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orangecat92

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Everything posted by orangecat92

  1. How far is it center now? It was 400 back in the day?
  2. The idea of spring football is great, just stay in your lane and stick to the spring. Can you imagine the crowds that would fill up a San Antonio stadium? Should be 100% full. I would hope the owners would try to stay in cities that do not currently have NFL teams, which I believe is the idea. Wouldn't mind seeing what a few kids straight out of high school can do as well. I am thinking pre-season workouts would start right after bowl games, so the garden variety kid out of high school would have about seven months(June 1 to January 7 or so) to get himself in condition to go up against the bigger guys. Spring football might pay off for the kid. Imagine getting with a high-quality personal trainer, adding the necessary bulk in seven months, get paid to play in the spring, take the summer off, repeat process for the next year, get a raise and by that time is well known enough to have endorsements in San Antonio, then a third year and after that I think he would be old enough for the NFL? Something like that. Makes sense. Why not? Also would be financially mature enough to handle the NFL.
  3. fantastic forecast time? I say Texas is overall #3 seed, wins super-regional, comes in 2nd in Omaha. We have come in 2nd place many, many times. Sets up a hungry team for winning it all next year.
  4. 3 year veteran of teaching in the bush of Alaska, moving from one bush district to another. Much better paying, theoretically more organized, etc. New district is flush with cash, as are most districts in Alaska, decided to add two days to the front end of contract. Good extra money, but I have already made travel arrangements. They say they are starting at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday July 29th in the hub, the big city of Kotzebue; district office location. Original start date was Monday, August 2. I signed a contract that reads start date August 2. I have an American Flight on Monday July 26- nonstop from DFW to Anchorage, and two nights in a motel. Motel has walk-in freezer, which is why I chose the motel. I am bringing 90+ pounds of frozen food from Texas, because grocery prices are so much higher in northern Alaska than anywhere on the planet, it seems. I plan to shop for dry groceries in Anchorage for a while and leave ANC for the Kotzebue area on Wednesday morning. The district's website encourages big grocery hauls from far away, so I don't think they are trying to get us to spend bucks in Kotzebue. I think they genuinely want some team building to occur. Plus I think they are trying to spend the big bucks. Use it or lose it is my guess. If I were to stick to my plan I would not be able to make it to the 8:00 a.m. July 29th start time, because of air taxi schedules from the village to Kotzebue, but there is a local air taxi flight on July 29 that leaves my new village at 9:15 a.m. and arrives Kotzebue at 9:45 a.m. I could be at the district office by 10:00 a.m. easily, assuming the flight is on time. Now, when we say 8:00 a.m. in Alaska, that means the real starting time is probably more like 8:30 a.m. Obviously I am still in the "honeymoon phase" in my relationship with the boss. I don't want to be that guy who is late for the first meeting and/if the reason is not communicated correctly to the office staff, I would be going down the wrong road fast with the district office people. I have found out that kissing ass to the main office is very important in Alaska. Options are: 1. call the boss and ask to arrive at 10:00 a.m. on July 29, risk possible kiss ass relationship with district office people. 2. Leave DFW a day earlier-bad-just checked- no decent flights, especially carrying the frozen food. 3. Spend only one night in Anchorage, and leave as late as possible Tuesday, 3:35 p.m. flight. I would have to hit the ground running, get the rent-a-car at 7:30 p.m. in Anchorage Monday and turn in back at airport Tuesday about 1:30 p.m. Minor negative, the groceries would only get one night in the walk-in-freezer. I prefer those groceries hard as a rock. It's never easy with me.
  5. Late to the baseball party. Are we going about 45-10 and winning the conference? Should be good enough for a top 4 seed. Is this about right or a shade optimistic?
  6. Family. Flying anchorage nonstop to dfw to stay with sister-in-law, then visiting parents for 2 weeks at RR. Then late July flying to anchorage, to kotzebue, to selawik. Get to leave the wife behind with her sister in Euless. She decided 30 degrees below 0 was too cold.
  7. In Alaska, had shot number 2 done in Feb. Visiting Texas this summer. What am I looking at wrt stores, restaurants? Is mask wearing optional, or did stores all give in and have sign posted? I like the shield only. Will mostly be visiting Round Rock and Euless.
  8. Solar charger for phone sounds like a winner. I was also looking at generators and found a comment, similar to comments here, about don't use gas infused with ethanol. It seems the only sure way to have a reliable generator is to get one powered by propane, which evidently can sit for 12 years. So, the next steps are to: 1. Find a space heater that only uses 800 watts or so. 2. Find inverter generator powered by propane. 3. find solar charger for phone. If I can accomplish number 1, I think I can look for a generator that uses about 3000 watts, maybe even 2500. Don't know anything about propane. It would seem to me that the smaller the engine the better the economy, wrt how long the propane lasts.
  9. thanks, that explains the popularity of Mr. Heater, powered by propane. Buying a Mr. Heater with propane that never goes bad(12 years I guess) puts the above generator in good shape. I wouldn't want to start up a frig. and a freezer at the same time. I would think I would be smart enough to start them 30 minutes apart. I think that is far enough apart. Buying a Mr. Heater this summer sounds like a good idea.
