So, how was your 2013? Mine was pretty good. It seems we ran the gamut around here. No matter how it ended up, here's hoping your 2014s are better.
71 thoughts on “December 31, 2013: The End”
With my son being born, I would say it was a good year in that respect. Plus, my career had a good year. Financially though, not so much. I'm happy its the end of the year and tax time.
I have about $300 left in my HSA. Happy for a healthy year (despite shoulder surgery and my 50th-birthday present anal cavity search), sad that I basically gave back all of my tax savings by not spending that money. Unfortunately, the State o' California is not yet allowing funds to roll over....
Interesting, I thought HSAs were governed by federal regulations and always roll over year to year, whereas flex spending accounts don't.
I know MN allows rollovers now. They used to not. However... it is absolutely clear that employers are permitted to pay you the difference in the account, and tax it normally. They just very rarely do so. I'll let y'all draw your own conclusions from that, rather than wade into the forbidden zone.
My understanding is the same as yours, Twayn. We have a high-deductible plan where I work and my employer deposits an amount equal to our deductible into our HSA at the beginning of each year, and it has always rolled over. We also have the option to individually contribute to an FSA, but I've never done that since it expires at the end of each year.
As someone who doesn't own a mortgage, I have come to appreciate having the HSA since I don't have enough deductions for it to make financial sense to itemize my deductions.
sorry, I meant flex spending account. I always forget the correct label.
new rules announced a couple of months ago allow the employer to choose between allowing roll-overs (up to $500) OR allowing a grace period for submitting claims from a plan year. To the best of my knowledge, the State of California has not chosen to allow roll-overs.
looking at the Dept. of Personnel Admin website, it says this about flexible spending account balances:
The IRS rule on deferred compensation allows payment for medical and dependent care expenses incurred up to two and one-half months after the end of the plan year. In other words, you may use money deducted in 2014 to pay for medical and dependent care expenses incurred up to March 15, 2015. You still have until June 30, 2015 to claim expenses incurred up to March 15, 2015 and any unused amount at that time will be forfeited pursuant to IRS Rules.
Claims are paid in the order which they are received. If you have an account balance in your prior plan year account, and submit a claim for service during the grace period (up to March 15 of the following year), the expense will automatically be paid from your prior plan year's account.
Well, yea me. I've continually misunderstood. I thought that all expenses had to be incurred in the calendar year even though I had until the following June to submit the claims. Oy.
Do you wear contacts? I let my supply dwindle until December each year.
My optometrist told me I could stretch my contacts from two to three weeks. Instant savings!
the Boy wears disposable contacts, but we just refilled. But the mrs is getting new glasses in january. She wears super-hi-refraction lenses with a variety of special coatings, so the last time we got them, the after-insurance cost to us was several hundreds of dollars.
Our HSA rolls over; FSA (when we had one) does not.
We hit our deductibles this year, and I was giving serious thought to getting any boosters we should get. Apparently the shingles shot isn't an option several places until reaching 60.
I've been thinking about the Wolves screw job last night and the "if they wouldn't have sucked in the first half, they wouldn't have put themselves into that position" analysis that goes along with it. I hate that sentiment because it completely discounts the second half effort as well as assumes everything else would have been the same. So I do not feel good that the two refs staring at the friggin thing both didn't call it because the NBA, regardless of what could have/should have/would have been previously.
I think that analysis is part of the bigger picture, but ignoring a blatant foul as time runs out is also part of that picture. The picture is something like:
1) Bench scored 5 points all game
2) Refs swallowed their whistle
3) Wolves dug a hole in the first half
All of these contributed to the loss. I think what makes #2 so galling is that it seems like we should be able to fix it.
Wolves had 18 turnovers (5 by Barea) to 11 for Dallas. Refs swallowing their whistle at the end was terrible, but as you and others stated, there was a whole path of performance that got the Wolves to that last play.
But I'm saying using that path to blow off the terrible call at the end is what's upsetting me. Its like excuse making for someone being bad at their job. Instead of saying how they never should have been in that position, why can't we say how much the bench sucks and that they got screwed out of at least an attempt at the win.
oh, I am co-signing on that.
