Docwagon

Will do.  We'll probably be traveling more often since we don't have to work around my son's school schedule any more (he graduated and is likely off to the US Coast Guard early next year) and I'm making more money thanks to promotion and overtime availability.

We ended up getting direct flights by bumping our date up to Nov 28, so no London this go round.  I'm sure we'll be back through before too long, though.  This will be our first time flying with TAP, not sure what to expect.

We ended up getting direct flights by bumping our date up to Nov 28, so no London this go round.  I'm sure we'll be back through before too long, though.  This will be our first time flying with TAP, not sure what to expect.

We've already got travel booked in November, going to CA to visit my wife's family and then do our own thing.  My MIL is in from Jordan.  She spent 2 weeks with us last month and is now with my BIL, so we'll see her again while we are out there.  My MIL is awesome so I'm really looking forward to it.

We've already got travel booked in November, going to CA to visit my wife's family and then do our own thing.  My MIL is in from Jordan.  She spent 2 weeks with us last month and is now with my BIL, so we'll see her again while we are out there.  My MIL is awesome so I'm really looking forward to it.

Hello assorted FGers...
 
Come December, we (wife, son, and I) will be traveling abroad again.  The "dead time" between US Thanksgiving and Christmas is pretty cheap right now, and for under $1300 US in total the 3 of us can fly out of  Chicago, do a stayover in London, then on to Lisbon, then back to Chicago.  We're looking at 1-2 days on the ground in London/surrounding areas and 6-7 days on the ground in Portugal, unsure of exact plans for Lisbon the entirety or get to Porto or what.
 
I understand it'll be cool to cold during the trip, but I have a week of vacation I need to burn or lose and the pricing is tough to say no to.
 
I'd like to see Stonehenge while we're there.  We've done the Big Ben/Tower of London/Big Eye thing on a stayover before, but our son was too little to remember anything.  He's 17 now...fuck me time flies.  Trip advise for either destination in December?

Hello assorted FGers...
 
Come December, we (wife, son, and I) will be traveling abroad again.  The "dead time" between US Thanksgiving and Christmas is pretty cheap right now, and for under $1300 US in total the 3 of us can fly out of  Chicago, do a stayover in London, then on to Lisbon, then back to Chicago.  We're looking at 1-2 days on the ground in London/surrounding areas and 6-7 days on the ground in Portugal, unsure of exact plans for Lisbon the entirety or get to Porto or what.
 
I understand it'll be cool to cold during the trip, but I have a week of vacation I need to burn or lose and the pricing is tough to say no to.
 
I'd like to see Stonehenge while we're there.  We've done the Big Ben/Tower of London/Big Eye thing on a stayover before, but our son was too little to remember anything.  He's 17 now...fuck me time flies.  Trip advise for either destination in December?

Hello assorted FGers...
 
Come December, we (wife, son, and I) will be traveling abroad again.  The "dead time" between US Thanksgiving and Christmas is pretty cheap right now, and for under $1300 US in total the 3 of us can fly out of  Chicago, do a stayover in London, then on to Lisbon, then back to Chicago.  We're looking at 1-2 days on the ground in London/surrounding areas and 6-7 days on the ground in Portugal, unsure of exact plans for Lisbon the entirety or get to Porto or what.
 
I understand it'll be cool to cold during the trip, but I have a week of vacation I need to burn or lose and the pricing is tough to say no to.
 
I'd like to see Stonehenge while we're there.  We've done the Big Ben/Tower of London/Big Eye thing on a stayover before, but our son was too little to remember anything.  He's 17 now...fuck me time flies.  Trip advise for either destination in December?

Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind 
 
This is not an easy read, but it's fascinating.  Essentially the concept of what a 'mind' is (distinct from what a brain is) and what that actually means, how it evolved, and how little we actually know about the subjective experience of non-humans. 
 
Same author as an earlier book, which I found to be more accessible:
 
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
 

My 3 year old Fenix 5X Sapphire refused to power on and could not be reset by me or by the customer service rep over the phone.  She told me I was out of warranty so they couldn't repair it, but they would send me a replacement for free. I was floored. I expected to send it in for service at my expense or just be told it was now a brick and to buy a new one, I didn't ask for or even remotely expect a free replacement on an out of warranty *refurbished* watch that had a 90 day warranty originally.
 
I got my replacement in a few days and have used it on several walks/hikes/runs since and it works with no issue.
 
I'm pretty pleased with Garmin's customer service.
 

My 3 year old Fenix 5X Sapphire refused to power on and could not be reset by me or by the customer service rep over the phone.  She told me I was out of warranty so they couldn't repair it, but they would send me a replacement for free. I was floored. I expected to send it in for service at my expense or just be told it was now a brick and to buy a new one, I didn't ask for or even remotely expect a free replacement on an out of warranty *refurbished* watch that had a 90 day warranty originally.
 
