Patrick425

Problem is, that site seems to be a bit "unstable". The last two times I visited that site (one two separate computers), I had a pop up message come up and then it suddenly took me to a different random web site. When I hit the back button, I was returned to political scene site, but I'm a bit hesitant to go on that site now.

If you are traveling from the Milwaukee/SE Wisconsin direction you are better off just avoiding the tolls. It barely adds any time to your trip and you don't have to give money to the state of Illinois or in this case a broken I-PASS system. The drive is typically a lot better than dealing with idiots on the freeway too. Lots of 55mph roads to casually avoid the toll roads. Yeah...tried that once on the way home. Never again. I don't know...maybe it's the same time as using the freeway, but I have no patience for all the towns I had to go through and I really, really hate extended miles of busy two lane highways (I'm the guy you probably hate on the freeway). Seems like I had to wait at every light at least 2 or 3 turns before I got through it. Other than the tolls, the free way was nice...had not been on it since they did some of the road work. Pretty much 4 lanes all the way from the state line to my exit in Illinois..very nice.

I travel to Illinois rarely, maybe once a year. I went to meet a friend a couple of weeks ago at Arlington Park and forgot about tolls. This wasn't a problem when I was on the tollway, as I could get change from the attendant, but when I exited the tollway, it needed exact change, which I did not have (and did not have again when I got back on the tollway later in the day). Not a big problem I thought, I'll just hop online and pay it. So, within the 7-day grace period I hop online and click on a link to look up my violation by license plate number. However, I get a message that the system is down and that they have extended the grace period is extended to 14 days (and to check back later). I go back on this week (within the 14 day period) and it keeps giving me the same message, so I call. They inform me that they can not look up my license (because the system is down), but they can estimate my toll if I know the plaza numbers (or where I exited and entered). I wasn't comfortable with this because I can just see a situation where the estimate is incorrect and I underpay and then get an additional charge for not paying on time. She then tells me that I can wait and I will eventually get something in the mail, to which I reply A) Yes, but that will be after the grace period and B) How is it that you can not look me up in your system, but somehow they are able to send me something in the mail to tell me I didn't pay? All I'm trying to do is be responsible and pay a small toll. Why do they make is so difficult? I believe the same thing happened to me 4 or 5 years ago (got to an exit ramp and did not have the proper change) and I completely forgot to go online and attempt to make the payment. Never saw anything in the mail regarding any unpaid toll. So, I'm guessing they probably don't bother with one time offenses that are small.

My son has an apple phone and I have an android. Occasionally he will use an emoji when texting me (I do too, but less often). So, we are texting back and forth during the Packer game and I text him "Wow!" when Rogers throws the TD pass while being taken down from behind. He responds with an emoji that looks like a sad face and I just assume that whatever feed he is watching on (from Iowa) is on a delay. So, I tell him that I think his feed is delayed. He states he's watching live TV, to which I respond "Then I don't understand your emoji". After a few more texts finally ending with a screen shot of what my son sent, we realize that emoji's do not always translate well from apple to android and vice/versa (it should have been a "surprise" or "wow" face - with wide eyes). I now understand why some of my son's texts did not always make complete sense to me.

I've been following Gavin Lux's rookie ball season with the Dodgers. He has done fairly well. I noticed that this week he was moved to the Pioneer rookie league (from the AZ rookie league). Is that considered somewhat of a promotion? He went 3 for 4 in his first Pioneer league game yesterday.

I don't mind the so called "fluff pieces". Many times they are inside stories about one of the athletes and the road they took to get where they are and possibly some obstacles they had to overcome. To me, that's a lot of what makes sports interesting, especially when it comes to the Olympics. It's not like I follow swimming or volleyball or rowing that closely, so to me, it's nice to have some background story on an athlete when I'm watching an event.

Ok, I know he's on the hated Cardinals and all, but I find it very amusing that Matt Carpenter yells "Got it!" pretty much any time there is a foul ball hit in his direction, no matter how hard it's hit or how deep it is in the stands (or, at least he was doing that during last nights game)...and does it with a completely straight face.

Again, I'm talking about rush hour type traffic. If you are in the left lane and keeping up with the car in front of you, why do you need to be concerned about the car in back of you (since you can't go any faster than you are already going)? Now that they are re-constructing the freeways and interchanges with no left hand exits, there is really no need to be in the left lane during heavy traffic unless you plan on keeping up with the pace of the other traffic traveling in that lane. In regards to having to slow down to move over, many times I see people doing this when really they should just accelerate a little bit to move over. Also, are you saying that you are worried than when you "slow down" the person behind you will hit you? You don't need to put on your breaks to slow down and even if for some reason you do, the person behind you would have to be a really really inept driver to hit you because you slowed down to change lanes.

About the only post in this entire thread that I agree with.

