guacamole that we paid for. $11.64
6:55pm- I get home and lay around since I'm not used to drinking very much. I print out a label and package the top I sold on Poshmark and take it out to the mailbox then play fetch with Z.
8:40pm- I give Y his medication and realize I am getting low on one of his prescriptions. I find a $15 off coupon for 1800petmeds and place an order while using both retailmenot and ebates for a 1% and 3% cash back. My friend M was supposed to come to yoga tomorrow but isn't now so I'm a little bummed. I read until I get ready for bed. $63.59
Total- $75.23
Day 3-
5:23am- I wake up without the alarm! It was set to 5:30am. There is a free outdoor sunrise earth day yoga happening that I signed up for a few weeks ago with my friend A. I put work out clothes on, grab coffee from home and get there before A and get us a spot. A forgot her water so I give her an extra one I brought. Its a nice class although the instructor is a little hard to hear and instruction starts up 45 minutes in. Its nice to see the sun light up the sky.
7:20am- A and I decided to go to breakfast at Corner Bakery. I thought we'd walk but she said drive so we meet there. I get a breakfast scramble with potatoes and toast and we catch up chatting outside. $10.46
8:15am- I get back home and it feels like I've had an entire day already! I go through my emails and respond to more urgent matters.
9:12am- I decide to take Z to Centennial Park because it's such a nice day! It isn't as peaceful as I imagined though. Its pretty crowded for the earlier hour and a little hot plus Z seems anxious. I do the 2.4 mile loop and clean Z's paws when we get home.
10:30am- Back to work! I take my laptop outside to work along with an iced coffee.
12:00pm- My work offers some work out classes virtually so I join a Cx Works class, which focuses on core.
12:30pm- I grab some cottage cheese with a little cherry preserves and get back to work. I have a meeting that doesn't really have to do with my branch but have to call into anyway.
1:30pm- I end up having to do a demo during the meeting. After my part is over, I make Oatmeal with raisins and a handful of grapes
2:50pm- I have to leave the meeting to go to a dermatologist appointment. My skin is really red, dry, blotchy so want to see what the dermatologists has to say. No one is wearing masks here. The copay is $40 but I use my wellness card (you can earn up to $120 by doing things like filling out your health evaluation and meeting health goals). I'm told I should be using a lotion after my lotion retinol product and I should get another product that takes away the redness. I also get a prescription for tretinoin but want to finish my retinol products that I already have before using that.
4:20pm- I get home and answer some work things. M says she's hungry now so I throw a bag of frozen paella from trader Joe's in a pan while she makes a salad . I pop some vitamins because I feel gross about the no mask situation at a medical office when our county just got an email about cases going up. We eat dinner outside and then I eat the leftover churro donut from yesterday
5:55pm- I give Y another bath and sit there for 10 minutes while the medicated shampoo does its thing. While waiting, I see a restaurant on Facebook that I've never been to that looks perfect for Mother's Day brunch so I call and make reservations. I take a shower in my bathroom and then call my dad to confirm plans for Sunday.
6:52pm- Finally time to relax! What a day! I was supposed to do a video date with a guy from Bumble but I'm hoping he doesn't follow up. M is making a lemon cake for Sunday and I lick the leftover batter because I'm 8. I read on my kindle. Last year I read more than 100 books without spending money but this year I am trying not to put any pressure on myself to reach a huge reading goal so I've scaled back a bit on the reading lately.
9:50pm- I'm feeling tired from the busy day so I get ready for bed.
Total: $10.46
Day 4
6:30am- M wake me up putting dishes away. I try to fall back to sleep but its not happening. I get some Oatmeal and coffee.
9:30am- I can't believe yesterday I had already done a yoga class, breakfast and was on a walk at this time. I muster up a little energy to do a 30 minute peloton full body strength class and do some stretching.
10:30am- I am going to a Holi celebration today! I've never been to one before so trying to figure out what to wear since you throw paint around. I need something I don't mind throwing out. M is freaking out on what to wear because she doesn't want to throw anything away. We leave for the festival. We already reserved free tickets a few weeks ago.
11:38am- We check in and head to the food trucks. I order a pit beef sandwich w mac and cheese. I'm a little surprised there isn't Indian food $16
12:00pm- We each buy 2 packs of colors and start tossing it around. There is a DJ playing and people are dancing around throwing color at each other. Kids are pouring color over each other's heads so thats entertaining. Dancers come on but none of them are professional so its not that great for entertainment but we are still having a great time throwing around all the colors! $5
110pm- We decide to head out soon and all of the sudden this boy around 11 dumps a bunch of red color on M's head. She didn't want her hair dyed so we decide to use the rest of our color packs on the kid. After walking around a bit we spot him! We make a plan to get him at the same time and attack! He retaliates and chases me even though M is the one who dumped her colors on him! Apparently he has little sidekicks because out come these two other boys to join him in the chase! I must be in good shape because I manage to outrun the three of them!
