124: Monthly Malarkey: Cat Pee Problems, French Cuisine and Halloween Costume Plans

[00:00:05] Robbie: Hey everyone, welcome to your favorite podcast, Men Growing Beards, where we watch men grow beards.

[00:00:12] Chuck: Mm hmm. You're gonna be on this episode for a while because it takes me a long time and we're starting it like two days for me. Enjoy!

[00:00:22] Robbie: But today we have some special content that's not normally on Men Growing Beards, where we're going to talk about just whatnot. Um, so,

[00:00:31] Chuck: We are gonna do whiskey and we have some web components in your malarkey whatnot. So

[00:00:36] Robbie: that's true.

[00:00:37] Chuck: why don't you just

[00:00:38] Robbie: is a segment. This is a segment we're gonna call monthly malarkey because I have this feeling that people just don't give a shit about tech sometimes and it's just going to be us talking about what's going on in our lives and the world and whatever and having some whiskey.

[00:00:53] Chuck: We just lost our one listener. Good idea Robbie.

[00:00:57] Robbie: Okay, well, why we're still at the beginning. If [00:01:00] people want to drop off because there's no tech, let us know that and we'll never do this again and that will be just fine.

[00:01:06] Chuck: And that'll be that.

[00:01:08] Robbie: Yeah,

[00:01:08] Chuck: anyway. So this is Whiskey Web and Whatnot, but you're only getting a few parts of that. Sorry.

[00:01:14] Robbie: yes. And I thought since we're just going to be shooting the shit, we would have the Derringer whiskey today with this ridiculous gun cork thing.

[00:01:27] Chuck: Yeah, yeah. So it comes in a special collector's box, because those are a thing. And it gives you a second cork, yeah, because the main cork, it's like actually a nicely shaped crystal like bottle, and it has This, like, normal corky thing on there. I don't know, I think, like, you're probably paying for the, for the bottle itself.

This is like

[00:01:49] Robbie: I'm upset that this little gun thing won't let you like cock it and pull the trigger. That would

[00:01:53] Chuck: Yeah, it's a cork. And it's just, yeah. Alright, so let's at least make that continually official. So this is the H. [00:02:00] Derringer Bourbon Whiskey. It is 92 proof. It's not age stated, but it has to be a 4 year minimum. I did read somewhere on the internet... that used to be six year age stated, but it does come out of Indiana, so it's NGP sourced.

The mash bill is 75 percent corn, 21 percent rye, with a remaining 4 percent for your barley malt. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see if it's just kitschy, or if it's actually not bullshit.

[00:02:30] Robbie: Yeah. We'll see. I am, I'm gonna put my gun back in the top here. The gun has like, what looks like a real cork, and the other one is like plastic

[00:02:39] Chuck: Yeah, yeah, so, exactly. The gun does have a real cork. I can tell you because my yeah, exactly. I'm glad this is a video episode and that we do video from now on. But the thing is, is that when I was playing with the gun cork, because I played ahead of time, it broke off. It was like kind of dry and broke off.

So I was like, the whole thing is garbage. The hell with [00:03:00] this. But hopefully I am pleasantly surprised with the whiskey.

[00:03:04] Robbie: Well, it is from it has a sticker on it that says Jim Murray's Whiskey Bible 2022. So,

[00:03:09] Chuck: And it scored an 88 according to Jim. I don't know,

[00:03:12] Robbie: that, is that good? I don't

[00:03:14] Chuck: I would think I don't know. It's like the wine. Scores, too. Yeah, it doesn't...

[00:03:19] Robbie: Ooh, I smelled it, and I'm thinking 88 is not good.

[00:03:23] Chuck: Yeah. On a scale of what? To like 380? I don't know.

[00:03:29] Robbie: Yeah, not since the last time we rated one a two have I smelled this smell.

[00:03:34] Chuck: Hmm. Well, luckily you overpaid for some

[00:03:37] Robbie: God, is this even, like, real? Like, alright, I'm scared to try it, but I'm gonna do it. But let, let me give you some, some scent notes first.

[00:03:46] Chuck: Yeah, sent note. I get musty.

[00:03:49] Robbie: It smells like, yeah, musty, like a, a big pile of moss.

[00:03:54] Chuck: Mmm, exactly. Yeah, like Mildewy Moss.

[00:03:59] Robbie: [00:04:00] Yeah, like if you're digging in the dirt and the moss outside, like that smell. The taste is better, actually.

[00:04:05] Chuck: Yeah, yeah, it's

[00:04:06] Robbie: than the smell.

[00:04:08] Chuck: it's more palatable, but it's not fantastic, though. Actually, I think it's kind of weak tasting, given, like, you get a little, a little bit of that grassiness I would have expected a lot more sweetness, and maybe a tinge of that, like, if you took some mossy grass and

[00:04:27] Robbie: Yeah.

[00:04:29] Chuck: a sprinkle of sugar on it?

I

[00:04:31] Robbie: It's like all the bad flavors of scotch and bourbon into one thing, but

[00:04:37] Chuck: Hmm.

[00:04:38] Robbie: like tiny amounts of it. So it's not like, like the worst scotch ever, where I'm like, oh my god, I can't drink it. But it's like, It has those notes that make me not love it.

[00:04:48] Chuck: fair.

[00:04:50] Robbie: So, I mean it's growing on me a little bit.

