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QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Aug 31, 2011 -> 09:48 AM) Rios and manager Ozzie Guillen spoke about the veteran’s sitting and “we’re very clear about it, very clear,” Guillen said. “Alex is not a happy camper. I don’t expect him to be,” Guillen said. “We wish he was playing better. ... I talked to him (and said), ’Give me some bullets, give me something (so) people don’t criticize me because you’re playing.’ “He has to look himself in the mirror too. ... I’m not benching people when they’re playing well.” This quote was at the end of July and now he's batting him cleanup while sitting Lillibridge a guy who really has earned more playing time but is relegated to late inning defense lately. The good thing about Ozzie never shutting up is that you can occasionally catch him contradicting himself. Ozzie has managed to contradict himself in a single sentence.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Aug 31, 2011 -> 09:29 AM) Were you born a middle aged man? How many middle-age men play fast-pitch softball? Also bowling was a really popular sport when I was a kid. The alley I bowled at had 32 lanes and they were full every Saturday morning. First for a 9:30AM league and then an 11:30AM league. For some reason the popularity of the sport has gone way, way down in the past 10 years or so. My daughter bowls in a league where there is only about 10-12 teams total spread throughout all the age groups.

Ozzie was completely contradicting himself yesterday. In one breath he was saying that he blames myself for the team failing, yet in the next breath he was saying he wouldn't have done anything different because there wasn't anything he could have done differently. It's not possible for both of those things to be true.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Aug 30, 2011 -> 09:17 AM) Bowling season? Correct me if I'm wrong, but bowling strikes me as sort of an all-year type of thing. There are leagues all year long but the summer leagues are usually considered short seasons. When I was growing up, I always played softball all summer and bowled all winter.

My daughter starts her bowling league on Sept 10. I miss bowling. I haven't been on a league in about 3 years. I just don't have the time anymore.

I got sucked into a couple of the seasons of The Real World years ago. The one with Puck and that guy that ended up dying from aids and also the one where they were in Hawaii. I also watched a couple of the RR/RW challenges when they first started doing them. I also watched one season of Teen Mom with my wife. Probably because we could relate to it. We were only 18 when we had our first kid. Other than that I really haven't paid much attention to any of the MTV reality shows. I do admit to watching other reality shows though. You almost can't get away from them anymore. Stuff like Pawn Stars, American Chopper, Hoarders, Intervention, Gene Simmons Family Jewels, Hogan Knows Best, The Osbornes, Storage Wars, Holmes on Homes... Although some of them are a little different type of reality show where they aren't following the daily lives of a set "cast".

I've been reading about it and the tolls were supposed to be "temporary". Like 20 years or so. Now we pay tolls to keep the toll workers around who only exist to make sure we pay the tolls...

The Illinois tollway board passed the new toll increase 7-1. They also plan to widen it between O'hare and Rockford sometime in the next 15 years. The screws me 2 ways. First, I'm already paying around $80 a month in tolls. Now it's going to nearly double. Second, more construction that I have to drive through every damn day. What's really interesting is that I just talked to somebody that said that most of the toll money doesn't even go towards road construction. Instead it goes towards paying salaries and building maintenance. You know, the salaries of the people that just voted to raise the tolls...

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 24, 2011 -> 07:32 PM) It's still camping, just in a different sense of the word. Applying rules and regulations as to what is camping is silly. I do some of the most hardcore camping you could imagine, I.E. canoeing through the boundary waters, or backpacking up mountains in Colorado...although I always sleep in tents, on a lot of our trips, it's more of a glorified tail gating party/fishing trip...regardless of what you do or do not do...the point is this... You are outdoors. That's what I figure. It gets us out of the house and away from bills, housework, yardwork, TV and internet connections... There's a playground 50 feet away for the kids, there's lots of people around to play bags or volleyball or just toss a ball around. When it's bad weather we can sit in the trailer and play board games. All stuff that we never seem to do when we are at home.

In just a few weeks my wife and I are actually going out to sign a contract for a permenant site at a campground about 30 minutes from our house. We camp there tons of times throughout the year so we figured it would be easier to just leave our trailer there rather than pack/unpacking it and towing it back and forth every time we go. Some people claim that we aren't really "camping" because we have a trailer with electricity, heat, air, etc. but we like it.

