1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

Forgot I took this earlier

 

Anyone know a good way to get hydraulic fluid out of a cell phone???

 

Contact cleaner probably would be the safest but it's probably fucked.

 

I have questions now that I thought I'd never have.

 

My oldest had her graduation last night. National honor society and top 10% of her class. Pretty proud of that girl.





I need a better phone. This one sucks at anything less that full sunlight.

 

Is it full of hydraulic fluid? Or just a potato?

 

I'm guessing this is a case where rice in a baggie ain't gonna help.

You need a new phone? It's not glamorous, but I've got a spare, unlocked iPhone 6S+ I can ship your way if you've got AT&T (may work w/T-Mo or others, I really dunno)

 

Congrats little bmf

 

Awesome!

You look like a farmer in this pic, just saying.

 

Pretty sure he’s a mic ultra farmer

 

Awesome work dad! These are the accomplishments that really matter.

 

The best. I took a pic with my son the other day at his smart kid thing. I look way better in the mirror for some reason. You look great, so does your daughter!! Congrats.

 

I wanted the $500 dollar set ever since @Shifty posted the deals on the used ones. But I needed to replace a 13mm Gear Wrench ratchet and saw the long reach boxes and said f-it. 72 teeth may make me wish otherwise, we will see.

 

When you need extra length on a pivot, it sure rules.

 

WTF did you do now? lol

I’d open it up and clean it out as best as possible with some paper towels. After that, thoroughly clean it with 90-100% isopropyl alcohol and let dry before using.

 

Way, way, off topic for here.

Anyone ever been to London? Anything that's a must do?

We're considering taking a family vacation this fall, never been international so somewhere that speaks English seems like a good start

 

I’ll ask my nephew next time I see him. He went there with his now ex who grew up in the area.

 

Ha! Nah, indestructible phone just has a shit camera I guess.

 

That's the point of the thread

Yes, skip it. Been there, done that, won't be going back.

It's literally in the list of top 3 most expensive travel destinations to boot. I believe Switzerland is the only one above it. There's nothing necessarily unique or awesome about it, specifically, other than the fish and chips, otherwise it's a mish-mash of stuff from every other country and not always done well.

Ireland. Ireland, Ireland, Ireland. Start in Dublin. If you want a ballpark itinerary of a good 1st path through, after a day or three in Dublin, work your way towards Kilkenny for a day or so, then on to Killarney for a few days (there's a crapload to do there, you could waste away 3 days just in the national park), and if you have time leftover, consider heading to the Cliffs of Dover, or Dingle, or Lahinch could be interesting. Just know you'll be driving on the other side of the road, and the default car is a manual. When we took the kids in 2018-2019, I drove over 2500km in 10 days, stick, wrong side of road, no problem. You get the hang really quick.

But seriously, don't let "English-speaking" get in your way, you're unnecessarily limiting yourself. There are several countries where, like, the huge majority of the population (70%+) speak fluent English. Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, are no doubt at the top of that list, some more than 80% speak fluently. That said, I've been all over Germany, and to Slovenia, literally every other person I met was conversationally fluent in English. Bavaria (home of Munich) is at the top of the list with awesome food, friendly people and like 2/3 of the people speak fluent English - how can you go wrong with sausages, pork in everything, and beer beer beer?

While Portugal's numbers aren't quite that high, if you stay in populated areas, you won't have any difficulties whatsoever.

I'm freaking blessed. I never expected to be able to travel, but my life changed radically when a Swiss entity bought out the company I was working for back in 2001. They sent my ass all over the damn place, whether I liked it or not, at the prime of my single life, sometimes with multiple stayover weekends so I could venture out elsewhere. I've only ever been conversationally fluent in English, and can motor through situationally w/Spanish --- rarely ever had an issue anywhere they sent me.

PS - we have an American customs & border checkpoint in Dublin. Flying in and out is easy as pie!

 

Excellent! I'm up for wherever but my 14 year old wants to hit London and a train trip to Paris...well because she's 14 lol.

Ireland is for sure on the list as well as Scotland. A friend of mine grew up in Scotland and still has family there so we're trying to coordinate a trip with him but my daughter is a counselor at a summer camp so June/July are basically shot which is when he usually travels.

I hate to say it but Covid was generous to us and my wife now makes just north of 6 figures working from home and basically my entire salary is fun money. That amount in our area puts us pretty well at the upper end especially considering we've got nearly no debt. It's a huge difference from 10 years ago where an unexpected $500 would have been a major issue for us.

 

Did 3 months there before kids.

highlight was our trip to Berlin. Second best was Paris (but pricey)

walking tours and pubs. Trains to Dover or various other places for other walking tours to see old cathedrals and stuff. Mostly meh and pricey as f but I hit it at a particularly poor time for the exchange rate.

Other than the accents it’s not any different from the US. I’d go anywhere else if you want an actual experience.

 

Finland and Estonia are still on my list. Someday. I hosted a Finn 3 years in a row and our mutual friend is from Estonia. Should have gone when I was single but I was poor and focused on sports. Now I have the cash but not the time. Sigh.