It's, I don't think it's as bad as the one that was a 2. But If anyone happens to be listening to just this episode, we'll tell you the [00:05:00] scale. It's 0 to 8 tentacles. It's very scientific. And I'm gonna give this one a... 3 and a half. I think it needs to be less than a 4.

[00:05:11] Chuck: It definitely needs to be less than a four. And here's the thing is I know it's over a hundred dollar bottle. And at that price to be like, so underwhelmed, like literally, well again, I think I discussed it in a recent episode. It's sort of like, I know I can go spend 25 to 30 and get myself a maker's mark or a Buffalo trace and be like, this is fine.

People will sip it. Most people will like it. It's not going to blow your socks off, but it's not going to disappoint you. And it's very approachable financially, right? Because you're drinking this stuff. This isn't a trophy. This is a weird whiskey trophy that they threw, like, to increase their margins.

They threw whatever was on sale at MGP. They were like, yes, what's that mash? But let's put it in here. That's what I feel like. And so [00:06:00] I'm almost apt

[00:06:00] Robbie: thing they put thought into was the, like, the gun itself. Because it's pretty heavy, it's pretty intricate. The cork part of the gun is obviously less quality, but like, the gun itself is nice. And then

[00:06:14] Chuck: I'm giving it a two.

[00:06:15] Robbie: nice. Alright, alright.

[00:06:17] Chuck: going two. I'm so underwhelmed. The smell is bad. Maybe it'll open up. I do have some water here. I can add a couple of drops and I'll give it a chance in those ways. But I'm so... I don't like the aroma. I'm underwhelmed in the flavor. It does nothing to me for the finish for the most part.

It almost has like remnants of a like, the metallic bits of a flat soda. You know, like maybe if you have a soda that you left overnight and then you're just like, you wake up in the morning and you're just like, I, I don't know, I'm just thirsty and you take a little sip and you immediately regret it.

And then there's this metallic, like aluminum flavor that just kind of lingers.

[00:06:56] Robbie: It does have that. Yeah.

[00:06:57] Chuck: And that is how I feel about it. And [00:07:00] so, The bottle looks cool, I guess. I'm, I'm almost talking myself down even further. Every time I think about it a little more, I'm like, Why does it deserve a two? You know? Like, okay, it's not, like, I've had worse things, like, it doesn't come out of a plastic bottle, so it's not a zero.

It's, I'll probably finish this, and then I'll take the bottle and make some cocktails out of it to cover it up and not waste it, and or just give it away. And...

[00:07:29] Robbie: mine will be gifted

[00:07:31] Chuck: Yeah, right, so I'm at a one or a two, I'm really talking myself around this one. I don't know, I'll just give him a two, I'll stick with the two, that's the best you can

[00:07:39] Robbie: Yeah, I might come down because now that you mention it, we didn't have zero before as a number. Everything was at least a one. So if we're, our scale has shifted since our last two, then maybe this is a two. But anyway, it's not, it's not the, not the greatest and I would not recommend buying it.

[00:07:57] Chuck: no, I wouldn't waste your money, unless you want that bottle this [00:08:00] much, and if if you do, hit me up, I might still have it, and I'll send it to you.

[00:08:05] Robbie: we'll give you a deal.

[00:08:06] Chuck: Yeah, pay for shipping, get it out of my face.

[00:08:11] Robbie: Alright, so, we just have a list of random shit, and we'll, we don't have to do all of it, but I'm just gonna start with, for anyone who hasn't noticed if you've been watching the videos, you've probably seen I moved around to different spots, the cameras were, Worse before and then have been getting better.

My backgrounds have been getting better, et cetera. That's because I'm all settling into my house. We've gotten moved in not with my parents anymore, which is great. Love, love them and everything. Just don't want to live with them all the time.

[00:08:41] Chuck: That's

[00:08:41] Robbie: so yeah,

[00:08:42] Chuck: Oh, that's great news.

[00:08:44] Robbie: yes, yes. Katelynn is very happy.

We're now not like an hour from everything. We can like drive to target in 15 minutes, which is. Awesome.

[00:08:55] Chuck: they deliver it to you wherever

[00:08:56] Robbie: Well, this is a constant debate because [00:09:00] we'll go to Target and we'll be looking for a thing and I'll be getting frustrated because it's like 10 minutes have gone by and we haven't found the thing or whatever.

And I'm like, why, why didn't you press buy now on, on Amazon? She's like, well, I like to go to the store and see the thing. I'm like, no, no, no. Just press buy now. Like it never disappoints you because it will show up right to your house and it'll be the thing you were looking for. So,

[00:09:21] Chuck: Like, and you know, it's in stock and all these things. Right. And also the, like the side effect is if you go to the store, you inevitably like walk past like a clearance rack or something, or you walk past something not on clearance. You're like, Oh, I didn't know I needed this. I need this. Oh, I need this blanket or whatever it is.

And I, yeah, I used to like look at the clearance areas too and just be like, is there any like, I don't know, nice deal here or something. Yeah. What, what, I'd say, like, and I got in that habit for a bit because one time I was there and ended up getting, like, this actually pretty decent battery powered Black and Decker drill that I've had for [00:10:00] like 20 plus years.

And I think I got it, like, in clearance. I don't know why it was like 15 bucks or something. And it's just forever. I mean, it's been this forever drill and for a while was like, look at this amazing deal that I got. And what if I found another one of those?

[00:10:14] Robbie: Mm.

[00:10:14] Chuck: Probably never did again. And wasted money on so much garbage.

