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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.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 02:11 PM) If she is at all a decent driver, put her in the suburban. That's what I learned to drive in and I was comfortable driving vehicles of any size because of it. Also, it is safer. My first "accident" was when someone hit me from behind and I was to nervous to avoid it. The wreck totalled the other vehicle (Z24) but barely dented the bumper on mine. Turns out she was 16 with a new license as well. Her father called mine and wanted to see if everything was OK. My Dad laughed and said don't worry about it and explained the situation. The girl's father's reply....can I buy the Suburban. My mom has driven a suburban for her company for the past 20 years. The only time I've ever seen a Suburban totaled was when one got hit by a semi. QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 02:10 PM) As in how their current styles will look in 4-5 years or what their styles will look in 4-5 years? Thus far they have led the industry in styling, because they had to get noticed and put loads of money into R&D (in US locations primarily). I would be disappointed if they strayed from this business model. EDIT: I will be looking at a Hyundai for my first new car (bought my current 03 Hyundai from the parents who bought it for me to use in high school and during the summers), the Veloster has gotten great reviews and the Elantra and Sonata are leaders in their respective categories. I debated on the Elantra. Slightly smaller car with a slightly lower price tag and the listed MPG is better. My biggest problem was that a power driver-side seat isn't even an option on the Elantra like it is on the Sonata. Plus I like having the slightly bigger back seat if I need to fit all 3 of my kids in there.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 13, 2012 -> 01:53 PM) If you don't drive the old one, you can bump it down to storage insurance until the kid gets the license. She'll still be driving it to get her required experience hours.

We will definitely have to sit down and figure out our insurance costs, but I don't think that kicks in until she's actually a licensed driver. By that time she might have a part time job to help with the costs. If nothing else, we'll just make her the full-time driver on our suburban.

We are going with the Hyundai Sonata.

My wife and I have been having a debate for the past couple of weeks. We are planning on getting a new car in the next 1-3 months. My daughter is 15 and just started taking driving lessons. She has to have her permit for a minimum of 9 months so she won't be getting her license until December at the absolute earliest. The car we have now is a 2003 Grand Prix with over 222,000 miles on it. It has a few minor problems but runs pretty good for the most part (knock on wood). The debate we are having is whether or not to keep the old car for her to drive around so we don't have to worry about her getting into an accident with the new car or trading it in and knocking some money off the new car. My wife wants to keep it so our daughter can drive it and there's no chance of her wrecking the new car. I'm looking at all the added costs of keeping it when the only person that will be driving it doesn't even have a license yet since my wife doesn't drive at all. Our insurance will go up, we still have to keep up the maintenance, plus we have to find a place to park it since we only have a single car driveway that's already filled up with 3 other vehicles. We have full coverage on our car now but if when we get the new one, we could drop to liability on the old one to save a little money. The problem with that is if my daughter has a minor accident (say she backs into something and takes out a taillight and cracks the bumper) then we are on the hook for the cost of the entire repair. Also, if the car suddenly needs some major repair (engine blows, transmission goes out) then we might as well junk it and get something else. At least if we trade it in we'll get something out if it. Even if it's only $1000. We do have a suburban that she could drive if she really needed it but my wife thinks its too big for her. I think she'd actually be safer in it. It takes a lot to wreck a suburban.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 09:46 AM) Obviously Spaceballs is banned in Syria.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Feb 9, 2012 -> 10:55 PM) If I were the person that received that cover letter and resume, I would keep it on my desk long enough to go to a custom stamp-making website, order one that says "DOUCHE" in bolded red lettering, have it shipped to my office, and stamp it on every page of the document. Then I'd piss on it, a la Lou Gramm. Do you mean Lou Brown?

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. Cats aren't for everyone and some cats can be real s***heads. I have four and had 3 others that died already. I've grown up with them my whole life and they've all been vastly different. We have one now that's just about the perfect cat. He's very clean, very mellow, very out-going and very lovable. My girls could pick him up and hold him all day long and he'd be perfectly content.

You already have to remember to take the dog outside at least twice a day. We've just gotten into the habit of filling their bowls one of the times they are outside. Dogs are very food motivated. That's why most people use treats when training their dog. I'm not even sure how you would go about teaching a dog to not eat when the food is always available. Did you actively train yours that way or do they just know to stop when they are full? Dogs jumping on the counter trying to steal food just need to be trained to not do that. It's not because they are hungry and have no food in their bowls.

We've got a 13-year-old Husky that has eaten Purina Dog chow pretty much his whole life. In the past couple of years he's started to gain some weight We think it's because he has arthritis. He's not nearly as active as when he was younger and he's really slow to lay down and get back up again. We also finally had him neutered and that really slowed him down as well. We've also got a 3-year-old Shar-pei/Pug mix and she eats Purina Beneful. She chases the Husky around and keeps him a little more active than he would be on his own otherwise.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 1, 2012 -> 01:29 PM) Wow, I've never even heard of 12" fast pitch softball for guys. They are rare but a few men's teams still exist. QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 1, 2012 -> 01:38 PM) Is that the one that includes stealing and balk moves for pitchers? Yep. I know the women can pitch pretty fast, but I’ve heard of guys that can get up to 80 MPH with a softball. And the mound is only 40 ft away.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 31, 2012 -> 11:07 PM) Used to be that boys did in fact play softball growing up, in Chicago - 16" in particular. Even the high schools had teams. That's all I played growing up. 12" Fast-pitch though. I found it difficult to make the transition to HS baseball though.