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fuggled

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Posts posted by fuggled

  1. So wife re-ended someone on the freeway (totally her fault) in her Merc and a claim has been submitted by the person she hit so I'll be taking a hit on my policy and premium... 
    On our end, it was mostly plastic damage but the hood is buckled and will probably need to be replaced.  Insurance company gave me a list of "preferred" repair shops.  Is there any reason I shouldn't just take it to the dealer to get it fixed as opposed to one of these shops?  Most of the repairs will require new parts (bumper, grill) from the dealer anyways and I'm going to have to pay the deductible regardless of where I take it... (The damage shouldn't be enough to get it totaled...) 
    (Pissed the car my wife hit had 8 people in it including a bunch of kids with no car seats yet the cop said he wouldn't give them a ticket for no seats so I'm sure my insurance will be paying out a bunch of on injury claims...)
    You should take it to the place you trust, regardless of what insurance recommends. If you're taking it to a reputable place, they should be used to negotiating with insurance on prices and additional damage they may uncover, so you shouldn't ever get pulled into the middle of that. If you're unsure, check with the repair shop beforehand that they're going to handle all that for you.

    You could also go get your own estimate for the repair work before you do anything. That would give you a sense of whether you're about to step into an argument with insurance. The problem is, at least last summer, most places are so busy they may not give you a quote unless you're ready to hand over insurance up front.
  2. 1 hour ago, fattyflattie said:

    Why would that be.  We are the greatest country on earth.  You really have to fuck up to not make it here. 

    Uh, yeah.  Maybe you can explain to me which other taxes get refunded to some, but not others, depending ironically enough, on your lack of input?

    I'm not ignoring it.  It's the most discriminatory one.  I don't pay less sales tax than the guy next to me because he worth 20x as much.  We pay in the same, for the same service, otherwise known as "fair". 

     

    Cary Elwes Disney Plus GIF by Disney+

  3. 2 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

    Yes.  We all pay sales tax.  We all pay govt. fees.  I get to write a monthly property tax check larger than the entire months rent in the apartments zoned to the same fucking school.  And then a surprisingly low sect of our population get HEAVILY taxed even further.  For the same or in many times considerably less take?  Nahfuckthat.gif 

     

    Out of curiosity, have you ever looked at what the actual aggregate tax rates are?  Everyone is paying more than 20% towards taxes of some kind.  We clearly have a progressive tax policy, but the range really isn't that dramatic.  And I doubt the guy making $16K per year but paying $3200 in taxes feels like he's freeloading.

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  4. 5 hours ago, TurkeyChew said:

    Okay but that’s only part of it, keep playing the song out to the end of the tape, if you will.

    Now that person who benefitted has the ability to put $50k down to buy the starter house you wanted or to start the business that you had an idea for, but you’ve put your finite resource (money via income) into something that nobody else will have to so you don’t have the savings. Now they will have an exponential advantage on wealth building than you could ever have.

    I guess you can argue the experience and discomfort and struggling and pain of being young and paying off a massive amount of student loans has its own intrinsic reward of character (e.g what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, learned that sacrifices are hard, learned how to struggle with grace or stoicism, etc.), but it would be hard to not see how resentment and bitterness would have to exist in a normal, average human condition. That is why I think there should be some program or rebate or enablement for those in the last 20 or 30 years who can prove by documentation that they paid off student loans that would otherwise have been forgiven. And if you are in default or not current on student loans you aren’t eligible for forgiveness.

    Can you find yourself in this picture?  Reach out for help if you're stuck.

    Dan Roy on Twitter: "Careful mate... that foreigner wants your cookie!  #StandUpToRacism https://t.co/lM8dWIUMTl" / Twitter

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  5. Oh, there are many levels of wrong in that picture. Forget the concept of “bacon scraps” and how that’s a thing, or why anyone would put hardboiled eggs back in the carton let alone egg shells. And let’s forget the question of whether or not the egg shells were placed in the carton at the same time as the hardboiled eggs and why eggs might have been prepared two different ways at the same time, some not to be consumed. I want to know about the egg shells. Were two eggs cracked and only 3/4 of the shells saved? Or were three eggs cracked and only 1/2 of each shell saved?
    Okay, I can’t forget the whole “bacon scraps” thing. Go buy a package of bacon and fry the whole damn thing. I snack on more bacon than what is shown while I’m frying bacon and eat more with my eggs when it’s all done. Whatever’s left I keep in a plastic bag in the fridge and it can be heated up in the microwave in about 40 seconds. 
    Lots of questions here...I appreciate the curiosity.