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2015/ I laughed at the LBJ = Lebron considering the thread in the fillibuster. The lists go back to 2002 (kids born in 1980) which is about 3 years too late for me. What's amazing is that none of it applies to me. I remember Atari, Betamax, metal bottle caps, pull-top cans, Mork and Mindy, beige M&Ms, black and white TVs with only 13 channels, "De plane, de plane", "Where's the beef?", records, 8-tracks, and McDonald's food coming in styrofoam containers. All that stuff was around when I was a kid. I can't imagine someone 3 years younger than me not remembering it as well.

QUOTE (jasonxctf @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 12:11 PM) VW Jetta Diesel. http://www.vw.com/en/tdi/jetta.html Love it. 42 mpg after breaking in the motor. Plus Diesel prices in the burbs are +/- 10 cents of 87. Have a friend who's the Sales Manager at Fox Valley VW in West Chicago. PM me if interested. I sat in a Jetta and thought it felt kinda small. Similar to the Chevy Cruze. The MPG is nice but I'm kinda leary about a couple of things. First I've heard that it can be difficult to get parts for it. Second, I'd have to pay attention to where I get gas. Not all stations have diesel fuel. Last, I know nothing about diesel engines. I'm going to blow through any warranty within 2 years at best so I'll probably be doing some work on the car myself eventually.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 22, 2011 -> 05:29 PM) 50k miles a year? That is a lot of driving! Yes it is. If I could've found anything closer to me in the last 10 years that would've paid me anything close to what I'm making now I would've taken it. Rockford sucks for IT jobs.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 22, 2011 -> 03:17 PM) Used cars right now are getting better dollars in relative return then they have in decades - so I wouldn't definitely buy new, which it sounds like you plan to. Look up reliability numbers, and resale value numbers, both good indicators of cars that age well. I don't need to have brand new. If I can find something with 10K miles or less for a few thousand less than a new car, I'll be happy. We are looking now with the hopes that we can get lucky and stretch another 12 months out of our current car. By then the 2013 models will be starting to come out and the 2012 models will be older. QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 22, 2011 -> 03:20 PM) Civics run forever with great mileage. QUOTE (SnB @ Aug 22, 2011 -> 03:22 PM) If you're looking for longevity - the civic would probably be the choice. I'm just not a big fan of the "spaceship" interior of the current models. QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 22, 2011 -> 03:29 PM) 06 civic here, haven't had a problem requiring service other than just put new tires on it last Friday. That was also the first year that the new model was introduced, just like this year's. I sat in a Civic but didn't get to drive it. I though the dash was kind of interesting. It was also the cheapest price we saw. On the other hand I have a family friend who works as a salesman for Hyundai that I've known my whole life and I know I can get a good deal through him.

My odometer is going to roll over to 200,000 sometime this week so I figure we are going to be in the market for a new car before too long. Probably in about 4-6 months. Longer if the car continues to hold up, sooner if something catastrophic happens. We have spent the last 2 weekends researching and information gathering, including going to a few dealerships to test drive a few cars. I need something with 4 doors, gets at least 35 MPG on the highway and is going to hold it's value to 200,000+ miles. New or used doesn't matter to me but I want something with less than 10K miles on it. I rack up somewhere around 50,000 miles/year, mostly highway. Right now at the top of my list is the Hyundai Sonata with its 10 year/100,000 mile warranty. I've read that people are getting 38+ MPG out of it too. I also like the Ford Focus and my wife like the Honda Civic or Honda Accord. I test drove a Chevy Cruze but it felt really small to me. I'm so disappointed because I've owned nothing but GM products my whole life. We looked at Toyota's Camry and Corolla but the salesman didn't seem real interested so I didn't get to drive either one. They are all right around $20K give or take a few thousand depending on the trim level and options. Everyone but Hyundai has a 6 year/60,000 mile warranty. So it's just a matter of figuring out which we like the best, paying off a few bills and saving a little bit of money. I've heard Dodge is supposed to be coming out with something new that gets 40 MPG in January and Chevy has the Sonic coming out in a few weeks. Any thoughts?