There is no excuse for the refs not making the call, especially when it was an All-Star player having a great night on his home floor. Those things probably shouldn't influence referees, but they routinely do, which made this all the more surprising. As far as the call is concerned, what happened the 48 minutes before that has nothing to do with it being a bad call in the final seconds. The NBA put in instant replay for the final seconds of the game because they felt it was important to get calls right at this point in the game. However, a good coach will use what happened throughout the game as a teaching tool. The team can't control what the refs do, but they can control how they play earlier in the game. He can tell them that in this game if they had done what they should have in the first half, then they most likely wouldn't have needed that call at the end to avoid losing.
without a call to overturn, there is nothing reviewable, I think.
also, I'm not clear on your comment. Are you suggesting that Adelman is a bad coach, or a good coach (from your comments about how a "good coach" would use a teachable moment)?
I didn't mean this was reviewable, I was just using the use of instant replay at the end of the game (or quarter) as an example of the NBA deeming these moments more important and more critical to get calls right.
I also wasn't really trying to evaluate Adelman, but just talking about the idea that if a team played better early the call at the end wouldn't matter. I think that idea generally comes from coaches who understand that the team needs to focus on things it can control instead of things it can't control. If you're just evaluating the refs, what happened the entire rest of the game has zero to do with how much it mattered that they get the foul call right in the final seconds of a two-point game.
I think people (fans, players, etc.) are trying to decide if the Wolves "deserved" to win. In my mind, a team that rallies from a 20-point second-half deficit to tie the game definitely "deserves" to win more than the team that blew a 20-point second-half deficit. If the Wolves played terrible in the first half, the Mavs played terrible in the second half. If I had to choose, without knowing the final result, I would choose to play terrible in the first half.
I went to the British Arrows at the Walker last night (the advertising awards). A few of my favorites:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_htTuXz3IsY
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y07at1bU89Q
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfA8ipB9oWs
(That's some great narrating. Pretty much the opposite of the guy from Scandalmakers)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK_RMlY0PkA
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-22bv8uFRLI
the first clip (Orange) has a 'This Is SportsCenter' vibe to it.
I didn't watch the Wolves but I have read about the call in the paper. One thing really bothers me. The notion that Kevin love should have gotten the call because he is a star. It is either a foul or it isn't. The who or when should not matter. That star treatment craps drives me nuts.
Yeah, the star thing is annoying. But, having watched it, there was no doubt it was a foul and the tv broadcast replay shows two refs staring right at it from either side while it happened.
True. I just hate the quote by Alderman today saying that Kevin should have gotten the call because he is a star.
Ah, gotcha. I hadn't actually seen that quote, and its sad that, despite how dumb the idea is he's right in the context of current NBA officiating.
I agree with the sentiment that there shouldn't be star treatment in the NBA, but since there obviously is, I like that Adelman said something about it.
I was thinking about this more last night. I side with the "it's either a foul or not a foul" sentiment. I think to some degree where the star treatment angle comes into play is that if Ndudi Ebi is jacking up that shot at the buzzer, it's less likely to actually go in without a foul than if Love takes the shot. One line of argument is that it's more fair in some sense to call it when Love is fouled (more often) because he's going to score more. I don't really agree with that line of thinking, though, because I just see it as it's more dumb to foul Ebi than it is to foul Love.
This line of thinking tends to happen more in soccer, where by the rules, fouls should be called the same everywhere on the field, but in the practical application of the rules, things are called differently in the penalty box than they are on the rest of the field.
Also, since I'm thinking too much about the Wolves this morning, I was just reading a post by SnP complaining about Ricky's shooting percentage again. I wish this would stop, really. Ricky is the opposite of the problem with this team right now. A quick check on B-Ref shows his WS/48 as the best of his career (entirely due to defense, which has been phenomenal) and in the small number of games I've watched it is extremely clear that the offense works roughly one million times better when he's running the point. He is fine, and things will improve when Bud returns and the rotational scoring can get a little more reliable.
He needs to hit more home runs!
This fanbase/media does have a problem with taking out their frustration on the least biggest problem on the team, eh?
I just dont get this.
Its going on with the Wolves with a few more people jumping on the "Im frustrated with this team, lets trade Kevin Love before he decides to leave" (as if thats already been decided. ). Im not a violent person, but I want to smash some fingers. Also, it doesnt make any sense trading Love because unless you are getting LeBron James in return, you are never going to get full value for Love.
