trinacriabob

Yes, a lot of fundy Bible study groups and Amway (or facsimiles thereof)....pick your poison. Seriously, you can spot those a mile away and stay away from those types.

Sim. Nao esquici. Brasileira (com Fernando de metal), Suisa, Versailles, Nicola...mais aqui nao temos os bolos de nata.

Really? There's a regular laptop brigade in these places nightly. Reg, you're making me feel like a dork.

I got bumped off a flight from Toronto to Rome and had to spend the night in Mississauga. It was night time, so I didn't see anything. I like the Woodbridge suburb. It's where all the Italians that decided to get larger and newer houses and left the 2 "Little Italys" (on College Street and on St. Clair West) moved to.

While I may hate the summertime cold coffee-based drinks or the $4 coffee drinks, I really like the coffeehouse environment - Starbucks, Peet's, Borders Cafe, B&N Cafe. I go there to write my to-do lists, write other crap, read the paper, think....for me, it's a cerebral environment that has a good atmosphere. And I get by on less than $2, ordering either hot tea or iced tea. Sometimes, the best coffee houses are of the "non-chain" variety. In Northern California, there is LaBou and Bella Bru (each has a few stores here and there). In the small town of Chico, there is a really cool one called "Bidwell Perk," taking its name from Bidwell Park, the 2nd largest city park after Central Park, except that this one sprawls into the foothills canyons, complete with deer, coyote and mountain lions. Do you spend much time in a cafe' or "coffeehouse?"

Don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on the way out. Just kidding. Have a safe trip and good luck in the new assignment.

We're not kidding, here. There is plenty of blame to go around. As far as the dress code goes, I don't know what to say. Someone could have informally given him some advice that this would create problems for him and it was up to him to "take it or leave it." At least he came to school wearing clothes. In the 90s, there was a college kid at Berkeley (where else?) that decided that the dress code was too confining for him, so he decided to go to school not wearing ANY clothes. The school ultimately acted and incorporated "anti-nudity" language into its by-laws, code of conduct or policies, and he had to stop. Incidentally, within the last year or so, he made the news, telling of the troubled life he's had since Berkeley that he ended by committing suicide. The nudity part was funny, but this part was not. As far as the harassment part, I've read that it was bilateral. The boys tormented him for dressing this way and he was reportedly overt in his flirting. If this is true, then neither party was correct. Lastly, this is the 2nd time in 30 or so years that Oxnard, CA, a nice and not ridiculously priced coastal location in Ventura Co, has been rocked by a teenage trauma. I will never forget as a teen reading in the Los Angeles Times that a young girl was walking past the HS or middle school playing field on her way home and a gang of boys decided to attack her. They did all kinds of weird things to her -- the bottom line is that her reproductive tract was severely damaged. I think the community insisted that these kids should be tried as adults. I think they were tried as adults. The same should happen here. While the perpetrator was probably uncomfortable, nothing justifies what he did. It was premeditated, IMO.

I knew you'd probably like Summerlin, given that you were coming from a nice part of south Orange Co. That residential high-rise just as 93/95 forks off to go toward Northern Nevada from Summerlin Parkway just kind of stands out...you know the one I'm talking about, right? Yes, the prices aren't too bad. Don't far-out Henderson and the newer developments around Boulder City have some nice housing options, too? Yeah, thank God you guys have Mt. Charleston in your backyard. On a real hot summer day, you might as well head up there and spend the whole DAY. (About the road up to Mt. Charleston, bad for your AC and coolant temp as you go up, and horrible on your brakes on the way down...my rental was showing some brake fade by the time I got down to the highway that takes back to LV). As for the 110 vs. 90-95 and humid, I'll take 90-95 and humid. At 105+, going outside feels like opening an oven and putting your head in. Downsides? For me, the downside is that there are a lot of skanky people that have migrated there. You don't see many of them where you live, but try sitting in some of the chain coffee shops "off-Strip" (near Trop. and Decatur, or Trop. and Buffalo) on a Saturday morning so you get some of the locals who live there. Not anyone I'd want to do coffee with. Very detailed and accurate report.

