GAME05

Wow I never realized that, either. What a great idea to satisfy a sugar craving without doing something stupid.

Charcoal smoker--Absolutely nothing beats the taste of charcoal. But you'll be babying it a lot. Certainly not as much with something as fancy as the Egg, but still you'll be monitoring the temperature constantly and adding charcoal/wood regularly. Although monitoring is easy with a wi-fi thermometer. The cheaper you go with charcoal smokers the thinner the exterior is the more often you'll be out to add more charcoal. The biggest downside when I used mine wasn't so much the monitoring (I'm single so I got the time) but having to get up early and then stay up on a long cook like a pork shoulder. Pulled pork is about a 12-hour cook plus a couple hours to rest, so something to consider if you want that for lunch. But if you see smoking as more of an art, so to speak, charcoal is the way to go since you're getting both the best possible result as well as having to put the most work in. I also have a pellet grill. The flavor is still good and still smokey, though again nothing like charcoal. But it's definitely the easiest. Last weekend I put a brisket on at 9pm and then went to bed. When I woke up I pulled it off. Simple. Mine does get up to about 600 degrees, so it'll grill ok, but because there's no direct heat on a pellet grill you lose that, and the direct heat is really where the flavor comes from in grilling. Best to think of a pellet grill more like a smoker and an outdoor oven. Pellets run basically the same price as charcoal and are easy to find in stores. Worth noting that the hotter you go the less smoke you produce, so don't expect much smokey flavor if you're out to grill a steak in five minutes. I use mine all the time. It's great to have both the grill and smoker in one, and you really can't beat the convenience of being able to turn a knob to set the temperature, closing the lid, and then forgetting about it until dinnertime. I've heard varying opinions of Traeger since they're now made in China, though many folks still love them. Yoder is the top brand if you've got money coming out your ears. I have a Rec-Tec. There's one brand where you can attach a pizza oven and a Woodwind model where you can attach a small propane grill to the side. Price obviously depends on the size you get, but also the quality of the PID controller (controls temperature/pellet auger) and the quality of the build. Cheaper ones will have more temperature spikes where it'll go up 50 degrees for 20-40 minutes for no reason, though a temperature spike like that isn't the biggest deal in the world with the finished product. Most now will come with Wi-Fi though you usually need a decent internet at home to get it working. Offset smokers--Same as charcoal smoker. Nice if you have your own supply of wood. Can get them cheap and the quality depends on the thickness of the metal. Electric smoker--Also cheap to get going. Also very convenient to just set the temperature and that's it. Most typically there's one burner in it to control both the temperature and get the wood smoking, and so it doesn't end up making much smoke since the burner is off and on. Low final food quality but a great entry cost to get into it and super convenient. For a pellet smoker in Wisconsin you may also want to consider getting a welder's blanket so you can insulate it during a winter cook and save on pellets. Size-wise, I've got the $600 Rec-Tec one and I believe the grate is 15"-20" which is fine for 1-2 people, but that's it. The outer edges of a pellet grill will be hotter than the center since that's where the heat comes up from, so I don't overstuff mine, but I can fit a couple of pork shoulders on it. Fashioning yourself an upper rack is easy and gives you a lot more room, too. Extra room is also nice because chicken wings sure take up a lot of room, plus you'll want to do all your vegetables on there, too. I don't know what it is, but asparagus, specifically, is 1000x better on a smoker even though it doesn't take long to heat up.

Nice job on the weight loss Adam. I've switched over to the "energy" aspartame drinks. Zero calories and 120mg of caffeine. In small boxes in the kool-aid section. Also become a fan of rice cakes and a small amount of peanut butter.

Were Jones and Dillon informed when we took Kylin Hill in the 7th round this year? If a draft pick is chosen at the last second, what's the procedure for getting the approval of every player before the pick is announced? Clearly Aaron Rodgers needs to be making all of our draft selections from now on. Come to think of it, my parents didn't seek my approval when they had another kid even though it clearly effected me. Now I'm really upset!

Wal-Mart's "sold out" page for the PS5 says "$400". I've been checking now and again for many weeks now. I finally found them available and Wal-Mart jacked up the price to $900. Now that they're sold out again, the advertised price is back to $400.

It would be hilarious if Rodgers played for the Packers next year but had a really bad year.

