Jenksismyhero

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 14, 2012 -> 09:49 AM) Is that daycare or a nanny? My wife has already said that when the baby is still in its first year, she'd much rather have a full-time nanny than to stick the kid in a day-care with multiple kids taking away attention. But that's 40+ hours * $8-10/hour = NO BUENO. Yeah we went with a daycare. My wife toured the place and really liked their set up and all the people. They only have 12 kids max at a time, and they have like 8 full time teachers, so he's going to get a lot of one on one attention, but he'll also be socialized too. I would have gone the old lady at home route but unfortunately we don't really know anyone that does it. And I feel safer taking him to a daycare than finding someone on the internet or newspaper. That, and unless the old lady has 3-4 kids, it's just as expensive and you run the risk of not being protected by insurance if something happened. What's worse is that doesn't include diapers or food (most don't). So it's actually more than that. And for this area (i'm in La Grange, but Chicago metro area generally), 375/week is actually a pretty good deal. I've seen upwards of 8-900 a week at places downtown.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Feb 14, 2012 -> 09:30 AM) http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/colleges/p...r-on-a-hot-seat Decent article by Bardo; nothing new really, but seems to be a good sum-up of many Illini fans feelings (at least on this board) on Weber and the program from a prominent former player. yeah, i agree with him. They are a top 15 program but haven't acted like it since 2005. They need to make a big splash. Problem is, who's out there?

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 11:10 PM) $660 a month for me. Ours will be 375/week

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 05:23 PM) Cats communicate non-verbally. They do, but its more body language than through looks.

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 04:05 PM) I was using the bell on the door for a while but my dog started bluffing when she figured out when she rings the bell she gets to go outside. Yeah we went through that phase too. We're on such a set schedule with her though we know when she's bluffing. That, and once she hit about three she stopped using the bells unless it was an emergency. Now if she needs to go out she'll sit in front of you on the floor and just stare. That's one thing about dogs that you don't get with cats. Lots and lots of nonverbal communication just from looking at each other.

QUOTE (The Only Swede @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 11:19 AM) My wife and I are about 15 months away from our first kid (that's the plan anyway, both of us finishing college first), and even though none of this is going to change my mind I have to say all these costs sounds crazy. And really scary! Just wait until you start looking into daycare.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 10:45 AM) Did you guys have your shower already? If not, you shouldn't be buying that stuff yet. My parents-in-law bought the crib (thankfully). We registered for everything else for the shower. I was just in awe with the amount of stuff there is. I have four nieces and nephews, so I understood going in that babies have a lot of crap. But the amount of random stuff was a little mind blowing.

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 09:15 AM) Picked up our 8 1/2 week old Vizsla puppy this weekend. He is a sweet guy and has gotten along really well with our two very social cats (cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!). No accidents in the crate yet. He lets us know at night when he needs to go (last two nights between 2 and 3 am). Any advice on housebreaking? He hadn't learned anything prior to us picking him up and has had a number of accidents in the house (hardwood floors thankfully). We've been taking him out about every hour, half an hour after food, or if he starts to get antsy. We have been rewarding him for going outside with training treats (the only way he gets those treats right now) and lots of praise. If we catch him in the act in the house, we take him outside right away. We tried to put down puppy pads in the house, but he thinks they are toys. Any other words of wisdom? I wouldn't do the puppy pads, that might confuse him, especially if there's any sort of praise for using that instead of the floor (unless you intend for him to use them later). Just stick with what you're doing - get him on a schedule, give him tons of praise when he does good, ignore the bad and treats are good incentives. Eventually he'll get the routine down, even if it takes a few weeks. I thought adding bells to the door was helpful for ours. That gives another thing to associate with outside/bathroom because they get another treat.

My wife and I are 4 months away from our first (a boy). Spent 4 hours at Buy Buy Baby (Bed, Bath and Beyond for babies/kids) registering for stuff yesterday. Except for laughing at the hilarious clothes (e.g., a blue onesie with a tie imprinted on the front), it was pretty f'n brutal. $500 bucks for a crib, $180 for the mattress, and another $120 for a whole set of sheets/bumper things? Are you s***ting me? Needless to say, i'm about to be way, way, way overwhelmed. Luckily my wife seems more and more ready every day.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 10:17 AM) This show is not going to be Left 4 Dead(that would be an awesome show though). I think the first few episodes of the show may have tricked people into thinking it was going to be like that all the time. Like the comic, the characters don't go very far. It's seems like people want to see them in a new location every episode. It's not going to happen. They stay at the farm and if they follow the comic, they will go to a prison and stay there for a long time. There are a bunch of characters that they haven't introduced yet. I do hope they do that soon, because some of them are really cool. That's really the main reason I'm still watching. Everyone tells me the new characters were good in the comic. And as last night showed, a battle/showdown between survivors is infinitely more interesting than a group of survivors v. the zombie world.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 09:42 AM) You seem to really hate it. I'm just annoyed with it. It started out with such promise, and it's just been craptastic since. Here's my review of the first 6 episodes if you're interested: http://stewover.com/2012/01/05/the-walking...o-win-and-soon/