Same with the "boo Joe Mauer cause he hit a single and he gets paid way to much money to get on base" crowd.
The will he stay or go thing ties in with my opinion/assumption/stereotyping on a pro athletes preference for money over market/playoffs with the draft wheel idea. The Wolves can, and will offer to, pay Love more than any other team and I think with Kahn out, he'll take it. He's the top dog here and I think Flip is at least smart enough to keep making him aware of that.
Also, maybe these particular fans just want to complain. If the Wolves keep Love, they have to keep making crap up. If they trade him, they get to complain that management didn't get anything in return. See: Santana, Johan.
Moral of the story, the internet makes people stupid.
Agreed.
Also, if they trade Love, the franchise most likely gets set back another 5 years and then fans complain about the Wolves never being good and all Minnesota teams do is never keep their good players.
Perhaps I should read less message board comments. But I am super bored today.
I posted this last night, but its worth a repeat listen
the crescendo to "OH ED MALLOY" is the best.
I had a pretty mixed bag of a year. It seemed to start off fine, but then as you probably all recall things went south at work and by April Fools Day I was looking for a new job. Then just a few weeks into my job search my appendix ruptured, I had emergency surgery and spent my birthday in the hospital. Summer was a trial, the uncertainty, the frustration of being my age and looking for work in what is still a terrible job market. We were most figuratively at the end of our rope -- state unemployment had run out, emergency federal unemployment was only going to last another month (through year's end). I lost my favorite uncle at the end of the summer and made the trek to Oklahoma for his funeral (one of the few benefits of being unencumbered by employment). But things always change eventually and in the fall the worm turned, the job market seemed to open up a bit, and the right opportunity finally came along. I'll stop short of calling it a miracle, but the timing involved in getting this job seemed more than coincidental, so much so that I can't help but wonder if a small bit of divine intervention wasn't cast in my direction. If it was, I'm certainly grateful for it. At any rate, 2013 didn't kill me so it must have made me stronger, and I'm happy to be ending the year on a high note. I just hope the coming year is a little more stable and fiscally secure than this one. Please.
Small Missouri brewery, Exit 6, runs afoul of Starbucks due to use of the other "F-word".
That's a very smart small business owner.
I know I'll definitely stop in if I'm ever in Cottleville, Missouri for whatever reason. Sounds like a pretty solid beer, too.
That's just minutes from me here. The thing has gone viral. Meh.
As with most years, 2013 was up and down for me. I'm just completing my first year of full-time employment* since December 2007. Downside, it's not as a lawyer, upside, it's at least within the confines of the prototypical legal profession. We bought a new home and moved into it in June, spent a few days at the lake with my entire immediate family (my sister and her husband and children made the trip from CA, something that doesn't happen often on a librarian's salary) in July, celebrated our daughters 2nd birthday in August and 9 years of marriage in September. We also spent most of the summer and fall driving to the Iron Range to visit my MiL, who eventually lost her battle with cancer weeks before our anniversary. She was only 64-years-old at the time of her passing, never smoked or drank alcohol. She exercised and ate right, worked as a nurse and was much too young. We have been dealing with the ups and downs of finalizing her estate since then. To quote Nas (I think), "Life's a b!tch and then you die."
The holidays have been nice and I'm looking forward to some weekends at home, now that the craziness of the past few months have passed.
*Other than the enforced 20-hour per week work limit during law school, it hasn't been part-time or no work either, just not 40 hours w/ benefits at one employer since I left the Navy.
2013 was a pretty rough year with my wife's health problems (my dad's too) and my uncertain job situation over the summer. In fact this summer was probably the roughest time I ever had outside of my brother passing at age 21.
However 2013 did see my son graduate from High School and move sucessfully on to college. I had a blast a Riotfest and got to hike in the Boundary Waters for two days in the pouring rain. I also get a new job that seems relatively secure and promises to be challenging in the future. So all in all a not a great year but hopefully the foundation has been laid for a better 2014.
Surprised I haven't heard more people mention Freealonzo's Rock Week as 2013 highlight :o)
The Runner family had a pretty good year overall. Runner daughter entered her senior year at college and has a boyfriend, Mrs. Runner and I had some enjoyable vacations, and work had been steady and rewarding. While I'm not active in the stock market, it's nice to see the 401(k) and IRA moving in the right directions.