So I was just like, I like shopping online because, You know, I'm sure they want me to buy extra crap, but I just buy what I

[00:10:25] Robbie: Yeah. It's harder to discover impulse buys

[00:10:28] Chuck: Exactly. Yes. So. Anyway. So yeah, the internet is a good thing, and e commerce is kind of a long way. You know, they really will just like, mail you things, and quickly.

[00:10:40] Robbie: Yeah. Yeah, the fact that I don't know what it's rolled out on yet, but, like, Amazon has, like, buy with Amazon Prime, like, at different places now.

[00:10:52] Chuck: Hmm.

[00:10:52] Robbie: like at like a third party vendor you can hit like buy with Prime and get the same like two day or Less shipping and like it's all free and whatever [00:11:00] Like if they can take over all of that, that'll be amazing.

So I would love for everything to be two day shipping.

[00:11:06] Chuck: I mean, they, they are really upping the logistics game and I wonder how much that hurts. Like, well, we know it hurts USPS, right? Cause USPS was trying to pivot to do more package shipping and obviously being leveraged by companies like Amazon to handle those increases. And then Amazon's like, I got one more for you.

We're going to do AWS, but for delivering shit.

[00:11:29] Robbie: Oh

[00:11:29] Chuck: And here they are, you know, there's the Rivian Amazon vans all over my neighborhood and they have

[00:11:35] Robbie: I haven't seen one of the new ones yet

[00:11:37] Chuck: Ooh, yeah, we've got a lot actually. There's quite a bit. I don't know if they have some sort of like solar charging set up in Arizona that makes it more appealing, but I've seen a lot.

I was pretty surprised. Basically as soon as I started seeing, and maybe even just before I started seeing Rivian SUVs, so I was seeing that, that truck. Okay.

[00:11:56] Robbie: of You know, no one will make [00:12:00] Big, I guess, okay, not no one we're making a little progress. So there's like a F one 50 that's electric, whatever, but people don't like making big electric vehicles. And the Amazon vans are way bigger than like the SUV Rivian.

Why can't we just make a full, I guess the Rivian is maybe full size. It's hard to say. It looks big in the pictures, but when I see it in real life, it looks a little smaller. So I'm not sure if it's full size or not.

[00:12:25] Chuck: it's definitely full size. So unless full size, you mean a Tahoe and which is essentially an RV. So,

[00:12:31] Robbie: mean like, uh, like, the full size Range Rover size, not the

[00:12:35] Chuck: I'd say it's pretty similar. I'd say it's pretty similar and it has more interior room. I don't know what Range Rover does with all that space, but you know, when they basically give you a four seater and a full size SUV, I'm like, how are you doing this wrong? Or does everybody, I know British people are not seven foot tall naturally.

So like.

[00:12:55] Robbie: yeah. It's for, like, I don't know what everyone else [00:13:00] buys them for, because people drive them themselves, but it's... Main market is for like chauffeuring people around. Like you get the long wheelbase and have the huge backseat room and you can just like recline

[00:13:11] Chuck: it's like a elevated town car market, right? Like, Oh, it used to be the black town car picks you up or the Cadillac or whatever. And it's like that, but SUVs are in favor. So we've shifted this thing that used to be designed for off roading and we made it luxury.

[00:13:26] Robbie: Yeah. It's like, can't afford a Maybach? Buy this.

[00:13:30] Chuck: Yeah. Yeah. Next, next level quote unquote down. Right. So anyway. I can tell you, we have a Q7, and it's bigger than a Q7, and the Q7 has third row seating. So.

[00:13:44] Robbie: Okay. Yeah, I'm, I'm just really kind of waiting to have more SUV options because the, we love our Model X, but it's not an SUV. And like, if you want to haul anything, like you need to go to Home Depot and buy a [00:14:00] board or a whatever, it's not going to fit in there.

[00:14:02] Chuck: No. It's a minivan with cool doors.

[00:14:07] Robbie: Yeah, a smaller than a minivan, because a minivan can actually haul stuff too, but I refuse to ever get a minivan,

[00:14:12] Chuck: Yeah, I'm with you. I'm never getting a minivan. I don't care about the practicality aspect. If I was in a position where I need van, like it's definitely gonna be a van. I mean, they're going to get like some seventies retro van and then mod it up or one of those like cool sprinter vans where you

[00:14:30] Robbie: Yeah, Mercedes Sprinter.

[00:14:32] Chuck: Yeah. Like that's, which obviously the. You know, the entry into that market is different. So which is probably why I'll just refuse it for life. But if I had to, I'd go one of those two directions. Like there's no way I'm getting some Honda minivan and I hear the great and good for you that it makes you happy.

I don't care. I mean, I don't care

[00:14:51] Robbie: I used to drive a Honda Odyssey,

[00:14:53] Chuck: right? I don't care what other people buy. It doesn't affect me or offend me. If you ask me what I [00:15:00] want to drive, it ain't that.

[00:15:02] Robbie: Yeah. Yeah, I agree.

[00:15:04] Chuck: yeah, I don't know. So, I mean, that's just, don't you just need to convert the rest of the mod to electric? Then you're set.

[00:15:14] Robbie: Well, yeah, I mean that's the problem though is that would probably cost as much as buying the whole

[00:15:19] Chuck: Right, yeah, you gotta start from the beginning. And,

[00:15:22] Robbie: that what is that company called that makes the platforms we were looking at?

