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thunderlounge

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by thunderlounge

  1. 3 hours ago, TexasEd said:

    My goal is to get my family (5 or 6 of us) to Europe and save money or improve the travel conditions for the parents.  Kids can fly coach.

     

    Last I saw, a r/t business award on AA was at least 200k miles.

     

    3 hours ago, TexasEd said:

    So if no amount of Chase "miles" or points is going to get me a good deal then so I just find the best cash back card.

     

    Chase points can be transferred to BA, and I think AA. I haven't looked in a while.

    I run everything through BA, and have it way better on AA than if I ran it all through AA.

    The BA site will let you use cash + miles, and pick how much of each. 

     

    3 hours ago, TexasEd said:

    I have an American Citi-Advantage card and about 38,000 miles in my account now which is good for one coach round trip in May 2026. Am I better off trying to build up enough miles for a couple tickets (5 or 6 people traveling) or to get enough to upgrade my wife and I to better seats?

     

     

    You might get enough for a couple of tickets. But remember, you also have to be able to find the space available to use them. That's the hardest part. Not to mention that if you do find a few award seats, now you're forced to that itinerary with the award tickets and those seats may very well be a good bit higher than other flight options.

     

     

    3 hours ago, TexasEd said:

    I have some time and plenty of credit card expenses to earn points but just need to figure it out.  We could get my wife another AAdvantage card which comes with 50,000 points, no annual fee the first year.

     

    If going the credit card route, I'd look into something like this:
    Get a sappire preferred from Chase, both you and your wife separately.

    Then look at the British Airways card, once again getting one each, separately.

    Once the bonuses clear, wait for a promotion where you get more miles when you transfer to BA. Then move your points from Chase to BA.

    Also note that you can set up a family pool with your BA points. So you and your wife would be in it, and pool your points together.

     

     

    • Hook 'Em 1
  2. To be flat honest, you may want to consider just getting your tickets outright, or go through BA (fly AA metal, if preferred), and use some points to upgrade. 

    Of course you would have to have a BA account, and transfer points from chase to BA.  Chase will have “sales” from time to time, where you get a better transfer rate.

    I say this as finding award flights, in the class you want, with anything close to acceptable scheduling, is an absolute bitch.

    Also beware there are sometimes “surge” prices with miles as well.

    It isn’t the easy game it once was, and redemption is absolutely more difficult. 

  3. 4 hours ago, Js1 said:

    I'm pretty sure it's been known for years and years that Paramount was not doing well 

     

    Sure, they all are to one extent or another.

    Just wondering the details. 

  4. 5 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

    Weather related.

    There was a ground stop at LAS yesterday.   High winds.

     

    I figured it had to be something like that. There wasn’t anything on the radar, go figure being in the desert, so figured it had to  be wind or heat related issues.

     

     

    4 hours ago, royiv said:

    That’s an odd diversion when PHX is just down the road.

     

    Not really. Probably the closest runway that could accommodate the aircraft and crew, while passengers were ferried up to Vegas by bus or another plane. Using a couple three charter buses would probably be quicker anyway, unless they could have got another plane and or crew to go up. Logistics of those pretty much suck, but at least PHX is close, and a hub. 

  5. 6 hours ago, UTPhil2006 said:

    @JohnnyM and our team dabbled in creating a title company. Maybe @Dbeasy too. But the only way we would do it would be to take the aforementioned above title lady and her team. I gotta think it's a relatively easy job outside of the actual lawyer behind it, but you're fighting for loans just like any other LO/realtor 

     

    Certainly would be interesting, and help the mortgage side out too 

    Also, I’m sure you could make them an offer they wouldn’t be wise to refuse.

     

     

    6 hours ago, hornian said:

    I'm your huckleberry. Seriously, I want to get into the title company game, and I have lawyers to throw at it. 

    Lunch date soon? You're buying. 

     

    Or, um, some clients buying, right? 😂

  6. 3 hours ago, Celery Man said:

    I mean wtf if you’re actually working 14 hour days regularly.