I'm expecting my health to take a downturn though when Mrs. Runner sees how much of my overtime money I've been spending propping up the baseball card collection 😛
It is currently -18 F in Winnipeg and my car won't start. A wonderful end to 2013.
I think I brewed in weather like that once. Once.
I'll take extreme cold over extreme heat any day.
Werd.
No way.
yes, please. humidity for sale, cheap.
I can dress for cold, but I only have so many clothes I can take off.
Bingo. That's why I hate it here.
I walked into the beer store by where my car was parked to warm up and watched someone spend $88.80 on two cases on Bud Light. Beer prices in Canada are too damn high. I think I'd brew in that cold up here to save myself the pain of spending that much on beer.
Whoa. That would certainly get me to quit drinking.
I think I paid like ~$18 for a six pack of Newcastle at that beer store once. It was skunked. I was mad.
a six pack of Newcastle...was skunked.
How could you tell? 😉
It was a mighty fast drain poor, I assure you.
Eff a whole bunch of that.
What CH said.
that's a lot for beer. That's an extreme lot for "beer".
I spend a lot of time in the car in 2013. I spent a lot of time with my mother in 2013. Even still, it was a pretty good year.
2013 wasn't a lot of fun while it happened, but at the end of it, my wife and I are both in jobs that we love (we didn't have that at the end of 2012) and we have a kid that is an absolute blast to have around (he can walk and talk now, being able to actually interact is great). Hopefully that means that 2014 will have all that good stuff and much less of the frustrating bits.
I'll remember 2013 for: riding 200 miles from Seattle to Portland on my bike (over two days), a fantastic 3-week trip in Austria(where my friend got married)/Germany/Switzerland, and camping in a thunderstorm in the middle of nowhere in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. 2013 was not free from negative BS that seems to be packaged with life, but I'll do my best to leave that in the past.
2013 Up: Got a job in February that paid better than the job I was laid off from at the end of '12. Down: Got laid off in May. Up: Went back to working independently this summer and over the last half of '13, I made more per month on average than I was making in the job I got laid off from (plus no more commuting 40+ miles each way every day). Down: Had BoA send us a letter threatening to foreclose on our house in September if we didn't catch up on three months payments we were behind in August and then BoA refused to work with us to give us more time to catch up. Up: BoA sold our mortgage to another company just a few weeks before it would have started foreclosure, and the new company immediately agreed to refinance our mortgage, including the missed payments, and lower our monthly payment. Down: Got cracked root in a tooth a couple weeks ago that was capped from having a root canal a few years ago. Up: I thought I was going to have another root canal and would have to pay thousands of dollars (no dental insurance). Instead, dentist said it only needed to heal and he only drilled it down a little (it was sitting high and now it is lower so pressure is off when chewing) and gave me antibiotics for a total of $50 expense and I feel great just a few days later. Down: Currently have a water leak somewhere in the house, but can't tell where, so we think it is in the concrete slab. Had handyman friend look at it, but he can't fix it. Up: Found out from handyman that homeowners insurance should cover it minus the deductible, which we can afford.
we've done a lot better without dental insurance; a dental savings plan has worked well for us
We have Delta Dental. Our dentist generally accepts what Delta pays, so we have almost no out-of-pocket. But then we all have very healthy teeth and gums. So far....
2013: Half marathons in Miami (Feb), Cheshire, CT (Apr), Hartford (Oct), and Mpls (Nov). Triathlons in NY/CT throughout the summer. A century ride in MA in Sep - I really enjoyed the training for this.
A great vacation to Argentina (Buenos Aires, Iguaza Falls)/Uruguay (Montivideo, Punta del Este) in March, and to Sicily in September.
Dr. Fear happy with the numbers (cholesterol/triglycerides in good shape), weight down with all the running.
Got a new job (last one was too stressful).
2014: Want to take brother Coot to Panamá (we were there as kids, would be fun to reconnect). Deep-sea fishing would be fun. Have been re-learning Russian, may do a trip there. Want to do an Olympic Tri - maybe Litchfield, CT.
