Iwritecode

Last day of work for me. 2 hours to go. New job starts on Jan 5. I’ve been slowing cleaning stuff out and throwing stuff away as the day has gone on.

I love the couple dressed up as Todd and Margo.

The BIG memorable moments have already been brought up but I remember a bunch of odd snippets of that entire post-season. Driving home from work listening to the El Duque inning in the ALDS on the radio. I was literally holding my breath on every single pitch. I got home in time to see the final out on TV and realized that it was the first post-season series the Sox had won since 1917. I remember in game 4 of the ALCS hoping that Konerko would put the Sox up 3-0 in the first inning two games in a row. He did. I remember being surprised at how bad Vlad Guerro was during the ALCS. I remember missing most of Game 1 of the World Series because my family took me out for dinner for my birthday. We went to a Chili’s and I kept wandering over to check the score on the TV they had by the bar. Then we went to see a movie and I didn’t get to hear the final outcome until it was all over. I remember watching Game 3 in my bedroom and punching a hole in my wall when the Astros tied it up in the 9th. I ended up staying up and watching the entire game. There were a few points where I didn’t care who won, I just wanted it to end. I remember being in my living room when the final out was made and the Sox were World Series Champions. I texted my friend who was working and is also a Cubs fan. When I talked to him later he said his phone lit up like a Christmas Tree with all the people texting him.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Dec 19, 2014 -> 08:16 AM) Wife brag: as of this very moment, my wife is now a college graduate! She has completed an associate's degree in respiratory therapy. Just judging from everybody's posts, I suspect that nearly all of us who have college degrees were fortunate enough to be able to obtain them before acquiring the responsibilities of a spouse and/or children (myself included). My wife started this process when our children were 3 and 2. I don't think I have the discipline required to be able to get a degree under those circumstances. Congrats. That’s awesome. I had one kid just before I started college and a second 16 months later all while working full-time so I definitely know the effort it takes. As an added bonus, I got a new job during my last semester which involved a 45-minute commute.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Dec 18, 2014 -> 06:09 AM) This poll makes me feel old. I'm at the top of the 36-41 range. What makes me feel really old is when I look at when some of the young Sox players were born. I was a year out of high school before Rodon was even born. With Konerko retired, this is the first time ever that I’m older than every single player on the White Sox 40 man roster.

The convenience of it will be great. Even if I have to work a little late or go in a little early once in a while, it won’t take away so much time from my home life. I’ll finally be able to do simple things like go to my kids sports/after school activities, parent-teacher conferences, car repair shops, doc appointments, etc… Not getting home until 7PM or later every night just makes life such an extreme struggle. Everything had to be done on weekends.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Nov 19, 2014 -> 09:20 AM) Well the meeting went well and the food was good. Got an email Monday morning from the guy I had been talking to originally asking how it went. I responded and haven't heard anything since. This is exactly what happened the last time around. I completely baffled at what their plans are. This all started in July for crying out loud. Either you want me or you don't. The anxiety of just sitting and waiting for something to happen is just killing me. So after the long wait I finally got a firm offer and was able to accept it. I just officially put in my 2-week notice at my current job. Starting on January 5th my commute will drop from 2+ hours to about 10 minutes. I’ll be dropping a little in salary but the massive savings in gas, tolls and free time at home definitely makes up for it.

So does anyone do resignation letters anymore? Or do you just have a meeting with your boss and give a two-week notice?

See a game at all 30 MLB parks (only been to US Cellular, Wrigley and Miller Park. I drove right next to the Reds and Cardinals ballparks once while on vacation). Baseball HOF At least one NFL, NBA and NHL game. Seeing a WS game or a Superbowl would be nice but I doubt it’ll ever happen.

It kinda depends on how you break it up. Either oft-en or of-ten. I think the first way you don’t hear the ‘t’ quite as much. But it's not silent.

Not excusing what the police did in that story but what the hell were the people in the car running from that they led a chase that lasted about 25 minutes, at times reaching speeds of more than 100 miles per hour?

I can watch the same Christmas movies over and over again every year, but when it comes to Christmas music, there are only handful of songs that I can deal with. Most of them I'm tired of hearing before they even start. They are the same songs I've been hearing a million times a year since I was a kid. I typically like the newer (relatively speaking) Christmas songs. Especially the parody songs. The 12 Pains of Christmas is one of my favorites.

Question about spoilers: On another message board, there was a thread about SOA. In that thread, someone "spoiled" the end of Breaking Bad and what happened to Walter White and another poster got pissed. Breaking Bad ended over a year ago. What's the time limit on spoiler tags?

