Rooster_Ties

I do more/most of the cooking in our house, with my wife often helping. It routinely drives her crazy that I can't follow a recipe the way it was "supposed to be" to save my life. I'm forever changing things, on hunches or whims, sometimes to the point where half or more of the ingredients are different, as well as the cooking method. Case in point -- the other day we both need to make cookies for each of our work-related holiday parties. We weren't sure the mixer would make a double-batch of Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies in the same bowl. So after we got done making her batch, we started all over. We used semi-sweet (i.e. dark) chocolate chips, so I had the crazy idea of making mine "Mexican" chocolate chip cookies. I added a full tablespoon of ground cinnamon, and a good 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (you read right). Damn, did they ever turn out great! - with a few of the people I work with loving them to the point of wanting to add cinnamon and cayenne to things like chocolate cake or brownies the next time they made them. I've done wholesale substitutions of nearly every ingredient in a recipe before too, turning a standard Lasagna recipe into "Spicy Asian Salmon Lasagna" - complete with a spicy peanut sauce (no tomatoes or tomato sauce), and nothing from the original recipe was the same (expect for the noodles). I just scanned every Asian recipe I could find, cherry-picking ingredients here and there, and freely swapping those in the standard recipe with new ones. It was sure as hell different, but pretty darn good!! The list of weird ingredients I've added to chili is a mile long. These didn't all go in the same batch, but over the years I've added coffee, chai-tea base (without the milk), unsweetened cocoa powder (think of a Mole sauce), and hard cider - plus every vegi you can think of (sometimes ground up in a chopper if it really is too weird to imagine in chili). I've had some disasters a time or two, too (who hasn't). What cooking tips can we share among us?? -- for those of us who like to cook, and mix it up at the same time.

BUT WAIT, IT GETS EVEN BETTER... Of course, if I HADN'T used the auto-sniper to bid at the very last second (meaning if I HAD used the regular eBay system to manually place my very same $5557 bid, with let's say a minute to go) -- that last bidder would have had a good two minutes to outbid me again, and he would have easily won, I'm sure of it!!! ANY ATTEMPT TO OUTBID ME, EVEN BY $10 OR LESS, AND I WOULD HAVE LOST. If I had autobid through eBay (even a manual snipe in the last 3 minutes), my ebay autobid would have jumped $50 above the 2nd to last bid to $5552.52, and my absolute TOP was $5557. That's a difference of less than $5!!!! Look for yourself. Here are the last four bids... Bidder Bid Amount Bid Time Rooster( 117) US $5,557.00 Dec-18-07 11:36:09 PST r********a( 11) US $5,502.52 Dec-18-07 11:34:05 PST r********e( 0 ) US $5,000.00 Dec-18-07 11:33:20 PST r********a( 11) US $4,550.00 Dec-18-07 11:32:10 PST (a little before this is about when I set my snipe to $5557) Holy crap, when I first started the post above (and for all of the last two days), I thought my margin of error was about $50, which is less than 1% of the total transaction price. But, in fact, it was less than 1/10th of 1% -- more like $5. $4.48 to be exact. If the other guy had bid again, even as little as $5 more ($5 more than what my bid would have looked like to him), he would have won. As little as $5!! (And margins of less than $1 do count at the very top, at the very end of an auction.) Now I *REALLY* can't believe it. Look for yourself (click) Isn't that right?? My margin of error was $5. Holy fucking shit.

Good story alert!!! (Post #14) I forgot the tell the best part of how I won these bells. You long-time eBay buyers will appreciate this one. The morning of the auction (5 hours before it closed), I go to set my Auction Snipe "robot" (one that's external to eBay - the ONLY way to go!!). I ran my numbers again, taking into account the cost of having them refurbished, if necessary (about $1200 to $1600). Also, there's the "lost" discount on accessories we would miss out on by NOT having bought new bells. (This is NOT to be overlooked -- the lost "savings" on buying new tables, pads, table covers, mallets, and all the other stuff you need to really play bells to the fullest -- is nearly $500. See, they offer a 20% discount on all that "accessory" stuff when you buy NEW bells -- as damn well they ought to, if you're paying nearly 10 Grand for new bells themselves.) ANYWAY, I had myself convinced I wouldn't bid more than $5100 on the bells (worth $8700 brand new). Then a couple hours later I bumped it up to $5300, and again to $5450 about an hour before the end. That last price was a good $250 more than I really wanted to spend, but I also really DIDN'T want to miss out on this deal by a such a trivially small amount. (And remember, I'm using an Auction Sniper, so I'm not really setting my bid within the eBay system. I damn well didn't want anybody to have the chance to outbid me.) Well, 20 minutes before the auction closes I "chicken out" of leaving it at $5450, so I bump my snipe bid up one final time to $5557 (Just a random number well over $5.5K, just for luck). NOTE: At the time I did this, the bidding was still down around $4500 (a good $1000 less than what I wildly guessed the bidding would hopefully end at). So, two minutes before the end, somebody manually snipes the auction for $5502, and they're winning the auction all the way until the last 6 or 7 seconds -- when my auto-snipe swoops in and outbids them BY BARELY $55 MORE. Remember, my $5557 bid was just a number I pulled out of my ass 20 minutes before, back when the bidding was still down around $4500. I won this damn thing by $50.