Bought a house and had a baby, all within three months. Next time at least a six month gap between the two I think.
We had the same thing happen 12 years ago. The one positive with a 6-month pregnant wife is many friends willing to help and tell her to sit down and rest.
Good bye 2013, hello 2014 !!!
Thanks for being such awesome people. You rock \m/
I came here to write the first comment of the year, but you beat me to it. Happy 2014 to you and everyone else around here!
With my son being born, I would say it was a good year in that respect. Plus, my career had a good year. Financially though, not so much. I'm happy its the end of the year and tax time.
I have about $300 left in my HSA. Happy for a healthy year (despite shoulder surgery and my 50th-birthday present anal cavity search), sad that I basically gave back all of my tax savings by not spending that money. Unfortunately, the State o' California is not yet allowing funds to roll over....
Interesting, I thought HSAs were governed by federal regulations and always roll over year to year, whereas flex spending accounts don't.
I know MN allows rollovers now. They used to not. However... it is absolutely clear that employers are permitted to pay you the difference in the account, and tax it normally. They just very rarely do so. I'll let y'all draw your own conclusions from that, rather than wade into the forbidden zone.
My understanding is the same as yours, Twayn. We have a high-deductible plan where I work and my employer deposits an amount equal to our deductible into our HSA at the beginning of each year, and it has always rolled over. We also have the option to individually contribute to an FSA, but I've never done that since it expires at the end of each year.
As someone who doesn't own a mortgage, I have come to appreciate having the HSA since I don't have enough deductions for it to make financial sense to itemize my deductions.
sorry, I meant flex spending account. I always forget the correct label.
new rules announced a couple of months ago allow the employer to choose between allowing roll-overs (up to $500) OR allowing a grace period for submitting claims from a plan year. To the best of my knowledge, the State of California has not chosen to allow roll-overs.
looking at the Dept. of Personnel Admin website, it says this about flexible spending account balances:
Well, yea me. I've continually misunderstood. I thought that all expenses had to be incurred in the calendar year even though I had until the following June to submit the claims. Oy.
Do you wear contacts? I let my supply dwindle until December each year.
My optometrist told me I could stretch my contacts from two to three weeks. Instant savings!
the Boy wears disposable contacts, but we just refilled. But the mrs is getting new glasses in january. She wears super-hi-refraction lenses with a variety of special coatings, so the last time we got them, the after-insurance cost to us was several hundreds of dollars.
Our HSA rolls over; FSA (when we had one) does not.
We hit our deductibles this year, and I was giving serious thought to getting any boosters we should get. Apparently the shingles shot isn't an option several places until reaching 60.
I've been thinking about the Wolves screw job last night and the "if they wouldn't have sucked in the first half, they wouldn't have put themselves into that position" analysis that goes along with it. I hate that sentiment because it completely discounts the second half effort as well as assumes everything else would have been the same. So I do not feel good that the two refs staring at the friggin thing both didn't call it because the NBA, regardless of what could have/should have/would have been previously.
I think that analysis is part of the bigger picture, but ignoring a blatant foul as time runs out is also part of that picture. The picture is something like:
1) Bench scored 5 points all game
2) Refs swallowed their whistle
3) Wolves dug a hole in the first half
All of these contributed to the loss. I think what makes #2 so galling is that it seems like we should be able to fix it.
Wolves had 18 turnovers (5 by Barea) to 11 for Dallas. Refs swallowing their whistle at the end was terrible, but as you and others stated, there was a whole path of performance that got the Wolves to that last play.
But I'm saying using that path to blow off the terrible call at the end is what's upsetting me. Its like excuse making for someone being bad at their job. Instead of saying how they never should have been in that position, why can't we say how much the bench sucks and that they got screwed out of at least an attempt at the win.
oh, I am co-signing on that.
There is no excuse for the refs not making the call, especially when it was an All-Star player having a great night on his home floor. Those things probably shouldn't influence referees, but they routinely do, which made this all the more surprising. As far as the call is concerned, what happened the 48 minutes before that has nothing to do with it being a bad call in the final seconds. The NBA put in instant replay for the final seconds of the game because they felt it was important to get calls right at this point in the game. However, a good coach will use what happened throughout the game as a teaching tool. The team can't control what the refs do, but they can control how they play earlier in the game. He can tell them that in this game if they had done what they should have in the first half, then they most likely wouldn't have needed that call at the end to avoid losing.
without a call to overturn, there is nothing reviewable, I think.
also, I'm not clear on your comment. Are you suggesting that Adelman is a bad coach, or a good coach (from your comments about how a "good coach" would use a teachable moment)?
