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SurlyORama

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Posts posted by SurlyORama

  1. On 3/8/2019 at 5:48 PM, thrillhammer said:

    that store always seems to charge $10 more than the going rate at other stores.  not a gunthers fan.

    That's funny you say that. I have bought several bottles of ER there, and always paid around $30 (have also bought the 1.75s for $65). Then last weekend I stopped by to pick one up, and was shocked to see the $40 when it rang up. I still bought it because it's still a good value for that price to me, but I was surprised.

  2. 18 hours ago, tantric superman said:

    My conversation with the Walgreens checkout guy a few days ago, after he scans TP, Advil, toothpaste:

    "What are these?"  Lifts up one of four boxes of Bit o'Honeys (4x$1)

    "Oh, those are some real old school candies my wife likes."  (This is a lie.  I also like them.)

    "Oh.....You're Hispanic aren't you?"

    1920px-Bit-O-Honey-Bar.jpg

    (See also Squirrel Nut Zippers.)

    These things are crack. Every time I go back to visit my mom, she makes sure to have a big container full of the singles. I end up eating the whole damn thing.

    A couple of those with a cup of coffee? Yes, please.

  3. And the new trend for PP of contracting with restaurants to give you $xx in credit instead of having an actual partner "lounge" in some airports is something I really like.

    I guess I disagree here, but it may depend on the airport. I don’t like it when I have time to get a quick drink and/or snack, but it’s at one of the airports with the “$xx at a restaurant” deal, most of the time. Many times the place is crowded, so you’re waiting to be seated. The staff doesn’t really seem to relish the PP when it’s trotted out. And, since you can’t apply any of the credit to a top, you have to go out of pocket unless you are ok not tipping at all.

    It’s certainly better than nothing, but I prefer a regular lounge. Gift horses and all, I guess, since I get this for free with the CSR card.


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  4. AA is very stingy on letting you use their metal for TA flights. (Especially from DFW) The Golden Era of 2013 is long gone. 
    I'm confused on your wait list comment though. Is this a ticket you purchased that was upgraded or did you use miles? AA doesn't fly AUS-LHR so I figured that it was the former. Otherwise, you're going to get hit with the TATL BA fee. 


    Sorry I was unclear. Outbound is AUS->JFK->LHR. All AA flights.

    I purchased the Premium Economy, didn't use miles.


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  5. On 1/15/2019 at 11:01 AM, thunderlounge said:

     

    This is a tough one, and being flexible is going to be key. Just because there are open seats doesn't mean that you can use your SWU's. If there were a known pattern, everybody would do it.

    However, you do have options. Probably a lot more than you realize. Grab more coffee, this is going to get long.

    Before we start, for general reference, you want to fly when most business people aren't. Tuesday, Wednesday, maybe Saturday. Even that isn't a guarantee as DFW being THE AA hub, the "elite" saturation/competition is huge. So even on days when business travel isn't peak, you still have a lower shot of scoring with a SWU. Not impossible, but the odds are far from guaranteed. Especially going to London.

    <snip>

    Option 2: The half and half
    This may seem odd, but maybe not. Flying east is when having a lie-flat is most important. You want to get onboard, get settled, and pass out as soon as possible. That way you wake up ready to go. Coming back, you really want to stay awake as much as possible. You'll be tired as hell, but you'll crash out as soon as you hit your pillow, and then wake up back on track.

    That being the case, it's possible to fly in J going east, and the PE or Y coming back. You'll have to contact an agent directly to book it, but since you can't book that itinerary online they will waive the reservation fee.

    <snip>

    Option 3: Neither Main Cabin, nor Business
    Another option is to fly in PE (premium economy). PE is going to be akin to domestic first. Similar seat, slightly more recline. Meals are off the J menu, but selection is limited. Not lie-flats, but not completely small church (no ballroom) either.

    <snip>

    Um, if you're EXP, what's your mileage balance look like? You may be able to use miles for one ticket, then purchase another. Or apply miles to an AA Vacation package (IIRC). Have any Chase or AMEX points? Could use those on BA/BA Holiday.

    Just an update. Ended up booking Premium Economy, leaving on a Thursday, return on a Tuesday. Then called up Exec Plat desk, and surprisingly, got confirmed upgrade on the return trip from Madrid->DFW (still economy DFW->AUS, but exit row, etc., so fine, and I often get upgraded on that leg anyway just due to status.) I was really surprised, because NOTHING I could find (AA website OR ExpertFlyer.com) showed any availability, and I check every day. Waitlisted on AUS->LHR, hopefully it comes through, the rep seemed to indicate it wasn't hopeless.