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Aug 19, 2011 -> 04:09 PM) My thoughts exactly. If we're supposed to believe that it's a dog that can be spoken to, and acts like a dog in some cases, why is it smoking a f***ing bong? Reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes.

If BK wants to give McD's any competition they need to change their fries back to the way they were about 15 years ago. Now they taste like salted cardboard. Also offer honey as a dipping sauce. I can't figure out why they stopped.

QUOTE (SoxFanForever @ Aug 18, 2011 -> 07:14 PM) The second reason is that I really don't trust my investment adviser. I just recently re-connected with a friend of mine that I knew in grade school and lost touch with. Turns out he's a financial advisor now. He's been helping me the past couple of years and he's pretty good. He's based in the Rockford area but I can give you his info if you want.

You should've went outside and told them that they can have them but you charge per bucket.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 16, 2011 -> 12:00 PM) Yes, you can cancel them after 3 months. Make sure you read your bill, it got very confusing to me for those 3 months what I was actually getting billed for (they were billing me for Sunday Ticket but not for the channel package, it was bizarre). That might make it worthwhile for me then. I'd be paying about the same price that I am for cable except I'd get an HD DVR plus another 4 receivers for my other TVs. Right now we only have 3 TVs actually connected to cable.

This past Sunday I was outside changing the oil in my car and my wife came out yelling about some sort of bug. I went inside and it was some huge flying thing. It looked sort of like a housefly but about 5 times as big. I have no idea what it was but it was pretty creepy. It actually wasn't flying but slowing crawling around on the carpet while my cats batted at it. I got a plastic folder and bowl, scooped it up and let it go in the field across from our house. Junebugs freak me out a little bit too. Anything that's the size of my thumb, can fly and makes a "crunch" sound when I step on it is creepy.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 15, 2011 -> 10:00 AM) That's what I do is the MLB package. It costs less than the football package and instead of 17 days with games I get ~170. If you have a relative who has DirectTV, they'll usually spread around an extra $100 if you tell them that relative referred you. Or you can tell them I did (you'll need an account number). That's what we were figuring. She'd get $100 and so would we. I was actually on their site checking prices and they have a package that offers 3 free months of HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and Starz. The problem is that after that first 3 months, they make you pay for those channels. I don't really care about those channels and don't want to have to pay for them, but I can't figure out if there is a package that I could get without those channels. Or if I could just cancel them after 3 months I 'd do that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 12, 2011 -> 03:21 PM) DirecTV is simply not cheap. It is the "You're getting what you pay for" service. My wife's aunt has had it for years and loves it. She is the reason we are thinking about switching. From the prices I've seen, it would be about the same or less than what we are paying for cable and we'd get more channels. The only sports package I'd really want would be MLB. I could do without the other sports.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 12, 2011 -> 02:45 PM) So I am sick of paying DirecTV so much money every month. Currently, I get the Premier package, which includes every channel, and then I purchase the MLB Extra Innings package as well as the NFL Sunday Ticket package. All in all, I figure I probably give about $1800 a year for programming. Yikes. I don't really ever watch the movie channels, except to DVR shows like True Blood, Spartacus, Dexter, Camelot, etc. I primarily watch baseball in the Summer via the Extra Innings package, with heavy doses of the History Channel, and other like channels that come with the basic package. I love the Sunday Ticket, and am not sure if I can give that up, but I do live in Vegas, so I could go to a sportsbook and watch Bears games if I really needed to. I just realized I can buy Apple TV and then buy an mlb.tv subscription for $50 a year instead of paying the $250 or whatever I pay for Extra Innings. I can watch shows like Dexter, True Blood, etc, by renting them with my monthly Blockbuster mail account, buying them on dvd, or buying them on Apple TV. Anyone have any suggestions on the best way to lower bills and still get access to the shows we all love? That's interesting because we are debating on switching to DirecTV because we are sick of paying $70/month for cable.

Since 1996 the ALC division winners have averaged 92 wins. The ALC division winner has never had less than 86 wins.