  10. Am looking to power chest freezer, refrig., heater, a lamp, and a cell phone. Maybe give the freezer a break and power the oven. Freezers can do fine for 8+ hours w/no power if not opened. I understand the chest freezer requires 850 watts to start. Is this sufficient? Don't want to buy too much generator. https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200788692_200788692
  11. speaking of no planning, I talked to my Navy son today, asked if Hawaii is open, and he said you don't have to quarantine if you have a negative test. (we're both vaccinated) Poor kid, single, 24, and stationed in Hawaii. Boom! a couple of hours later I am booked, using miles to get there and some wallet funds in Alaska Airlines to leave HNL to arrive in DFW. I am crashing at his apartment. I haven't been to Hawaii since 1988. Did all the touristy stuff then, so not particularly interested. Just want to stick my toes in the Pacific again and spend some time with him. Would like to take him out to a really nice meal. Any ideas? Trip isn't until late June.
  12. % of population with graduate degree........................Austin Msa. 16%.....McKinney.....15% %. of population with at least bachelors degree Austin.........46.........McKinney.....47 nearly identical
  13. Just found this thread and am in total agreement about education. One place I am very familiar with has a great amount of competition in the pre-K-12 education. That is McKinney. My wife and brand new baby moved to Sherman, which is 35 miles north of McKinney, in 1996. Mckinney was nothing, probably 34,000 people. Three years later we found ourselves with another baby and we moved to McKinney. I couldn’t stand the wasted dollars on extra counselors, admin. 70 million $ football stadium, etc. in the ISD. I was so happy to move to Alaska, but the reality is the number one factor in the excessive spending was competition from Frisco ISD. Sometime since I left in 18 Mckinney topped 200,000 residents. McKinney has a whole bunch of land still to be developed. Frisco has all of the pro sports you could want, right next to McKinney, and between the two districts, you have more than enough college and career ready young people.
  14. McKinney air conditioning story. Put the house up for sale in 2018. July open house scheduled, and high temp that day in McKinney was 107. The old unit held up very well. I set the temp at 76, and when I arrived back at home the temp showed 78. That old outside unit was the bomb! Original outside unit from 2001. Inside unit was from about 2008 or so.
  15. yes, but didn't the state pass a law that increased the homestead exemption to 30k? When I look at realtor.com and see real estate below 30k, I expect to see $0 for their estimate of property taxes and I don't. Maybe realtor.com assumes people who own that property are always investors?
  16. I don't know, but here is a strategy I employed that helped my tax situation. I did not escrow my property taxes. I would choose a year in which I wanted to hit more than the standard deduction and that year I would pay property taxes in both January and December of the same calendar year. Remember, even though the tax man says the property taxes are due Dec. 31, there is no late penalty until Feb. 1. So, you simply double up paying property taxes every other year, and just like that you have plenty of deductions in that year.
  17. gonna look close in hindsight. No chance for a six?
  18. Just hit zillow on the home my parents built in 1971 - paid about 35k. My dad remodeled within a couple of years, turned half of the garage into an additional living area to accommodate a new sibling. 2500 s. f. Zillow says it is worth $760,000! Wow!
  19. I am on a hit list for the IRS. All because of a couple of smart moves to relate: 1. I found the MCC one year while doing my taxes living in an apartment. The Mortgage Credit Certificate gave us a 40% per year tax credit. That is 40% of the interest on the mortgage was a credit on the income taxes, up to a maximum of $2000 per year. So, in 15 years, we benefited to the tune of about $30,000 in tax credits. 2. I worked for the state of Texas years ago, from 86-92, pulled the ERS money out when I left, rolled into an IRA. Made big bucks in the roaring 90s in the IRA, then watched it all crash down and build back up until about 2012, when I decided to buy back my time with IRA money. Good decision, because the time will go with my time as a teacher to build up a pension. I knew before I did this the IRS would have a problem, so I called them, made sure I was executing the buy correctly, asked the IRS agent's name and employee number, and sent myself an email with the info. Sure enough! About 8 months later, got a letter asking me to explain the purchase of service credit, I found the email, filled out the form in about 30 minutes or less, sent it off, bam! They waived the white flag. I get a letter from the IRS about once every other year. It's not always bad news. Last year they wrote me to tell me they owed me interest on my refund because they took so long to process my return, thus more income for me. This year, they wrote asking me to use E-file instead of my method, and asked me where I got that $250 deduction.-educational expenses. Yes, they are concerned about a $250 deduction because a high percentage of teachers at my school received a letter from the IRS, presumably because of the same issue. I find it more entertaining than anything, that somebody is earning his/her brownie points with their boss by taking on Orangecat every other year.
  20. When is the big correction? I have read so many articles that warn of the big correction, and now am playing the waiting game. One alternative theory I read was that the stimulus would put off a correction until closer to the fall.
  21. We’re gonna find out how good few is in about 4 minutes of game time. Keep up the foul calls, deficit down to 4, and then let’s have a great last 16 minutes.
  22. It’s the year of the dog...first all of the political b. S. In Georgia, and now Gonzaga is gonna whoop that bear ass. gonzaga by 12.
  23. Agree with this, but I go further. I was in 7th grade when the “super drum” opened. People wanted to see what it was like. Few people cared about the team’s record. Not saying it was a sellout, but the curiosity factor was huge. It should be the same for Moody. Any kind of winning record the first year and we should easily get 10k in year 2 and forward. What is max? 11k?
  24. Here is what I want to know. What is the highest shooting % by one team in a final four game? I think nova is number 1 at 79. What is the top 10 list? Also what defensive ranking did they do it against? Georgetown was the best d, but statistically speaking might have been as low as 10, imo. For those who look down on the pre-shot clock era, this nova-gtown game was in the 60s, a far cry from a 39-38 slowdown game we lost one year. Memory tells me that game was in the SWC tourney.....aggy?
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