What's your accent? Quiz may surprise you.

While training for a volunteer tutoring role, I came across a quiz that seemed like a fun break from sight words and writing prompts. Language learning site Babbel identifies where you’re from based on answers to 15 questions about pronunciation and word choices. 

It told me I’m from the Pacific Northwest. I’ve spent no more than a week there and all but four years in Illinois and Wisconsin.

MacBook screen cracked, but was it my fault?

A MacBook Air shouldn’t have failed at just 4½ years. Mine has a cracked screen, not visibly shattered but cracked inside. It’s inoperable but fixable, according to a repair shop, which wanted $330 to replace the screen. Although I hate to throw away repairable items, the same model was on sale for just $599 at Walmart, so I sprang for a new one.

Before the blank dark screen appeared, while the laptop had thin horizontal lines across its lower half but was still usable, I searched for ways to fix it. None worked, but I learned that MacBook Airs with Apple’s M1 chip are prone to mysterious screen cracks. Thousands of people have reported on Reddit and Apple Communities that their M1 MacBook screens have cracked for no apparent reason. Like them, I hadn’t dropped the laptop or banged down the lid. 

To get deep cleaning done, I hired out

When a housecleaner I recently hired took six hours to clean just the kitchen and the bathroom, I was surprised that two small rooms required so much time. Also chagrined about how much dirt I must not have noticed.

My condo had not looked so messy to me. I clean weekly — dusting, vacuuming, mopping, and wiping appliances, fixtures, and countertops. 

What’s done weekly, however, is so-called regular cleaning. What Jenni, the housecleaner, did was deep cleaning from a list I made. She washed cabinet doors, wiped the refrigerator shelves, and painstakingly scrubbed the stovetop grates, bathtub, tile, grout, and bathroom and kitchen floors.