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Nov 26, 2014 -> 09:21 PM) Where do you get your favorite fast food burger? Beef-a-Roo or Checkers when I can find one. Sonic and Culver's are pretty good as well. QUOTE (Heads22 @ Nov 26, 2014 -> 09:21 PM) What do you get on your burger? Everything. That usually equals ketchup, mustard, mayo, lettuce, tomato, onion, sometimes a pickle QUOTE (Heads22 @ Nov 26, 2014 -> 09:21 PM) How do you grill your burger? Badly. Somehow I've just never gotten the knack for grilling a good burger.

Reminds me of the scene in Christmas Vacation. “Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, kiss my ass. Kiss his ass. Kiss your ass. Happy Hanukkah.” QUOTE (farmteam @ Nov 26, 2014 -> 07:53 AM) f*** you, f*** you, f*** you, you're cool, f*** you, f*** you

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Nov 26, 2014 -> 11:21 AM) I represented a guy in a bankruptcy who worked at the McDonald's by his apartment. The apartment was one of the few he could afford. He didn't have a car. The apartment wasn't on, or near, a bus line. And McDonald's was the only business close enough for him to walk to. So they literally built a McDonald's in an area where no other businesses existed? Somehow I’m not buying this. In my experience, McDonald's restaurants typically have dozens of other fast food and retail shops within a couple of blocks around them.

Speaking of stretching out stories, I’m hearing talk of making Stephen King’s The Stand into 4 movies. I know the book is 1000+ pages but that seems like it’s at least one movie too many.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 12:37 PM) I am not a hiring manager, but D is by far the most typical. Honestly, as a part of any interview I ask what the next steps are, and how long they anticipate them taking. I usually wait until a little bit after the time frame, and then email whoever my contact person is. Most times, they don't even bother answering. I’m going through this now and it’s beyond maddening. It’s almost insulting.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 15, 2014 -> 07:59 AM) Yeah, if you're going to a diner, dress business casual. Good luck! Well the meeting went well and the food was good. Got an email Monday morning from the guy I had been talking to originally asking how it went. I responded and haven't heard anything since. This is exactly what happened the last time around. I completely baffled at what their plans are. This all started in July for crying out loud. Either you want me or you don't. The anxiety of just sitting and waiting for something to happen is just killing me.

I'm pretty sure Ebay has a policy against selling body parts.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Aug 19, 2014 -> 09:29 PM) So after 3 weeks of consistent communication (both face-to-face and via email) with multiple people and with everything going as absolutely perfect as possible, "I'll be in touch next week" has now turned into 2 weeks of complete and absolute radio silence. I'm not really sure how to proceed or if I should even do anything at all. I'm debating whether it would be proper to send an email asking for an update or not. Update: I did end up sending an email to see what was going on and was told they were going in another direction. Last week I got an email out of the blue asking if I was still interested. After a phone conversation last Friday I was told to take the weekend to think about it and email him back. I did and now I’m supposed to meet another member of the team on Saturday morning for breakfast at a local diner. I’m not exactly sure what to expect or even how to dress. I think a full suit and tie would be too much. Would a shirt and tie be over-doing it? Maybe just a dress shirt and slacks? I’m also not sure what we could be discussing that hasn’t been brought up already. I’m just amazed at how much time and effort they are putting into me without giving me a formal offer.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Nov 14, 2014 -> 03:22 PM) Don't quote me on this, but some of the considerations are going to depend on whether you claim her as a dependent or not. If you do, then I presume your income levels will be factored in and thus she might be on the hook for the penalty, which IIRC has a minimum dollar amount or something like 1% of your taxable income. This is off the top of my head and I'm making a lot of assumptions in here based upon other tax benefits, etc. If I claim her as a dependent would she be on the hook for it or would it be on me? Also she will only not be covered for like 1 or 2 months total out of the year.

I wonder if someone can explain how the tax penalty works. We have insurance through my wife’s employer. Our oldest daughter just turned 18 in August and just started her first PT job about a month ago. She was included on our insurance plan but we have been fighting with idiots at the insurance company because they kept insisting they needed more information to prove that we are US citizens. Apparently birth certificates, driver’s licenses and school ids weren’t good enough somehow. Somewhere in the midst of all this, they kicked our daughter off. We found later it was somehow related to the fact that my wife was still going by her maiden name when she had her (we were 18 at the time). This made zero sense because we had our second daughter before we were married as well. We’ll be able to get her back on before the year ends and she only works about 12 hours a week so I doubt her yearly income will even be enough to make the penalty enforceable but I’m not 100% sure on that. Also FWIW, we found out that our insurance costs will actually go down next year. It’ll be around $60/month.

I've missed all the previous seasons of American Horror Story but I kept hearing about the show and how good it was supposed to be, so I finally decided to start watching Freak Show. The first 4 or 5 episodes weren't too bad. The latest episode was pretty boring. One of these days I'll have to catch up on the previous seasons.

I really enjoyed the Toy Story trilogy. I’m a little worried about them making a 4th one though. The ending to the 3rd movie was perfect. I’m afraid they’ll eventually mess it up if they keep going.