[00:15:30] Chuck: don't know. I don't remember what

[00:15:32] Robbie: well whatever they they sent an email out and they were like You know, we are ramping up production on these. They're like really trying to be the thing. Not just classic cars, but like if you have a, you know, older car that you, for some reason, want to keep and it's not really a classic, they, like, electrifying everything gas is

[00:15:49] Chuck: Yeah, yeah, and I know that's their mission, which I think is super cool, actually. Like, that's, that, you could make a bigger dent into that by, You know, giving a platform for [00:16:00] existing cars on the road to convert. Like, that's pretty cool.

[00:16:03] Robbie: But their platform, I think, is like, it's over a hundred grand, I feel like. So,

[00:16:09] Chuck: so the barrier to entry still exists.

[00:16:11] Robbie: so I think it obviously as they sell more and more of them, I'm sure the price will go down, but

[00:16:16] Chuck: Right.

[00:16:17] Robbie: right now it's, it's not really a thing. And I, I think I'd rather wait and get that cause it looks so much nicer than doing like the crate drop in battery thing.

Like, so yeah, yeah.

[00:16:32] Chuck: subject matter expert in, in engineering, automotive engineering to a degree in electrical engineering to another degree to do these DIY projects, right? Like you've, there's a lot of risk there too. So, um, yeah, the drop in crates and stuff are like approachable because they're like 30 to 50, 000.

But there's still a lot of risk in that, so, yeah. I don't know, there's no easy answer. But I do [00:17:00] like old cars that stay on the road for longer, so I think that's kind of cool.

[00:17:05] Robbie: yeah. And zero labs by the way.

[00:17:07] Chuck: Zero See, it was Z. I'm not crazy. There was There was one I came across recently, it's called Kindred Motorworks, and they have a few different like restomods and stuff, and they do some full electric ones, and they do super cool like 60s VW bus, completely all redone, so nice, glass roof, and all the cool windows and stuff, and and then all electric, but it's like 200, 000, like, you know.

[00:17:35] Robbie: yeah, that is the problem. It's so specialized that like, until people can do it easily at home, you're going to pay a premium because even just like the kits that tell you how to do it, you know, quote unquote still require tons of like, I'm sure it doesn't work perfectly. Like you have to know as the installer, Oh, in step seven, like you got to cut this whole differently than they say and like, whatever.

[00:17:58] Chuck: Right. It takes a little bit [00:18:00] of like going through the process. I just don't know who, like all these companies are starting, but like who is buying, like who is buying, I mean, I guess

[00:18:09] Robbie: Well, no one now, like a year ago, everyone had infinite money. There was no recession and inflation and whatever.

[00:18:17] Chuck: tapped their equity for cheap and in the real estate, it's a dangerous game to buy cars, diminishing Yeah, diminishing returns on that. Let me take my low interest home equity and buy a car.

[00:18:31] Robbie: Well, if you're gonna buy some kind of car, though, a classic car is a better investment than a

[00:18:37] Chuck: Right, cause it's

[00:18:39] Robbie: it, they will go away, like, more of them get crushed every year, and then theoretically the value will always go up. Not like, exponentially, like it maybe had for a while,

[00:18:49] Chuck: Yeah, the last few years, the rise in classic cars, like the price doubled on a lot, and it was just like,

[00:18:56] Robbie: Yeah. You want anything that says Porsche on it? Seventy

[00:18:59] Chuck: [00:19:00] Yeah, yeah. I did feel that was weird, like, Not all of them, but there are many 911s that, like, the median entry level price is like 70, 000. It, like, didn't matter if you wanted to get you know, a 2007 911 997, or if you wanted to get an 83 SC, it felt like they all cost 70, 000.

It was

[00:19:23] Robbie: it was crazy.

[00:19:24] Chuck: know. It's kinda still like that, because the Porsche market is just, they're, they're bulls.

[00:19:30] Robbie: Yeah. So I do want to regress back to something related to moving into our new house. Did I tell you the Stanley Steamer story?

[00:19:39] Chuck: The catastrophe? Catastrophe? No, I was going to ask about the cat ass. What about the cat ass? Wait.

[00:19:47] Robbie: yeah, so I'm intending to write a blog post about it. Because I feel like people need to know. But, so this is what happened. We bought, we buy the house. We're moved in, or moving in. So we're here like a few days [00:20:00] before move in. Getting things cleaned up and whatever. And we're like, it's probably a good idea to steam the carpet.

So we're, you know, thinking do we rent a rug doctor? Do we hire Stanley Steamer? You would think Stanley Steamer would do a better job than we would do with a rug doctor. But I don't know if that's true. So Stanley steamer comes and like they, they steam. Okay. But as soon as they get here, they're like, you know, we're going to do the steaming, whatever.

You know, they make sure all the rooms are accounted for probably charges a little more. So like, Oh, you didn't count this hallway or whatever. So we're already paying a little more than I thought. And then they're like, do you want to add like this deodorizer and protectant? Which are two different things two different charges per room.

It's like 50 bucks per each of them per room and So I'm like, well, no fuck that like if you if you are

[00:20:47] Chuck: I mean...

[00:20:48] Robbie: Well, yeah, I was like if you are Supposed to be good at steaming carpets. Why do I need another thing? To like make it smell better because like if you're good at [00:21:00] cleaning it should be clean What are you talking about?

And they're like, okay, fine. We won't, like we won't charge you for that stuff. We'll just steam it. So they start steaming the basement and they're like yeah, are you sure you don't want the deodorizer stuff? And I'm like, no, I told you no. Then they like, go and ask Caitlyn. They're like, Hey do you want this deodorant?