I didn't mean this was reviewable, I was just using the use of instant replay at the end of the game (or quarter) as an example of the NBA deeming these moments more important and more critical to get calls right.
I also wasn't really trying to evaluate Adelman, but just talking about the idea that if a team played better early the call at the end wouldn't matter. I think that idea generally comes from coaches who understand that the team needs to focus on things it can control instead of things it can't control. If you're just evaluating the refs, what happened the entire rest of the game has zero to do with how much it mattered that they get the foul call right in the final seconds of a two-point game.
I think people (fans, players, etc.) are trying to decide if the Wolves "deserved" to win. In my mind, a team that rallies from a 20-point second-half deficit to tie the game definitely "deserves" to win more than the team that blew a 20-point second-half deficit. If the Wolves played terrible in the first half, the Mavs played terrible in the second half. If I had to choose, without knowing the final result, I would choose to play terrible in the first half.
Yes, it was a foul.
I went to the British Arrows at the Walker last night (the advertising awards). A few of my favorites:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_htTuXz3IsY
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y07at1bU89Q
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfA8ipB9oWs
(That's some great narrating. Pretty much the opposite of the guy from Scandalmakers)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK_RMlY0PkA
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-22bv8uFRLI
the first clip (Orange) has a 'This Is SportsCenter' vibe to it.
I didn't watch the Wolves but I have read about the call in the paper. One thing really bothers me. The notion that Kevin love should have gotten the call because he is a star. It is either a foul or it isn't. The who or when should not matter. That star treatment craps drives me nuts.
Yeah, the star thing is annoying. But, having watched it, there was no doubt it was a foul and the tv broadcast replay shows two refs staring right at it from either side while it happened.
True. I just hate the quote by Alderman today saying that Kevin should have gotten the call because he is a star.
Ah, gotcha. I hadn't actually seen that quote, and its sad that, despite how dumb the idea is he's right in the context of current NBA officiating.
I agree with the sentiment that there shouldn't be star treatment in the NBA, but since there obviously is, I like that Adelman said something about it.
I was thinking about this more last night. I side with the "it's either a foul or not a foul" sentiment. I think to some degree where the star treatment angle comes into play is that if Ndudi Ebi is jacking up that shot at the buzzer, it's less likely to actually go in without a foul than if Love takes the shot. One line of argument is that it's more fair in some sense to call it when Love is fouled (more often) because he's going to score more. I don't really agree with that line of thinking, though, because I just see it as it's more dumb to foul Ebi than it is to foul Love.
This line of thinking tends to happen more in soccer, where by the rules, fouls should be called the same everywhere on the field, but in the practical application of the rules, things are called differently in the penalty box than they are on the rest of the field.
Also, since I'm thinking too much about the Wolves this morning, I was just reading a post by SnP complaining about Ricky's shooting percentage again. I wish this would stop, really. Ricky is the opposite of the problem with this team right now. A quick check on B-Ref shows his WS/48 as the best of his career (entirely due to defense, which has been phenomenal) and in the small number of games I've watched it is extremely clear that the offense works roughly one million times better when he's running the point. He is fine, and things will improve when Bud returns and the rotational scoring can get a little more reliable.
He needs to hit more home runs!
This fanbase/media does have a problem with taking out their frustration on the least biggest problem on the team, eh?
I just dont get this.
Its going on with the Wolves with a few more people jumping on the "Im frustrated with this team, lets trade Kevin Love before he decides to leave" (as if thats already been decided. ). Im not a violent person, but I want to smash some fingers. Also, it doesnt make any sense trading Love because unless you are getting LeBron James in return, you are never going to get full value for Love.
Same with the "boo Joe Mauer cause he hit a single and he gets paid way to much money to get on base" crowd.
The will he stay or go thing ties in with my opinion/assumption/stereotyping on a pro athletes preference for money over market/playoffs with the draft wheel idea. The Wolves can, and will offer to, pay Love more than any other team and I think with Kahn out, he'll take it. He's the top dog here and I think Flip is at least smart enough to keep making him aware of that.
