Jump to content

Damor

Certifiably Surly
  • Posts

    708
  • Joined

Everything posted by Damor

  1. Like the thread title says, just got back. This was our second trip and we had a great time again. Stayed at Ixchel this time (thanks to @wood for the contact info for rental) for convenience and the 2bdr was perfect for our family, including two teenage yahoos. @Mac8111, don't know if you've stayed at Ixchel since you've been there before, but while I don't think they have any 3bdr, I wonder if they could get you a 2bdr and 1bdr nearby? It was just nice to be right on Playa Norte and at the end of Hidalgo so we could give them some autonomy at that age. The last time we went, we got two rooms at Secreto and that worked well for us if you don't need to cook or mind doing the hotel thing instead of a house. @GrahamCracker, again Ixchel was great for us but we were in family mode. I thought the smaller place next door, Playa Arena, looked good if we go back on an adult trip, but obviously don't have first-hand experience. Had a great time, ate and drank too much, didn't have a disappointing meal. It was pretty busy being the holiday week, probably twice as busy as last year, but didn't have any issues with restaurant waits or lack of beach chairs. Only thing that seemed to be running short was golf cart rentals. Meal highlights included Qubano, which everyone loved and we would have eaten at multiple times if they'd been open more regularly. Cuban sammich was the best I've ever had: My 16yo demolished the tomahawk steak at Xantolo, which I thought would just be a novelty but was really damn good: We went out on two half-day bottom fishing trips with Keen M (did sailfishing last year, so tried something different), and had a great time. Hauled in a ton of yellowtail and triggerfish, which was a lot of fun for the boys. I don't know what the whole saga of Ballyhoo is (read about it on here but it has been closed), but it is now reopened/rebooted or whatever on the dock. It is now operated by the family that runs about half of Isla, I guess (Keen M, Secreto, Playa de Media Luna, etc.), and only opened about two weeks ago. We ate dinner there twice after our fishing trips, and they were two of our favorite meals. About 8 bucks per person to fix your catch family style is a pretty good deal, and it was an obscene amount of food. Triggerfish ceviche was amazeballs. So another great trip. Although I don't want to get into a rut and still hoping to try some different places, nobody in the family has any argument about a return trip in the future.
  2. Now that F Street is a pedestrian zone, sitting outdoors at Amicas with a view of the "S" is one of my favorite places in the world. If you haven't been lately, the new Pizza Rio above the Boat House (run by the same folks, NY style) is pretty damn good as well. Between Amicas, Moonlight, Rio, Great Divide in Gunnison, and Secret Stash in CB, you'd think I'd get tired of pizza and beer when on vacation. Nope.
  3. Thanks! Looks like they have more availability at least. Since there are three of us I'll have to think about whether to hope they could combine us with another small group or try to talk my BIL or someone else into going. Although when I mentioned going without her last night, my wife started getting pouty.
  4. Thanks, y'all! I'm checking in with Black Canyon, but it looks like this is something I probably should have thought about earlier -- I got an additional recommendation from the guys at ArkAnglers for RIGS, and they're already booked all but one day in July. I'm even having trouble getting our usual accommodations in Gunnison and Salida this far out -- guess the whole world has gone crazy.
  5. Do any of y'all who have done the Gunnison overnight float trips have a trusted guide/outfitter? Paging @MoJames, @DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt, @troph, others? I'm looking at stuff to do next July, and I'm thinking this would be a good time to take my 17yo and 14yo boys as a bucket list experience I'd like us to have before they fly away.
  6. Call it You'd Better Not Pout, You'd Better Not Die. She sings "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" in a depraved manner a la Eliot Loudermilk each time she snaps.
  7. I still consider myself quite green, but I'm still enjoying it using my pretty simple Mash & Boil electric setup. Because COVID/everything sucks, I went through a dry spell for most of this year but restarted a couple months ago. Chilling wort for a porter right now, with a stout in secondary, a saison carbonating, and an ESB, rye IPA, and grapefruit IPA currently on tap. I agree with the sentiment that it's nice to be able to just brew some simple basics that get easily overlooked. One of my favorites last year was a barely >3% mild.
  8. Adios, Big 12 "Did we just become best friends?" No, cousin-fuckers.
  9. The officiating in this conference is so shitty and utterly incompetent that it becomes a signal-to-noise issue with regard to any bias. Flagrant examples like OSU are rare, but the small imbalance in the number of awful calls in favor of either team is just enough to make the officiating a factor in each game on the order of weather or injuries, and allows for a lot of fuckery. Sometimes your team benefits, sometimes it gets screwed, but the waters are so muddy that it's hard to make a demonstrable case for getting fucked (aside from OU is always allowed to hold). And the conference office is happy to let it ride as it is. Just one more reason that, while I have plenty of reservations about the SEC move, I have zero about jettisoning this feckless piece of shit Big 12.