I got my replacement in a few days and have used it on several walks/hikes/runs since and it works with no issue.
 
I'm pretty pleased with Garmin's customer service.
 

Good for you, Doc. Usually people are looking for that step to get to retirement as early as possible 😄 but you've always loved your job it seems.
 
And if it gives us more stories out and about with the scenes then it's good for us all!

About a month ago I got word from the brass that I was presumptive 'next up' for any openings in Homicide, but no opening was expected for a few years.  NP, I'm fine parked where I am.  Thursday I got a call from the Homicide Captain asking if I'd be interested in Night LT spot, the current LT decided to retire abruptly. We haggled out hours and the like, and unless that LT backs out of his retirement at the last minute I'll most likely be taking over next month.  
 
I won't have my own office any longer, physically or literally.  There are four Homicide shifts (Day, Middle, Late Tac, and Late).  I'll have Late Tac and Late. Still have about the same number of detectives and 2 sergeants, though.  I share an office with the Day LT, but our hours don't overlap so it's more of a 'don't hang pictures on these two walls' sort of deal.  I still have a window.
 
I'm excited to get back to going to scenes, to having some more involvement in real police work, etc.

About a month ago I got word from the brass that I was presumptive 'next up' for any openings in Homicide, but no opening was expected for a few years.  NP, I'm fine parked where I am.  Thursday I got a call from the Homicide Captain asking if I'd be interested in Night LT spot, the current LT decided to retire abruptly. We haggled out hours and the like, and unless that LT backs out of his retirement at the last minute I'll most likely be taking over next month.  
 
I won't have my own office any longer, physically or literally.  There are four Homicide shifts (Day, Middle, Late Tac, and Late).  I'll have Late Tac and Late. Still have about the same number of detectives and 2 sergeants, though.  I share an office with the Day LT, but our hours don't overlap so it's more of a 'don't hang pictures on these two walls' sort of deal.  I still have a window.
 
I'm excited to get back to going to scenes, to having some more involvement in real police work, etc.

About a month ago I got word from the brass that I was presumptive 'next up' for any openings in Homicide, but no opening was expected for a few years.  NP, I'm fine parked where I am.  Thursday I got a call from the Homicide Captain asking if I'd be interested in Night LT spot, the current LT decided to retire abruptly. We haggled out hours and the like, and unless that LT backs out of his retirement at the last minute I'll most likely be taking over next month.  
 
I won't have my own office any longer, physically or literally.  There are four Homicide shifts (Day, Middle, Late Tac, and Late).  I'll have Late Tac and Late. Still have about the same number of detectives and 2 sergeants, though.  I share an office with the Day LT, but our hours don't overlap so it's more of a 'don't hang pictures on these two walls' sort of deal.  I still have a window.
 
I'm excited to get back to going to scenes, to having some more involvement in real police work, etc.

Humble Bundle have launched their Ukraine Bundle and it's huge - 123 items starting at around the £30 which include the likes of Satisfactory, Back 4 Blood, Metro Exodus, Max Payne 3, Spyro Trilogy, Quantum Break, Slay the Spire, The Long Dark, Kerbal Space Program, Superhot and much more totaling £2,500 worth of titles
Stand with Ukraine Bundle
WWW.HUMBLEBUNDLE.COM Support vital humanitarian crisis relief for the people of Ukraine with an all-to-charity bundle featuring games, books, and software.  

Nah, I'll wait for price drops and fixes.  I've learned my lesson on early ins.

Old thread, but I got all the content on black Friday.  Much better game with all the DLC.

Old thread, but I got all the content on black Friday.  Much better game with all the DLC.

One of the smartest things I ever read was from The Richest Man in Babylon.  "No matter what you make, somebody is getting by on 10% less.  Figure out how they do it and you can save 10% for retirement."
 
Maybe it's picking up a part time job, maybe it's eating beans and rice for half your meals, maybe it's cutting your cell phone plan to a minimalist one...but there's a way.  FWIW, in 2003 I had a negative net worth of about -$27k.  Now I have a positive net worth approaching half a million.   My wife doesn't work and I'm a cop, so it's not like we just made a ton salary wise.  It's just not carrying any debt other than the mortgages (primary residence and one rental house), putting back 10-15%, and letting it grow.  We had to be pretty cheap in the early years, but that's part of it.

One of the smartest things I ever read was from The Richest Man in Babylon.  "No matter what you make, somebody is getting by on 10% less.  Figure out how they do it and you can save 10% for retirement."
 
