TheCriticalMember

Hey all. Getting right to it:

Last November, a majority of my wife's family voted trump. I immediately made known my disgust and that I had no interest in maintaining relationships with any of them. My wife is equally appalled, but family is important to her and she chooses to compartmentalise it for the sake of their relationships. That's her call. Typically, her mother comes to stay at our house for an extended period as we live far away, and this year I tolerated her being here for the sake of my wife.

But now, thinking about the next visit and how bad things have gotten, I can't even stand the thought of having her in my house, let alone being in the same room as her. I really don't want her here at all, but I will again tolerate her for my wife's sake. However I think it's likely that I will make myself pretty scarce during that time.

So the ethics question is - given that I expressed my distaste after the election but still remained cordial, is it ok, ethically speaking, to become more resentful as the consequences of their actions become more apparent? Or, given that what has happened since is pretty much out of everyone's hands, am I locked in to the level of hostility I showed immediately after?

I guess the distilled version is - a person does X, I express disapproval. Is it ethical to express MORE disapproval as additional unforeseen consequences of X become apparent?

Thanks for your thoughts!

Edit to Clarify - My mother in law is not MAGA and I don't think she's enjoying any of it. She thinks we can "just not talk about it" and everything will be fine. However she has become more racist and judgemental (anti-trans etc) in recent years. Hates Joe Biden and Kamal Harris but can't or won't say why. Thanks for the responses so far and I'll try to respond, but I'm about to start work shortly.

We recently discovered these. $1.60 a piece at Woolies and they're really flipping good! My wife typically makes us salads for lunch during the week, and constantly coming up with proteins is a pain. I also spend a reasonable amount of time out on the road for work and typically bring canned tuna for snacking on, but I'll happily smash a can of these and keep moving. Also, if you're feeling really lazy, a couple of cans of these tossed with a small bag of chopped lettuce or salad greens makes a perfectly acceptable side salad. There are more varieties than I've shown. Give them a go! 👍

For father's day breakfast I made everyone english muffins, pork and herb sausages, and fried eggs out on the barbie (I'm definitely in the wrong tribe to get breakfast cooked for me 😆), with a side of air fryer tots (perfectly legit substitute for hash browns). Then I slathered the whole shemozzle in a generous helping of Bush's maple and bacon baked beans sent from the states (if you're ever in the states, do not dismiss their baked beans because your only experience is Australian beans, American baked beans are on a whole other level). This should keep me going till dinner!

Have a kickass Sunday everyone! ☺️

My 13 year old crocheted me a stegosaurus for father's day. I named him Clarence.

I know, I know - not food. But I'm not part of many communities and I figured the folks here would appreciate this. This is how my wife and I spend most of our Friday nights - a fire, a surprisingly drinkable box of red, and each other. It's by far my favourite part of the week.

Incidentally, we often have a meal plan for the night, which is typically scrapped in favour of our 13 year old rustling up a curry, which she's always happy to do!

Just a little PSA here. Been on the road for work for the last few days and had occasion to stop at a 7-11 (there are none near me), so I grabbed a cheese and bacon traveller pie, with very low expectations. It was surprisingly good for a mass produced, packaged, hot box pie. The pastry was nice and held together well, and the filling seemed to have all the flavours and textures I'd expect.

Later in my trip I stopped there again and tried a smoky bbq beef pie and again was pleasantly surprised. Pastry might be a little thick for some, but it was enjoyable, and the filling had real chunks of meat in it.

So if you're like me and you'd normally avoid trying a 7-11 pie in a plastic bag just on principle, maybe reassess if you're in a pinch, you might be surprised.

My qualifications - going back not that many years I travelled constantly for work, and have had far more than my fair share of servo pies. Mostly I'll avoid them, though I don't mind a villi's. The only ones I refuse to eat no matter how hungry I am is four n twenty. They're absolute trash. I'd rate the 7-11 pies near the top of the pack for frozen, bagged, reheated pies.

I work in a small regional engineering consultancy. On Thursdays we have byo meat BBQ lunch, company supplies bread, sauce, and onions and I cook. Well a few weeks back our old coolabah 4 burner finally kicked the bucket, so I was tasked with getting us a new one.

I wanted something footy club style, not built for finesse or style, but for brute forcing it's way through mountains of meat to feed a crowd. Saw a lot of bad reviews of the ones sold in store at Bunnings, and bbqs galore didn't even really seem to have anything in that category, so eventually I settled on this one - https://www.bunnings.com.au/char-griller-premium-flat-iron-4-burner-griddle-gas-bbq_p0353728?region_id=117343&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1

It finally arrived yesterday, I put it together this morning. Only had time to put one quick season on it before cooking (I gave it a good clean and oil after and I'm not worried about getting it to where I want it). What an absolute joy to cook on. This thing slaps. Heat control was a little bit of a learning curve, but the one big solid plate with a lip all around and nowhere for anything to go except down one credit card sized hole on the front corner was awesome for my giant pile of onions.

I wouldn't pick it for my home setup, where I cook a wider variety of foods and am a lot more adventurous. But for smashing out snags and onions or an occasional steak for 10-20 people, I think this thing nails it. I'm excited for next Thursday!

G'day all. Having an internal debate atm and interested in other's thoughts. I'll try to keep context as brief as possible:

I currently have a 2009 GU patrol and a 2003 xtrail, would like to replace the xtrail in the short term and the GU within 5 years or so. Both vehicles are pretty solid and reliable, but showing their age. The GU is set up for camping in remote areas, which we do a lot of - it's definitely not a mall crawler. Been looking lately at the Pajero Sport as a replacement for the xtrail. Reasoning is it would be far better than the patrol for highway trips, my daughter and her boyfriend could use it to tag along with us on camping trips, and if push came to shove it could be a somewhat reasonable stand-in for the patrol, even if it doesn't go as far (not likely to invest in aux battery, rear drawer setup etc). The pajero sport could never replace the GU though, just in terms of packing space and roof load capacity - we camp in national parks a lot so we have to bring all our firewod in with us and it's not uncommon for me to have 100 kg on the roof. For my budget, I could get a 2020+ with under 100k, and reasonably well equipped if I hold out (which I'm doing). The plan so far has been to do that and then 5 years down the road look at replacements for the GU.

But a particular 200 has just popped up for sale. Appears to be very well maintained, and exceptionally well equipped. It's definitely been around, 270k, but one owner with full service history. Asking price $40k. 2013 model. I've gotta say, I'm seriously tempted. Neither my wife nor myself has much of a commute, so fuel costs of running a landcruiser and patrol are pretty negligible, and the additional costs in servicing both would be manageable until I can pay off the cruiser and trade the GU.

Am I crazy? I know it sounds that way for sure, but this particular cruiser is pretty special in terms of what's been put into it and the fact that it's a 12 year old car with a single owner and full history. At first I thought no way, but I think I'm starting to talk myself into it. Of course I'd pay for an inspection first.

I don't need anyone to make the decision for me, I'm going to do what I'm going to do. But I'm interested in hearing some perspectives. Given the spend is about the same, an exceptional (presumably) 270k 12 year old 200 series, or a 100k 5 yeard old pajero sport?

Cheers.