Great story, moltar. I went to my 20-year because I was back in California and it so happened that I was flying to Europe on vacation the next afternoon from LAX, so I came down to LA the day before. I did not go to my 10-year because I was living in Atlanta. Considering this was a Catholic high school, which supposedly means more of an investment in good morals and ethics, it was not at all enjoyable. I vowed not to go to another one. Many people were still posturing. The cliques still applied. That means I got to talk to my (not necessarily geeky) high-GPA, high-SAT friends. I had grown 6 inches in height, from 5'-4," and had a conservative looking haircut, so many people had no idea who I was. As far as looks went, most people had NOT changed. The girls looked more unchanged than the guys and few, if any, had chunked out. Most people did not live in L.A. or L.A. County any more; there were a lot of people up north of L.A. and many in Orange County ("behind the Orange Curtain," as we like to say). Less out-of-state representation than I thought: AZ, CO and WA, with 1 in the Midwest and another who was an ATL-based Delta pilot. Moltar, re. the bold, (1) that's a lot of deceased people as a percentage; yikes, we had 3, or so, out of 225, (2) does the lawyer like L.A. compared to South Florida?, and (3) are you in touch with the other Coloradoans or are they in other parts of the state? Also, I assume that, in DMILF, the D stands for divorced, no? Reunion stories are indeed interesting.

It's a car that absolutely does NOT know what it wants to be. The only things I like are the angularity of the headlamps (instead of the current fish eyes) and the fact that the bars in the front grille aren't fully aligned, creating a little more motion and excitement in an otherwise conservative Buick grille. Other than that, everything else is horrendous. The ledges on the front hood say Chrysler Sebring. The thick roof rail says Saturn Aura. The rear deck says Maxima/Altima, with the taillamps themselves having vestiges of Toyota Corolla/Yaris in their proportions to the overall rear treatment. And the driver says "I can't see, I can't see"...what a ridiculously squatty roofline. Gee, I'm liking my '08 base model LaCrosse with my boring 3800 V6 more and more....

Yes, we already know.

This topic comes around every now and then... I was born in LA but lived in Seattle to be closer to my parents who were "equity transferees" to the Pacific NW from California (no longer possible to be an "equity transferee" because it's now expensive up there). I worked with a local a-hole in an architectural firm. He didn't like me, but all the other transplants did. I had to work late one night and told him I might have to call him at home with a question. Him: You didn't call me last night. Me: I didn't need to, Issaquah* Todd. (* = a suburb) Him: Fine, California Bob. Me: You don't like Californians? Him: (drawn out) No...I...don't At any rate, I always tried to get California Bob for e-mail accounts. It's always taken. I then wondered if Trinacria Bob, referring to my parents' native Sicily, would be taken. It never is.

Phoenix in August and my palms are sweating just reading this. LOL. I know you like Denver a lot. I have been, as you know, and like its western suburbs such as Ken Caryl Ranch, Evergreen and Conifer (but NOT Boulder because I don't like to be hit over the head with granolas). I heard that when you position yourself in the western suburbs, you will face an intense sun, which reportedly shines brightly in Denver, for both your morning and afternoon commute. Pittsburgh has always been rated high for numerous years in Q.O.L. surveys. The housing possibilities there seem to be very nice, per those housing magazines, and the hilly setting is likewise. However, I found it odd that a city which is always highly ranked in the surveys experiences a decline, albeit small, in both its city limit and metro area census counts as time marches on. If I ever moved east, it would be to the metro Atlanta area which is really the only eastern city I've lived in as an adult. I thought "the ATL" kicked some serious ass.

Cool! You're the only one that I know of on C&G. East Bay, Marin, Peninsula, Pleasanton/Livermore? It's all good. I drove down to the Walnut Creek area to go to dinner with someone who drove eastward from the city. She is constantly in a state of disbelief as to what comes out of my mouth. People I knew in LA just laughed. White trash is not good. Trans Am is good. White trash Trans Am tilts toward being good. LOL.

North Central Calif, about 110 miles N.E. of the Bay Area. Los Angeles, in my heart, will always be my home. However, all coastal California metro areas are too pricey. Even though SF is more scenic than LA, if I could afford to live WELL in either, I'd take LA in a heartbeat. SF is too politically correct and LA is more free-wheeling and whacked, so I fit in better. In fact, look how many colorful Southern Californians are on this site while there are NO Bay Area members that come to mind....they are too busy driving around their overrated foreign garbage while dating some intelligent granola or Asian chick who went to Berkeley or Stanford with her flawless SAT and works in tech or as a web designer. Re. my general area.... Pros: more affordable, at the foot of the Sierra Nevadas, proximity to Tahoe and San Francisco, cools down at night even when it's real hot during the day Cons: hotter than being within 25 or so miles from the coast, people are not as interesting as I'm accustomed to, people can be stupid... ...did I mention that people can be stupid?

