Useless Conversation

[MahrinSkel]

If you're prepared, tornadoes really aren't a big deal. You have a basement room with bottled water, when the sirens/alerts hit you grab a few boxes of granola bars and go down to it. Once upon a time you'd play board games to distract each other, now everybody just plays games or websurfs on handheld devices (unless the internet/power goes out, but I'd probably just fire up the mobile hotspot on one of the phones even then). If you start hearing that freight-train rumble, get everybody to link arms and huddle in the strongest corner.

--Dave

[MisterNoisy]

If you're prepared, tornadoes really aren't a big deal. You have a basement room with bottled water, when the sirens/alerts hit you grab a few boxes of granola bars and go down to it. Once upon a time you'd play board games to distract each other, now everybody just plays games or websurfs on handheld devices (unless the internet/power goes out, but I'd probably just fire up the mobile hotspot on one of the phones even then). If you start hearing that freight-train rumble, get everybody to link arms and huddle in the strongest corner.

--Dave

Agreed, but no basements in coastal Florida (lots of canned food and bottled water because hurricanes) and we pretty much had zero warning.  One minute, I'm cooking dinner - the next, the power is out and the whole building is shaking while what sounds like a freight train passes overhead.  Fortunately, the cell towers remained up the whole time and I was able to keep everyone's phones charged on my UPS.  During the aftermath, I shared my dinner with the neighbors and we all wrecked my wine supply while surveying the damage and shooting the shit.

Scary while it was happening, but managed to make it a not-terrible evening.

[schild]

Where do you end up staying in Vegas?

Venetian, every time. Best food.

The guy who owns the Venetian is a complete shithead or that is probably where I would stay too. I would lean to Wynn or Bellagio instead, or maybe Aria. Someplace with a robust poker room.

Sheldon Adelson barely matters anymore and my host at the Venetian is amazing. Also, everyone that owns a casino is a shithead. It's literally a pre-requisite for owning a den committed to supporting addiction.

If anyone likes, and gambles >$1k a day over time, I'm happy to send you his way.

[Abagadro]

I really liked the Aria when I was down there last. Todd English has a great pub there with killer food (mmm, brown butter lobster rolls) and great beer selection (go during "happy hour" which is like 3-6 and 10-midnight for 1/2 price on-tap beer and food specials).  Sit at the bar.

http://www.toddenglishpub.com/File/9671e8b8-519c-4801-b752-e8d7df42d766

[Chimpy]

The sushi restaurant at the Aria is good.

[Endie]

You live in tornado country long enough, you kind of grow immune to them.

It is important to remember that this is not true.

[rattran]

Immune to panic over them happens. I have a radio that gives alerts for when I'm in tornado areas, the wife is still at the stage of wanting to go hide whenever it goes off. I just check the radar and outside sky, and make sure everything is ready just in case.

[HaemishM]

You live in tornado country long enough, you kind of grow immune to them.

It is important to remember that this is not true.

Good point. 

[schild]

I really liked the Aria when I was down there last. Todd English has a great pub there with killer food (mmm, brown butter lobster rolls) and great beer selection (go during "happy hour" which is like 3-6 and 10-midnight for 1/2 price on-tap beer and food specials).  Sit at the bar.

http://www.toddenglishpub.com/File/9671e8b8-519c-4801-b752-e8d7df42d766

The pub there is genuinely delicious. V/P just attracts a more likeable normal crowd. I've found people that stay at Aria and to a degree, the Bellagio, really want people to know they stay at those particular hotels.

I've eaten all across the strip and simply put, V/P is basically our permanent residence when we're out here now because of Cut, Carnevino, Yardbird, etc. Had Cut last night, still one of my top five meals ever. So consistent and amazing. Our host actually ate with us, it was a good time.

[Viin]

The Mandalay Bay is the nicest hotel I've stayed at in LV. The Luxor is by far the worst (at least on the Strip). I still find Vegas boring, I can only play craps and roulette so much.

[Abagadro]

Venetian has a really nice poker room. Other than lunch in the mall there I haven't really sampled the restaurants since we usually stay further south on the strip.  I'll have to check it out. 

We actually stayed at the Vdara which is next to Aria (just ate and gambled 90 percent in the Aria).   It was nice since it is a non-casino property so has a bit more laid back feel. Got upgraded to a nice corner executive suite there and enjoyed it quite a bit.

[MisterNoisy]

So I subbed to Blue Apron thanks to a free week from my brother.  The packaging is great (if wasteful as fuck) and the ingredients they send are pretty solid in terms of quality, but I hate following other people's recipes unless I'm baking.  It's not that the food is bad, but it takes the fun out of cooking on some level.

[Sky]

Seems a bit weird to me, but I have a whole ritual I learned from my singer's dad. Hit the market after work, see what's freshest and buy ingredients accordingly. I enjoy the ritual of it, talking to the butcher and veg guy, often they point me toward something they know I'll like or set something aside for me.

[Mandella]

Seems a bit weird to me, but I have a whole ritual I learned from my singer's dad. Hit the market after work, see what's freshest and buy ingredients accordingly. I enjoy the ritual of it, talking to the butcher and veg guy, often they point me toward something they know I'll like or set something aside for me.

I can certainly respect that approach, but I'm too much of a planner to do either that or something like Blue Apron. I decide what I'm going to make, then sometimes end up on some multi-store search to collect ingredients.

Which often puts me at odds with my wife, who is actually involved in the organization of the local farmers market and frequently brings home some ultra fresh beets or whatever that I look at and go, "well, that looks great, but it's not going into the Etouffee I have planned for tonight."