    So, although at this point I'm still in Premium Economy going east, I did get an upgrade to business coming back west, which is the longest flight of the whole trip (11 hrs).

    Bonus: when I called and she confirmed the availability, I got her to change my original reservation from Premium Economy to regular-old economy, then apply the upgrade (still gets you to business.) Saved a quick $300 just for asking, which I thought was cool.

    On the last question, I had enough miles to book 2 RT in business, but only with MileSaaver fares, which limit your options. All of them involved BA flights and terrible schedules, and additionally they would have cost me something like $1300 in fees to book my "free" flights. That, the crappy times, and having to use all those miles, I just couldn't see my way to doing that.

    • Like 1
  6. Had chicken cacciatore at a tiny Italian restaurant last night in Scottsdale. I'm on the Slow Carb Diet (look it up, I think it's great, and both myself and a friend have had a great experience with it, lasting well over a year now because we find it so maintainable.)

    Went there with a college swimmer needing to eat pasta or similar, so was generally not expecting to find a lot of good choices. However, ingredient list for CC looked fine (chicken, red wine, tomato, mushrooms, etc.), so I gave it a try. Have never had it.

    I'd say it's the best SCD-compliant meal I've had in a restaurant. Could be I just had a good one and others may not be as nice, but I was pleasantly surprised.

    Google shows LOTS of low-carb chicken cacciatore recipes, so I'm going to give one a try in the near future.

  7. 9 hours ago, RMac5 said:

    Fuck all the name brand non-stick pans! I like their stainless pans but their non-sticks will not last. 

    Go to a restaurant supply and get a Vollrath for a fraction of the price and be done.

    Like I said earlier, the Vollrath's are a good value, and I had several of them over time. However, in my personal experience the non-stick does not last as long as the Calphalons. At least, the Calphalons that I have used. Plus, when they start to stick, you get to replace them for free. Not even a shipping charge.

    I always thought that restaurants must use the Vollraths for 6 months and then replace, since they are so reasonably priced. When pretty new, they are pretty amazingly non-sticky.

  8. 14 hours ago, woohorn said:

    1) Go to a restaurant supply/amazon and by this: Vollrath Z4010 Wear-Ever 10-Inch Non-Stick Fry Pan with Cool Handle, Aluminum, NSF

    315HbGtgcBL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

    2) watch yer dik fall off because of the non-stick coating

    3) ???

    4) profit

    I bought these for several years, and agree that these are great, great values.

    However, I switched over to Calphalon after I got a couple as gifts. Since getting them 7 or 8 years ago, once they begin to stick a bit, I take advantage of the lifetime warranty. Send them back and get brand new ones for free. Think I've done that once or twice on each of the pans.

    I don't abuse them, don't use metal spatulas, etc. But over time, if you use them enough (these are my daily go-to's), they eventually start to wear out.

    • Like 2
    • Drool 1
  9. 13 hours ago, Shaddie said:

    SurlyOrama

       I did 2 trips Dfw-Mia-Lhr last year. Saturday out Saturday back. Purposely routes thru MIA because 777w and a few more J seats. Don’t seem to sell as much J as DFW does. This was Sept and then Oct. Cleared outbound both times 1 week in advance. Cleared return 3-4 days out. 

    I guess other euro locations may be same thru Mia  

    If purchasing Premium Economy for return then J is not totally necessary to me. 

    Forgot to add Mia has flagship lounge. Very nice way to kill a few hours getting “medicined” up for using the lie flats. 

    Here's another example of where I don't know enough. When you say "cleared a week in advance", that means you did NOT see availability of SWU when booking, just booked economy (or premium economy), then called and REQUESTED a SWU? Or something else? Thanks for any info.

  10. I have AA Exec Plat status, but still a relative newby to making best use of it, and have never done so for something like I'm describing below.

    Trying to book flights for my wife and I for a trip to Europe in April. Need to fly outbound from Austin to London, then return from Madrid.

    I have 4 systemwide upgrades, and wondering how/when is best time to try and book flights so I can make use of them to go from economy to business. AA's booking site makes it a bit hard to find flights where the SU's are available. I signed up on ExpertFlyer.com and set up some alerts for upgrade availability on the dates I'm looking at.

    I guess I'm just unfamiliar with when/if use of the SU's will be possible? Taking my wife on her first trip to Europe, she's not comfortable on long flights, so getting into the business seats would be a big help. 

    Thanks for any insights or advice.

  11. 8 minutes ago, elfenix said:
    28 minutes ago, pops said:
    One tip is I rarely use the saute feature. Just can't put out enough heat to really brown any protiens. I always brown the meat on the stove then throw it in. Makes for a better end product. 