Taxes all over the heavily populated NE population corridor are absurd, by and large, since I love to look at R.E. on the web. When the house/townhouse/condo ads tack on the property taxes, for example, it makes what was on the cusp of being tenable seem ridiculous. And this isn't just Bergen County NJ or LI, it's the Hudson River Valley, PA, Mass and that whole swath of the country. Indeed...people in your general area ARE interesting. A lady who sits down the hall from me struck up a friendship, largely based on me asking "is that a tri-state area accent?" Turns out she was born in Queens and Italian, need I say more. She's a hoot and said people out West are too "homogenized," even in the large West Coast metro areas she's lived in.

This is on the old 92 Regal, nearing 250,000 miles. I think this issue has surfaced. You note it when the engine is torqued. Questions: How many are there (3800 + 4 sp transaxle)? Are they hard for the mechanic to get to? How much is parts and labor for this operation? I heard, once you're in there, to do all of them at the same time. Any experience and facts/figures? It would be appreciated.

And they probably put on a complete lunch, almost like a picnic! As for credit cards, Moltar, they used to only take Discover and then, fortunately, switched to Amex. Unless you go for volume purchases, it's not that great, really. I only go in there to buy an electronics item or a $20 pair of brand-name jeans...that's about it.

Hey, have you ever been driving down the freeway on a road trip of at least a couple of hours and seen a Costco near an off-ramp when it's close to lunch or dinner time, preferably on a Saturday or Sunday? And your stomach is growling? Did it yesterday. The economy is clearly sputtering as there were FEWER people in the store on a Sunday at about 4 pm and FEWER tasting stands. If you are unobstrusive, you can manage 2 tastes at any station you like. It will fill you up some and you can sample foods you may not ordinarily buy or find something you will eventually buy. Obviously, I also look at their latest electronics to see if there is anything I need. I also usually pick up the $1.50 hot dog and drink on the way out. Have you done this? Or thought about it? Don't lie.

Haven't chimed in for a while and then saw this.... It's ugly, from what I can see. The roofline says Saturn Aura. The rear deck proportions say Nissan Maxima/Altima (whichever). Dashboards have been improving and have become more inspiring, so it may benefit...in this area. Drawing on another newly released car, everyone raves about the new Malibu. I see its virtues. The fit and finish are excellent. I didn't drive one because the salespeople have been too pushy (and I don't go in my new car, so they think a sale is in the making). However, the blind spots and high belt line detract. Especially the rear blind spots. Seeing this, and seeing that there were no worthwhile changes for 2009, make me glad I bought in 2008.

Purchase date. Order date was 3-9 Delivery date was 4-14 I was away at grad school so I picked it up in mid-May, hence it's birthday.

Today is my Regal's 16th birthday. This morning, it had 244,073 miles on the odometer (that's almost 400,000 kilometers!) In this period, other than stuff that normally wears out (belts, hoses, brakes, batteries), I've only fixed the following, in this order: - exhaust donut connecting manifold to tailpipe - water pump - alternator - thermostat by-pass - 2 front wheel bearing assemblies (different times) - tie rod ends - 2 sensors: O2 and knock (different times) That's it. I'll have to wax it soon. The 100 degree temps have arrived. I still like it but am not that attached to it. But it has been reliable (so folks, don't knock the W-body too hard). Do you remember your car's birthday? Do you celebrate it?

Someone needs to Google "New Madrid" and/or "1819" or something like that....

Yo, O.C., do keep your ties to So. Cal. Las Vegas's retention rate for transplants is very 50:50. Pick your suburb wisely, especially being spoiled by a South Orange Co. existence. Summerlin sounds good. What about Scottsdale AZ? Some of my friends who have done the PHX move seem to adjust to Scottsdale well and it only adds about 1-1/2 hour to the jaunt "back home" when needed. Good luck and keep us posted, bud.

Agreed. My first tank on the LaX with the 3800 on a very benign freeway trip at 62 to 65 mph with no A/C got me 30.34 mpg and not even broken in. Any 3900 I've ever rented never breaks 27 or 28 mpg, even with AFM but "baby brother" 3500 gets 32 mpg easily. In the end, even with high fuel prices, 1 or 2 mpg in 15,000 miles of driving is not that costly. About the changes, I can now exhale. I thought about waiting for MY 2009 and would have kicked myself if I was ready to buy and the 3800 was gone. It isn't, so I could have waited. However, what I would have waited for is some beautiful shade of blue (such as an ice or glacier version) which might have appeared...together with the 3800. The color didn't materialize, so I'm ok with the purchase at the time I bought it, even though I'm not even driving it that much. I would have liked to have seen the 3800 remain on the Lucerne. Wow, 3800 production or inventory must be down to a trickle, as I don't think they will be selling more than 100,000 LaCrosses for 2009.