  10. It's like a human barium enema. Turdition indeed.
  11. I've seen them mentioned in passing on occasion (most recently by @Brisketexan), but never a dedicated discussion. We have a current HS junior who is bright and an incredibly kind and empathetic soul of whom I am extremely proud; however, the other side of his particular coin makes him somewhat passive and lacking in confidence as compared with his peers, as well as lagging in maturity and self-motivation (in retrospect, he would have been a very good candidate for a redshirt kindergarten year, something I'm trying to stop kicking myself over). I'll try not to get all longcat with some of the issues we're working on at school (in case you wondered, high school still sucks), but what it really boils down to is that we are working to help him find inspiration and self-motivation. We've always tried the philosophy of pouring gasoline on any spark he's showed, and we'd hoped to do some horizon-broadening travel the last couple summers that hasn't worked out (thanks COVID), but we know that his time with us is drawing to a close and we need to use what we have left wisely to help him find a direction and a goal other than "I'm supposed to go to college." I could go on and on but I won't, because I imagine we aren't the only ones trying to work this out, and I really intend this to be less about him in particular and more about understanding what's available to him. A gap year is something we've briefly discussed with him, but it's probably time for us to learn more seriously about it so that we can all get some reliable information and insight -- one thing we do know is that this is going to have to be his decision, because trying to make it anything else is not going to end well. I found what looks like a reputable site to start at in the Gap Year Association, and it seems that the main pathways are to go with an established program provider, use a counseling service for something more individualized, or let them come up with something and do it independently. I'd be happy to hear of any other trustworthy resources to check out. I'd be deeply interested in anyone's personal gap year experience (yourself or as a parent), as well as any good (or bad) resources/experiences along the way. We plan to visit with his counselor about this, but frankly, my expectations for that are low, and I guess I trust you degenerates on the whole much more when trying to look for a broader worldview than the relatively small and insular one his formal education has given him thus far. And I did already check -- his 529 will not reimburse for 'hookers and blow.'
  12. Pfizer, second dose 1/10 S 473 N (-) Paystub [redacted] Only 31 payments left on Corvette
  13. 4) Everyone is the hero of their own story. 3) The great thing about life is it's never so bad that it can't get worse. 2) Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to. 1) ou sucks
  14. ^^^ That's my scenario right now with 16yo and 13yo boys. They are both vaccinated but I am certain a large number of their teammates are not. The 16yo doesn't want to wear a mask at school, and the 13yo is ambivalent (he's around more kids who are under 12). If mine develop symptoms, they will be tested and held out (we already had to do that for the 16yo when he spiked a 103 temp right before two-a-days, tested negative). I've warned them both that while I consider it being a bad teammate to be unvaccinated, if mine don't mask up and take every precaution, they're still at risk for getting thrown under the bus when shit inevitably happens, because people suck, and nobody's going to blame the unvaccinated starting senior. It does help that vaccinated exposures won't require quarantine, but: 1) That guideline predates Delta 2) Nobody is going to demand proof of vaccination. Let the shitshow commence.
  15. BSWH system data: Fully vaccinated cases are almost universally immunosuppressed or other severe comorbidities. I've been working the evening shift for the last week, and it's just nonstop from the imaging standpoint, worse than anything from the winter in terms of volume, severity, and age. Trashed 30yo lungs are no longer a novelty, and have seen multiple young 20's and older teens with widespread lung disease. 30's and 40's on ECMO. I'm sick of this shit.
  16. We didn't resurface, but we did Cooldeck on our new construction about 3 years ago. I love it. It does stay much cooler than other surfaces, is nonslip, and has stood up to derpy boys and a derpy dog. I really wish we'd done it on the porches instead of stamped/stained concrete, and may see if I can get it overlaid on that one of these days.
  17. One of those piercing moments. I want to be The Grandfather when I grow up. Another is Herman Blume's haircut scene in Rushmore. The whole scene is just perfect, from the pin exchange to Blume's expression when he meets Bert to "Are you fond of that mustache? You think you wanna keep it for a while?" Same for the Jaguar Shark scene in Life Aquatic. I see why Anderson is so persnickety, because every little thing in those scenes is done for a reason and done to perfection. And one of the all-time greats: Even though I know all of these scenes by heart, every time I watch them I'm glued to the screen like it's the first time.
  18. Damor

