trinacriabob

Hey, look, someone copied the front of my '08 LaCrosse. Seriously, I wouldn't feel comfortable behind the wheel of an expensive car. It's not me. If I had some serious moolah around, I might look for a perfect low-mileage 75 or 76 Cutlass Supreme or Grand Prix, which aren't cheap BTW, to garage, drive on the weekends, and continue babying.

I admire ALL of you for making, or even trying to make, an omelette. I can't cook. The only time I get NEAR an omelette is at a buffet where you can order one from the omelette chef. But, since we're talking about omelettes, my favorite ingredients for them are a white cheese (provolone and/or Swiss), mushrooms and spinach.

Just out of curiosity...you served, but did you get put on a jury? Several of my co-workers go, and then aren't put on to a jury...the attorneys (defense or prosecution, depends) don't seem to like the coat and tie folks since they can THINK. At least, that's what I've heard.

thunder

No. Not weird at all. Russian is good and I just got a bottle of it during a 99 cent salad dressing sale. They are VERY similar to each other, though I think Russian is sweeter and French is more tart.

cellulite fat asses usually have "cottage cheese," LOL.

Postponement is cool. That's what I wanted. Just a couple of days or a week later. I should be able to get that, no?

Saint Nick

What genre is Aerosmith "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from Armageddon considered?

I hope you realize this will be "tiered" according to age and life experiences. I listen almost exclusively to jazz and blues. No apologies. Many great jazz musicians are black. I don't know why that is. Joe Sample, in my mind, is off the charts. He is a genius. Also, I like listening and driving to dance/techno. You will hear way more of it in Europe when channel surfing. They are way more into this than classic rock, it seems. Again, I don't know why. The only other place in the U.S. I associate with dance music is South Florida. There is station there that announces its call number and then says in a booming voice "Miami....Fort Lauderdale...and the Palm Beaches...where dance music lives..." It must be something have to do with the Caribbean vibe of the place. Ok, back to those of you who understand rock way better than I do....

Well, well, I go to my mailbox and I see a jury summons. I don't mind. I haven't seen one since college when I got an exemption every time. However, they are fairly automated and show a start date with call-in numbers and blah-blah-blah. Do you know if they can adjust the start date by a couple of days? I don't want a postponement...just a movement a couple of days back. What do you know about this?

rug rat

I love Caesar dressing. I was about to buy some and looked at the nutritionals. A basic serving has something like 31% of your daily fat values. Holy $h!. Peppercorn ranch is also delicious. However, I don't like anything spicy. If I see that word, I run.

Right, love that crumbled feta cheese on the salad and love tsatziki (sp) sauce as well. But, what I've found is that a whole swath of ethnicities do Greek/Mediterranean cuisine and the further east they come from, the less authentic it gets. That being said, Greeks run the best Greek restaurants. Lebanese and Palestinian types also have some real nice flavors in their cuisines, though one can tell it's a little different from what the Greeks will put together. I'm saying this because, near my work, there are some Mediterranean restaurants run by Afghans or Indians and, you know what, I walk in and one is overpowered by the scents...particularly of curry. If I'm looking for souvlaki or kabobs, I don't want a whole slew of curry based dishes on the menu and nothing that looks Greek/Lebanese. I was starving one day and told a friend of mine to meet me at this restaurant for lunch. We get there and it was nothing like we had expected, so we headed to a Mexican restaurant. Hey, you're in PHX, do you like Daphne's? Not bad for a chain.

I put down Bleu Cheese because that's what I insitictively ordered as a kid or teenager. However, the reality of it is that the brand of bleu cheese made a world of difference. Nothing can touch the bleu cheese from Bob's Big Boy. I used to put it on my Big Boy combo's salad and order a side of it in which to dip my fries. I would now say that Thousand Islands seems to be more reliable. It's almost always good whereas Bleu Cheese is more variable. I do NOT like Italian dressing...it's kind of boring. However, the Italians think we're weird because we put "mayonnaise on our salad," as one commented to me. What type of dressing do you prefer?

pervasive

Ok, I just went to the Ford site. The Focus SE (one level up) sedan with the following: Mechanical - auto trans instead of stick Exterior - alloy wheels Interior - the driver's package which includes cruise controls, remote audio controls and a leather wrapped steering wheel amounts to: $19,670. I was expecting about $750 to $1,250 less. Hitting close to $20,000 is more than I thought. It had better be a 200,000 + mile car. I definitely like the Astra 2-door coupe. I've seen their Opel equivalent in Europe, but never inspected one up close.