     

    Pretty much, yeah. Granted, not straight through usually, I tend to take a few minutes here and there to throw clothes in the washer, pull clothes from the dryer and maybe fold or usually make them ready to fold across another break or two.  But overall, yeah. Been that way for about 6 months, and will probably last another year before I’m situated enough with putting band-aids on one app that was contracted out (that’s shit, and we’re just trying to get working as best we can, just to get off the legacy app); a new app that I’m writing from scratch to replace the contracted pile of shit (which is slow going until we have all the business logic sorted and correct, because right now it’s beyond fucked up), plus having to keep up with legacy, although that is mostly fixes and not new work (thankfully!)

    When I kicked the hours up a bit in  mid January, it was for a trade show a couple months ago. It just carried over with so much on my plate.

     

    3 hours ago, Celery Man said:

    You said above that you started at 235. That’s awesome. It’s going to suck tomorrow when you inevitably bounce above 200 again (because that’s how it goes every time you hit an imaginary threshold) but sliding under 200 is awesome.

     

     

    I’m not tied to a specific weight either, just a range. I’ll get there eventually. 

     

     

    3 hours ago, Celery Man said:

    My wife takes care of dinner, so that’s my hack. But, I am happy to eat a small number of things pretty frequently and that works well for me to stay in a calorie range.

     

    My wife isn’t much for cooking overall. She does a very few things that work, the rest… not so much. Not that there’s much beyond her couple three things.

    I wouldn’t ask her to follow a recipe, mainly because of interpretation and how you just know things when you cook a lot. Like substitutions, cooking something a different way, etc.

     

  7. 2 hours ago, Mittens said:

    A friend suggested MyNetDiary as a tracking app and it was perfect for me as far as being able to add both prepackaged food (barcode scan), homemade (90% of what I'm eating today, saving custom recipes/meals, etc.

     

    This is my nemesis, mainly due to my work “schedule” which is pretty much 7:30-8:00 to 9, 10, 11 at night.

    Was doing hello fresh for a good while, but got to the point it was just backing up in the fridge.

    So I try to make 2-3 big meals a week, so there are leftovers for a day or two. Then 2-3x/week we get takeout from a real restaurant.

    I fluctuate a bit, sometimes more than others.

    I guess my real question is whether something like hello fresh is a good alternative? I’ve got a shitload of recipe cards from them, and could now just get the stuff to make things from there.

    I guess that’s ok, health-wise?

  8. 3 hours ago, Js1 said:

    They shouldn’t have signed a huge contract with a company that’s a financial mess. The finances are so bad, they just paid out the wazoo to curry favor with Trump and get a merger with Sky Dance approved (lol he got his money, they’re gonna be left in the wind)

     

    Were they already in talks before p+ was really fucking up?

    As careful as Trey/Matt have been with their IP, I’d be surprised if they went into negotiations in  the current state of p+, unless there were clauses in their current/previous one that gave p+ a bargaining window?

     

  9. 2 hours ago, WBT said:

    DVD box sets or gtfo!

     

    My wife insisted on getting every season of Supernatural on……

     

    DVD. 

     

    Not bluray, not 4k-bluray… D. V. Fucking. D. 

     

    What a waste of money. (On the format, not the show.)

     

  10. 3 hours ago, Red Five said:

    Watching all of their constant emotional rollercoasters that take place over 28 minute episodes is exhausting. How have all these people survived this long.

     

    You sure you weren’t on facebook?

    • Like 1
  11. Skenes getting chewed on a bit by the cards. At the mid-70's mark in pitch count (Pallante just finished the bottom of the 4th at 52, for reference), with 5 hits on him so far. Still in a stalemate at 0-0 though, so hanging in there. 

  12. 16 minutes ago, 'stache said:

    They lost that status last season when they only had 2 members and I don't think they'll get it back based on the new additions. So as it sits they are not part of the autonomous (i.e. power) conferences and I doubt they would even try to regain that status.

     

    Right, but that’s everyone else's perspective. I’m just wondering what the pac thinks. I’m guessing they know their place. 

  13. Kinda torn on that one.

    Part of me digs it. Hella little show off there.

    The other part is freaking out because it’s on a major freeway, and one little slip or oopsie could fuck a lot of people over.

    Come down too soon and shits now zooming down the highway at traffic, or he wipes out and severely injures or kills someone or himself. 

    Would have rather seen that on a deserted highway, so the only real issue (provided it wasn’t dry AF) was hurting himself and nobody else. 

  14. 1 hour ago, Drew said:

    This looks amazing, and is exactly why the Cowboys are a media IP more than a Football Team.

