Iwritecode

I’m pretty simple. Untoasted white bread, creamy PB and strawberry jam.

My daughter lost her phone in our backyard in the middle of winter one year. We didn't find it until the snow melted. We took the battery out and left it on the counter to dry out for a day or so. Didn't use rice or anything. It works perfectly now.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 6, 2012 -> 09:33 AM) Oh man, every time I visit my sister and her family in the quad cities I demand a taco pizza from Happy Joes. Easily the best taco pizza i've ever had. My parents are originally from the Quad Cities and every time we visit our family that still lives there they get a Harris pizza. I'm not really a big fan of it. We had a Happy Joes in Rockford and we went to it a few times because my wife likes their taco pizza. We usually had the whole place to ourselves because they were never busy. They closed a couple of weeks ago. QUOTE (knightni @ Mar 4, 2012 -> 05:29 PM) I do enjoy DelTaco when I get a chance to visit. We had a Del Taco open near our house a few years back and we tried it one time. They had the worst tacos I've ever had in my life. I must not have been the only person to think that because they didn't stay open very long. I'm not even sure they were open a full year.

Beef-a-Roo. They have 5 or 6 locations in the Rockford area and they are always voted as having the best fries in the city. Their burgers are really, really good too.

My daughter rollled a 130 game on Saturday. That's 59 pins over her average. The league gives out a free small pop for 25 pins over and free nachos for 50 pins over. She's gotten the free pop a couple of times but this is her first time getting the nachos. She had a 120 in the 10th frame and only needed a single pin to get to 50 over. She ended up picking the 7 pin off clean on her first shot. Then she covered it with a spare. I think I was more nervous than she was. She is 10 and has been bowling for 3 years. She actually started with bumpers when she was 6 but we had to take a year off when I was unemployed. A few weeks back I started noticing her ball literally bouncing off the pins, so I took it into the pro shop and found out it was only 7 lbs. I had always though that it was 8 lbs. So I gave her a 10 lb house ball to see if she could handle the extra weight and it seems to have made all the difference in the world. There's only a few weeks left this year and she'll probably grow a little over the summer so I'm going to let her finish the season with the house ball instead of getting a ball drilled now, then having to get it plugged and re-drilled next season.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Feb 27, 2012 -> 01:07 PM) So apparently Liberty Mutual will cover our pop-up camper as long as we tow it with our suburban every time we want to go camping. Now that we have a permanent site at a campground and parked our trailer on it, they won't cover it. I can't figure out how that possibly makes sense... Apparently however we talked to is a moron. We talked to a couple other insurance companies and they said they would cover it with no problem. So we called Liberty Mutual back to see why they wouldn't. I guess when we said the word "permanent" they were thinking more of a trailer park type trailer that we were planning on living in rather than a small camper we just spend weekends in during the summer. So they put it back on our policy and I'm a happy camper. Literally.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 27, 2012 -> 03:36 PM) One of my daughter's friends lives in a trailer park. The first time my daughter went over there she told me, "I want to live with them. They get to camp all the time!" I guess I should give her credit for looking at the bright side?

My wife and I went out the other night and she got a steak and bbq chicken combo and I got a bbq ribs and chicken combo. My meal wasn't technically on the menu but since they serve both items they were nice enough to put them together for me for the price of one of the other combinations. My chicken was perfect but when my wife tried hers it had a distinct fish taste to it. Like the cook had grilled some fish and not cleaned the grill before throwing the chicken on. We mentioned it to the waitress and she said they would make a new one. By the time they brought it out we were pretty much finished so they put it in a box and actually comped one of our meals. We honestly didn't expect that at all and since we knew it wasn't the waitresses fault we tipped her based on what the amount would've been for both meals, essentially giving her a 30% tip. My best tipping story is the time we went to a restaurant and they included our 3-month old daughter who was still in a baby carrier in our group to get us up to 6 people which is when the automatic gratuity kicked in. Then we were subjected to the worst restaurant experience of our lives where nearly everything we ordered they were out of. The topper was having my wife's sister, who by pure coincidence had come to the same restaurant we were at and was actually sitting at a separate table across the room from us, overhear our waitress complaining to the diners at another table about us. We had the manager take the gratuity off and haven't been back since. That was about 13 years ago.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 27, 2012 -> 01:11 PM) Not to mention tornadoes... Campgrounds =/= trailer parks.

