atx_newbie

My dad had the same issue about 7-8 years ago. He slipped a disk which pinched a nerve, and his entire left arm was numb from the shoulder down to the fingertips. He was afraid of having the surgery, so he just put up with it for about 2 months, getting through each day with about 10 vicodin. He finally bucked up and had the surgery, and to this day when asked about it he says that not getting the surgery right away was the dumbest thing he has ever done.

Having experienced this myself, I'd say this is justified.

Forget the chicken. Not only does it taste like garbage without a lot of extra fats added to the dish, it's been shown that chicken diets don't work nearly as well as red meat or fish diets. Red meat and fish both have more protein than chicken, which results in a higher boost to your metabolism. But I know that chicken is cheap, so here are my uses for it: 1) Blackened chicken. Just cover the breast in black pepper and sear on high heat (make sure to disable the smoke detector). This makes for a very spicy, crispy breast that's still pretty low fat. Serve with sauteed spinach, garlic, onions, and broccoli. The other thing I do is just get ground chicken, which is a great substitute for ground beef in dishes ranging from burgers to meatballs to chili. While it's true that some cuts of beef and pork are very fatty, for the most part the meat doesn't contribute the fat to a dish. That comes more from the method of preparation. Most people use way too much butter and oil when cooking. And with today's nonstick cookware you really don't need more than just a slight misting with a squirt bottle. Also, the carbs in a dish will be much more detrimental to your waistline than the fat from meats. Try substituting pasta for sauteed mixed greens, and sub potatoes for heartier veggies like carrots and brocolli.

I know that most of these suggestions are being made jokingly, just make sure that you don't lose your cool and actually do something stupid. Make sure to stay strictly within the law on this, or you could make things a lot worse from you. Illinois state laws are designed to be very friendly to the tenants, so you don't want to do anything that will jeopardize your legal footing. Believe me though, after 7 years in the business, you have no idea how many times I've wanted to go Tony Soprano style on some deadbeat.

One less obstacle to the Saints domination of the division! Now if only the Panthers would trade away Stewart and Smith...

If he is on a lease then you are lucky, because you have the legal power of the lease on your side. If the lease expires and neither party gives a notice to vacate, then the lease becomes a month-to-month lease, which is still legally binding. Leases never actually expire without notice being given. So, if that is what's going on here, then he is still on a lease, and since he has not paid rent for this month, then he is breaking the lease. Send him an eviction notice. You can find templates for them online, just fill in all the necessary information. Deliver that to the apartment (slip it under the door if he isn't home). Five business days later, you will be able to take a copy of this notice to the sheriff's department, who will send a sheriff by to serve a more official notice. This usually gets them out. If that doesn't work, then 10 days after the sheriff's notice was served, you file for a court date with the county clerk. Then they set a court date, then you can finally get him out. A tenant not paying rent can usually get almost 2 months of free rent before all the legal preceedings are taken care of. This process sucks for landlords. (Note: These steps are based on Texas/Louisiana laws where I have spent about 7 years doing this. I'm not sure what the laws are in Illinois. Call the county clerk's office and they should explain it to you.)

I'm excited too. I had the same surgery (ACL reconstruction) back in November, so I'll be interested to see how his golf game, especially his power, returns. Granted, I'm not at that level, but I was playing to about a 5 or 6 handicap and would like to return to that form. So I'll be interested to see the full effects of his surgery.

I agree. I think Josh Hartnett is a very underrated actor, and one of these days he'll come into his own. He just hasn't quite gotten the right role yet. I thought the movie was very good. Very Tarantino-ish, but with a little bit more humor.

Personally, if I ever have kids, I'll kill them if they ever follow in my footsteps. I would much prefer they follow in their Aunt/Uncle's footsteps.

I used to be an ultra-competitive Scrabble player, so I memorized every 2, 3, and 4-letter word in the official scrabble dictionary. I've forgotten about half of them, but I still can't get anyone to play with me. They just don't believe that words like "qat" and "zax" are words, and try to tell me that I can't play them if I don't know what they mean.

Ok, that makes a lot more sense. If you've ever seen The Wire, I was thinking about that scene where Omar is going to the grocery store in the hood to get cereal in his PJs and can't find a way to carry his .44. Speaking of The Wire, Muddy have you heard the Tom Waits version of "Way Down in the Hole"? They used a different version of that song for each season, and the last season had a version by Tom Waits. You should check it out if you haven't heard it, I think it would be right up your alley.

Maybe I'm missing something, but why do you need to be strapped when you're in your underwear?