1:30pm- We get back to the car and clean up as best we can. As soon as I get home, I jump in the shower. The colors seem to come out well. I head to the kitchen and cut a slice of the lemon cake M made. Delish! My friend R is coming over at 4, so I relax and paint my nails in the meantime and have a salad right before she comes.
4:00pm- R is here! We sit outside on the deck and catch up. It turns out this is the last time I will see her before she has her baby. I was going to heat up pizza for us but she opts for the lemon cake instead. I have a slice with her so she doesn't eat alone. The neighbor's puppy manages to squeeze through my fence to play with Z and we watch them play for awhile before my neighbor comes over to take him back.
6:50pm- R leaves so I heat up the pizza I planned to have with her. I actually got it from my Buy Nothing group last week. There were multiple full pizzas from Ledo's that weren't touched during a party so I picked up a couple and put them in the freezer. Then M and I decide to rent Season 1 of Cruel Summer. $10
9:30pm- I want to get to bed at a decent time since my boudoir shoot is tomorrow. I pull my outfits to bring and decide to try them on because trying on lingerie after eating pizza and cake is a cool idea. One of the outfits I cannot figure out how to put on with all its straps! It literally takes me 10 minutes on that one. The shoot is only an hour so I don't want to be wasting time figuring out how to dress myself! Hopefully it goes better tomorrow. I pack a pair of heels and pull out a hair piece I plan on wearing and get my make up ready.
10:30pm- Time for bed!
Daily total- $31
Day 5
7:10am- I give myself 10 minutes extra of sleep and run downstairs to make coffee while I get ready for my boudoir shoot! I underestimate how long it takes to get full on ready since I haven't done that for awhile. My hair normally takes a couple minutes but with my hair piece it takes about 20! I grab a yogurt to eat in the car.
8:10am- I realize I forgot to put earrings in during the drive to Annapolis. At least I remembered my bag of outfits. I purchased a Groupon for this boudoir shoot a few months ago after seeing photos my friend did for hers. There was also a coupon on Groupon and a had $10 in Groupon bucks, so the shoot with Three Boudoir ended up only being $30 and includes two digital images. I park in a parking garage and text my boudoir contact.
9:00am- I made it right on time! My contact lets me into the building and let's me know she is my stylist. We go upstairs to the studio where I meet my photographer and a photographer in training. There are two rooms and a bathroom. One room as a bed and chair. The other has a sofa. They take a look at the three outfits I brought and some poses I've screenshot and tell me which order to wear the outfits.
9:10am- I go and change in the bathroom and we get started! Man, if you ever feel down about yourself, book a boudoir shoot. These women are telling you how good you look and yelling out encouragement the whole time. It is a little odd prancing around with your booty out in front of three fully clothed women. They are very helpful with demonstrating poses and fixing straps and spotting nip slips. I was worried it would be cold but I'm actually sweating in my lingerie and feeling like I'm doing a work out with all the poses and balancing and holding things in! I like that they say "engage your core" instead of "suck it in!"
9:50am- I paid for the 30 minutes session but they ended up doing the hour option. I change into my regular clothes and we look through the photos. Its unfortunate how critical we are of ourselves but I notice lots of little flaws as we flip through. Definitely wish I would have done this shoot in my mid 20s when I was at my peak! I choose two for the images included with the shoot package and tonight they will email me the rest of the gallery for me to pick out anymore I want to purchase.
10:02am- I get back to my car and am ready to pay for parking but the ticket tells me nothing is owed. Woohoo! I guess because its Sunday. Its a gorgeous day in Annapolis and I wish I had time to spend walking around and sitting outside at a restaurant, but I have to go to my dad's in a bit for Greek Easter. I stop by the gas station to fill up. $45.22
10:50am- I get home and am starved! All that booty popping and back arching really stirs up an appetite. I make Oatmeal with iced coffee and sit outside to enjoy the rest of the morning! I also print some labels to make some returns and set up a time to pick up some Joe Corbi's pizzas I ordered last month to support my friend's son (and because their peanut butter chocolate cookies are bomb). I also research some wineries to visit next weekend. I'm spending Friday to Sunday at my Aunt's. We are going to have a bonfire, go to the drive in movie theater and visit some wineries.