So apparently Liberty Mutual will cover our pop-up camper as long as we tow it with our suburban every time we want to go camping. Now that we have a permanent site at a campground and parked our trailer on it, they won't cover it. I can't figure out how that possibly makes sense...

QUOTE (SnB @ Feb 23, 2012 -> 12:48 PM) I can't do microwave pizza - I'm a texture guy. My wife bases a lot of her tastes on textures. She doesn't like beans because they are too gritty. She doesn't like yogurt with fruit in it because it's too slimy. She can't stand soggy cereal. I don't really care about the texture as long as it tastes OK.

Heading north on I-290 just before Woodfield mall I saw a billboard for (I assume) a new minor league baseball team of some sort. It said "Guaranteed championship in the first 100 years, or your money back."

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 21, 2012 -> 01:29 PM) You people are way too f***ing picky. Throw it in the microwave no matter what kind it is. ^^^This.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 21, 2012 -> 08:59 AM) The problem lies in the amount of force they're using, not the method. It's just a quick jerk. You're not jarring the dog and you're not lifting his feet off the ground. If you're doing that, you're yanking way too hard. You want to do it just enough to get his attention, no harder. I understand how it's supposed to be done. But I've also seen that it's possible for people that are supposed to know what they are doing to do it incorrectly. The other methods I described take that risk away. There were other things the trainers did that I didn't like as well. One of them was getting the dog to sit when you stop by literally stepping on their back foot.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Feb 20, 2012 -> 02:08 PM) As for leash training, you want to train him to walk at your pace or behind you even, not in front of you and not leading or dragging you. Any time he begins to pull ahead, you make a quick tug on his leash to correct him. If he continues to try and lead, you refuse to move until he realizes YOU are the one walking him, and not vice versa. Quick corrections are the key to teaching him this. Not huge mean whiplash tugs, but quick jerks every time he tries to pull ahead. It can seem impossible at first, but it works with repetition. We had our dog in training classes and they said not to use that method. They had a greyhound as their personal dog and I guess another trainer did that and it jarred the greyhound so badly that it wouldn't go anywhere on the leash for 2 weeks. The method we were taught was to hold the leash towards the bottom right against your leg so the dog doesn't have a lot of slack to fall behind or get ahead. Once it gets used to walking in that position you can gradually let the leash out. When we moved up to the advanced training class (same place, different trainers) they taught the jerking method of correction. When they took our dog and did it her front feet were literally coming off the floor. We left and never went back. Another method I've seen to start walking and if the dog gets too far ahead immediately turn around and walk the other direction. Eventually the dog will get the hint that he needs to stay behind/beside you.

Actually, I think it was the Astros that had switched pitchers and I was too far away to read the name on the back of his jersey. Seriously though that scoreboard is useless if you don't know all the players numbers. I much prefer the scoreboards that give you the players last name and can show you stuff like current season stats, what they did in their last AB, ect...

Those are the first 4 words of a classic joke. The punch line is "Me too, because mine's as big as a hat."

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 16, 2012 -> 04:21 PM) And with a scoreboard there would be less reason to pay attention. I'm the opposite. I went to a game at Wrigley once. It was the Astros and Cubs so I really didn't care who won but I stop paying attention for a few minutes and missed a pitching change. Since I didn't have the players #'s memorized I had no idea who was on the mound. If there was a scoreboard with that info on it, it would be easier to start paying attention again if you miss a few minutes.

