Let's shift the focus to this; more interesting anyways!

With cool weather on the way it's getting near time to shift from pilsners and sauv. blanc back to bocks and merlot, cabs and lord knows what other goodies i will discover this fall!!!

So what's the best reasonably priced Merlot you've had lately? (Group feel free to respond as well!SmileWavy)

denis, i've been there myself. that was a pretty big post right there. off topic, how do you like your 996? i've been kicking around the idea for a daily driver, being that it is AWD and should do better in the winter than the 951.

i had some really nice south american reds. i can't remember the exact label but translated it means 'devil's cellar' or something like that. best reds i've had in a long time. i also fancy rogue's extra india pale ale.

Rioja baby!!! Love it!!! Really, really yummy while standing next to the grill waiting on a hunk-o-lamb or steak!!

looking to find this 'devils cellar' stuff as you are the 2nd person i've heard this comment from recently!!!

rioja is very nice. i like mine a little dry.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Casillero_del_Diablo_wine.jpg

Might I say that Denis PM'ed me and my opinion of him is way up in my book. He looked at my post and figured out that I was trying to inject some humor about the "social experiment" (those of you who've been here for a while will remember that one). I admit that I probably should not have used that reference especially with him being upset last night. I must admit that having lost my shirt when UAL stock went bye-bye post-9/11 (Can you say 40 years worth of investing, even through the Capital/UAL merger, seeing beautiful splits back in the late 60's-mid 70's?) It's really sad when you see your non-diversified nest egg disappear in such a short time. I'm sure lots of people suffered the same misfortune.

So yes, Denis & I might have that drink in the future, I'll probably give him a good slap on the back and call him a friend, but now about that "pimp slap"....;)

Thanks, the 996 is an awesome car but quite a departure from earlier, air-cooled Porsches. Actually, it's an evolution, so it's a lot closer to a 993 than a 911SC or older, but a major re-design. It's still a Porsche, though; tough as a billy-goat and just a league above most other makes, IMO.

I've never been satisfied with most 911 cars in stock/showroom form and my 996 is no exception. Stock they are a little too quiet and soft for me. Mine came with aftermarket fully adjustable coil-over suspension that lowered the car and really changed its personality. Suspension-wise it is closer to a GT3 than a stock '99 996. On the street it's firm, but I love it as long as the road is fairly smooth. Potholes are not good in a lowered, firm-riding sports car.

I took it to the track just once so far and it performed like a dream. Less challenging to go really fast in than an earlier car, but potentially more dangerous because the limits are so much higher. Its behavior at traction limits was unbelievably good, though, a really safe car. I had a pro racer/instructor drive the car w/ me in passenger seat and it was amazing. he could just put the car anywhere he wanted on the track while sliding @ 120 mph and talking in a relaxed tone. Unbelievable. On curvy public roads it just seems over-qualified, I can take Mulholland in L.A. at 50-60 mph w/o ever breaking traction and hardly touching the brakes. The car is still completely under control; I'm not advocating breaking traffic laws but one of my rules is that I can always still turn the wheel or brake to avoid a hazard within reason. You can brake in the middle of a turn w/ this car. It's the best-handling, highest performance car I've ever driven fast. I worked at a Porsche dealer in the '80s and drove all of the cars of that time when they were new and in perfect condition. (Some modified). This car would mop the floor w/ any of them.

I just put modified stock mufflers on it so that it no longer sounds like a Lexus, that was a big improvement. It was nearly silent before. It's more fun to drive when you can hear the flat-6 wind-out. It has a nice motor--who knew? ;)

Finally, it does not have the same type or amount of personality as an earlier 911, but it has its own personality that I've grown to like. Kind of more like a stealth fighter and an early 911 is an old fighter plane. Porsche's philosophy was always to make a supercar that can actually be used as daily transportation, they might have gone too far for some people's taste w/ the new cars. It is as usable and *low-maintanence* as any modern transportation appliance.

How's that for a long-winded thread hi-jack? Damn, it feels good to actually type something about Porsches. What a concept. ;)

HE fushed the golden goose?
He? Are you refering to Bush as a cause of high fuel prices, or the bleeding heart liberal envori-wacko democrats who blocked offshore drilling for the past 6 years?
Bush has done many, many things in an attempt to lower oil prices. The democrats have done just the opposite. Typical.

LOL, that is pretty low. I'd hate to be accused of that too. But for the sake of accuracy, it was "a social engineering experiment".
I don't remember and didn't read far enough into that thread to find out, did Shaun ever cover that bounced check?

Yes, I did the next day. I had sold some parts to cover the bet and the money came in one day late. I gambled. I decided that if I contacted Joe and asked him for a day or two to cash the check, all hell would have broken loose. I gambled that the check wouldn't be presented immediately. I gambled that if it did, Joe would contact me and say WTF.

I lost all those bets.

You know, it can be said that the true measure of a man isn't when times are good, it's when times are bad. In this regard, I completely failed as a man. At that time, my company G9Girl had basically completely failed. That meant I was $600K down, $145K in real $ and I hadn't had a paycheck in 3 years.

And you will be happy to know that a day doesn't go by that I don't think of that day. Why? Because I asked my dad for advice on the subject. I haven't talked with him since that Easter. nuff said.

So I lost a lot more than my integrity that day.

I'll never forget it. That was 2.5 years ago now.

Two things:

First, Dammmn, time flies. That was 2.5 years ago?!?!!

Second, Bro, I got your back! Not like I'm Mr. Liquid or anything but eff that idiot. Cambridge Homies Rule!!

"I am not drinking Merlot!"

You have no idea son, no idea at all. Its better than you think and getting bloodier by the day. When things are this good in one market all sorts of strangness occurs. Some of the fools getting bank is just absurd.

If this happened a few thousand years ago, it would be the stuff of folklore and myth all to end in a great blast from the beast...the middlebeast that is.

ed


Had a Blackstone Merlot that was decent not long ago, never had a glass of Kendall Jackson or Clos du Bois Merlot in my life that was not excellent.

Some how, everything good is because of the Republcan party. I find it more likely that they were fallin all over themselves to take credit for the new legislation that they wrote in response to mirror image legislation proposed by the Democrats. I seem to recall Bob Dole responding time and time again to new proposals from the Democrats with the knee jerk response that the Republican plan was better.

It just took a Democrat to get them to put it on the table. ;)

You see the same thing happening in Bush Juniors second term. The Dems get a majority, and all of a sudden White House staff and policy make an abrupt turn about.

BTW, Jimmy Carter may have been a poor leader, but we would be a lot better off if we had moved toward energy independance 30 years ago. Can we really wait another 30 years ?

Can we wait another four ? I think not.

carter is a tard, as demonstrated by his recent visit to consort with the enemy, and a traitor, as evidenced by his discussing the nuclear capabilities of our allies.

AND, as to your main point, they are carter's policies that have prevented us from drilling/exploring on our own real estate and creating infrastructure. i may only have been ten at the time, but i was reading newsweek during the hostage crisis while that nitwit sat in the white house wringing his hands and worrying about getting them dirty.

thanks Man, but I own this, it's all mine.

What is Mr. Liquid?

Better a "social experiment" than a social diease.

I want to thank you all for considering me to be special. I will tell that to Mother when she gets out of detox. It seems she became a alcoholic because of me... She says, "I drove her to drink herself into oblivion, rather than listen to another word that I have to say."