G&T

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 9, 2011 -> 05:59 PM) When I am done crate training my pup, he will NOT be sleeping in my bed. I will buy something for him to lay on in my room, but he will never sleep with me. That's what we did, and he ends up not wanted to be in the bed when he is tired. It's all about habit. He sleeps next to the bed on blankets and a dog bed.

QUOTE (shipps @ Feb 8, 2011 -> 10:08 PM) My wife is pregnant. That is carazay. Congratulations! We really should put together all posts related to your relationship and watch it unfold for our amusement.

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Feb 8, 2011 -> 11:22 PM) Add me to the list of people that are stoked that Throwback Pepsi is on the shelves again. Mexican Coke and seasonally available Kosher Coke used to be the only ways to get a cane sugar cola fix (without shelling out for Boylan's or some other boutique brand cane cola), so the Throwback Pepsi is a welcome addition. I will take a Boylans over the cane sugar coke.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 8, 2011 -> 06:12 PM) Sprint has me upset. It seems that they now have added a $10 premium charge to phones that use internet connectivity ON TOP OF the everything plans. F*ck the heck? I hated sprint. They sounded cheap but they piles of fees and charges thy aren't really explained.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 6, 2011 -> 11:29 AM) Nothing special, a $20 Target buy IIRC I read that you need a burr grinder to get a coarse grind for a french press, but that all seems expensive.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 8, 2011 -> 10:09 AM) That is a good point, about them doing the deportation. But it does cause a different issue, if they don't deport him. Do they turn him out on the street? That would be worse for all involved. And let's be honest, ICE may have taken months or years to ever get to handling this. So the hospital was in a no-win situation. Its a corner case, but it does expose a problem that should be addressed in the law with more clarity. Well my response would be that he was there for 4 months so I'm sure ICE could have made a determination. But that only works in this case. I don't want my argument to be pigeon holed into "G&T thinks the result was wrong". That's not the case at all. He probably should be in Mexico, but the process concerns me. If he is abused at home or faces persecution and he is sent to Mexico to an uncertain future for non-medical reasons, whose decision was that? A hospital with no experience making those determinations? Of course, the problem is probably even deeper. I don't know that the hospital can inform the government of immigration status, and, perhaps, we don't want them to be informed. In NY, emergency medicaid forms do not ask for status, and those are the only documents that the government would see to provide payment. So it becomse a case of line drawing. When does the government need to know? Are we detering illegals from seeking medical treatment?

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Feb 8, 2011 -> 09:37 AM) But he DID receive proper treatment for his injuries, without a judge having to mandate it, which is sort of the point here. It's not like this hospital, which you're trying to make sound like a villain, "unilaterally" deported him without treatment. I think you are way off base on this, and you make it sound like they 1) didn't treat him at all or outright treated him bad, and 2) made a rash decision to deport him instead of helping Neither happened. He WAS treated, for free, and THEN sent home. 1. I never said anything about their treatment. They did what they could do. 2. Actually they kinda did make a rash decision. They admit in the article that they didn't follow any procedure and never informed the patient. I never minimized the help they provided. Every hospital should have done the same to treat the patient. What I said is that a hospital does not have the power to deport an illegal immigrant. That is the power of the federal government and they must make the determination based on the facts of the individual. In some situations illegals will not be deported for humanitarian reasons. All I said is that a hospital cannot make that call since they did not and cannot perform a proper investigation. And don't make it sound like they just "sent him home" like he lives down the street.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 7, 2011 -> 04:54 PM) If so, I'd suggest the hospital sue the company that had hired him. If you set up the laws such that people who employ illegals end up on the hook for their workplace costs in any form, that should help deter future employment of this type. First, yes the article says he was a roofer. Second, the bills should be paid by emergency medicaid and the company that employed him went bankrupt, so there won't be a lawsuit. You paid for it. The larger point here is that the hospital made a unilateral deportation decision and litterally flew him out of the country. That should not be legal. In circumstances like this, an immigration judge may find that he needs to stay in the US in order to receive proper treatment for his injuries. I don't know how rare such a determination is (probably pretty rare), but it is the proper method of handling the situation.

By the way, don't feel too worried about leaving them alone. Eventually they get used to it and crave it. Last week we had a snow day. The dog was not pleased to see that we were around to interupt his day long nap.

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Feb 6, 2011 -> 05:28 PM) I'm not surprised the homemade orgeat gets the nod over commercial - even with a top quality brand like Trader Tiki. That is the beauty of homemade syrups. If you are willing to do some homework and put a bit of effort into it, you can almost always come up with something superior to anything you can get at the store. I wouldn't say that mine won out necessarily. both are good for different things. Problem is, I don't know what's more accurate to tradition. My guess is almonds are too expensive to make a cost effective commercial orgeat.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Feb 7, 2011 -> 05:48 PM) No real Sox fan would deface that statue considering his roots with our club as well. Tasteless. It looks like a jab at the Sox although no one knows what it says.