Yeah i'm not looking for a zombie escape every episode. I'm looking for something to actually happen. We've been at this farm for 7 episodes now. Nothing has really changed. It's been boring ass conversation after boring ass conversation with a sprinkle of action every 3rd hour. Alan Greenwald at Grantland had a pretty good recap: http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-pr...ice-in-nebraska SoxAce what characters are you referring to? I don't think there's a single character left that I care for. They're all pretty annoying. Edit: and the conversation angle would be fine if this was well written. This is hack writing at it's best. Same themes/issues covered repeatedly, over and over and over again.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 12, 2012 -> 08:38 PM) The Walking Dead is so boring these days. 50 minutes of absolute, complete boredom, followed by 10 minutes of genuinely tense stuff. Pretty typical. What I don't understand is why the writers think the audience gives two s***s about these characters. From what little I know of the comic, new characters will be introduced, so that will help. But after a 2 month break, why are we still subjected to one on one conversations about nothing that matters? Grimes and his wife arguing again? Gee, haven't seen that before. Shane going off on someone? Haven't seen that before either. Also, the whole Glenn/farmers daughter angle is hilarious. Didn't they meet like 3 days ago? And then didn't they keep their relationship hidden? And now they're saying I love you's and making out in front of people? Wtf? D-

Garnett is such a dirty player

QUOTE (JorgeFabregas @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 09:30 PM) Not that he's guaranteed to be a star, but it's a little dumbfounding that no team could figure out that he was a decent player. Did he not get any burn in practice? Is this a product of teams not having any practices during the compressed schedule? He sat on the bench all last year

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 07:54 PM) Jeremy Lin isn't a joke, little guy has hoops. He's fun to watch, that's for sure

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 08:50 PM) Gus Johnson is horrible. Why do people like him? You have a backer: http://nymag.com/daily/sports/2012/02/sorr...e-terrible.html As I told a friend, he makes the mundane exciting, but for 90% of the broadcast he's average at best. Put him with Jackson, Mr. "I'm going to say the team needs to do X, which is always wrong, and then continue to talk about it as if that's what they're doing, even though they're not," and it's a pretty terrible tandem.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 01:22 PM) I mostly agree with this, and I only qualify my agreement because you seem to either not realize or gloss over the fact that in the Leonard-Zeller battle over the course of the game, Leonard was the one doing more stupid, overt stuff. That push at midcourt early in the first half? EASILY could have been a flagrant. The key word in those last two sentences is "overt." I'm not saying Zeller wasn't ragging on Leonard or whatever, but if he was it was in a way that was much harder to discern. Like it or not, the refs are going to call (or maybe give the player a talk) the player that they see doing all the overt acts. Leonard lost his cool way too much. It wasn't as obvious last night, but watching over the course of the season Zeller has consistently been very good about doing nothing more than smirking in disbelief if there's a bad call on him. Doesn't talk, whine, whatever, he just keeps playing the game (while being cognizatnt of how many fouls he then has, and how the game is being called). I haven't seen all the Illini games so I can't comment if Leonard is normally like that, but last night he certainly was acting immature. I thought the play that most epitomized the matchup of the big men last night was when early in the 2nd half Leonard turns it over/gets blocked/misses the shot (I honestly can't remember) and starts whining about the call to the ref. In the mean time, IU pushes the ball up the court, Zeller races all the way down the floor and slams it in (and gets the And-1 because a pointless foul by Myke Henry). I'm not even saying Leonard didn't have a right to be upset (as I said, I can't exactly remember the preceding play), but even if he did, wait for a dead ball to talk to the refs! He had more important things to do at the time, like you know, guarding his man. No I fully recognize that, even if I didn't say it clearly. But Zeller wasn't 100% innocent. He got some shots in, especially in the first 10 minutes. The Leonard thing to start the game was dumb and could have easily been called a foul or a flagrant (and probably should have been). But Zeller has a knack, including on that play, to flop outrageously. To his credit, BECAUSE he doesn't b**** and whine like Leonard, he gets the benefit of the doubt and gets those calls. The one play that just really irked me was the moving screen on Leonard. 99% of the game that s*** wasn't called, and it was only because of the way the game was going that the refs basically thought to themselves "if he touches a guy i'm going to assume that he's picking a fight and will call a foul." Sure enough that's EXACTLY what happened...even the announcers caught onto it. And to continue being moronic, the refs basically knew they f***ed up the call, because I think it was the next time down the court they called 25 on Indiana for the same s***. That's when they officially lost control of the game. Calling fouls left and right just to settle everyone down. Why not pull Leonard aside and warn him as he's coming back into the game? Why not explain to him what happens if he even looks like he's starting to get too physical (again, a laugher given how they were able to bang earlier in the game)? Shoot, why not talk to both coaches and tell them to calm their players down? And yes, Leonard is amazingly immature and even as a diehard Illini fan i've become less and less of a fan of him. He thinks he's the s*** even though he's really been only "good" this season...a stretch since he's not exactly carrying the team. He's hardly been great or outstanding. It's the Demetri McCamey problem from last year - ESPN does a story or two on him, everyone talks about being drafted, so he's become a cocky player that whines constantly (though in McCamey's case it was less whining and more expectation that he didn't have to work or play well to win). It's the main reason he needs to come back for another year, because that stuff won't fly in the NBA.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 10:12 AM) Are there always this many god-awful teams in the NBA? I see some of these starting lineups and I say to myself, "Wow, that guy was a bum in college, how he is a NBA starter?" Other than the Mavericks in the 90s, I don't rememeber there being this many teams that are this bad. You have so many teams now with multiple all-stars. Talent has been consolidated, leaving a lot of teams with one (or no) high level player.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 12:31 AM) Anyone use/used magicJack? Thoughts? My parents got it for their condo and it seemed to work OK. I didn't hear them complain about it, but they weren't using it on a daily basis.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 8, 2012 -> 12:16 PM) Man, come on, this is a thread for talking about our "animal friends". I have two awesome cats. AWESOME. If you don't like your cats, that's your problem, but saying "f*** cats" is bulls*** in my opinion. So f you and your s***ty dog. Meh, to each his own.

