MattPie

The cargo area in my Sienna appears to be 4x8' when you remove/fold all the seats. I haven't tried it yet, but I'll take an enclosed space that can also haul people over a truck bed most days. Prior to this, at least one of my cars has had a hitch. I can rent a 4x8' trailer for like $15/day (at most!) and haul a half a ton for the few times a year I need to. The Sienna will tow 3500lbs, so I could bring a lot of drywall home if I need to.

I just bought laptop a couple weeks ago that my wife hasn't really put time into So I'm going to go for it. I dislike Windows 8 as well, although I expect to spend a fair amount of time turning off all the Microsoft Spyware that's included in 10 (even more than 8!). I'm rather annoyed with the laptop purchase; as my wife put it, "I doesn't feel like much of an upgrade" and I have to agree. That's pretty damning considering the upgrade is from a 7 year old Sony running hand-installed Windows 7. It seems like the drive is really slow, so I'd be upgrading the disk to SSD if we were keeping it. I tried to warn my wife that buying low-end hardware would be a disappointment, but...

Double standards are a fact of life. As a white male I'm already ahead in the game so it's easy to shrug off the ones that are negative to me; I just let it go.

Ha, nice! For some reason, I *never* cook burgers in a pan. I have started to use fattier beef for burgers though (down from 93/7) and that's made a big difference in how much they shrink up. I have done the cast-iron skillet steak method, which did turn out well.

You are correct, from the numbers posted above, blacks are arrested for more crime per population. But you're missing the real point: once you get to arrested you're far more likely to to be convicted and incarcerated if you're black than if you're white. Unless you believe that there's a grand scheme to arrest white people on weak evidence and not convict them, you have to admit it's fishy. And this doesn't even go into whether blacks are arrested more often on the same strength of evidence.

Exactly. Fishing just muddies up the experience on relaxing in nature. It's like golf as a walk outside or a hike. Maybe, but you can better appreciate your surroundings when you're not distracted.

It's interesting that everyone considers Jack Eichel to be better than Reinhart *today*. I think long term that'll prove to be true, but today there's no reason Reinhart with the extra year of experience shouldn't be #2 (O'Reilly #1) and Eichel starting at #3 or wing to ease into the NHL.

Fox news headline: Obama coming to take away your Pickup http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/business/Fiat-Chrysler-to-Buy-Back-300000-Pickups-Source-318586841.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_PHBrand (I kid, I kid) The anti-PC crowd seems to lose two common concepts: being polite in society is a positive thing; you're free to antagonize people all you like but don't start crying when someone calls you on it. The other is "taking the high road"; how often do you hear "but they do it too!" as an argument? That didn't fly when you wanted to go jump off a bridge with the neighborhood kids and it doesn't fly now. (Please note this isn't direct at you personally, Mr. 5-0, just in general)

http://www.bonappetit.com/drinks/beer/article/beer-drinking-kids My wife just posted this on my Facebook thingy, Other than the travel aspect, this is very much MrsPie and I's style when it comes to beer and baby. I'd never take RosePie to some place like the Continental (RIP) or Coles, but in the afternoon or early evening for food I see no issue. Also, Asheville Brewing is mentioned as being particularly kid-friendly. We've been jokingly doing "Wes' Virtual Baby Pub Crawl" for a few months now. Wes and I once walked into a very divey-towny bar and saw a baby to which he said, "Who brings a baby to a bar?" We post pictures of RosePie at finer bars on a regular basis with that caption. We take Rose on pub crawls because she can't pub walk yet. Divey bar in question, Toots, the home of Bluegrass: http://www.yelp.com/biz/toots-bar-hollywood

To be fair, Murray and Brandon aren't very popular first names these days so maybe it's time that people accept them as legitimate last names.

I love Asheville. I spent a couple days there on a motorcycle wander a few years ago. I rode into town with no plan[0] and stumbled onto ABC. I asked the bartender if he knew of any cheap hotels or campgrounds, and he pointed me to a hotel right on the main strip for $70/night. The next two days and nights were: wake up, ride all day, and drink great beer at night. Man, now I want to go back. [0] I didn't plan anything on that 7-day trip, just ride until I get tired and find a place to set up my tent or a room. It was *awesome*.

In the past it was called "being polite", so not that hard.

The cold fusion part is just used to power the jump starter and A/C.

If I recall, Asheville Brewing Co. had a large covered outdoor space too, but in a city cement patio format. That's the on near downtown, apparently there are 3 now.

Agreed on the starter fluid and/or "match light" impregnated briquettes, they taste a little funky to me too. Gas/propane vs charcoal: I love charcoal. I love the process. I must be doing something wrong if it only takes 10 minutes to start with a chimney for you guys, it's more like 20-30 minutes between walking out into the garage and having a surface I can cook on. Nonetheless, a friend of my wife gave us a small propane grill and I cook far more often on that then I ever did on the charcoal. I've only used the charcoal a couple times since when making paella. I go out to the garage and light the propane grill, by time I go back inside and unwrap whatever I'm cooking and come back out it's ready to go.

I'd guess the Unions are on-board, but I'd bet on the insurance companies pushing it. Commercial driving insurance is bound to be more than a normal personal policy (which generally includes language about using your personal vehicle for livery use and "not covered" in the same sentence).

Southern Tier is similar on a smaller scale. Indoor/outdoor space, pic-i-nic tables and grass to spread out on, which is big thing for me these days so I can let RosePie crawl around.

Good post, and I think your assumptions are pretty reasonable. It'd be fun to come back in April and see how close these numbers turn out.

They're just getting back to their roots by showing ridiculous stuff late at night. :) Speaking of which, how does World's Strongest Man fit into this? Magnus Ver Magnusson is the man!

Given the course of this conversation, I feel the need to post something.

Heh, that's a Southern Maryland trick. There's no beer, wine, or liquor sales in grocery stores, but some stores will have a store next door as it's own business, sometimes with an interior door between the two. There's one that has the liquor store inside the grocery store just roped off with a separate register.

I think the extreme crime and poverty has an effect in those two places. If the model works for everywhere there isn't massive poverty you shouldn't dismiss it just understand the limits.

It becomes a ton more prevalent once you cross the Mason-Dixon line. Down there people are taught "right lane for local, left lane for travelling". There are far too many miles of interstate to do in Autobahn-quality construction. :( CREDIT UNION!

Once March rolls around and he fires Babcock and becomes head coach (again) he'll be rolling in funny-colored Canadian cash.

Is that a Bill and Ted reference?