zeitgeist57

I hate to throw the cheap, Chinese-made towel into the ring... But a lot of Harbor Freight toolboxes are actually solid buys. I have a couple of craftsman units and they're good, but I just got an on-sale HF base roller and the quality is just as good if not better for less than $200. If anything, the steel and drawers/doors feel great, it's the fasteners that feel a little cheap but time will tell.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/12/20/506146595/pentagon-shelves-blast-gauges-meant-to-detect-battlefield-brain-injuries Heard this on NPR in my morning drive...talk about a backpedal. You cannot help but recognize that the data is aligning itself to shooting a weapon in modern ground warfare can be just as tough as being shot at... If firing off a shoulder-mounted rocket gave someone PTSD-similar symptoms, I can't imagine the legal precedent that would be set to service our veterans.

http://jalopnik.com/this-vw-diesel-owner-is-about-to-turn-in-a-completely-s-1790289804

You're going to tend to see complaints more than praises, as those are the incensed consumers that want to "share" more than satisfied customers. Take a look at Florida - during the 2003-2008 real-estate boom, houses/condos were built to modern codes and looked nice, but the materials (Google "Chinese Drywall") and sub-assemblies (HVAC, etc) were cheap......and now, people are paying the price: rotted pipes and rusty wiring inside the walls from sulfur outgassing in the drywall, water tanks and HVAC equipment that gets destroyed by the humidity/salty air and sun. Plus, in every other major metropolitan area, new homes are built on cheap land - generally meaning it's out somewhere where your commute time will escalate. E. Broad street has normal rush-hour traffic that backs up to Waggoner road??? That's 5 miles to I-270!!! Enjoy that daily frustration.

That was one of my few counterpoints. I'd take a sub-$5k Odyssey as a DD over a newer Chrysler all day long.

I used that Uber code on Saturday to get to Park St. Tavern. To E's point, UA to North Market was surge priced to $30+

I think you HAVE to have a realtor as a buyer these days. Realtors ultimately make way more money representing sellers from the bonus they get for listings they represent, as well as buyer's commissions...but a good realtor will spend a bit of time with you. If we sold our home, I'd FSBO. However, it really helps to KNOW WHAT YOU WANT, WHERE, AND WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD beforehand. Don't go "Kinda looking for a deal and I can only go up to $150k". You should seriously narrow down either the type/size of house, features you want or it's going to be a waste of time.

My FiL got a Tesla Model S, and now my wife and MiL are nuts about the ride and speed of a Tesla. My wife wants us to look at a Model 3 when they come out... As a more pragmatic option, I suggested the Pacifica Hybrid. Less than $40k for a well-optioned minivan that will get really good eMPGs and let us "reset": we've got a paid-off 2010 Odyssey, but will need a minivan for the next 15+ years anyway. Bottom line is Bruce's point above: unless someone gets a great deal on a hybrid with as few miles as possible, the economics are hard to work out for hybrid tech unless they're driving more than 200k miles out of the vehicle. OT: My bad for taking this thread off the rails.

Have you looked at some areas between Kenny Rd. and Olentangy River? Also look at the Winterset Rd area north of Henderson and south of Bethel. There are some great single-family neighborhoods that aren't UA schools but safe neighborhoods with great access to all the things. Friend of mine got a divorce a couple of years ago...wife is in a UA house so their kids go to UA schools but he bought a $130k 3/2.5 with a large two-car attached off of Winterset that was nicely reno'd a few years back. Mid-Century ranch with a big basement...he did some work, added a bar in the basement, just a nice place to be for an easily-financed home and he's still able to do dad-things while sill getting around the city well. Quick Google Maps search - Knolls, Knolls West, Olentangy Commons, Northwest Columbus.

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but there will be a correction coming in the next year or so. It won't be a crash, but the market will soften in major metropolitan areas. If you go to an outlier area 30-60minutes away from the city, home prices are more reasonable from a per-square-foot calculation...sounds like a given, but you tend to have blinders on when you're focused on suburbs where the housing market has done nothing but gone up.

As if I haven't said it enough - on a CAR FORUM focused on RACING - if this guy is going into kid #4, he needs a minivan more than his stupid pride around driving an SUV. Odyssey/Sienna/Sedona, then look at Quest/Pacifica/Caravan...All are around 300hp, can easily do 85mph+ cruising on the highway, achieve 25+MPG on regular gas, and even with good tires go most places you'll be taking your young family in any weather. If he's a greenie, then Pacifica Hybrid is coming out and will be cheaper than a Highlander Hybrid. Anyone with more than 3 kids that still gets a CUV is dumb. :dumb:

Can't make it out now, guys...have family dinner plans. Enjoy the get-together!

Congrats on the sale!

Thanks for this thread, CR! I went to my wife who's been bitching about how cold our house is around 66-68 degrees, telling her I was thinking about getting her pajamas. "I'd like an electric blanket", she said. GENIUS IDEA! :thumbup:

If he told you, he'd have to kill you 😉 Berto, Awesome job. I'd love to see more pics of stationary cars over in of these time exposures...didn't you do a friends' Focus that way?

I don't get my wife anything for B-Day, Valentines Day, Anniversary or Christmas. We're pretty blessed and she's tight with what she likes so the few times I've tried she thinks it's sweet but it's usually not needed. We get what we want/need throughout the year for ourselves. I may get her a Pajamagram, because I'm hearing it advertised on Howard Stern and she does like to be comfy when she's sleeping...but that would be it. $heeeit...I can't get anything anyway because all the accounts and credit card activity get alerted on her phone!

Free wheels FTW!!! Where are you sourcing the longtube headers?

SPOILER ALERT :gabe:

He did say "presumably". I heard that the Death Star plans were actually saved on a hard drive with interplanetary cloud backup, so there's no way what he said could actually be true.

Someone who doesn't know when to stop. Believe me, I also see Ryan's vid and I'm tempted to tune Kerry out...

I defended my opinion. It's my choice - and everyone elses - to not be pulled into an unnecessarily-long dialogue online with you, giving credibility to every little comment you make. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. You are the only one saddened by setting such high standards for casual conversation on an internet forum, then laments when responses fail to deliver.

Be Kerry: offer verbose response dissecting someone else's comments, be critical of their position, get upset when people don't engage.

By commenting, you are part of the conversation. If anything, your question is inaccurate when you rehashed my post to read exactly as such: "Where are you trying to take away from this conversation?" Since no one here is a mind-reader, I'll rightfully assume you meant "What are you trying to take away from this conversation?" Even corrected, that question you posed to yourself - for you to answer - is something I don't care to explore. Don't offer some soft backpedal like "kinda going along with the crowd". Admit that you want an engaged dialogue and you're sad that it doesn't go the way you want.

Wow. You chose to not answer my question (normally a good part of having a chat or conversation), but rephrase it into two seperate questions of your choosing and answer at least one of them with a sad, unproductive comment. You sucked all the air out of a conversation that didn't need to happen in the first place, and now you're disappointed enough that you have to converse with yourself.

Where are you trying to take this conversation?