That's absolutely the funniest thing that I have read in a long time. Thank you, sincerely.

First advice, get a good Realtor. If you do that, you won't need any other advice. Every statistic available shows that you will sell faster with a Realtor than on your own. Imagine this scenario: You list with an agent, who has your home sold in 60 days (industry standard). Using the agent costs you about 10k in commission. Now lets say you list on your own and sell in 90 days. So you have already made another mortgage payment in that time. You have also spent money on signs and newspaper ads. Finally, you have to figure out what your time is worth, and add that into the equation because you will spend a lot time running around doing things that an agent would do. Lastly, what happens when a couple years later the couple that buys the house finds something wrong with it that you were supposed to disclose, but didn't. Now you're in a very expensive lawsuit. There is a reason that people get paid to do what they do. I tried to build a bed once, because I saw one that I wanted but it was too expensive for my tastes. Well, I ended up spending almost the same amount to build a much poorer bed. Finally, remember that there are differences between real estate agents and Realtors. Realtors are required to subscribe to a higher code of ethics than "just obeying the laws." Make sure your agent is a Realtor.

That's actually not uncommon at all. I saw a Discovery channel special about the violence of chimps. Supposedly, chimps kill more people in Africa each year than lions (though I think that number could be skewed because you don't always find the body of someone killed by a lion). Anyway, I always thought chimps just ate fruits. As it turns out, their main diet consists of other monkeys. When attacking, their strategy is always to attack the extremities to disable their opponent. And when they attack a male, yes, the groin is considered an extremity. There was a story about a guy getting attacked at a zoo and "certain parts" of his anatomy were thrown up to 50 feet away. Pound for pound, the chimp is like 3 times stronger than humans, so we don't really stand a chance against one that goes crazy.

I think it's terrible. Not smoking, the fact that people are still looking to profit from the deaths of smokers. In the movie "Thank You for Smoking" the protagonist claims that the American Lung Association gets happy when people, especially kids, get cancer. When I first saw the movie, I dismissed that line as crazy. The more stories like this that I see, the more I believe that line. With all the education and warnings available, there is not one person who can honestly say that they don't know cigarrettes are harmful. I smoked for 4 years, knowing full and well what would happen to my health. Seriously, do you really think that if you walked up to a smoker and said "You know those things cause cancer?" that he would say, "Oh my, are you serious. Well then I'm going to quit right now!"

Sam, thanks a lot. I will look for it today.

Colloquialisms and pronunciation differences are one thing. I'm from Louisiana, so I think that the english language has never sounded better than when it is spoken by a native of Lafayette, LA. Grammatical issues are another. Good and well are two completely different words, with completely different uses, and using good in place of well is not a dialect issue. It's just bad grammar. Just like in Spanish, bueno (good) and bien (well). Any Spanish speaker will look at you as though you are crazy if they ask "como esta" (how are you) and you reply "bueno" (good).

I would second the canoeing suggestion. Check out this website: http://canoe-camping.org/ It has some pretty good information about canoe trips and rivers all over the U.S., as well as a little bit of information on the fishing along those areas.

For the most part, I can let small grammar mistakes go. But one thing that definitely irritates me is when people mix up good and well, as well as "fixin' to". Needless to say, that makes it tough to watch fishing shows and NASCAR. "Yeah, the car weren't runnin good, but we got in there and fixed it up and now it runs good. Now we're fixin to go win us a race."

Hey guys, about 2 weeks ago I finally got fed up job searching and waiting for someone to hire me, so I decided to buck up and get to work on a business idea that I've had for a while. I finished my web site and designed some business cards and marketing e-mails/flyers, and now I'm about to start marketing. The business is a photography service for real estate agents, so that narrows my prospects somewhat. I've always been a good salesperson, but I don't have any experience in cold calling. If you have experience in cold calling, any tips would be great. Specifically, how do you approach a new area, what strategies do you use to get past secretaries and speak to decision makers?

Most of the large European cities, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Moscow, etc. all have very deep, dark underbellies with strong criminal organizations. By and large, some of those places make East L.A. seem like Peoria.

So about two hours ago I walked into the kitchen determined to create a new recipe. The girlfriend always gets scared when I do that. Anyway, here I am eating the best bowl of soup ever. Chicken, gnocchi, and brocoli. And I only caught the dog on fire once...

What recession, eh?

I'm having leftover chocolate covered strawberries with a side of brownies. Maybe later i'll add a slice of Lou Malnati's chicago style pizza