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dcbc

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by dcbc

  1. The person doesn't even need to be that rich or powerful. Back when I was in private practice, my boss got the owner of a middling, unbranded-gasoline distribution company to admit to participating in a price-fixing scheme during her deposition. He kept dancing around asking the question because you don't want to let them answer "No" necessarily. But he had his Gessup moment and finally flat out asked her, "Did you participate in price-fixing scheme." She looked at him and answered, "Yes." No. Further. Questions. He wasn't even a very good lawyer.
  2. Even so, to quote Willie, I remember when a dime bag cost a dime. It hurts my soul to pay $2.49 for that 59-cent bean burrito. That thing is outpacing inflation assuming the former price was around 1995 or so. And don't tell me labor cost on that item. I've seen that squirt gun.
  3. That deescalated quickly.
  4. That's what I said about Taco Bell above. Even if these restaurants weren't all less mediocre than before, now they want to charge us a pair of Lincolns for the privilege. Nah.
  5. $.59 Bean Burrito with some fire sauce was the definition of the gift that kept on giving.
  6. $7? Get outta here! But in all seriousness, "cheap" generally was the wrong word. Not as cheap would have been a better description. On average, the cost has increased by around 81% over the last six years with some items increasing by as much as 132%. So when the nearby mom & pop will sell me some bangin' tacos for under $6, I've just been less likely to run through Taco Bell for their variation of the same. That's not to say I won't hit up Taco Bell or that I think that it hasn't maintained what it always was way better than a lot of fast food places out there (looking at you, Wendy's).
  7. Username checks out.
  8. Good point. With that in mind, I should have gone in dry like so many in-laws' turkeys.
  9. Do you foreplay?
  10. They used to have these "Market Fresh" sandwiches that were something you might expect to get at Panera (of that time period) or Corner Bakery. Really solid. So, of course, they discontinued them.
  11. So my mom has Parkinson's and is in assisted living. For the last three or so years, we have reserved out the clubhouse at her facility and brought Thanksgiving to her. It's a nice space with a full kitchen, and it's easier on her. My sister called to reserve it in October, and someone beat us to the punch this year. "No problem," I say, "We live ten minutes away. One of us can pick her up and driver her over for Thanksgiving lunch and take her back afterward." I mention this to my mom, who, in this late stage of the game, is pretty irrational and fearful of going anywhere but the hair salon, and she basically clams up but makes it pretty clear that she doesn't want to do this. I talk to my sister about it, and she is fine with everyone coming to our house, but after getting the same reaction from my mom, suggests some alternatives like doing it on Friday or having it in my mom's tiny apartment. I quickly suggest that my older son might be going back to Austin for the UT/aggy game and Thursday at our place (since a lot of my wife's family might like to join us too) really is our only option. I tell her I'll handle getting my mom to be more agreeable. And so, a grown ass man and professional, I create a fall-themed, Thanksgiving lunch invitation with some form in MS Word and email it to my mom. After a few days of processing, she agrees. I was over there the other day, and she has it in a plastic sheet protector. Mission accomplished. So for this year, I've managed to simplify things. We're cooking turkey, dressing, mash potatoes, and gravy. All other sides and rolls, etc. have been farmed out appropriately. My niece is making a pie and anyone else can bring whatever the hell they want. I also recently bought a warming oven (and my wife bought my a stainless table to put it on so I don't burn down the garage/house). So timing the dressing and potatoes is less crucial and, instead of cooking the turkey on the WSM, I get to break out the offset and tend fire drink Bloody Marys on Thanksgiving morning. As some of you may have seen in the Thanksgiving-Day Spread thread, I have harvested a stunt turkey for drippings and veg for the gravy and made a crap-ton of brown stock. This weekend, I will make bread, cornbread, and biscuits to freeze/stale to use for the dressing. I'll prep the dressing and gravy the night before and cut up all the gumbo veg and make a roux to make that process easier when it's Turkey Gumbo time. I'm looking forward to a less scheduled/hectic Thanksgiving morning. But that's sure to change.
  12. After about eight hours, I had nearly 4 gallons of stock. I think I'm good for a while. My house will smell amazing for a week.
  13. I'd like to draw the curtains on that memory.
  14. I won't speak to others' food-snobbery, but I'd probably pick up any one of those on a road trip if those were my only quick options. But food snobbery aside, in any medium sized city, there always is a quick-but-much-better option for BBQ sandwich, gyro, enchiladas, or WP-tacos. That's not to say I don't have nostalgia for some of those food-orders (although as good as the enchirito might be, I don't recall ever ordering anything at T-Bell that required plastic ware). Maybe it's because, for example, Taco Bell isn't dirt-cheap anymore, and I have about half-a-dozen very good taco joints withing a few minutes of most Taco Bells around here. I am intrigued by that Arby's Gyro, but the last time I was in an Arby's was an overwhelmingly depressing experience.
  15. I came across that "perpendicular to the VHF signal source" thing on some long-ago post on the AVS Forum. I was thinking, no way such a minor adjustment does the trick, but damned if it didn't.
  16. Thanks, but see my post (#971) above. I got it figured out. I already had a preamp. Our roofers knocked our antenna off axis. I tried to re-aim it by memory the other day (had it pointed toward a majority of the UHF antennas), but I was off as far as getting ABC goes (ABC is 20 miles in the opposite direction for us and is VHF).. For our setup, ABC is the tough one to pick up, or so I thought. By setting the VHF arms of the combo, omnidirectional/VHF antenna perpendicular to the tower location it came in clear as a bell (5 green bars) with the help of the preamp. Without that pream, I get maybe one channel no matter which direction the antenna is pointed. Now I just need to source a cheap USB hard drive to set the DVR back up on my Tablo box.
  17. Indeed, they do. But only if you go inside. See Brisket's post above about the drive-thru.
  18. We're talking I rotated the antenna 15 degrees and it went from unwatchably pixilated to perfect reception. And I'm dealing with a relative low elevation with lots of hills and a ton of trees between me and that tower.
  19. So some potentially helpful advice for anyone who is picking up ABC (VHF) but only at yellow-bar level. If you have an omnidirectional antenna (figure-8) with straight VHF antennae (rabbit ears) horizontally on either side, you want the you want the VHF antennae positioned perpendicular in direction with regard to the VHF tower's location. I'm still shortening my cable run, but even before that, doing this took me from yellow to full green bars and perfect reception of ABC. Stay thirsty, friends.
  20. Here we go!
  21. Civil Service, to be sure.
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