    Per your request, I reexamined the eggshells. There are shells for 3 eggs, or 6 half shells. The shells are all nested so it just looks like 3 in the picture. I hope we can put that controversy to rest.

    Regarding the bacon, I can't recall what I was making a week or so back but it was some dish that needed chopped or crumbled bacon. Because I didn't need slices, I had grabbed a big pack of bacon odds and ends at the store. If you haven't looked, they sell all the bits that don't make nice slices in separate packages. Since most of our bacon is consumed chopped up in tacos, this works well and is cheaper.
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  6. The wife took the kids out of town this morning. I was looking forward to a quiet morning by myself. Made a pot of coffee and figured I'd fry up some bacon scraps with eggs. I get the bacon going in the pan and pull out the eggs to scramble... every egg had been hard boiled. Damnit. This may not seem egregious, but hard boiled eggs are not an every day occurrence in our house. When we do have them, they get labeled and put in the deli drawer. Not to mention that the wife wasn't going to be here this weekend and she's the boiled egg eater. And not to mention the nasty egg shells she had just left in the carton and put back in the fridge. I sent her this text this morning:
    Screenshot_20220122-092312.jpg

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  7. Have made several batches every year for ages now. Also introduced it to friends as well that love it. We’re thinking about cutting down the sugar content to see if it makes a meaningful difference in taste but reduces the overall sugar factor. May go with 3/4 lb on the next one to see.
    My wife and I were just discussing the same thing. I think you could easily reduce the sugar on Alton Brown's recipe and it will still be delicious.
  8. So, it's my "extended" family, sort-of.  The events occur last night.
    My GF has daughter that's married with two kids.   Nice family.  SIL ("John" for purposes of this post) is from Rancho Santa Fe...his folks have some dough. 
    So, John's Mom decides to take John, his wife, and his two kids to see a live production of "Grinch" at the Old Globe in San Diego.  For those that aren't familiar, The Old Globe is a pretty cool venue that does a ton of stuff that ends up on Broadway.
    Anyway, she springs for front-row seats.  Hires two limos.  One for John, wife, and kids, and another for herself and John's Dad.  John and family are about 35 miles N of the venue, so it's a fairly long limo ride.
    Each limo is stocked with nice champagne, shrimp cocktails, chocolates, etc. Everybody dressed in their Sunday best. 
    So they get there, arrange for the limo drivers to return at a set time, and go in.  But, they don't get in, because the $1600 worth of tickets that she bought are fakes, and it's a full house with no room anywhere.   
    John's mom is so upset...loses her shit, feels like an idiot, is crying, etc.  (She's a super-lovely woman, not crazy as far as I can tell).  Anyway, in her upset-ness, she slips on the wet sidewalk and faceplants.  911 is called, and she's taken away in an ambulance.  Ambulance won't let John's dad go because COVID, so they get an uber. Ambulance takes her to a ghetto ER full of homeless, stabbing victims, etc. 
    John's wife is calling the limo driver to get a ride back home and he's not answering. 
    Wife and kids have to get an expensive uber home, and John, once he sees that Mom is stable, catches another expensive uber home so he can get his car and come back to drive Mom and Dad home. 
    Mom has a concussion, and her face is bruised and bloodied.  Merry Christmas everyone!
     
    Just curious, but how did she buy the tickets?

    Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

  9. A few days ago we drove down to spend the week with my wife's family in Austin. Yesterday I'm doing some cooking when my phone rings and I see it's my dad (back in Dallas) calling. We have the following conversation:

    Dad: Have you been following our text thread with Mrs. Fuggled?
    Me: Nope, what's up?
    Dad: We're at your house, but can't find any kind of delivery notice for the package.
    Me: What package? Hang on. Hey, wife, what is my dad taking about?
    Wife: Well, I wanted Santa to leave a special tree for our daughter that she can put her own ornaments on, so I asked your parents to go over to our house to set it up. But I got a message that Amazon couldn't deliver the tree.
    Me: Is it a USPS delivery?
    Wife: Yes, why?
    Me: Because I put on a hold on our mail when we left like I told you 3 days ago. That thing isn't getting delivered.
    Wife: Well, maybe your dad can go to the post office and ask nicely if they'll give him our mail.
    Me (back on the phone): Dad, go home. Thanks for trying.


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  10. Sorry, it took me a while to eat and review this new fruitcake.  Fortunately, you're not missing too much if you don't get a chance to order one of these this year.

    Thanks to a gift from work, I was able to order a new variety of fruitcake from Goldbelly this year.  This one is a 3 pound cake from Eilenberger's Bakery in Palestine, TX.  I expected this East Texas offering to be about 20% more racist than other fruitcakes, but otherwise I had high hopes.