Yes, aware that Paypal charges only apply to the seller. Both the seller and buyer want to avoid Paypal (for various reasons), and we're wanting and willing to split the savings as a result of doing so. Thus my trying to figure (somewhat exactly) what the savings would be by not using Paypal on such a large transaction. The ministers of the two churches have talked, and we're all confident that nobody's trying to scam nobody here. And the fees are not just small change on a nearly $6K transaction like this one.

I've got the arrangement all done (have for over a year), but all the accidentals were notationally WAY confusing to people in the group (which was, at the time, barely one year old). Time to dig it out again, and see how they do with it now. Yes, that Giant Steps, on handbells!! (Slowed to 1/4 the speed of the original.)

Wait, what?? FYI, the jazz concert series I started here in Kansas City (called "Jazz & Beyond"), was and is an ongoing fundraiser for the bell choir. We've had 7 concerts since last January ('07), and plan to have another 6 or 7 more in '08. We've raised a little over $2,200 via the concerts alone, and (perhaps even more importantly), we've paid the jazz musicians (all local) in excess of $3,500. (Close to $500 per concert, average -- which is more than the clubs here pay.) The musicians get 2/3rds of the door (at $10 per ticket), and we get the other 1/3rd, plus any proceeds from donations for beer, wine, and soda sales before the concert, and during intermission. On average, the band gets almost 60% of the total revenue for the night, and the bell choir gets about 40%. (AND, by doing this as a church function, the bands don't have to pay any rental fees for the space (which would otherwise run over $500 alone for a straight rental, actually I think more like $800 if I remember right). Win/Win for everybody!! Gotta do something to keep them musicians off the street.

From the eBay action we won (these are the actual bells)...

As some of you might remember, my wife and I started a handbell choir at our church, which I conduct/direct/whatever-you-call-it. (And we've played some crazy music on handbells too, more on that later.) For about two years we've been borrowing bells and rehearsal space from another wonderful church a few miles away (a church of an entirely different denomination too, I might add -- we're Unitarian Universalist, and the church with the bells is Methodist). Anyway, this week I managed to WIN a 3-octave set of used handbells on eBay for $3000 less than the cost of brand new bells. (Brand New = $8700, but we got 'em used for about $5700 -- Yeah!!!). They're coming from a Church of the Nazarene in Indiana, and were purchased new in 1978, and look to be in great condition. We're exploring payment options with the other church, and realizing that a cashier's check might be easier all the way around for everyone -- thus saving Paypal fees too. Can anyone confirm that the Paypal fees on a $5700 transaction would be about 2.5%?? (Or about $144.) The two churches are planning to split this savings. The other church has a Paypal account of the variety that they can only withdraw $500 per month from their balance (they only use it to pay for things, though they have received some funds once or twice, only small amounts, much smaller than a transaction like this). Looking at the Paypal site, specifically here... https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cm...pricing-outside It looks like the fee on $5,700 would fit in the range where it would cost 2.5% (plus $0.30). And they would have to go to the trouble of upgrading their status with Paypal too, it looks. (ALSO, would the other church ALSO be required to pay a one-time fee to do this account upgrade?? - and what would that fee be (if any), that we would be saving them?? I'm not seeing any fee for this, but you have to actually apply to expose the whole process, it would appear.) Regardless, is 2.5% the right figure?? I'm about 98% sure this is right, but I've never accepted any money from Paypal before -- I've only paid for things with it. And I want to be sure about the total savings of avoiding Paypal. Thanks!!!

Do not miss out on this game...

youtube - search_query=Edmar+Castaneda Several to sample above (of varying quality). First one I clicked on... (at random)

Can you narrow that list any for us, Jim? Or at least, which one's do you have, and can you describe them (as only you can)?? Many thanks in advance!!

