I recently got a temporary crown on one of my right molars, which stays on until my next appointment. During this time I’m, reasonably, supposed to avoid chewing on the right side of my mouth whenever possible. (And absolutely no hard candy or anything over there!)

Now, I’m not OCD, but I do have quirks in that direction. One of them has to do with symmetrical chewing — in addition to using both sides of my mouth to chew, like most people, I have a tendency to deliberately start using one side if I notice I’ve been favoring the other…

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• Air conditioning in Europe is generally set warmer than it is here. Most of the time that’s a good thing. On the other hand, many buildings (including two of the three hotels we stayed in) don’t bother to have it at all.
• Similarly, summer rain is sudden and heavy. Apparently this is an “anywhere besides California” thing, though.”
• Unexpected interesting episode: we went to hear an organ concert in the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral. It was hot and stifling and everyone was falling asleep, and the space was actually too big (the notes ended up a little slurry). But…

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