    Packaging & Storage
    The Eilenberger fruitcake came in a round, green tin with a turn of the century scene on the lid.  The design is nice, but the tin itself was thin and flimsy.  You can sort of see next to my beer can where the tin was dented in shipping.  So unfortunately, I'm not expecting to get much reuse out of the tin.  This fruitcake didn't come with much direction on storing it, but we learned as we ate it that it actually dried out fairly quickly once it was opened.  Finding a better way to store/seal it might have been helpful.

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    Appearance
    The top of this fruitcake is absolutely covered with nuts and fruit.  That's not surprising since the first 3 ingredients in the fruitcake are pineapple, pecans and cherries.  It definitely looks delicious inside the tin.

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    Taste Test
    As you'd expect based on the ingredient list, this cake is extremely heavy on the fruit.  So much fruit!  And lots of good sized chunks of nuts.  There's actually so much fruit that the cake can collapse a bit when slicing it, so chilling it might have been a good idea.  This cake has a really good flavor, definitely centered on the fruit.  It's not as dark and complex as Assumption Abbey, but it's not as super sweet as Collin Street.  It's somewhere in between those two.  There's definitely a cake texture to this one, which I prefer.  Because there is so much fruit, the cake tended to crumble a lot and the cake started drying out fairly quickly for some reason.  I was often left with a pile of cake-coated fruit that I was trying to scoop up with my fork (see the second photo below).  It didn't have the moisture to stick back together.  So, overall, the flavor was good but not very complex and there was more crumble than I'd prefer.  My wife really liked the flavor of this one.

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    This was a decent cake, but not my favorite so far.  This one was also quite a bit pricier at $72 (including $15 for shipping), as opposed to ~$37 for Assumption (including shipping).  Collin Street was about $37 last year.  As far as I can tell, Eilenberger only ships through Goldbelly, so there's probably a considerable markup in there.  It's definitely not good enough to justify being twice as expensive as these other fruitcakes.

  11. When we went a few years ago, we drove from Seattle to Vancouver then took a ferry to Galiano Island for a few days and another ferry from there to Victoria.  I think the ferry actually got into Swartz Bay and then we drove down to Victoria.  We had 2 kids (5 and 2) when we went, so factor that into any recommendations.

    On the drive down to Victoria, we stopped at Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse.  We really enjoyed that stop.  A little rough with the kids in tow, but great cider.  I think they hard a dozen varieties in a flight for us.  This might have been the only alcohol we brought home from the trip.

    I echo what everyone said about Butchart Gardens, it really was amazing.  There was also plenty to hold the kids attention.

    We stayed near the inner harbor, just across the street from the Empress hotel.  That whole area is easily walkable and there's lots to see.  The water taxis in the harbor put on a choreographed "ballet" with music that is worth watching.  The area around Thunderbird Park and the Royal BC Museum was nice.  There was a fish & chips stand a bit north of there on the water called Red Fish Blue Fish that was great.  We just liked exploring the area and somewhat accidentally strolled about a mile to a farmers market nearby called Moss Street Market.  We were pleasantly surprised that farmers markets in Canada can sell beer.  There was also a park and playground adjacent to the market for the kids. 

    Funny story, we were walking through Victoria Chinatown and randomly stumbled upon the Mexican heritage festival.  There were a dozen Mexicans in Victoria.  My Mexican wife whose family is mostly in Laredo and San Antonio thought this was hilarious.  We did score some tamales though.

    A bit out of the way is Fort Rodd Hill and the Fisgard Lighthouse.  I can't remember how we ended up here.  Must have just been out for a drive and killing some time (maybe trying to get the 2 year old to sleep).  Anyway, it's a nice park with a lot of exhibits of the fort and artillery that was active through WWII.

  12. On 11/29/2021 at 4:30 PM, Mo Horn said:

    I love fruitcake. I make my mother's recipe, and can't wait.

     

    On 11/29/2021 at 7:59 PM, Chewbacca said:

    My MIL makes a fantastic fruitcake. She sends us 2 every year. One is mine and one is for everyone else.

     

    On 12/2/2021 at 9:41 AM, CHIEF said:

    I have my maternal great grandmother's recipe. After she passed, it was always my father that made them. Now that he has passed, I guess I'm gonna have to take up that mantel. I absolutely love them. My Dad would alter the recipe to have a little more of the candied red cherries than other candied fruits. He would make about $2500 or so around Christmas time baking a bunch and selling them.

    CHIEF

     

    Would any of you be willing to share your recipes?  I've never tried making my own, but think I might want to give it a show someday.

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