Bmwolf21

Fair enough. FWIW, my original reply was not meant as one of those standard one-line replies. Just frustration after another poor preseason game (which I thankfully missed) and the suggestion that we bring in (another) Browns QB, one I believe might unite Bills fans in running him out of town after the honeymoon wears off. I suspect the truth to the DA decision-making discussion lies somewhere in the middle of our positions. I will admit this - when DA was on for much of 2007, he did look very good for much of the year. When he was on he did thread the needle, did throw the ball all over the place, even perfectly drop in the long bombs. But when he struggled, he struggled big time, and that's when the bad throws and decisions started showing up, and in 08 really reared their ugly head. You get no argument here. I cling to the hope that the Bills' eventual return to glory and success will only be that much sweeter, given our recent playoff drought.

That's life as a Bills fan. Go into the season optimistic that things will fall into place, only to watch our team hit us with one gut punch after another. And yet we come back for more.

I never said that I held exclusive domain on watching him play, just that I've seen a lot of him over the last three seasons (probably around 23, 24 of his games in a Cleveland uniform) and I've seen more than enough evidence that he is not a good QB and that 2007 was the exception and not the rule. As for him forcing the ball into coverage - we're not talking Jim Kelly's "I can make any throw" swagger/bravado. It's more like a "hey, there's one of our guys, ooops, didn't see those defenders around him" or just poor throws. I think DA is a less athletic version of JP with similar accuracy and touch. Don't mistake my disdain for DA as some sort of endorsement or defense of TE. I'm just of the opinion that DA is not a good QB and that he would not be an upgrade over TE. Braylon Edwards is extremely disappointing as a supposed no.1 WR, but in fairness he is an equal opportunity drive killer - he drops passes no matter which QB is throwing to him.

No, Quinn is legitimately outplaying DA this summer and will win the job based on his play, not simply on being a first-round pick. No need for the attitude. I've been stuck in the Cleveland area for the last few years, and have seen more than enough of Derek Anderson. He's simply not a good QB. He's not very accurate, he forces the ball into coverage, and makes a lot of bad decisions. And DA didn't have a great season. He had a great half-season, and faded pretty bad down the stretch in 07.

Six of one, half-dozen of the other. Anderson is NOT a good QB, and he isn't outplaying Quinn right now. Unless Quinn craps the bed over the next two weeks, he'll be the Browns starting QB.

Bingo.

I used to work at a dealership and some of the guys there told me stories of how other dealerships would take customers' keys and toss them up on the roof to "lose" them, hoping to put more pressure on the customer to close the deal. That's why I always take a spare key when I go car shopping. I checked out a Hyundai dealership in Florida a few years back and they had a $1500 trade-in fee right on the sticker. Manager said they would give me $3,000 for my trade but here they were turning right around and slapping $1500 back on. I told the manager to piss off and left.

That's what it looks like: Coach Turner Gill announced Tuesday that tests revealed Starks has a labral tear in his shoulder that requires surgery. Starks is a fifth-year senior and will not have any college eligibility left. http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/12111268 Who is going to step up in his absence?

I hear ya. And that Dell one is on like every other commercial break, on every damn network and station.

Agreed. There's one for a shopping mall here that has a high school girl crying hysterically because she found her mother's yearbook and thought the shoulder pads mom was wearing meant she had some sort of "condition." I want to find the marketing director for that mall and run him down with my car.

Really? Four hours for someone to tee up that softball?

Thanks. The link Tcali threw up here earlier shows a remanufactured compressor for almost half the cost of the one the mechanic quoted me. I have to see if this place will install it if I get the compressor elsewhere. On a side note - this will make EiI happy - apparently this is becoming a big problem with Honda CR-V's. I saw a huge thread - 132 pages and counting - on Edmunds.com, detailing a number of Honda CR-V owners who have had a boatload of problems with their AC compressors "blowing up" as soon as 25,000 miles or breaking down much earlier than they should, and some have even blown up to the point that it damaged their entire AC systems. It seems quite a few mechanics are starting to think that this is a design flaw, so a lot of customers have been putting pressure on Honda to offer some sort of extended warranty coverage/assistance with repair costs. Some customers have been successful, so I am going to have to try my hand at it and see if I have any luck getting any consideration from Honda.

Ass chicken?

I should have seen that coming. I'll keep firing off individual replies, EiI.

Fair enough, thanks. I was worried about zapping the juices out of them and having them get tough and dry on me.

Not to hijack this too much, but how long do you nuke them? I work some very odd hours and the wife wants to make up some stuff ahead of time so I am not hitting the drive-thru on my way home. She made the chicken breasts last week (marinated in Wegman's Tangy marinade and baked in the oven) but I had no clue how long to nuke it, so I ended up making a sandwich and not eating the cold chicken.

It's the wife's Honda CR-V. From my limited experience with repairs (this is the first major repair it's needed since we've owned it, almost 5 years) the Honda engines are usually laid out pretty well and everything is in a pretty accessible spot.

Thanks for the heads-up, Ray. I am planning on getting a second opinion - the $1,000 just seems high and I obviously don't want to pay for something that doesn't need to be repaired.

The quote does seem high, but I haven't seen a final estimate on the work yet. The website that Tcali posted - discountcompressor.com - lists a remanufactured compressor for my vehicle at $250, and I don't know how much they charge for labor, but 3 hours seems like a reasonable rough guess. Unless they are charging $200 an hour for the labor, it seems tough to get all the way up to $1K.

Just got the call back from the shop...needs a new compressor and a valve. Mechanic says a valve snapped inside the compressor, and he's surprised we didn't hear the noise. Quoted price - around $1,000. Guess what's not getting repaired right now?

What was I thinking?

There was a pretty good article posted last year that I thought made it pretty clear why Hardy is so raw (and why someone like Steve Johnson looked so much better than him). The gist of it was that Hardy played in a very basic offense at Indiana and never learned how to read coverages or adjust routes, whereas Johnson played in a pro-style offense in Kentucky where he got to learn and practice all that - reading coverages, adjusting his routes, etc. So it's not surprising that Johnson looked much more polished while Hardy looked exactly like he was - a rookie learning a pro system AND learning how to be a WR at the same time. Here's the link: LINK.

See here is where I've run into conflicting reports. Some things I've read online say that even if it is a "closed" system there is no such thing as a service-free AC, and that they all need a recharge every now and then. The vehicle is 9 years old, so it wouldn't surprise me I've also heard that the kits don't work well at all, that the system needs to be pressurized and you have to have the right equipment to do that. I also don't have the space nor the time to do it myself. Anyways thanks to everyone for the info. We have an appointment tomorrow morning to get it recharged, and the cost is $80 - $100. They said there may be a leak or it may just need recharging, but if it does they can just recharge it for now and worry about finding/fixing the leak later, since there are only a few weeks left in summer.

Bingo. MT is always on the list of required stops - without exception - when we go back home to Niagara Falls.