Still, I think the statement "stay in the right lane unless you are passing" is overly simplistic. I don't think you want to change lanes every time you want to overtake a vehicle. That's about the same as weaving. And let's say that the speed limit is 70, you're in the left lane going about 74, and the cars ahead of you are going about 74. Are you obligated to move to the right lane and travel at 60 to accommodate someone from behind who wants to go 80? I'd think not, but in a handful of states, drivers are obligated to do that. I agree with the first statement. Most of the time when I'm driving it's in heavier traffic during morning and afternoon drive times (to and from work between Waukesha and Milwaukee). In that situation, in my opinion, the general rule is to just keep up with the car in front of you. If you are unable or unwilling to do that, move over! What really bothers me in that situation is when you have a long line of cars in the left lane all pretty much following that rule, but there is a temporary gap in the middle lane. One of the cars in the line decides it want to skip places in the line of cars and zooms up the middle lane in order to get ahead a whole 3 or 4 cars (basically weaving). I'm not sure if I'm more upset with them or the person who let them in (I never let those people in). They become part of the reason why the left lane may not be traveling as fast as it should during those times. It's different if the middle lane is wide open and the car one or two in front of you is leaving a huge gap (or if you can see the car ahead that is leaving a huge gap and you have a clear path to get ahead of it - in that case the car behind the slow car should be "hinting" to that car that it is not in the correct lane). I don't really agree with the 2nd statement. If traffic is lighter and a car wants to go 90, get out of their way. What annoys me on the open free-way with light traffic is when cars don't maintain a constant speed. Cruise control is a pretty standard option now on most cars, yet some people seem to have no idea when or how to use it.

A Sendik's store is going to open in that location next year. Yeah, became aware of this the day after my post. Still bummed though...Sendik's is not really a weekly grocery shopping type place. Btw Casey...never noticed that you have a Sigmund Snopek quote in your signature! Love Snopek. I actually have a Snopek album that I purchased when I was in high school or college (some songs on it...New York Jumpers, Hamburger Holocaust). I remember in his "post-band" days, he would always open for Comedy Sportz on the comedy stage at Summerfest. I miss the comedy stage. I saw Dana Carvey, Billy Crystal, Henny Youngman, Emo Phillips, and Gibert Gottfried in the "heyday" years of the Summerfest comedy stage.

True. But I think if you made the stock purchase outside of two years it's less tax than if you flip it under that time period....or something like that. It's been awhile but with eTrade I believe I sold stock and it went into a money market which I could just transfer to a Chase bank account automatically. Any capital gains for investments held less than one year are taxed as ordinary income. Capital gains on investments held one year or more are taxed at a capital gains rate. In general, this rate is 0%, 15%, or 20% based on your ordinary tax rate. As mentioned in this thread, the easiest way to sell shares is to do it online (there is usually a "sell all" option if that is your intention). Let the trade settle (usually 1 to 3 days depending on what you are selling). Then go back online and transfer the cash electronically to your checking account. Also, if you do not intend to use that brokerage account again, I would call and request that the account be closed after you have transferred the cash.

Random question in the random thoughts thread: Throughout my son's high school life, especially in sports related team pictures, I would see boys that would show a #1 hand signal (index finger extended), however it really was not the traditional #1 (foam finger type, straight up in the air #1) that I grew up with. It was more of a lazy, sideways, finger not completely straight, rest of the fingers not really clenched type #1. As an example of what I'm talking about here is a link to the Wisconsin Baseball Central twitter page (several examples on here if you scroll down, the first team picture that you see on August 7th...pretty much everyone is doing it): I assume (hope) that this still just means #1, but is just a newer and cooler way of expressing it. Anyone familiar with this?

Turns out the tweet regarding Bud Selig supporting bringing back baseball to UW was a misunderstanding: https://sconniesportstalk.com/2016/08/19/statement-on-bud-selig-report/

Son is off to college in a few weeks and I have some tech questions - - We purchased a laptop through the university bookstore. Of course my biggest fear is that it gets stolen while he has it on campus. I'm clueless regarding this stuff, but I'm guessing that there is some app he can download or even something already in the installed microsoft operating system that would allow him to A) lock up his computer remotely if it is lost and/or B) possibly track it's location. Am I right and can anyone give me help with this? - He established a university email account earlier in the summer. It's a gmail based account. He connected it to his gmail on his phone. However, he already has one or two other gmail accounts and he gets a lot of junkmail or unwanted emails in those old accounts so he tends to ignore his email. We realized lately that he missed some semi-important emails to his university email because of this. Is there any way to "disect" a gmail account from other and make the email notification on your phone for that account different from the notification of other gmail accounts? Even if he gets a different notification, I think his university account gmails will be embedded in his other gmail emails and he would have to hunt for them once he opens gmail. Again, thanks for any help that you can provide?

