My roommate's partner has been staying at our apartment 5-6 nights a week for the past two months. They don't pay rent. I brought it up to my roommate and said I thought it was fair for the partner to contribute to utilities at minimum, since our water and electric bills have gone up noticeably since this started. My roommate said the partner is "just visiting" and that I'm being unreasonable — they're not using "that much" extra. But they shower here every morning, do laundry here, cook here, and are here when I wake up and when I go to sleep. That's not visiting. Their side: we have a two-bedroom apartment and the partner stays in my roommate's room, so they're not using any extra space. Guests are allowed under our lease. My roommate thinks I'm trying to control their relationship. I don't want to control anything. I want the utility bill split to reflect the number of people actually living here. Am I wrong?

My grandmother's pierogies were wrong. I know this now because I've eaten pierogies in Warsaw and Kraków and from three different Polish grandmothers in Pittsburgh. Hers were too thick, the filling was half potato and half cream cheese (not traditional), and she fried them in margarine instead of butter because it's what she could afford in 1974 and she never switched back. They were the best pierogies I've ever eaten, and I will never be able to make them because she didn't use a recipe. She used "enough flour" and "you'll know when it's right" and her hands, which were calloused and exact and are gone now. I've been trying for six years. I'm getting closer. The dough is almost right. The filling is wrong in the right way. The margarine is non-negotiable.

I changed my mind about remote work this year. I used to think it was strictly better — I was more productive, I saved two hours of commuting, I could structure my day around my energy instead of someone else's calendar. Then I started a new role in February and realized how much I'd been coasting on relationships I built in person at my last job. The people I collaborated best with remotely were people I'd already sat next to for a year. Starting from zero, fully remote, I had no idea who to ask about anything. Slack channels feel like shouting into a crowd when you don't know anyone in it. I don't think remote work is bad. I think it's expensive in ways that don't show up for 6-12 months, and the cost is paid by new people more than existing ones.