iamshack

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 5, 2016 -> 11:17 AM) I like Eli Apple's mom. http://www.si.com/nfl/2016/05/04/nfl-draft...-state-buckeyes That sure is a nice suit.

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 4, 2016 -> 11:45 PM) Chili, you must be a Ken doll stud. You got women all over the place. What's your secret? Flowing black hair; bodybuilder type? You seem to have a ton of women to choose from all the time.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ May 4, 2016 -> 07:51 PM) Going on a first date to the Sox game tomorrow. It was HER idea, and she's a HUGE Cubs fan. We are going to the mall beforehand because she wants to buy a Sox shirt. Is it ok that I'm already in love? So this isn't the younger lady, correct?

Yes. Do it.

To celebrate our second anniversary, the wife and I took a 3 night staycation on the Strip this last week. On the evening of our anniversary, we celebrated with dinner at CarneVino. I must say, I cannot recommend this place enough to any of you looking for a quality steakhouse next time you come out to Vegas. One of the best meals I've ever had in my life.

Ryan Braun?

QUOTE (Alexeihyeess @ Apr 29, 2016 -> 06:17 PM) The one position the Bears have good players at is G. Long and Slausen are fine, this guy serves no f***ing purpose unless they want to move him to RT. We saw how that worked with Long... NOT WELL. Pace has no plan and has been blindsided so many times by other GM's he's just picking random players. He's overmatched. McShay said they have done a really good job of managing the draft and they are off to a very good start. No offense, but you're just throwing s*** at the wall at this point.

QUOTE (Tony @ Apr 29, 2016 -> 05:36 PM) @AaronLemingNFL #Bears wanted OT Jason Spriggs. Was told they had a first round grade on him. Moving back to #55. So f***ing take him with your pick instead of trading down.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 25, 2016 -> 07:50 PM) With out the guy in the way, it is a grounder to second. Lawrie makes that play. Hmmm...Stone didn't seem to agree with you.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 25, 2016 -> 07:44 PM) It wasn't a dumb play. He was trying to distract Lawrie in a desperation situation. He just had a bad break with the bounce hitting him. It is worth a try on an otherwise routine play for the final out of the game. There was no way in hell they were getting any outs there if he just avoids that ball. There was nothing routine about that play.

I've finally gotten a chance to hear Jason do his thing and have been VERY impressed. Very witty without going overboard. Love Hawk but enjoy this young man as well.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Apr 24, 2016 -> 03:09 PM) Super happy with how it turned out, Spent a lot of time out there already with the fantastic weather we've had. That whole thing is your deck, Russ?

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Apr 24, 2016 -> 08:00 AM) I live in a condo building so I have a parking spot in a large garage, but I don't have the ability to put an outlet/powersource there. While a Model 3 would easily handle the 50ish mile daily commute I currently have to work, I don't trust the electric vehicle recharging network enough yet without having an in-home charger. Hopefully in 4 years it's good enough that it doesn't matter (and maybe by then I have a garage spot with charging available), but for now it just would be too restricting as my only car. I love Teslas and really hope I can get one at some point, but it needs to make sense still. Are you at all influenced by the reports of poor reliability with the Model S? While Consumer Reports stated it was the best performing vehicle they have ever tested, they could not recommend it due to above average reliability problems/issues.

QUOTE (kevo880 @ Apr 23, 2016 -> 10:52 AM) Looking at new Honda's since my sister is a manager at a Honda dealership in Aurora. Any thoughts on the '16 Accord or Civic? I think the new Civics are pretty slick. Agreed about the Civics...like the facelift they did. You can never go wrong with the Accords either, but the Civic just seems a bit more fun to me.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 22, 2016 -> 10:25 AM) Shack, did you check out the Volvo SUV at all? That think is supposed to be pretty sweet too (looks really nice...I've never been a Volvo guy but the stuff I've read on it is impressive). Either way, those Audi's are beautiful. Did you all consider the Q8 at all? Or prefer the smaller version? I read about the S90...that seems to be the other 3rd row SUV that could compete with the Q7. My main complaint was that the Volvo has a 4-cylinder engine. For a 7 passenger vehicle, I wanted at least the V6. In therms of the Audi, there is no Q8. The Q7 is the largest SUV they manufacture, so that is probably the one you are thinking of.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 22, 2016 -> 06:48 AM) My only problem with Audi SUV's is they put such a damn weak engine in them. I want a 400+HP engine in my SUV's Edit: Ah I went back and looked, it does appear that they will be planning a V8 version, that would get my interest. Yeah, I'm sure they'll have an S version in a year or so. For me, the 333 HP was enough...wanted to spend my money on some of the other features rather than on the premium engine. I test drove the SQ5 a few years ago and it actually felt a bit too jumpy for my taste.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Apr 21, 2016 -> 07:48 PM) Audi's been killing it lately, love their lineup. Next car will be a Q3 if I don't get a Tesla Model 3. I've been hooked since the first gen TT came out, but honestly, you're right...these newest generation of vehicles coming out are solid. I originally wanted to get an S7 after my lease was up on my A6. Test drove the S7, loved it, even convinced my wife to love it...but then drove these new Q7's and was blown away. Really impressive vehicle.