Thanks for all the advice everyone! Did not know about the Fox go sports app using the cable login. In regards to the Direct TV Sunday ticket....could he use his laptop as a device to stream it on (he currently does not have a tablet), or his phone?

My son texted me a picture of the two players with that caption (looked like it was from Baseball Reference). Not sure if that was through yesterday's games or not.

Last 365 days: Chris Davis: 45 HR, 143 hits, 111 RBI Khris Davis: 45 HR, 143 hits, 111 RBI

The Sentry on Meadowbrook in Waukesha is closing. The owners of this store also own the Sentry in the deserted Fox Run strip mall on St. Paul Ave. in Waukesha (about 2-3 miles away from the Meadowbrook Sentry). The St. Paul location generally has no more than 6 or 7 cars in the parking lot and is within 1/4 mile from a Target with a grocery store and a Pick N' Save. Then about 3/4 of a mile farther down the road is another Pick N' Save and a new Meijer store. So, my wife and I, who frequently shop at that Sentry on Meadowbrook are scratching our heads at this decision. Does not seem to make any sense at all. We have no desire to shop at stores like Woodman's, Sam's Club, Meijer, etc. We don't view grocery shopping as an adventure or event to partake in with 100 other people at some mega store that is 4 or 5 miles away from our house. Not the way we want to spend our time. We just want to go to the closest location to our house (hopefully not more that 1-2 miles away) that sells food, is not a zoo, and get in, out, and home in the quickest, most convenient manner possible. Our options to accomplish this objective are getting fewer and fewer as the Mega grocery stores have become more popular.

Lot of rankings being thrown around. Per the Baseball America mid-season top prospect rankings (the latest ranking I've seen), these are the numbers: Brinson #30 Ortiz #74 Bickford #50 And Susac was #88 after the 2014 season...but had 133 ABs in 2015 and does not have prospect status any more (130 MLB rookie ABs takes you off the prospect watch on Baseball America)

Can anyone tell me about NFL game pass? My son is going to school out of state and is bummed about missing Packer games. So, as a "HS graduation/going off to college" gift we were thinking of getting him NFL game pass, so that he could watch the games on his lap top if he wanted. Anyone have any good or bad things to say about this app? Thanks. Edit...Ok, I'm a little naive about these things. Someone at work said that he believed you had to be a Direct TV subscriber to get that (I had no idea)...but someone else said they thought there was a special deal for college students.

The TWC commercial that has been airing for a long time now (maybe a year?), that shows the two guys at the kitchen counter talking while their wives, I guess (?), are at the kitchen table talking. Not trying to be politically incorrect here, but I say I guess because the context of the commercial suggests that it's their wives at the counter but the person with their back to the guys talking at the counter is "confusing". I feel like the actor that was supposed to play that role perhaps did not show up, so they put some other person there that really does not fit the role and I try to figure it out every time I watch that ad. Also, when will they stop airing TWC comercials?.....I thought it was Spectrum now (since the merger with Charter). Edit: This is the commercial I'm referring to. A few of the people making comments under this video are apparently wondering the same thing. https://www.ispot.tv/ad/AZnz/time-warner-cable-phone-competition

How about blank inside cards?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPeyfTPxfaE

My son played his last baseball game on Tuesday as his team lost a tough 2-1 game in the first round of regional Wisconsin Summer HS baseball playoffs. As he was a Senior, it was a very emotional night, lot's of tears. Then he went and posted a very heart felt and gut wrenching Facebook post about how much baseball and his parents involvement (I coached his youth teams through 8th grade) and his teammates throughout the years had meant to him (that part really did not bug me as I was very proud of his post...just brought more tears!!). I posted this in the "what's bugging you forum" because it's so hard to believe I will essentially not watch my kid play baseball any more. Something that was so much a part of his life and who he is. He's going off to Iowa State where they don't have a NCAA team and he will probably try out for the club team (although I believe that's pretty competitive). However, even if he does play some in college or in adult leagues in the Summer (which I think he plans to do), it will never be the same as watching him at the youth and High School levels. It's like we watched his childhood officially come to an end on Tuesday night.

My 18 year old son had a phase of watching Pokemon and collecting cards when he was around 6-8 years old. I never understood it and found the cartoon to be odd. Just a different culture I guess, but always thought cartoons or animations should contain mostly humor (looney toons, sponge bob, family guys, etc). To me, that's what makes them watchable - especially as an adult. Had two painters at the house yesterday and as they are working I'm overhearing their conversation (keep in mind that these are two guys that are probably in their mid 20's or older). At one point one asked the other one who his favorite Pokemon character was and the other answered that it was hard to say but that "you gotta catch them all...right?". Again, different generation, so trying not to be too judgmental....I guess if you enjoy something and it makes you happy and doesn't harm anyone else then there is really no harm. At the same time, I hope my 18 year old son doesn't suddenly discover Pokemon again. I don't think he will, but seems like many people are getting addicted to it.