1:40pm- M made my dad an Easter basket and dyed red eggs as a Greek Easter tradition. My dad made lamb, orzo, salad, lobster tails and Greek bread, cookies and desserts. I brought some confetti eggs I brought from my Buy Nothing group. You crack the eggs against each other and confetti flies everywhere. Its a lot of fun! My dad also recently bought a massage chair that massages your head to your feet so I use that. My dad and I have gotten closer since I've been an adult. He has state 4 prostate cancer so I cherish the time we spend together. I try to clean up but he makes me stop. He sends us back with salad and the Greek bread, cookies and dessert.
5:50pm- We get home and I pack up my packages for the returns then read outside until it gets dark. Then I watch some more episodes of Cruel Summer.
10:00pm- My boudoir photos are emailed to me. I was sent two that are included in the shoot and I have to look over all the watermarked ones and decide which ones I like enough to purchase. I'm tired so I will figure it out tomorrow. Off to bed!
Daily total: $45.22
Day 6
6:50am- Wake up and start working. I make Oatmeal and yogurt while I work.
11am- Bodypump time! I log in on the work invite for the 45 minute class then put all my Easter decor away. The house looks really clean after back to back holiday decor since Halloween. I cut up the lemon cake to freeze and help M make our lunch of egg and cheese sandwiches on an English muffins, grapes, and the leftover salad and a Greek cookie from my dad's before getting back to work.
5:30- Finally done working! It was a busy day because my supervisor was out and there were a lot of fires I had to put out. I also looked at the boudoir photos with M and had originally planned to just purchase one but she said how she wished she would of had photos of what she used to look like before she got older so she said she wanted to buy some more for me. I leave to meet A for a walk but there is an accident and I have to take a detour.
6:45- Back home after the walk. We did a 2.7 mile walk around the lake. M made peanut soup while I was out. I had thawed out shrimp to make for tonight but decide to save it until tomorrow. I also eat the rest of the salad from my dads and some of the Greek desserts.
7:10- M and I watch the last few episodes of Cruel Summer and I eat a couple cookies before bed.
Daily total- $80
Day 7 7:30am- I get up and grab a coffee and yogurt to head to my MRI appointment for my fibroids. I'm going to Rockville to an open mri because the closed one made me feel like I was going to have a panic attack. M offers to drive since I feel stressed about it. I take a few hours off work today for the appointment.
8:50am- I'm early and they take me right away! I love not having to wait. I was here about 10 years ago and it looks as I remember it. I take my bra off but wear my regular clothes. They put something over my lower stomach and the machine moves so that I am laying down but my face isn't covered and I can still see the TV. I lay there for half an hour, then am given an IV for the contrast and am in there an additional 15 minutes. I pay what I owe for the MRI on the way out. $100
10:15- M and I stop at Freshlii and I get a Mediterranean Bowl with chicken to go. I don't realize until later that they forgot to put in feta. We stop by the garden center where M buys a couple of herb plants then we stop at Schooly Mills Park to get our lunch at the picnic tables. The park is covered with cherry blossom trees and looks beautiful. $13.39
1145- Back at home I check my email and respond to anything urgent then I log on to 30 minute CX Works core with my work's fitness center then jump back into work.
1:00pm- After my work out, I hop onto a training. I order food for V while on the call. I used retailmenot for 5% cash back and purchased through the Southwest Shopping Portal to earn flight points. I also eat a few peanut butter eggs and upload a blog post about my birthday trip to St. Martin on my travel blog. My goal was to get it out before my trip next month to the Faroe Islands so I am feeling accomplished! I also get an order in for bloodwork for my dad and make an appointment with my doctor to follow-up on my MRI results. $68.88
3:20pm- Another medicated bath for Y before logging in to listen to the free webinar on environmental toxins that I signed up for last week. My friend and I get a parking pass for the Mormon Temple Open House! This is the first time it is supposed to be opened to the public. The event is free but tickets are required.
5:00PM- I shower and hang a framed painting of Brugges on my wall. I got it from my Buy Nothing group and it happens to be a painting of a spot I took a lot of pictures. I make shrimp tacos with cabbage and sweet potatoes for dinner.
8:00PM- M and I watch The Real Housewives of New Jersey and Miami after that while I eat some of the Greek Easter desserts and do a survey to earn some points for Southwest Airlines.
10:00PM- I head to bed.
Daily Total- $182.27
Weekly total $486.82
Food and Drink: $51.49 Fun/entertainment: $95 Clothes/Beauty: 0 Transport: $45.22 Other: $295.11
Reflection: This is probably a typical spending week. I order groceries once every 3-4 weeks and freeze a lot of things throughout the month. Groceries are probably around $250ish.

My money is on Nandos (peri peri chicken) or this pizza chain Ledos we had up in MD. Curious what other people would bring here!