Ordered a 2017 Audi Q7 the other day. Should be here in 3-4 months. Test drove one last week and was sold. Some awesome tech in this vehicle. Can't wait!

QUOTE (Tex @ Apr 17, 2016 -> 05:38 AM) It also depends on what you are trying to power. There are a significant number of people living off the grid now, but you have to give up some modern luxuries that most people are unwilling to give up like air conditioning. http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/living-off-the-grid/ http://finance.yahoo.com/news/family-life-...-144054081.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sigh...xas-state-park/ We've been considering buying some land near Terlingue and starting a small cabin. I believe the experience would be amazing both physically and mentally. About 5 years ago, before I met my wife, when I was looking for my first home, I looked at some homes "off the grid" in Cold Creek, Nevada, which is about 40 minutes outside of Las Vegas. There is a small town there which is right next to some federally protected land, where wild horses roam around. I went and looked at a few houses on the market which had solar with batteries, as well as propane generators. Honestly, I might very well have done it, if the right home had been available. I also explored buying a parcel of land there and building something, but my fear was that if something changed and I needed to sell the property, that I wouldn't be able to do so. Properties off the grid are not for everyone and often sit on the market for a long time.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 12, 2016 -> 11:35 AM) Sort of sad that a Utah congressman decides this is a good idea. When PR didn't even suggest it. Yeah, surprising that he would be able to take such a position, coming from that state.

QUOTE (AustinIllini @ Apr 9, 2016 -> 08:27 AM) Who hates Gus Johnson? The difference between Gus Johnson and Hawk and Vitale is Hawk and Vitale blatantly make things up. Gus Johnson is extremely listenable, whereas Hawk and Vitale are complete garbage at this stage in their career. Onions!

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Apr 8, 2016 -> 06:42 AM) The third row in the pilot is the only thing that would keep you from going with the Jeep GC. My Jeep can handle anything you throw at it on road or off road with the caveat you have to take off the lower air dam if you want to do serious rock crawling. Yeah, tbh, I don't really even care for the Pilot...it was my wife's car...but it did make me reconsider potentially going back to an SUV when we need to get another vehicle, which I wouldn't have necessarily thought I would do. With both sets of parents in town here, it may actually come in handy to have something with a third row, so I will probably look into vehicles with that capability.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 7, 2016 -> 12:41 PM) That was such a brutal year with Floyd (who we were going to move) and Crain going down with injuries. Crain was dominating at that point in time. Crazy to think about and who knows whether he becomes that same pitcher with us or not. This is an awesome article

QUOTE (Tex @ Apr 7, 2016 -> 07:34 PM) I love my F150. Great towing. Room for five full size adults without them sitting in each other's laps or knocking knees. No worries about hauling something home from the nursery or Lowes, I can see over traffic, smooth and quiet on the highway . . . Yeah, not a pickup but we took our Pilot out to Red Rock Canyon here in Vegas this past weekend and we had my wife, our 9 month old, my brother, and both my parents, as well as myself. It was nice to be able to fit everyone in one vehicle and drive through the canyons together. Makes me want to actually consider another SUV when the Pilot becomes too dogged up to drive anymore.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 7, 2016 -> 02:07 PM) Other solar-heavy states are running into problems with that, though. The way we pay for "the grid" is through taxes/fees on our electric bill that are tied to our kWh amounts. When you start having enough people feeding back into the grid rather than drawing from it, you start running short on funding routine maintenance and upgrades. Eventually, people without individual generation end up subsidizing the individual solar supplies ie a house with solar panels on it. Solar City left Nevada when Nevada changed their rules and started paying home owner suppliers less. Ultimately, the grid then starts functioning as a massive battery for the customer, as the amount of energy that may be generated through his rooftop solar only equals his demand about .03% of the time. The other 99.97% of the time, the customer is drawing from the grid or putting energy to the grid. While there is value to the energy this consumer is putting to the grid, just how much that value is is up for debate at the moment. In Nevada, with our proximity to California, I can tap into markets where I can obtain solar MWs coming off of utility scale facilities much more cheaply (or even get paid to take it) than by paying what Solar City is asking me to pay their customers. That is where the battles over net metering have arisen.