Maybe it's picking up a part time job, maybe it's eating beans and rice for half your meals, maybe it's cutting your cell phone plan to a minimalist one...but there's a way.  FWIW, in 2003 I had a negative net worth of about -$27k.  Now I have a positive net worth approaching half a million.   My wife doesn't work and I'm a cop, so it's not like we just made a ton salary wise.  It's just not carrying any debt other than the mortgages (primary residence and one rental house), putting back 10-15%, and letting it grow.  We had to be pretty cheap in the early years, but that's part of it.

One of the smartest things I ever read was from The Richest Man in Babylon.  "No matter what you make, somebody is getting by on 10% less.  Figure out how they do it and you can save 10% for retirement."
 
Maybe it's picking up a part time job, maybe it's eating beans and rice for half your meals, maybe it's cutting your cell phone plan to a minimalist one...but there's a way.  FWIW, in 2003 I had a negative net worth of about -$27k.  Now I have a positive net worth approaching half a million.   My wife doesn't work and I'm a cop, so it's not like we just made a ton salary wise.  It's just not carrying any debt other than the mortgages (primary residence and one rental house), putting back 10-15%, and letting it grow.  We had to be pretty cheap in the early years, but that's part of it.

We recently spent two weeks in Spain, and we had a really nice time.  This is our first time using Iberia, and it's a good airline.  We upgraded to premium economy, so that might be part of why, but it was a very comfortable flight.  This is our second time in Spain, but the first time we stayed in Barcelona the entire week.
 
We landed in Madrid and by the time we got through customs and got our rental car it was about 0900.  We went to Segovia for the day, then returned to Madrid to check in to our hotel.  We spent a few days in Madrid.  TBH, Madrid wasn't my favorite.  It was not bad mind you, it's hard to put a finger on it but it didn't seem to have the same level of "local flavor" that so many European destination cities offer.  
 
We then went to Toledo for two days.  My favorite things there were the Alcazar, which has a very nice military museum, as well as a convent that sells cookies through the old turn-table system where you never see the nun.  We walked away from the tourist area and found a nice local restaurant that had *excellent* roast pork.  My son bought a traditional Toledo built knife.  Good times, there.
 
From Toledo, we drove to Tablas Damiel, which is a small national park.  It is wetlands and is kind of like the Florida Everglades, but not exactly.  From there we continued on to Granada.
 
Granada was also a lot of fun.  We visited Alhambra, did a day hike in the Sierra Nevada, hit some other smaller attractions, and also visited their giant mall.  We rented a house in Padul there and did some cooking while we had a kitchen.
 
From there we went Malaga for the day, eating a great seafood meal near the beach and just walking around the tourist areas.  Two big cruise ships had vomited their tourists up on the town, though, and it was rather crowded.  
 
We finished that day driving to Sevilla/Seville.  Seville was a lot of fun, and we did more "non-tourist" stuff there than anywhere.  We found a local park near a bakery and walked there at night, which lead to finding a superb local restaurant.  Our hotel was on the outskirts of town, so we had the pros and cons of that.  Lots of cool architecture and attractions.
 
Next up was Cordoba/Cordova, which was probably my favorite city.  The mosque (now a cathedral) there is very impressive, and there's a partially excavated Muslim city nearby that you can visit as well.
 
Then back to Madrid, hitting a castle out in farmland on the way, which was used in filming of Game of Thrones (Castle of Almodóvar del Río) and this time we stayed on the outskirts of Madrid.  We used that as a springboard to visit some more castles and national parks, and explore the suburb of Madrid that was home to Cervantes.  We did not wander back into Madrid proper, though.
 
We've been home a week now.  The first time I went to drive my Camaro I accidentally pulled forward a few feet when I meant to back up, as I had gotten used to the shift pattern of our rental car in Spain.  Luckily I didn't hit anything and the only damage was to my pride...
 
Pictures on Discord here if anyone is interested:  
 
https://discord.gg/uquJWSpS
 

We recently spent two weeks in Spain, and we had a really nice time.  This is our first time using Iberia, and it's a good airline.  We upgraded to premium economy, so that might be part of why, but it was a very comfortable flight.  This is our second time in Spain, but the first time we stayed in Barcelona the entire week.
 
We landed in Madrid and by the time we got through customs and got our rental car it was about 0900.  We went to Segovia for the day, then returned to Madrid to check in to our hotel.  We spent a few days in Madrid.  TBH, Madrid wasn't my favorite.  It was not bad mind you, it's hard to put a finger on it but it didn't seem to have the same level of "local flavor" that so many European destination cities offer.  
 