[Sky]

In farmer market season, I hit that before going to the supermarket or butcher. I just love the improvisational and explorational experience of it.

[WayAbvPar]

Seems a bit weird to me, but I have a whole ritual I learned from my singer's dad. Hit the market after work, see what's freshest and buy ingredients accordingly. I enjoy the ritual of it, talking to the butcher and veg guy, often they point me toward something they know I'll like or set something aside for me.

I can certainly respect that approach, but I'm too much of a planner to do either that or something like Blue Apron. I decide what I'm going to make, then sometimes end up on some multi-store search to collect ingredients.

Which often puts me at odds with my wife, who is actually involved in the organization of the local farmers market and frequently brings home some ultra fresh beets or whatever that I look at and go, "well, that looks great, but it's not going into the Etouffee I have planned for tonight."

If I brought fresh beets home my wife would punch me in the mouth. Because beets are fucking repugnant.

[Viin]

What? Good beets are awesome.

[Abagadro]

Bleh. Last time I tried a beet was at one of the best restaurants in the world (French Laundry) and even those master chefs couldn't make it any good.

[Ironwood]

Inception with a nine year old.  And she understood it better than almost any adult.

Not sure if that's more a comment on the movie than the audience.

[Yegolev]

Belize is kinda sucky.

[apocrypha]

Inception with a nine year old.  And she understood it better than almost any adult.

Not sure if that's more a comment on the movie than the audience.

Little from column A, little from column B probably.

The younger you are the more nonsense you're prepared to accept as normal.

[Hammond]

Belize is kinda sucky.

Where you staying? I enjoyed it but I scuba dived pretty much the whole time. The rest of the guys in our group were fishermen and they seemed to enjoy themselves quite a bit.

[Yegolev]

I had a pretty good time, but I was glad to come home.  I didn't miss the fast food, and in fact I really liked the local dishes.  I didn't really like the lack of infrastructure, and really didn't like the wildlife in my rooms and the leaky roof and the very unsilent air conditioners.  I don't swim so I didn't participate in possibly the main reason to go to Belize.

Right, you asked where I stayed.  Two nights at the Radisson in Belize City, which is pretty nice for Belize.  Two nights in the Log Cab-Inn outside San Ignacio, where I was invaded by a lizard and could not hear the television over the A/C.  Three nights at Banana Beach in Ambergris Caye, south end of San Pedro, where the roof leaked.

[Hammond]

Yea in general I would avoid Belize City the whole area around it is pretty poor infrastructure wise and there is a incredible amount of crime. We stayed in a VRBO on Ambergris Caye and it was pretty nice and quite a bit better than any of the resorts on the island.  We ended up renting a golf cart and cruised around the island quite a bit. The food was pretty amazing and nearly everything we ate was fresh caught that day. (quite a bit by the fisherman in our groups as well).

[Chimpy]

... where I was invaded by a lizard ....

 

[rattran]

The Revenant II : Yegolev

[Yegolev]

There was also a lizard in the 3rd location.  I was more bothered by the leaky roof.  In the 2nd place, there were also mysterious bees.  Found a couple in the room and many around the porch light.

I felt an equal amount of safe on the entire trip.  Ambergris Caye is touristy and I expected tourist predators.  Belize City is a lot like Dying Light but without the nice buildings and roads.

[Yegolev]

Rubber meeting the road: my wife incredulously reviews the available health insurance plans and asks "Why do we even HAVE insurance?!"

[Trippy]

Cause you have kids?

[Sky]

From our experiences last year: you want something with co-pays not co-insurance. It's worth the money.

[Yegolev]

Cause you have kids?

I suppose it would be for anyone's expensive treatment, not just the boy.  Someone will have to get pretty sick to hit this deductible.

I was going to do some work tonight while my son is at a scout meeting, but the guest wifi here has decided that SSL isn't going to happen.

[Morat20]

Rubber meeting the road: my wife incredulously reviews the available health insurance plans and asks "Why do we even HAVE insurance?!"

Yep, all I have are HDHP's. I wish to hell I could shop on the exchanges, I'd get a better fit for my needs. Instead it's...HDHP. I hate my company.

Also microwave died. I suppose I could unmount it (over the stove kind), disconnect the vent hood, get a new one, screw in new bolts and connect it. (It just plugs in, power wise). OR....I could pay someone 50 bucks and I don't have to find my power drill. (Plus I'd probably drop the damn thing onto my stove and crack it, or fail to seal the vent properly, or some other dumb mistake. I suck at that sort of thing).

Lowes and Home Depot make decent money off of me being too lazy to install crap.

[Yegolev]

If they break your stovetop, they will be liable to replace it.  That's something to consider.

[Morat20]

If they break your stovetop, they will be liable to replace it.  That's something to consider.

A thought very much on my mind. Also if they somehow burn my house down.

Replace the seal on a fridge? I can do that. The heating element on an electric oven? I can do that (after throwing the right break and fifteen checks with a voltmeter). Make sure that microwave isn't going to fall down? Not so much...

I won't even hang a TV on the wall. You can't see studs, and I just don't trust that I actually hit one. Stud-finder or not. I just have visions of cracking plaster and falling heavy things.

Plus, Lowes has several models that'll work and apparently it's pretty cheap for an install through them. Heck, I replaced both toilets a year or two back and that was only like 120 for install. And no leaks....

[Yegolev]

For studs, you know you hit them if wood bits come out while drilling.  The stud-finder I have is unreliable.  You can also look for nails.  Often you can assume that there is a stud on one side of a light switch or electrical outlet.