And I was like, these fucking guys like stop trying to upsell us because I don't want the deodorizer. But then

[00:21:27] Chuck: But then...

[00:21:28] Robbie: But then they finished the basement and they're like, Hey, I know you say you don't want the deodorizer. I hear you, but go smell the basement. So I smelled the basement. There was like secret cat pee under the floor and cat pee only gets more angry and smelly if you steam it.

Like you cannot get it out. So I think it was all in like the pad and then came to the surface when they steamed it. And so I was like, Oh shit, this smells bad. Like, yes, give me the deodorizer, whatever it costs, put it down. [00:22:00] So they do all that. I think it was like an extra 250 bucks

[00:22:03] Chuck: Which is cheaper than new carpet if they guarantee that they get it out.

[00:22:07] Robbie: That's the problem though, is it still smelled awful when they left and like did not get any better a day later. So we went and bought all of our own aftermarket cleaners and the cleaners didn't help. We got like,

[00:22:19] Chuck: Yeah.

[00:22:20] Robbie: yeah, the only thing that worked was like the little shake on granule things. So they, like, absorb the smell and, like, anything wet just makes it angrier.

You need to keep it dry and, like, So doing that a few times and vacuuming got it, like, manageable and it's, it's just been slowly going away since then. But fuck Stanley Steamer. Fuck their customer service for not having a way to, like, contact them and be like, Look, I gave you an extra 250 bucks and it smells like shit.

I want that 250 bucks back. There's no way to contact them. Like, yeah, so if, if they had made it to where I could get my money back, I would be less angry because like, they, they did steam the carpets, but the [00:23:00] deodorizer upcharge thing, no one ever paid for that, it doesn't work, and also, like, if you think there's any possibility of cat pee, don't steam at all, and like, they should tell you that, too, like, if they steam a little and it starts to be evident there was cat pee, they should stop,

[00:23:16] Chuck: Yeah, but they're not going to stop because they want that money.

[00:23:18] Robbie: Yeah, so I'm, I was not happy with them and that's, that's my story.

[00:23:22] Chuck: I would think leaving with a very unsatisfactory result. I mean, where do you think that's going to go? Like, of course you're going to say, you know, thumbs down. I don't want this.

And. Yeah, like what is the, what is the tiny language? There's gotta be some sort of contractual cover your ass there where it's like, if you, you know, if you have cat urine, we have no promises of eliminating these smells and stains and blah, blah, blah. I mean, cat urine is destructive. It is yeah, I mean, it, it can result...

In just having to tear, not only the carpet out, but the baseboards, and, and, whatever, you know, you have for [00:24:00] flooring, I don't know, you know, for that house structurally, or whatever, how old that stuff would be, but, like, you could replace flooring and everything else on top of that, because it just soaks down, and whatever else.

It sounds like, like, in the basement, it's probably where, like, previous owners, just like, this is where we put the, the litter box, and,

[00:24:17] Robbie: Yeah. I think there was a litter box. I can't, I can't pinpoint where it smells the worst, so we could never like. Because everything online says like, Oh, we'll get like really good cleaners and clean just that area where it is. But I'm like, well, I don't know where it is. It smells everywhere. So, we couldn't do that.

But yeah, I think they, like, the guy's mom was living in the basement. And she was pretty old and had a cat. So like, probably was not,

[00:24:40] Chuck: clean that well and,

[00:24:42] Robbie: Yeah, probably wasn't keeping up with the litter box. So they were probably like peeing in the floor. Because they didn't want to get in all the poop or whatever.

[00:24:48] Chuck: Yeah. So we had rentals in D. C. and some of them were old. So we had hardwood floors and stuff. And we had two cats and, and we tortured them a couple of different times by like trying automated litter box things. We [00:25:00] wanted to hide the, you know, you're in smaller spaces, you're in an apartment in the city and all that.

And so you're like, how can I hide this litter box? Well, okay, now we've hidden it, but it still kind of smells. So then how do we mitigate that more? And yeah, we tried a couple of things that really freaked them out and resulted in them pissing and shitting everywhere. And poop is a little easier to clean up from things.

Pee can actually like soak into things, so I had to get some pretty advanced. I remember, you know, it would be like May all, we were at work and it was probably like four hours on this hardwood floor, but it is like soaking in and looks like it could be staining a hardwood floor, so I had to like buy special chemicals and sprays to like get that out, soak it up and stuff.

So I learned a little about how damaging their urine can be.

[00:25:46] Robbie: Yeah, it's, it's apparently, like, especially, like, it's the worst of the urines. Like, I don't understand exactly why. There's, like, some kind of special bacteria in there that is, like, very destructive and

[00:25:59] Chuck: [00:26:00] Part of their defense mechanism. And then the whole thing where they, like, spray to his kind of urine, and, you know. I mean, ours were neutered, I guess it is, for males. Yeah.

[00:26:09] Robbie: Yeah.

[00:26:10] Chuck: Spay and neutered. I don't know. Remember, kids, spay and neuter your pets. I remember Bob Barker would do that at the end.

[00:26:17] Robbie: Oh yeah, yeah, Drew Carey still does it, I guess just out of

[00:26:20] Chuck: I don't know. No, no Bob, no Price is Right for me, but, you know, Drew's

[00:26:25] Robbie: love Price is Right, man. I used to watch it especially in college. They had this old, like, you know the big screen TVs where they were like, the size of a desk,

[00:26:34] Chuck: yeah, the projection thing in them. They were like a big case with like the

[00:26:39] Robbie: They were like their own furniture. Like they would like, yeah. So it was like that. And I, they, it was just, I don't know why they never like replaced it but and they would always just put on, What is a, what is Price is Right on?