We then went to Toledo for two days.  My favorite things there were the Alcazar, which has a very nice military museum, as well as a convent that sells cookies through the old turn-table system where you never see the nun.  We walked away from the tourist area and found a nice local restaurant that had *excellent* roast pork.  My son bought a traditional Toledo built knife.  Good times, there.
 
From Toledo, we drove to Tablas Damiel, which is a small national park.  It is wetlands and is kind of like the Florida Everglades, but not exactly.  From there we continued on to Granada.
 
Granada was also a lot of fun.  We visited Alhambra, did a day hike in the Sierra Nevada, hit some other smaller attractions, and also visited their giant mall.  We rented a house in Padul there and did some cooking while we had a kitchen.
 
From there we went Malaga for the day, eating a great seafood meal near the beach and just walking around the tourist areas.  Two big cruise ships had vomited their tourists up on the town, though, and it was rather crowded.  
 
We finished that day driving to Sevilla/Seville.  Seville was a lot of fun, and we did more "non-tourist" stuff there than anywhere.  We found a local park near a bakery and walked there at night, which lead to finding a superb local restaurant.  Our hotel was on the outskirts of town, so we had the pros and cons of that.  Lots of cool architecture and attractions.
 
Next up was Cordoba/Cordova, which was probably my favorite city.  The mosque (now a cathedral) there is very impressive, and there's a partially excavated Muslim city nearby that you can visit as well.
 
Then back to Madrid, hitting a castle out in farmland on the way, which was used in filming of Game of Thrones (Castle of Almodóvar del Río) and this time we stayed on the outskirts of Madrid.  We used that as a springboard to visit some more castles and national parks, and explore the suburb of Madrid that was home to Cervantes.  We did not wander back into Madrid proper, though.
 
We've been home a week now.  The first time I went to drive my Camaro I accidentally pulled forward a few feet when I meant to back up, as I had gotten used to the shift pattern of our rental car in Spain.  Luckily I didn't hit anything and the only damage was to my pride...
 
Pictures on Discord here if anyone is interested:  
 
https://discord.gg/uquJWSpS
 

We recently spent two weeks in Spain, and we had a really nice time.  This is our first time using Iberia, and it's a good airline.  We upgraded to premium economy, so that might be part of why, but it was a very comfortable flight.  This is our second time in Spain, but the first time we stayed in Barcelona the entire week.
 
We landed in Madrid and by the time we got through customs and got our rental car it was about 0900.  We went to Segovia for the day, then returned to Madrid to check in to our hotel.  We spent a few days in Madrid.  TBH, Madrid wasn't my favorite.  It was not bad mind you, it's hard to put a finger on it but it didn't seem to have the same level of "local flavor" that so many European destination cities offer.  
 
We then went to Toledo for two days.  My favorite things there were the Alcazar, which has a very nice military museum, as well as a convent that sells cookies through the old turn-table system where you never see the nun.  We walked away from the tourist area and found a nice local restaurant that had *excellent* roast pork.  My son bought a traditional Toledo built knife.  Good times, there.
 
From Toledo, we drove to Tablas Damiel, which is a small national park.  It is wetlands and is kind of like the Florida Everglades, but not exactly.  From there we continued on to Granada.
 
Granada was also a lot of fun.  We visited Alhambra, did a day hike in the Sierra Nevada, hit some other smaller attractions, and also visited their giant mall.  We rented a house in Padul there and did some cooking while we had a kitchen.
 
From there we went Malaga for the day, eating a great seafood meal near the beach and just walking around the tourist areas.  Two big cruise ships had vomited their tourists up on the town, though, and it was rather crowded.  
 
We finished that day driving to Sevilla/Seville.  Seville was a lot of fun, and we did more "non-tourist" stuff there than anywhere.  We found a local park near a bakery and walked there at night, which lead to finding a superb local restaurant.  Our hotel was on the outskirts of town, so we had the pros and cons of that.  Lots of cool architecture and attractions.
 
Next up was Cordoba/Cordova, which was probably my favorite city.  The mosque (now a cathedral) there is very impressive, and there's a partially excavated Muslim city nearby that you can visit as well.
 
Then back to Madrid, hitting a castle out in farmland on the way, which was used in filming of Game of Thrones (Castle of Almodóvar del Río) and this time we stayed on the outskirts of Madrid.  We used that as a springboard to visit some more castles and national parks, and explore the suburb of Madrid that was home to Cervantes.  We did not wander back into Madrid proper, though.
 
We've been home a week now.  The first time I went to drive my Camaro I accidentally pulled forward a few feet when I meant to back up, as I had gotten used to the shift pattern of our rental car in Spain.  Luckily I didn't hit anything and the only damage was to my pride...
 
Pictures on Discord here if anyone is interested:  
 
https://discord.gg/uquJWSpS