Haven't seen this posted yet, but what a great article from back in the day re: the return of MJ: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/755575...turn-basketball

QUOTE (farmteam @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 10:48 PM) Eh, my problem with complaining about refs is that personally, I try really really hard to not let it affect how I view the game. This means I strive to be cognizant of the calls my team gets and the ones they don't get, and people who complain about the refs often forget about all the calls their team DID get. My other thing is that it's very, very rare a bad call actually gives a team points. They often give a team a chance to score points, but it's up to the team to capitalize on that opportunity, and I try not to take that away from the players. Yes, I realize that the more chances a team has, the more likely it is they'll score more...but my point is that there still a critical element of a team performing well enough to capitalize on those opportunities. I agree that IU got the benefit more often than Illinois tonight. But if anyone tries to tell me that would make up the 13 point difference, I'll laugh them out of the room. Probably not, and I agree that IU played a better game. It's just upsetting because it was a great, even first half, and when things got chippy the refs could have pulled Zeller and Leonard aside to tell them to stop (or call a technical or something) and move on. Their little scrum didn't need to change the otherwise clean, physical game that was being played by everyone else. Instead the refs reacted like the normally do - they start blowing the whistle on bulls*** calls. Someone flops hard and they react accordingly without seeing that it's a flop. They were anticipating calls that second half in an attempt to alter the style of play.

QUOTE (Rex Hudler @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 10:39 PM) I agree with those that said the referees lost control tonight. They tightened up so much that it ruined the flow of the game. That said, the calls were not one sided. And complaining just because of the FT discrepancy is short-sighted. All you had to do is watch the game and see why there were so many more. It had everything to do with the styles of play, not homer or favorable calls. Illinois lost tonight because they weren't good enough. Brandon Paul was not very good. Leonard was strong early on, but faded. Especially in the 2nd half. Leonard's problem was in his head. Things got rough and he couldn't handle it. Sadly, he's the one that started that crap with the shove of Zeller at mid court early on. Richardson seemed to keep them in the game for awhile. I thought IU played very sloppy in the first half. I was surprised about halfway through that it was a close game. I felt like we were behind. Hulls hit some big shots and they did a much better job of driving and getting the ball inside in the 2nd half creating a ton of opportunities. Good win for the Hoosiers. Six games left, all are winnable. 4-2 is a more likely record. I'd like to see them win on the road at Iowa or Minny. But the problem is you're not allowing two teams to play on an equal floor. The first half was physical and guys were bodying everywhere. Go watch the first ten minutes again. Brandon Paul drove the ball consistently, got hit and nothing was called. In the second half, after the refs lost control of the game, those calls were made every single trip down the floor for Indiana. Yes, that's because Indiana drives the ball and Illinois shoots jumpshots, and that's the fault of Illinois (and Paul specifically) for not adapting. But that's still horses*** officiating that is CONSISTENTLY TERRIBLE in big ten play. That slugfest between MSU and ILL was at least acceptable because the refs decided at the start it was going to be a bruising physical game, and they didn't change. And yeah, Leonard failed to show up in the 2nd half because was in foul trouble. The whole Illinois team was in foul trouble. That's not discrediting IU's play, it's just the nature of how the game was lost by the refs. Ultimately the refs did alter the outcome because of it. It's hard enough to win on the road in the big ten, it's nearly impossible when the refs give IU that much of an advantage. Again, I find it telling that Crean even laughed when he talked about the number of free throws they took.

Ha, even Crean laughed at the free throw situation