CBS or something?

[00:26:52] Chuck: don't know, network television,

[00:26:55] Robbie: it's on just going. And so I would go and do a really early lunch at like, [00:27:00] 10 something and it would be on. So, um,

[00:27:03] Chuck: Hmm.

[00:27:03] Robbie: Have fond memories of that and, I don't know. I think it's fun to watch. I think it'd be fun to be on, but I would like just lose immediately.

So it'd be like, how much is this high heeled shoe? And I'd be like, 50 bucks? They're like, no, 3, 000. Like, you know.

[00:27:18] Chuck: yeah, that is actually an interest. Well, I do like prices, right? And I have no issues with the current show or anything. I just haven't watched it in a long time. You know, I watched it as a kid or something. So I'm sure some as an adult, you know, vegging out, I don't think I

[00:27:31] Robbie: work, so it's harder to

[00:27:33] Chuck: turns out if I'm not going to work, I don't choose prices.

Right. You know, that's just never in my outlet, but I have no problem with it. And yeah, I think like the cost, the standard cost of goods, I actually was having a talk with Sarah about this as like resetting our expectations when we think that certain things are like. What? That's 200 now? That's ridiculous.

It should be like 50. And then you're like, well, maybe, maybe it's not though, because we're getting older and inflation is [00:28:00] happening and the cost of goods is rising. Whether we agree with it or not is something else altogether. But like, I do feel like, okay, I worked a long time to To build a career and increase salary and you know earning potential and all these things and for a little while felt like all right I'm doing all right, and then I don't know the last couple of years.

I feel like I've regressed quite a bit because the cost of things is outpacing the work that I put in over the last decade even you know

[00:28:29] Robbie: Oh, yeah.

[00:28:30] Chuck: jeez. What does it take to have? What is middle class in America, right?

[00:28:35] Robbie: I don't know how people afford anything because like, you know, you and I on paper make very high salaries compared to, you know, most of America. But you know, the people that don't, how do they even buy groceries? Because like, we can't go to the grocery store without spending like 250 and we'll buy like nothing.

I'm like, what are you

[00:28:58] Chuck: your kid isn't even really eating [00:29:00] food. Like, you know, most of our money these days goes into... Well, part of it is because they're little jerks and like, you just don't know. I mean hot dogs pretty much always work, mac and cheese pretty much always work, that, but like a lot of things like corn dogs or chicken nuggets even sometimes, like lately they don't like french fries.

What?

[00:29:22] Robbie: that's like all Fin will eat.

[00:29:23] Chuck: french fries? Right, like it was, and that's annoying anyway because we've You know, try to fry everything in this time. Oh, you like French fries? Great, here's tater tots. And they were like, meh, this is disgusting. Like, this is, this is better. I don't know what's wrong with you.

[00:29:41] Robbie: tater tots are better than fries, for sure.

[00:29:43] Chuck: Yeah, yeah, I think Yeah, I mean, there are many portable hash browns, right?

Like, they're

[00:29:50] Robbie: is so much better.

[00:29:51] Chuck: Texture's great. Yeah, so anyway. And they don't like that. So I think we end up spending an excess, and I have this debate with Sarah sometimes, with like, [00:30:00] Why are we giving them 14 choices for breakfast? I don't give a shit. Can we just scale back, because half the time they won't eat any of them.

Let's give them two choices, and it's like, here, here's three choices. Cereal, eggs, or nothing. I don't care. Go in.

[00:30:15] Robbie: Yeah.

[00:30:15] Chuck: know? And then you'll be hungry after a little bit. Like, they're not gonna die. They have food all around them all the time. They're not gonna

[00:30:22] Robbie: We have the same debate of like... And it's harder, like, when, you know, Fin's at the age where he... Has decided he just

[00:30:31] Chuck: Putting on weight matters though,

[00:30:33] Robbie: Yeah, but like, he's decided that he knows what he likes and what he doesn't like, even though he hasn't tried, like, any foods. So he won't try stuff. And then, like, so we always want to get him to try stuff, so we make something for him, and then he doesn't eat it.

And so it's the same thing of like, well, we should have just bought, like, a Costco bag of french fries and fed him just that.

[00:30:56] Chuck: You'll, you'll get there. Don't worry, Papa. I mean, we did. We, [00:31:00] like, especially my son, he ate everything for like the first two years of his life. And then one day he woke up and he's like, everything is garbage but hot dogs. And sometimes pizza, and then I'm like, Oh, I love pizza. Great. Let's give him pizza.

And then he's, and then he's like, actually, I don't like pepperoni anymore. Like, it's just random stuff. It just happens. And we have, you know, we used to be like, okay, we're not short order cooks. And we cook for the family. And these are the options. We will omit parts of those options for you. Like definitely.

But then at a certain point, how many meals do you want to spend in argument? And tears and all that, like, are you gonna play the old school game of you don't get out of that seat until you eat it, and you're gonna have this asparagus and everybody wins tomorrow? It doesn't, they have the same fight, and then eventually you're just like, alright, I'll microwave some some mac and cheese for you.

