It's front and center in my mind on Dad's Day, but I'd rather my boys be salty as a kiddo that they can't play football than see the damages it can (will) cause. Plenty of other fine sports and activities that don't have the same risk. We can always watch our favorite (non)local team on Saturday mornings and go play some baseball/golf/basketball/etc, ride mountain bikes, hike, surf or camp in the afternoon. Besides, Mrs NC has the final say in the matter and I know her position... :)

Interesting question - I wondered the same thing. A related question would be whether it's ok for a parent to accept it for the kid, who cannot make a fully informed choice themself until theyre older. Imagine the kids perspective when they get older and wish a different choice was made. Potential kid-parent lawsuits? Interesting questions on Dad's Day.

Yeah that has to be it; the players in the 57 and 61 covers look like they're 40-50. The Dad's are storming into the action for their day.

As I always said: bears, beats and Battlestar Galactica

Mahalo

They're often reserved through recreation.gov or other public park systems. The best way to find the ones near you are to google "fire lookout rental" and your state name. They're all over the west and northeast - wherever large forests are in the National Forest System. One resource I started with a while back: http://www.firelookout.org/lookout-rentals.html There is a group out there that are passionate about the history of the lookouts, most of which are long gone.

Yeah, the bimetal "thermometers" are not only inaccurate as hell (off by 50 degrees or more) but they dont measure grate temp (what your food is seeing). Get your grill temp steady and play around with the dual thermocouples to see how much it varies. I wouldn't be worried about the grilling thermometer being off at 32 deg, it's much better to be dialed in at higher temps.

You'd be surprised. The nice part is each one is different. Some lookouts are in the top of talk stilts and have lots if stairs up, some are a bit lower and have a nice and easy set of stairs up, and there are some that are just a cabin/hut at the top of a mountain or side of a ridge. Some have electricity, a few have running water or propane, but all by default have amazing views (that's their function). They're inexpensive to rent and provide a great shelter option over camping (if which is nice if you have smaller kids). The best part is you will be away from people; we didnt see a sole person for days (beats a packed state park campsite any day).

No problem. Here's Girard Ridge Lookout from 2 years ago. Castle Crags to the West and My Shasta to the North.

If you've never visited a fire lookout, I highly recommend it. You can rent decommissioned towers for the night, which makes for an amazing and unique experience. This year will be our third trip to one.  Below is the inside or Bear Basin Lookout, which is in the very northern part of California.

Flag Team too.

Like the people at the gym who post a picture of the all the weights on the leg press they "just did", where they actually just barelywent down about 1/5 of the way twice.

I can validate the obnoxiousness of the Warriors bandwagon. "Everybody" is a "huge" Warriors fan around here, though most don't watch regular season games and can't name more than 3 players.

I have no idea what you meat by that statement.

NOLA is saying it's useless because of the horrible conditions of the streets in New Orleans. My buddy had a fantasy football team named "The Carrolton Potholes". There were holes soo deep in that street you could hide a VW in them.

Me too. The worst part? The tickets my buddy had ordered were counterfeit so we had to watch it from that gamewatch in the plaza just North of the stadium.

For sure. I'll hopefully have a bit of me on campus, at the California coastline, Redwood NP, Yosemite, and a few other awesome spots.

Joking aside I thought that was intentional (poking fun at DJ)

After the first cup of coffee, of course. That caffeine loosens the guts.

No prob KH, looks like Starcat is taking the weekend off too.

I see it twice. The full hyperlink text is at the very beginning of the article, and the abbreviated link is where it should be after the first paragraph (shortened link).

Someone should tell a MOD that the guy who started the game thread left voting on... ;-{)}

I've been to Snake and Jakes, but I barely remember it. Do remember it was a random dive in a neighborhood block and had the Christmas lights. Rolled in there like 3am, was tough as hell to find in the days before smart phones.

Thank you 78, you put it much more eloquently than I would've. Wrong time/place for a dig like that.

Nice. A very flexible recipe and hard to mess up. Just throw some oil and spices on and get 'em hot. My oldest boy doesn't like regular or sweet potatoes but he for some reason eats these like popcorn.