Also, maybe these particular fans just want to complain. If the Wolves keep Love, they have to keep making crap up. If they trade him, they get to complain that management didn't get anything in return. See: Santana, Johan.
Moral of the story, the internet makes people stupid.
Agreed.
Also, if they trade Love, the franchise most likely gets set back another 5 years and then fans complain about the Wolves never being good and all Minnesota teams do is never keep their good players.
Perhaps I should read less message board comments. But I am super bored today.
I posted this last night, but its worth a repeat listen
the crescendo to "OH ED MALLOY" is the best.
I had a pretty mixed bag of a year. It seemed to start off fine, but then as you probably all recall things went south at work and by April Fools Day I was looking for a new job. Then just a few weeks into my job search my appendix ruptured, I had emergency surgery and spent my birthday in the hospital. Summer was a trial, the uncertainty, the frustration of being my age and looking for work in what is still a terrible job market. We were most figuratively at the end of our rope -- state unemployment had run out, emergency federal unemployment was only going to last another month (through year's end). I lost my favorite uncle at the end of the summer and made the trek to Oklahoma for his funeral (one of the few benefits of being unencumbered by employment). But things always change eventually and in the fall the worm turned, the job market seemed to open up a bit, and the right opportunity finally came along. I'll stop short of calling it a miracle, but the timing involved in getting this job seemed more than coincidental, so much so that I can't help but wonder if a small bit of divine intervention wasn't cast in my direction. If it was, I'm certainly grateful for it. At any rate, 2013 didn't kill me so it must have made me stronger, and I'm happy to be ending the year on a high note. I just hope the coming year is a little more stable and fiscally secure than this one. Please.
Small Missouri brewery, Exit 6, runs afoul of Starbucks due to use of the other "F-word".
That's a very smart small business owner.
I know I'll definitely stop in if I'm ever in Cottleville, Missouri for whatever reason. Sounds like a pretty solid beer, too.
That's just minutes from me here. The thing has gone viral. Meh.
As with most years, 2013 was up and down for me. I'm just completing my first year of full-time employment* since December 2007. Downside, it's not as a lawyer, upside, it's at least within the confines of the prototypical legal profession. We bought a new home and moved into it in June, spent a few days at the lake with my entire immediate family (my sister and her husband and children made the trip from CA, something that doesn't happen often on a librarian's salary) in July, celebrated our daughters 2nd birthday in August and 9 years of marriage in September. We also spent most of the summer and fall driving to the Iron Range to visit my MiL, who eventually lost her battle with cancer weeks before our anniversary. She was only 64-years-old at the time of her passing, never smoked or drank alcohol. She exercised and ate right, worked as a nurse and was much too young. We have been dealing with the ups and downs of finalizing her estate since then. To quote Nas (I think), "Life's a b!tch and then you die."
The holidays have been nice and I'm looking forward to some weekends at home, now that the craziness of the past few months have passed.
*Other than the enforced 20-hour per week work limit during law school, it hasn't been part-time or no work either, just not 40 hours w/ benefits at one employer since I left the Navy.
2013 was a pretty rough year with my wife's health problems (my dad's too) and my uncertain job situation over the summer. In fact this summer was probably the roughest time I ever had outside of my brother passing at age 21.
However 2013 did see my son graduate from High School and move sucessfully on to college. I had a blast a Riotfest and got to hike in the Boundary Waters for two days in the pouring rain. I also get a new job that seems relatively secure and promises to be challenging in the future. So all in all a not a great year but hopefully the foundation has been laid for a better 2014.
Surprised I haven't heard more people mention Freealonzo's Rock Week as 2013 highlight :o)
The Runner family had a pretty good year overall. Runner daughter entered her senior year at college and has a boyfriend, Mrs. Runner and I had some enjoyable vacations, and work had been steady and rewarding. While I'm not active in the stock market, it's nice to see the 401(k) and IRA moving in the right directions.
I'm expecting my health to take a downturn though when Mrs. Runner sees how much of my overtime money I've been spending propping up the baseball card collection 😛
It is currently -18 F in Winnipeg and my car won't start. A wonderful end to 2013.