    New Music 2021

    Lord Huron is my 13yo's favorite band, and as I posted in another thread, I'm pumped that I found tickets to see them at Red Rocks for his birthday. Hell, they might be my favorite band at present -- when they auctioned a bunch of stuff to support their crew last summer, I spent a stupid amount of money. They're definitely doing some different creative things. The "Alive from Whispering Pines" streaming shows they did were really cool, and worth checking out on Youtube. In other news, I heard this Vagabon track on KUTX a little while back, and damned if it's not still blowing my mind:
  19. The 76571 agrees. 974240195_PXL_20210622_0233391252.mp4 974240195_PXL_20210622_0233391252.mp4
  20. Well this looks interesting.
  21. Lots of good advice here. A few more random things: Agree to oversize the garage and covered porches. They're never big enough. For cabinets, definitely soft close drawers. Get the drawings and label every cabinet with what you want to put in it, then make adjustments as needed. Get sliding shelves for larger and heavier cookware. We put trash/recycling bins both next to the main sink and the island prep sink, a small add which makes a huge difference. My wife likes to bake, so we put two stand mixer lifts in one of the cabinets. Be sure to put an outlet inside. One of the best bang-for-the buck small details we did was heated floors in the master bathroom. It was remarkably inexpensive for a pleasant luxury. We also put in a heated towel rack. Pro move: heat the master shower floor and bench on a separate circuit which you can operate at a higher temperature. Your wife will appreciate it, and will show you her appreciation. If you sized the master shower appropriately, that is. We put floor drains in the laundry room and the game room. Great for peace of mind in case something decides to leak one day. Put lots of quad outlets in. Both sides of the master bed for chargers, lamps, and, uh... etc. Lots of quads in the kitchen for small appliances, Google stuff, etc. Don't forget to put soffit plugs on a switch (smart switch is even better) for Christmas lights. If you are putting in a pool, make sure you have a hose bib nearby for filling and cleaning equipment (kicking myself over this one). We ran Cat6 from a homerun AV closet errrwhere. It may be overkill, but allows me to wireless backhaul my Google mesh and gets streaming devices like smart TVs off of wifi. Love our Blue Star gas cooktop. Be sure to get your vent sized appropriately, both dimension and volume. We put a warming drawer below ours, honestly could use another one. Best kitchen splurge was an undercounter pellet ice maker. Couldn't live without it now. The best advice we got on picking out anything cosmetic that matters to both of you was this: when you're looking at options/selections, don't pick out what you each like best and try to come to an agreement. Instead, cross off what you hate or is a no-go. Eliminate until you're left with stuff you both find acceptable, and somebody pick. We're pretty chill with similar tastes, but we found this really sped the process up and gave us a much more satisfying result. Good luck. We put a lot of thought into it and love our house, but I don't ever want to do it again.
  22. Thanks @Valmy77, just scored tickets behind the dugout, row 5. Unbelievably excited to make it back to the Disch.
  23. So what's the preferred source for good Supers tickets? I used to have really kick-ass season tickets until my boys got too busy playing ball themselves, but since the stars are aligned that we have nothing going on, I'd love to surprise them with our first trip to the Disch in years.
×
×
  • Create New...