     

    Agreed, at this time. It’s all Jerry has to hold onto right now.

    From a business side, he’s raking it in. Football side, not so much.

    I just can’t wrap my head around that being ok as the status quo, when also being better at the actual product would make so much more.

    Sad state of affairs, but maybe he really doesn’t care as much about that as he does just working with his kids and family.

    We’ll never really know, but y’all get props for sticking it out. 

  15. 40 minutes ago, PvilleStang said:

    Some?  Why not all the sheep?

     

    Well, it’s kind of like how you manage a bullpen in baseball. They gotta keep the flock overall ready, and rotate to maintain balance and productivity. 

     

     

    35 minutes ago, TexArcher said:

    And what does Tuesday have to do with it?

     

    They only fuck sheep on days that end in with the letter “y.”

     

  16. When I was buying my first house the title company called me about 30 minutes before closing saying I needed to bring $6500 with me to closing. I was floored, as the day before it was confirmed (for the 3rd time) that I was in the clear at closing.

    Well shit, 22 year old me was in a frantic moment. I couldn’t just shit that out on top of the down payment of $12k I was already nutting.

    So I’m scrambling like a chicken with its head cut off for about 5 minutes, freaking the fuck out and thinking this was going to fuck the deal up.

    Then they called back, and profusely apologized, as they read it wrong. The seller owed $6500 for their closing costs, not me. I was actually getting a check for $4500, as I took the allowances at closing instead of applying them to the note.

    Other times, I’ve had wonderful title companies. Bend over backwards to make things happen.

    Guess once you find a good one, stick with them if you can. 

  17. 1 minute ago, nnm said:

    One million percent.  It will absolutely address that.  It has profoundly changed my life, made it possible for me to lift again, do regular outdoor work (chainsawing, moving heavy stuff, etc.).

     

    Guess we all had the same thoughts at once.

    I agree, it’s helped me considerably. Some things I have to take frequent breaks during, and sometimes the break times have to be longer than the work times, but it gets done.

    Weed whacker, chainsaw, stuff like that triggers my back. So small doses.

    Back a bit over 20 years ago I had to stop playing golf. Just couldn’t do it. Was 10 or 11 holes into a round with a couple buddies and had to cut back to approach and putts the rest of the round. Fast forward from that in 2003/2004, to 2011. On a work trip, we do an outing. “Hey, lets go over to Top Golf.”

    Oh boy, I was resigned to be an onlooker and stuck with giant jenga or the likes. We get there, and a couple guys convinced me to get stretched out real good, ease into it, and see what happens.

    Well, fuck, “rental” clubs and all. So I get stretched out, even with a tick of help. Never had a problem that night, and I hit a LOT of balls. Never flinched, tightened up, nothing. Granted I wasn’t bombing anything and was a good bit conservative, but it wasn’t a thing. I figured it was a fluke.

    Next morning, felt great. 

    Got home a few days later and went over to the driving range. The wife looked at me like I was nuts. Also had that slight bit of “I hope this doesn’t pan out” look on her face.

    Well, a large bucket later and I was ok. So I hit a medium bucket too. Same deal as before, maybe 70%-80% swings, just letting it flow.

    I was good when I got home, and that evening, and the next day.

    After that I worked with a local coach 5 or 6 times to slightly tweak my swing to relieve a little torque on my back, and I was back to playing a few rounds a month. Not every weekend, and the last few years have taken the hottest part of the summer with a big slowdown, but that’s ok.

    Point of all that typing, sorry about that by the way, is that I had been stretching during the first off time. It caught up at some point, and I eventually found I could do some things in moderation and with minor adjustments that I couldn’t have done a few years before.

    Am I like I used to be before my back issues? Well, no. However I am at least a lot more functional than I was, and a lot of that is from stretching.

    I also use resistance bands to stretch with a few times a week as well. Basic stuff, mostly core type stretches and movements.

    You can still have a life with it, but it looks a little different than it used to. That’s ok though. I can still do things I need to do, maybe it takes longer, but still can do it.

    I’ve mentioned most of this before, but I also do regular chriopractor (methodical/precision type, not the rack em/crack em type) and massage therapy.

    Between those 3 things, it’s kept me off the drugs and away from the knife. 

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