...hmmm...sounds interesting. I've never had it, and don't recall hearing about it. I do know that, when one drives up the central inland part of Calif., betw. Bakersfield and Fresno, there are all those FREE almond tasting places. So 'effin tasty. Therefore, I'd probably like almond butter a lot.

hate

The month of August means higher rental car prices in California, but I somehow managed $22.00 a day for a compact 2 weekends ago. I went up over the Sierra and to Reno for the weekend, so I figured I'd pick up a rental. (I don't gamble, so it was buffet time...damn, my beloved $8.99 breakfast buffet at the Reno Hilton's "The Lodge" has deteriorated since it changed over to the Grand Sierra Resort). I really like the styling changes on the Focus sedan. They've improved its appearance over the last-gen model. I can't say the same for the changes they've made to the coupe. The previous-gen hatchback coupe with the lights up in the rear pillars was unique. I once rented one and thought it was almost fun to drive. So, now, after many attempts to get a Focus and always being given a Cobalt or Corolla, I finally got to try a Focus when renting within the compact category. It was a silver 4-door base model. It's an attractive vehicle and there is nothing quirky about it. The side character lines/indentations work well and the greenhouse is proportionate to the overall look of the car. Inside, it is fairly roomy. Visibility is great and the C-pillar picks up those "opera windows." Thank God, the headrests don't create a "problem" as they do in the Cobalt or Malibu. While I like those cars, the rear visibility is compromised by the headrests and I immediately (unsuccesfully) tried to remove them from my rentals. In the Focus, the headrest profiles mesh nicely with the rear seat design, so they seem to make sense. The seats are fairly comfortable. At this price point, one can't expect nice upholstery...nor a high level of ergonomic comfort. As I said, it was a base model -- it had the power windows, the power locks, the power mirror adjustments but NO cruise control. I couldn't have made much use of it, but had it been I-40 in Oklahoma, that might have been different. The overall layout of the dash and controls makes a lot of sense. The best thing is the cowl/eyelid at the top of the center stack. It has the clock and some other basis information whereas the Cobalt and Malibu have a storage bin. Here, the storage compartments are placed lower, in the console. All of the instrumentation and controls are predictably placed and the shift lever/console have a good feel. There were 3 things about the car I didn't like though - (1) the secondary gauges in the instrument cluster are real small, (2) the climate control center has small buttons and is busier than it needs to be, and (3) the graphics on the speedometer and tach are the friggin' ugliest I've seen...at night, they are both blue and red. I still can't get over these ugly graphics. The trunk is very reasonably sized for a car this size. Driving the car was fairly predictable. It's comparable to the Cobalt and maybe a little firmer than a Corolla, which has gotten increasingly more vague over the years. The shifts of the 4-speed automatic are smooth and can be felt -- not as clean as those of a Fusion/Milan or a LaCrosse, but not bad either. It rides nicely over even freeway pavement, but rougher pavement can send the drone-type sound into the cabin. It can take an acceptable amount of lean, but pushed hard into a cloverleaf or a curve, it becomes questionable. On 2-lane roads in the Sierra, it wasn't looking to do acrobatics, just provide nuts-and-bolts transportation. The 2.0 litre Duratec DOHC 4 cylinder has supposedly been worked into being a good engine and now reportedly has a long service life. Damn, are they "ugly" when you pop the hood. For some reason, Ford engine compartments don't look as "organized" as those of GM. However, for everyday driving, there is enough spunk and the only range in which it seems to be lacking is the high-speed pass (i.e. trying to overtake a semi going up the Donner Grade). Consumer Reports seems to give this car a good share of "red dots." I didn't like the fact that the base model was as austere as it was...not having cruise control is kind of weird. I think that the "one level up" model, in 4-door form, could be a very cost-effective form of transportation for many people. It doesn't cost much to buy, it's easy to maintain, they seem to last a fairly long time and, based on the mix of driving I did, it seemed to use fuel sparingly. I probably will never own a car smaller than a Malibu or a Fusion/Milan, but the new Ford Focus is very competent for its price point.

0 ok, we're even...

expensive (Bill, it's fairly sad that you are one of the chronologically most senior people here, irrespective of your date rollbacks, and you have to keep insulting people like this)

cream of asparagus (can you TRY to keep it clean...)

I was trying to look for SOMETHING redeemable in the OP picture. While not a Cutlass, the 81-87 MC body shell wasn't half bad. MCs with a 4.3 Vortec TBI V6 and buckets/console were sensible cars, with a long-lived engine and decent fuel economy. But, true, what we see here is a monstrosity.

wheat