Looking forward to watching Irving and Harden argue over which player they don't want to guard. Durant can be unselfish, but if Irving or Harden haven't scored much in the first half, I can see either just jacking up bad shots in the second half just to make their numbers. Or at least that's what I'm hoping for. I remember two years ago Irving standing next to a player he didn't want to guard and making a teammate come from across the court to guard him. Sure other Celtic players had to do it, but I doubt Harden will be as open to the idea.

I'm pretty heavy in crypto and I held through it all. I'd figured on slowly getting out toward the end of summer and I'm still sticking with that plan. Three months ago I moved my regular stocks to mining (Vale) and a REIT (ACC) and those have done ok. Recently dumped a growth stock at a healthy loss and replaced it with Apple's recent dip.

I figure if there's some kind of trade in place it would have to wait until June 1 (?) when the financials change. And if there is, it's probably already been worked out and we're just waiting until then. If Rodgers makes it past that, he'll stay in GB. Some paper in Wisconsin reported that Green Bay wasn't yet convinced that Love is ready to be the starter just yet. Makes sense since there was no training camp. So Oakland makes more sense than Denver because Carr still presents a realistic chance of making the SB.

Wow, I was really surprised to open Off Topic and have no new posts in this thread. I was figuring to see everyone freaking out.

Finished the three seasons of Loudermilk on Amazon and I thought that was pretty good.

I still fast a good amount, though more due to a weird work schedule than actually trying. But down 10# more even though for the most part I don't care what I eat. It appears that regardless of what I eat, my body requires 45 minutes of moderate exercise. So it's deadlifts every other day (which amazingly doesn't hurt my back) and then hitting the heavy bag.

My neighbor's dogs haven't stopped barking in nearly two years. At no point in the day or night will I not hear dogs barking. I can hear them right now through my window. There is also private hunting land nearby with barking dogs. Has anyone ever tried one of those ultrasonic bark boxes? Trouble is these dogs are about 75 yards away.

I looked into staking my etherium and this is what Coinbase said: "After staking, you’ll be unable to trade, send, or sell the ETH you’ve staked until the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade is complete. However, later this year we expect to offer a way for you to trade your staked ETH." So I guess if I suddenly wanted out, I couldn't until Coinbase told me I could, and who knows how long that might be.

Closing the park last night and a girl was in the parking lot because she'd run out of gas and her grandfather was bringing her some. She said the only place in the county that had gas was selling it for $15/gal.

So basically Beanie Babies 2.0?

I recommend at least trying them smoked. I don't know if I have a preference vs. grilled, but they're way different tasting.

Crypto actually doesn't track with inflation.

If he really wants to play into his 40s, maybe there's also a demand that the contract be extended so that he's guaranteed to be a Packer for life and wouldn't have to go through all this again in three more years.

A&W was the only fast-food place in Neillsville growing up. Some folks have found it odd that I'd never been to a McDonalds until I was a teenager.

Tebow, Lawrence and Minshew. Someone in Jacksonville is bound and determined to make the wishbone formation actually work.

Of course there was kraut for the brats! Also both cooked and raw onion, as well as both dijon and whole-seed mustard. I didn't even offer ketchup. I wanted to make sure their first impression of brats was done correctly. Only thing I didn't do was use beer for the boil. I know the alcohol boils off, but I brought in bourbon barbecue sauce for some pulled pork once and the boss didn't say anything but was clearly nervous about it. There's a zero-tolerance policy at work. Also, I highly recommend Chinese cabbage for kraut instead of the regular variety, at least if you like a particularly crunchy kraut. And apparently it's a Russian thing to ferment it with cranberries instead of caraway.

I made brats for my co-workers, as many of them hadn't had a brat before (not in WI). Most of them preferred the hot dogs which somebody else made, and also put chili on the brats. I kept my mouth shut even though I wanted to tell them they were eating wrong. I've never really adopted anything about Southern culture. I'm permanently a Wisconsinite. I don't want a 10-minute conversation with everyone I meet; bagels are better than biscuits; Braunschweiger is better than liver mush; and sweet tea is gross. I'll grant them that bluegrass music is pretty darn great, though.

Seems like that would be a particularly enjoyable day, grilling out and sitting there listening to the river crack.

So what's the general consensus? Is Rodgers all but gone come early June when that contract period starts/ends?