These all done had lyrics, FWIW... 1 New York Minute - Henley, Kortchmar, Winding 8:33 2 Mercy Street - Gabriel 8:36 3 Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) - Lennon, McCartney 8:04 4 When Can I See You - Edmonds 6:15 5 You've Got It Bad Girl - Wonder, Wright 7:13 6 Love Is Stronger Than Pride - Adu, Hale, Matthewman 7:57 7 Scarborough Fair - Garfunkel, Simon 8:25 8 Thieves in the Temple - Prince 7:30 9 All Apologies - Cobain 5:04 10 Manhattan (Island of Lights and Love) - Hancock 4:05

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMuObcMwGxA You read right, a "disco-flavored, square dance Salute, to Nashville"...

Doesn't mean they didn't try... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf2kbBinvI4

Me too. Followed immediately by Joe Henderson.

One nice spring afternoon earlier this year, the windows were open in the office where I work (a small not-for-profit agency). From the street below I and everyone in our office heard a solo tenor sax -- first playing Impressions, some tin-pan-alley standard (that escapes me now), then Nardis, then some Joe Henderson tune (I forget which), another standard, and finally Giant Steps. And the guy could REALLY play. So I quickly sent an e-mail to the entire staff where I work (2nd and 3rd floors of the building), and ran around both floors and took up a collection for the guy. Ran downstairs and caught him before he could entirely pack up for the afternoon. Gave him something like $35, named every tune he played (in order), and really freaked him out. He had no idea anybody was listening (besides an occasional passerby), let alone anyone who knew what he was playing.

I second that. I was about to ask the same thing. And when the total expenses for 2007 are known, a NEW thread should be started (and pinned) with all the data in the first post, so that everyone can easily find said figures in the future. In order for enough people to contribute in the future, everyone needs to be aware of the expenses of keeping the heat on, and the lights lit. Such data shouldn't be buried in the middle of what will surely turn out to be a 40+ page thread.

Rather than have different people assigned to different forums, I suggest Jim pick 6 or 8 trusted people and give them all equal Moderating powers and responsibilities (across all of the forums and sub-forums on the board). As I understand it, the idea of having multiple Moderators is that there will hopefully be one or more on-line every day, so nothing spins out of control for very long before it can be fixed. 6 or 8 well-chosen mods can certainly figure out how not to step on each other's toes, even if their lines of responsibility overlap (in the sence that all 6 or 8 would be equally responsible for keeping an eye on things. Also, that way no one person has to try to catch everything. If there were only two or three Mods, then perhaps dividing everything up might work better -- but ONLY if each of those Mods systematically checked everything in their area of responsibility. Having a few more Mods (6 or 8) means that nobody has to systematically check everything. Collectively 6 or 8 people are likely to see nearly everything sooner or later, without any extra special effort.

Just donated $100 (via Paypal). Been nearly a year since I last donated, so that probably brings me up to date. I'm good for another $50 in about 6 months.

Just donated $100 (via Paypal). Been nearly a year since I last donated, so that probably brings me up to date. I'm good for another $50 in about 6 months.

I'm: buck_crim (at) msn (dot) com (a.k.a. Tom Buck) Having an otherwise mostly crappy day (due entirely to work-related stuff), so I'm not in the best of moods to post what I'd otherwise want to. Gonna miss this place incredibly, and I have nothing but love and thanks to Jim for all the sweat and time he's put in to keep this place going. I'd chip $25 a year, easily, to keep this place afloat. Hell, make it $100.

You'r right, Chuck, I have no idea if anything they say (or anyone says, for that matter) is really true. All I know is we usually get between 44 mpg and 48 mpg in our '06 Prius (except in the coldest 2 months of winter (when the engine runs a lot more to warm up the cabin), and warmest 2 months of summer (when we run the A/C a bunch)), and I sleep pretty well at night. (And I hope the fuck they really recycle the batteries.)

Posted above (from a link provided above)...

Happened sometime between 8am and 4pm -- and probably before Noon (based on when some neighbors said they were in and out a bunch in the afternoon). Never any violent crime in our neighborhood (almost never, anyway), but car theft and home break-ins are not unheard of.

On the plus side, the replacement computer I'll eventually get will NOT be one with Windows Vista. I'm assuming I can somehow still get Win XP?? - and I mean preloaded from the manufacturer?? I hated having Vista on the machine I bought back in March '07, which is the one that was stolen.