I should probably ask a direct question: have you ever raised a dog as a puppy? I know you said your mother had dogs and I'm sure you have experience with adults, but being the primary care taker to a puppy is a different deal. I ask because I went through this with my wife when we got our puppy a year ago. I had raised a dog before and I didn't want to deal with it again. She told me she had always had dogs and took care of them as puppies and knew all of the work involved. She didn't. I basically raised the dog on my own. On the plus side, I have had very few experiences that have been more fun than having a dog to play fetch with. There's something about having an animal run freely and return to you that's kinda exhilarating. Of course, then he bites my heels and I want to punch him.

I've talked to a breeder about this as well as people who have bought 2 puppies at once. I have been told it is a mistake. It's nice that they socialize but they aren't going to be together at first. You will need to crate train them separately and provide obience to each. It is double the work. The breeder told us to wait six months before buying another. If you leave them alone together without supervision they going to cause trouble. I have also heard that they can bond closely and form a pack that doesnt really include you. But I tend to doubt that. Oh and I know all about that shelter rule about apartments and condos. We live in an aparent in farmland in upstate NY surrounded by trails, parks and lakes. But the shelters would not even talk to us. I get it but it's odd.

I ordered some Trader Tiki orgeat to try in comparison to my home made. $20 later I got it and tried a Mai tai. The trader tiki is good for sure but lacks in almond flavor. I would guess both orgeats have similar sugar levels as the sweetness is about the same. The trader tiki has little discernible almond but has a fruitier side. There isn't anything wrong with it, but I wouldn't waste it on a mai tai with Appleton 12 which has a fruit character that shines in the drink. This orgeat would pair well with VX. My orgeat lacks much fruit but truly captures the almond richness. Of course it's possible that mine is far too almondy, but from the recipes I've seen, I tend to doubt it.

Braved a sleet storm last night for an awesome dinner at a place called Black Watch. The food was outstanding and they have a mixologist for real cocktails. I had a blood and sand followed by a sidecar. The sidecar was my favorite but the blood and sand would be great to just have for a night without food. Neither were as good as the pork belly, but that's a different story.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 5, 2011 -> 10:36 PM) I switched from a French press which I liked to the Keurig. The water hitting the beans under pressure seems to pop more flavor. Mine has three water level settings, I can tell the difference between the smallest and largest brew size. Do you use a certain grinder for the French press?

QUOTE (Whitewashed in '05 @ Feb 5, 2011 -> 12:31 PM) A friend of mine got 2 phones on Verizon and had the second phone use Google Talk exclusively and he ended up getting charged for every minute from his anytime minutes. Has anyone heard of this?? Since Google Talk is supposed to be VoIP... He was using Google Voice, not Google Talk. Google Talk doesn't work on cell phones to the best of my knowledge.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Feb 5, 2011 -> 10:25 AM) Nice trolling article here; http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/scocca/ar...spx#add-comment Yes our blizzard out East last year was worse than yours strictly in terms of total snowfall. Everything else he tries to say is idiotic. I don't get the driving stuff. Does he not remember that I90 was shut down in Buffalo this year after similar snow fall? I also seem to recall tons of cars and buses stuck in New York in their storms. He is right that east coast precipitation is worse, but I would rather snow over the brutal cold and wind which is less common here.

Love coffee. I only drink it black and I stick to stuff that has flavor. I have a Keurig (awesomeness) and a pot (which does make a noticeably stronger cup. People in college or high school probably drink it for show but I don't know anyone in the real world that does it. My brother drinks coke in the morning because he doesn't like coffee. Anyone else do that?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 3, 2011 -> 11:27 AM) I haven't watched any news the last day or so. Where is this storm right now and will it hit the north east? It's all gone. It hit us shortly after the midwest, but it wasn't nearly as powerful.

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 2, 2011 -> 08:18 PM) We still got 2 to 3 feet of snow, it just didn't turn into 3 to 4 feet. Wow. That's a pile of suck.

QUOTE (knightni @ Feb 2, 2011 -> 06:40 PM) We got fortunate here. The storm cut out at 11am instead of going until 7pm tonight like originally scheduled. The good news is that most of the main roads are plowed, the bad news is, most side roads still have 3 feet of snow drifts in places. The second bad news, lake effect snow should be starting in the next hour and go all night. Same happened here. We ended up with about a foot and a coating of ice. But everything closed anyway, which is nice.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 2, 2011 -> 01:55 PM) What other, more likely to be passable route was available? If I'm forced to be at work, and I have to get home somehow, what do I think is more likely to be passable, a major artery that has some stoplights, or internal city streets? Even if the answer is none, how does it help to close that artery? The road was passable until accidents blocked the road.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 2, 2011 -> 12:05 PM) Epic failure by Daley for not shutting down LSD given the warnings. Given the warnings, drivers should have avoided that road.

Work closedearly but my wife has my car. So I'm drinking alone at the bar across the street. I could have gone to Starbucks, but I wanted beer.