Like, because that's just gonna make this all more pleasant for all of us. And, you are getting food, and I survived on way worse things than that, so, you know,

[00:31:57] Robbie: Yeah, and I think [00:32:00] probably until you're like going through puberty or later it doesn't really matter. You just need to like have calories to exist, but

[00:32:09] Chuck: yeah. I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of studies to the contrary of like how you can improve your situation, but what is like the micro percent difference between A, B, or C? Like, I'm sure that's debatable. Like, you know, they'll say, Don't watch certain shows, and yeah, you know, screen time.

Screen time is bad for everybody, but that's a, you know, whole other problem. And I, I watched tons of TV as a kid. Clearly it's benefited society because I'm good at trivia. If you need someone on your trivia team who knows pop culture... Call me up.

[00:32:42] Robbie: Well, it's different per person too. It's like... You know, if it really negatively affects your kid to do any one thing, you shouldn't do that. Like, some other kids could watch TV all day, but still then, like, be able to flip that switch and like, oh, I'll get all my homework done, I'll, like, get a job when I'm supposed to, and like, [00:33:00] you know, it, it's hard to know exactly what every kid will do.

So, you know, there's no advice that works for everyone. Okay.

[00:33:12] Chuck: I do have one production side note that I'm kind of curious about and I've thought about this a whole bunch. So I think I should just ask the question and see if anybody answers me, which is, do you prefer that we look into the camera and are speaking to you or do we look off looking cool?

And as if we're talking to each other, we're having a private

[00:33:32] Robbie: Well, that's, that's like a, like film 101 is you never looked at the

[00:33:37] Chuck: Right, break, don't break the, the, yeah, don't break the fourth wall.

[00:33:42] Robbie: Yeah.

[00:33:43] Chuck: but then again, like, that has its own funds, ups and downs. Anyway feel free to provide feedback on Twitter. The only place, because I'm nowhere else on the internet.

But or stop by Robbie's house and let him know. And he'll tell me.

[00:33:59] Robbie: You can. I [00:34:00] live in Phoenix. I'll give you my address later.

[00:34:03] Chuck: Okay, you better give him this office address and not my home address. Otherwise, there are so many bags of dicks coming your way.

[00:34:11] Robbie: God.

[00:34:13] Chuck: I don't know if anybody's seen this, but I have done this a few times and I'm very proud of myself for it. There's a website called, like, it's bagofdicks. com and you literally can mail someone like gummy or chocolate penises in a bag. And I've, I've done it. It's amazing.

[00:34:38] Robbie: Oh

[00:34:39] Chuck: We're not sponsored by them, they just think it's

[00:34:41] Robbie: that would be an amazing sponsor though, if we had

[00:34:44] Chuck: This episode is brought to you by bagofdicks. com.

[00:34:48] Robbie: yeah. This

[00:34:49] Chuck: you happen to be shopping for dicks online to mail to people, this is an obvious solution. And they're tasty. You know, I don't [00:35:00] know. is a such thing as too much dick. It's the gag that never stops, so I hope somebody made it

[00:35:11] Robbie: So, side note, which maybe shouldn't go right next to Bag of Dicks, but a sponsor that we actually do have Bflow Desks.

[00:35:19] Chuck: Not

[00:35:19] Robbie: you haven't gotten yours yet, but

[00:35:21] Chuck: so I'm not sponsoring them. You might.

[00:35:22] Robbie: that will be coming. We'll give you more info and full reviews on, I love, I love mine. It's like, got like nice cable management and plugs, and it's a standing desk, and I don't know, it's, it's good.

We'll tell you more about it once Chuck gets his, but.

[00:35:36] Chuck: Yeah I think cable management is a huge thing. I actually kind of deal with it a bit on my current setup and keep trying to evolve it, but, you know, it's always like tolerable, not great. And that is vindicated. So I was listening to a recent episode of Syntax, Syntax. fm sponsored by Sentry, who doesn't sponsor us.

But

[00:35:58] Robbie: on GitHub. Does that

[00:35:59] Chuck: Oh, well that's [00:36:00] nice. Yeah, that's true, I forgot. High five. Thanks, David. And they, having a comfortable office setup and cable management is like a big part of some of the things they're talking about of like easy wins you can have in your own personal setup. It doesn't have to be a whole crazy thing.

[00:36:15] Robbie: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think as programmers automating anything or like having everything solved is like the, you want to have all of your cable management solved. And like this desk has the whole bottom has like a full width, a Velcro thing. And so you can like wrap stuff in Velcro and put it just so where you want it.

And then it has like a bar where you can, there's little things, sticky things that you stick on whatever, and then slide on the bar. So I have like my little Evo four stuck on there. And then like the cloud lifter and like all a bunch of stuff is on there. So it's like, it's very clean, very nice.

There is, I have way too many cords, so it's like kind of at its capacity, but it's doing a good job.

[00:36:57] Chuck: think I need some sort of hub or something [00:37:00] like, I, I have like a bunch of different dongles with like three or four different inputs into them so I can turn this USB C port into four U. S., normal USB A ports and, oh, but I need some more Cs so now I've got another one that also has some additional Cs and all this kind of crap off of it.

I think that's like

[00:37:19] Robbie: And it gets complicated when like, cause you have to maintain the Thunderbolt chain to get to your screen or your monitor won't work. But

[00:37:29] Chuck: So you got to keep that direct one to one.

[00:37:30] Robbie: yeah, so I did get the only Thunderbolt 4 KVM switch that exists. I think it was like 300 bucks, like it's expensive cause they're the only

[00:37:40] Chuck: I need that. I didn't even know one existed. I just assumed they're not out there.