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Feb 16, 2012 -> 09:00 AM) Our Vizsla pup, who we picked up last Saturday, apparently has fleas. And our two cats, who apparently have been eating the fleas, now have worms. We got the topical treatments from the vet for both the cats and the pup (and the cats got the pills for dealing with the worms) and I know we need to do a pretty thorough cleaning of the house to get rid of any and all fleas. Has anyone else dealt with the flea issue before? What do we need to do to make sure they don't come back? What products have people had sucess with? Frontline seems to work pretty well for us. We've always found it cheapest at Farm & Fleet.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 05:54 PM) I don't have anything to add, I would just like to applaud you and your wife's actions. It is a noble deed, indeed. We have a small house so he has to stay in our basement (which is finished) but it's not the first time we've had somebody down there. My best friend and his wife lived with us for a little while. My wife's best friend and her two kids stayed with us for a couple of weeks when they had a house fire. Another friend of ours, her boyfriend and their baby lived with us for a few months as well. Growing up my parents always had friends and family members living with them for one reason or another for months or years at a time. So I guess it's not that big of a deal for me.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 03:47 PM) Need to find out if a there was more than just the power of attorney. If they opened up a guardianship, there are some limitations to what the guardian can/can't do. They're supposed to be looking after his affairs for his benefit, not their own. If he just signed the POA, you could attempt to get that invalidated since he didn't have the mental capacity to sign it. That'd require something from his doctor. That's why you normally would open up an estate to get the same powers as a POA, without the need for him to agree to it. I'd talk to an attorney about it. If you're talking about a few thousand bucks lost, since you stopped them from getting anything in the future i'd move on. At some point getting an attorney involved becomes a financial decision - is it worth it? A few thousand bucks? Probably not. I'm guessing this couple, if they're stealing from him, are a bunch of deadbeats anyway. Even if you got a judgment you couldn't collect. I'd talk to an attorney about it. If you're talking about a few thousand bucks lost, since you stopped them from getting anything in the future i'd move on. At some point getting an attorney involved becomes a financial decision - is it worth it? A few thousand bucks? Probably not. I'm guessing this couple, if they're stealing from him, are a bunch of deadbeats anyway. Even if you got a judgment you couldn't collect. That's what I'm leaning towards. They have 5 or 6 kids of their own, no jobs and their house is in foreclosure. Mark it down as a learning experience and move on. I'm sure they'll get what's coming to them eventually. QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 15, 2012 -> 03:47 PM) Tough situation. People are assholes. Yes they are. What's funny is that the guy is/was a church pastor. He drives a mini-van plastered with bible quotations all over it. Guess they don't practice what they preach.

That's a big mess because the couple he was with wouldn't allow him to be re-tested even though he got a letter saying that he would lose his benefits if he wasn't. They wouldn't let him talk to his case worker or anyone else that might help him. In fact, they got upset with my wife when she started digging this stuff up and started to help him.

So my wife and I met this guy sometime last year. He's 26 but he has some mental retardation so he has the mental capacity of about a 13-year-old. He can drive and could probably manage to hold a job and live on his own but there are a few things he doesn't know how to do. Cooking, cleaning, paying bills, etc... Both of his parents died within the past 3 years so he gets money from social security. When we met him he had been living with a couple that he constantly complained about. It turns out they were not taking care of him properly, lying to him and stealing his money. So we invited him to live with us while we get everything straightened out. The biggest problem was that they had him sign a power of attorney so they could have access to his bank account. He had no idea what kind of power/access he was giving them when he signed it. The POA has been revoked but going over his bank statements from the past year or so his balance steadily went down from about $3000 to basically zero. The couple was transferring money from his bank account to their own. The last transfer was done a day or so after he moved out of their house and into ours, so the money obviously wasn't being spent on him. We changed the password on his account so they couldn't access it online anymore after the POA was revoked. Even after that they still went to the bank in person to try to take out money. Thankfully the bank denied them. We've talked to the people at the social security office to see if there's anyway he can get the money back from them but they said that since he signed a POA there's nothing they can do. That doesn't sound right to me. If nothing else they should be required to provide receipts to show what the money was spent on. They also have a storage shed in their name with his stuff in it but they are refusing to open it so he can get his stuff out. We are debating on contacting a lawyer to see if we even have a case and if we do what the chances are of actually getting anything out of them. Thoughts?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 14, 2012 -> 10:05 AM) I would have gone the old lady at home route but unfortunately we don't really know anyone that does it. I think we got incredibly lucky with our 3 kids. My wife's mom watched them for many years. We paid her but it was only like $100 a week. Even when they starting going to school we just had the buses pick them up and drop them off there.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 12:21 PM) Cats are very careful creatures, the chances of catching a stray one are pretty remote. We've had 4 different cats show up at our house since we've lived there. One we gave up to animal control and one was an outdoor cat who just disappeared one day. He only stuck around for a couple of months. The other two we still have. All the other cats we've ever had were from people that were giving them away for one reason or another.