    Take the inner pot out and out it on the stove. Then you don't dirty 2 pots.

    I saw on Amazon where the support folks at the manufacturer say you shouldn't do that. Will it be ok? Maybe.

     

  12. 21 hours ago, Zepol87 said:

    Instant pot being delivered today. Better late than never. Can't wait to try it out

    Love this thing so much we now have two (a 6-quart and a 3-quart). My wife rolled her eyes when I first told her about it, but once we got it and she used it, it's now her favorite way to make meals. So much so, that we bought a Mini so that she could make two things at once (the small one quite often used for rice.)

    • Like 1
  13. 1 minute ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

    I was just pointing out that your statement was incorrect.

    Oops, I see your point. Looks like a max of 4 SEC teams scheduled 2 P5 opponents, not 1 as I said. I was confused because you didn't include the part of my post that was flat-out wrong. Sorry about that.

    Looks like 1 SEC school scheduled 0 P5, 9 scheduled 1, and 4 scheduled 2 (if you count Notre Dame and BYU).

    Regardless, I think the overall point that very few SEC schools play against 10 P5 schools is relevant. Their records are definitely better because of this. Additionally, overall the conference probably gets 6-7 fewer total losses by the fact that they only play 8 conference games, since most of those games are replaced by lower-tier opponents. 

  14. 5 minutes ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:


    SEC teams would have to play 2 P5 OOC to get to 10+, Big 12 only 1.

    And? It's because they only have 8 conference games. That's the point. 8 conference games allows them to pad their schedule with weaker opponents, inflating their records to support their desired narrative.

  15. 1 minute ago, sushihorn said:

    Expanded playoff doesn't solve the problem.  It just changes the level at which it applies.  A 3 loss SEC team with only 6 P5 wins will usually still be overrated and make it in at #7 or #8 over a 3 loss team from most other conferences with 7-8 P5 wins.

    Yeah, agreed. But that's why I said "at least" they can't push another conference champion out in favor of an SECSECSEC non-champion if they did this. A conference is free to schedule how they like, and determine their champion how they like, and that champion makes the playoff.

  16. 1 hour ago, Magus Ossis said:

    By that metric, while the B12 plays fewer G5 than the SEC does, Texas and Auburn are outliers. Everyone else in both conferences plays exactly one FCS.

    But only 4 (at max) SEC teams plays a P5 non-con opponent, while almost every team in the Big 12 does.

  17. No, the committee should exercise just the tiniest amount of critical thinking.  

    Or, and call me crazy, have a playoff system where P5 conference champions are automatically admitted. That way, conferences at least can’t use these tactics to game an extra team in over another champion.

    Just quit whining that “it’s a travesty if a 3-loss champion” gets in because they “don’t deserve to.” As above shows, one three loss record is not necessarily like another.


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    • Like 2
  18. 18 hours ago, Spur08 said:

    This doesn't mean much without comparison, correct?  What does it look like for the Big 12?

    Too lazy to find the original, and it's not the exact same stat, but a tweet from "Pick Six Previews" showed that the SEC non-conference schedule (all teams in the SEC combined) had four FCS opponents for every P5 opponent. So, a 4:1 ratio in favor of the weaker opponents.

    Big 12 was effectively a 1:1 ratio, and the B1G was 1:2. Cannot recall ACC or PAC, off the top of my head.

  19. 11 hours ago, Covri said:

    Hard boiled eggs and plain Greek yogurt are a good breakfast for those that like to eat on the go or at work. 

     

    Used to bring hard boiled eggs for lunch quite often. One day, had some guacamole and wondered "guacamole on eggs?"

    Game changer for me. Slice eggs in half lengthwise, slap a dollop of the green stuff on top. Salt, pepper if needed. Delicious.

    • Hook 'Em 1
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  20. In a playoff, what you are doing is crowning a champion of that playoff "tournament". You are not saying that the winner of that is necessarily the "best" team overall, only that they did what it takes to WIN THE PLAYOFF. That criteria is objective and fixed. There's no "eye test", it doesn't matter how bad you beat teams in the games, whether or not you have key injuries, or anything else that's subjective. That's the beauty of such a system.

    However, when you take that and corrupt it by having some SMALL committee of humans just decide who "deserves" to even have a chance to participate, when the criteria are unclear, not communicated, evaluated in secret, and seemingly change year to year, you've moved us into a system that, in my opinion, is worse than ANY of the prior systems. I'd take the BCS, or even the pre-BCS bowl system and national championships that were KNOWN to be opinion-based, over this bastardized disaster we've got now.

    Don't worry about a system that sometimes lets teams in that "don't deserve it", because "deserving it" is a garbage criteria for determining a champion. 

     

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