Bavaria is where we would take the kids on a family vacation once they earn the privilege.

New Zealand is the childhood trip which stands out the most to me. I’d love to go back. Cool people and not too many of them. I’m sure it’s different now but I bet I’d enjoy it even more. Maybe not great for a 14 year old though.

Paris is/was like Vegas. Good for 24h. Then GTFO.

 

Ah, going from the most expensive city to the most attitude city! You just named two of the cities I have no interest in going back to.

FWIW, my MIL had her 71st birthday in Provence and insisted we bring the kids, so we hit Paris. They were so excited! Then the only thing they liked was the Eiffel tower, they hated everything else. They didn't understand why all the people were so rude. Lyon was far better, and more similar to everywhere else we went, much more welcoming. Paris definitely is not representative of France. The Catacombs were cool for me. Graveyard wandering was fun. The rest was meh.

This rings true for us as well, we still have the house to pay off, but that's it, and even that went from 26yrs to payoff down to 14yrs. It's happened to quite a few of us, but seems super industry-dependent. I've watched friends in service-facing industry suffer loss after loss, Meanwhile, my wife saw a 50% salary increase, me a 15% salary increase, and in 2 years, my checking account dectupled from the "historical norm" it's consistently been for years. It's bittersweet. And I've also found I'm mostly miserable doing what I'm doing, for the most part. Weird how that works.

Despite that fortune, after living virtually paycheck to paycheck for the first half of my work life, I'm still tied to old habits. In the back of my brain I know the other shoe could drop at any time and I may lose everything, so I still do the old stuff, like maintaining a slush-fund for projects like my truck, never spending outside of it. To quote Henry Rollins, " I know, without any delusion, where I come from & where I can go back to".

Anyway, to the travel point, a day is all you need. Or two. There's no reason you can't bounce to the big isle, hit London for a day, spend 3x as much on a room there to stay overnight, then Chunnel your way to France. Just make those dots on a map, hit a landmark or two, but make it in the middle of two other places.

One thing I'll say about Central Europe, the freaking train system is pretty damn amazing. You can get from anywhere, to just about anywhere, in a snap. Not as fast as plane, but more exact destinations.

 

If you ever go and you've never been, hit me up. I spent 6 months of my life on/off working in Unterföhring just on the other side of the Englischer Garten from Munich proper and can toss out some fun stuff of interest. The hotel we stayed all that time supposedly in had a direct line from the Erdinger brewery in Erding.

 

That's the other idea is to fly in one place, do trains and hit a bunch of different areas over the course of the week. Possibly Paris>London>Dublin>Edinburgh.

Funny thing is it's all dependant on the sugar mamas vacation time. She makes more but has limited vacation, meanwhile I'm going in 5 weeks of vacation time

 

I think you're overthinking the English problem. In 2019 we went to Prague, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. The people in all three countries spoke better English than half the rednecks where I live.

We're going to Ibiza soon. I'm working on my Spanish but I've been told they speak English too. Never been to London so can't help there.

 

Mostly wasn't thinking of it as a problem, just didn't want to be 'those' tourists that expect locals to speak English. So far I'm reading that doesn't seem to be an issue, although I'd still like to learn some common phrases if I'm heading to a place with a different language.

 

That's fair. The hardest part for me was public transportation. I'm from Tennessee. We have no public transportation. Trying to learn bus routes in Dutch was difficult. The only country I've heard that's rude towards Americans is France but who knows how true that is. Europe is insane and so much fun. You'll have a good time to matter where you go.

 

I always try to do the same. The essentials, like "sorry, I don't speak <insert language> very well", "how much ...", "where is ...", "bathroom", and "beer".

After going where I've been, I'll never be the schmuck that says, "speak English!" to anyone. It super-sucks when the tables are turned! Fortunately we seem to be one of the only places out of all the other countries/cities I've been to (other than Paris) where it's deemed OK to have that attitude.

Not France. Paris, specifically. But a lot of folks there hate everyone, just have a special contempt for Americans.

Never judge France based on Paris. Even proper French will tell you, Paris isn't France. It's practically its own country.

The rest of France is pretty f'n awesome. Can't recommend enough to hit Lyon, specifically.

 

PS - Fun story about Paris.

I have a friend, now American, whose family came from Venezuela. He speaks Spanish (obviously), learned French and German while working at my company, out of necessity. They kept him overseas on the French side of Switzerland and Munich for almost 3 years. He actually lives in France with his wife and daughter now.

Anyway, this guy speaks fluent conversational French. He hosted us on the MIL's birthday trip in Lyon, and tailed us to Paris. Mind you, we work for a French-Swiss company, technical one, and speaks at length with people. A swath of people refused to speak French with him. They acted like they couldn't understand the guy, like his accent was so bad they couldn't decipher what he was saying. Back in Lyon afterward, no problem. Everyone magically understood him again.

It's a farce. They just do it to mess with people and make you feel inferior. Granted, it's not everyone in Paris, he tells me it's mostly people who immigrated there, not the people whose families trace back hundreds of years.