I think I brewed in weather like that once. Once.
I'll take extreme cold over extreme heat any day.
Werd.
No way.
yes, please. humidity for sale, cheap.
I can dress for cold, but I only have so many clothes I can take off.
Bingo. That's why I hate it here.
I walked into the beer store by where my car was parked to warm up and watched someone spend $88.80 on two cases on Bud Light. Beer prices in Canada are too damn high. I think I'd brew in that cold up here to save myself the pain of spending that much on beer.
Whoa. That would certainly get me to quit drinking.
I think I paid like ~$18 for a six pack of Newcastle at that beer store once. It was skunked. I was mad.
How could you tell? 😉
It was a mighty fast drain poor, I assure you.
Eff a whole bunch of that.
What CH said.
that's a lot for beer. That's an extreme lot for "beer".
I spend a lot of time in the car in 2013. I spent a lot of time with my mother in 2013. Even still, it was a pretty good year.
2013 wasn't a lot of fun while it happened, but at the end of it, my wife and I are both in jobs that we love (we didn't have that at the end of 2012) and we have a kid that is an absolute blast to have around (he can walk and talk now, being able to actually interact is great). Hopefully that means that 2014 will have all that good stuff and much less of the frustrating bits.
I'll remember 2013 for: riding 200 miles from Seattle to Portland on my bike (over two days), a fantastic 3-week trip in Austria(where my friend got married)/Germany/Switzerland, and camping in a thunderstorm in the middle of nowhere in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. 2013 was not free from negative BS that seems to be packaged with life, but I'll do my best to leave that in the past.
2013 Up: Got a job in February that paid better than the job I was laid off from at the end of '12.
Down: Got laid off in May.
Up: Went back to working independently this summer and over the last half of '13, I made more per month on average than I was making in the job I got laid off from (plus no more commuting 40+ miles each way every day).
Down: Had BoA send us a letter threatening to foreclose on our house in September if we didn't catch up on three months payments we were behind in August and then BoA refused to work with us to give us more time to catch up.
Up: BoA sold our mortgage to another company just a few weeks before it would have started foreclosure, and the new company immediately agreed to refinance our mortgage, including the missed payments, and lower our monthly payment.
Down: Got cracked root in a tooth a couple weeks ago that was capped from having a root canal a few years ago.
Up: I thought I was going to have another root canal and would have to pay thousands of dollars (no dental insurance). Instead, dentist said it only needed to heal and he only drilled it down a little (it was sitting high and now it is lower so pressure is off when chewing) and gave me antibiotics for a total of $50 expense and I feel great just a few days later.
Down: Currently have a water leak somewhere in the house, but can't tell where, so we think it is in the concrete slab. Had handyman friend look at it, but he can't fix it.
Up: Found out from handyman that homeowners insurance should cover it minus the deductible, which we can afford.
we've done a lot better without dental insurance; a dental savings plan has worked well for us
We have Delta Dental. Our dentist generally accepts what Delta pays, so we have almost no out-of-pocket. But then we all have very healthy teeth and gums. So far....
2013: Half marathons in Miami (Feb), Cheshire, CT (Apr), Hartford (Oct), and Mpls (Nov). Triathlons in NY/CT throughout the summer. A century ride in MA in Sep - I really enjoyed the training for this.
A great vacation to Argentina (Buenos Aires, Iguaza Falls)/Uruguay (Montivideo, Punta del Este) in March, and to Sicily in September.
Dr. Fear happy with the numbers (cholesterol/triglycerides in good shape), weight down with all the running.
Got a new job (last one was too stressful).
2014: Want to take brother Coot to Panamá (we were there as kids, would be fun to reconnect). Deep-sea fishing would be fun. Have been re-learning Russian, may do a trip there. Want to do an Olympic Tri - maybe Litchfield, CT.
Bought a house and had a baby, all within three months. Next time at least a six month gap between the two I think.
We had the same thing happen 12 years ago. The one positive with a 6-month pregnant wife is many friends willing to help and tell her to sit down and rest.
Good bye 2013, hello 2014 !!!
Thanks for being such awesome people. You rock \m/
I came here to write the first comment of the year, but you beat me to it. Happy 2014 to you and everyone else around here!