[00:37:44] Robbie: Well, they weren't until like, like when I moved into the house and was setting all this up, they didn't exist. And then like, I just looked a few weeks later and they existed. So,

[00:37:53] Chuck: Is that, like, on Amazon or is that a special

[00:37:56] Robbie: No, it's on

[00:37:57] Chuck: have to send a

[00:37:58] Robbie: Yeah, I'll send it to

[00:37:59] Chuck: I need room for [00:38:00] stuff like this, which is my family in Lego. You know? Cool

[00:38:04] Robbie: Yeah. But yeah, I have the switch so that I can like, I have my desktop. And then if I want to plug in my work laptop, I can switch it to that and use the same keyboard and stuff.

[00:38:12] Chuck: Ooh. Ooh. That's hot. I'm gonna need

[00:38:16] Robbie: I've been wanting that forever and like I've since I started working at Amazon, which was in January We're in almost the end of October now. I have just laid on the couch to work because I'm lazy and like Didn't have it. I was like, oh, I'll eventually once we move and get settled in I'll like set up all this plug in stuff and now I've got it.

So no excuses

[00:38:36] Chuck: Well, I refuse to say that name because they don't pay or sponsor me in any way. And I'd just be pimpin myself, yo. Yeah,

[00:38:46] Robbie: stuff

[00:38:47] Chuck: I saw that a long time ago. I don't know. I mean, I guess you have to have something to drive that traffic from for it to be useful. I remember way back in the day, Tim Ferris would do that and he would all, he was one early person.

I think that he either [00:39:00] would say these are affiliate links or he'd offer both affiliate and non or something like that. I don't

[00:39:05] Robbie: Most people say they are, I don't know if it's just to avoid backlash or if like you're supposed to mention, like maybe you're legally supposed to say it's a,

[00:39:16] Chuck: I don't know. I never implemented. I remember

[00:39:18] Robbie: I, my website doesn't say, but they are affiliate links.

[00:39:22] Chuck: Yeah, they're all affiliate links.

[00:39:24] Robbie: Yeah.

[00:39:25] Chuck: are you able to get affiliate revenue through clicks like that and work for them? Is there any conflict of interest there? Are you breaking rules?

[00:39:33] Robbie: Honestly, I'm not sure, but luckily, I'm not a popular media personality because I haven't gotten any clicks, so, or maybe there were like a few clicks, but like, I'm, I think you have to get like a really high number, like, I mean, really high is relative, but for me, it's high, like hundreds of clicks a month for them to not turn your account off,

[00:39:55] Chuck: right,

[00:39:56] Robbie: I think I'm just going to get mine turned off and then I'll, I'll reapply in like six [00:40:00] months.

Maybe I'll be more popular then after that conf,

[00:40:04] Chuck: yeah, we're gonna talk about that a smidge. I know that is borderline technology with which you wanted to avoid,

[00:40:10] Robbie: Well, we can be, we can touch on it.

[00:40:14] Chuck: Sponsored by THAT Conference.

[00:40:16] Robbie: Yeah. Have you been to this conference? Well, you haven't been to that conference.

[00:40:20] Chuck: T H A T, and it's not an acronym that I'm aware of. It's just yelling. THAT Conference.

[00:40:28] Robbie: Yeah, we are going to be doing, we're not really sure the full extent we'll be doing at least one live episode on the main stage. Other than that, we may be emceeing some stuff and like doing other, you know, random room somewhere type of episodes, but we'll definitely be there. We're going to record as many episodes as we can.

So, you know, check out the live one on the real stage as it's happening and then. Check out the other ones wherever later, I guess.

[00:40:56] Chuck: you prefer to ingest your [00:41:00] podcasts.

[00:41:01] Robbie: Yeah. Which YouTube is really pushing to be the number one thing now, not, not for us, but for podcasting as an industry.

[00:41:10] Chuck: Yeah, I have heard more and more people are interested in like, visual podcasts. Like they can just put on a podcast playlist or whatever and, and take that in from YouTube. Which is interesting because people were doing that for quite some time, creating like playlists for music videos, right? I was, yeah.

[00:41:27] Robbie: yeah. I mean, whether you're watching the video or not, like, They, they're making it basically, so you could have playlists, like you said, you know, on YouTube now, they've just basically got a little tag where you say your playlist is a podcast, but then starting next year, they're going to take those playlists, marked podcast and make them an RSS feed.

So it will be like, you can ship it straight from there to all podcasts hosts. And like, you don't, you don't have to host elsewhere. You just upload your videos to YouTube. That's your hosting. And like, [00:42:00] it'll just get shipped everywhere. So they're making a big play to like, and I think a lot of people will do it because they're already publishing to YouTube.

So they're like, well, why don't I just stop publishing elsewhere? I don't do this one step. So I think that,

[00:42:12] Chuck: I guess.

[00:42:13] Robbie: it could be interesting. Meanwhile, Spotify won't let you publish video unless you use one of their platforms.

[00:42:19] Chuck: Right. Right. So, well, you know, it's a different business model. I am kind of like hesitant to lean into one entity too hard. You know, so like Google just owns so much of my life. Amazon owns so much of my life. Maybe this isn't one part I want to give them, but I don't

[00:42:41] Robbie: Who knows? I mean, we've been switching around a lot and.

[00:42:44] Chuck: Mm

[00:42:44] Robbie: I don't mind continuing to switch. It makes sure that we've got everything set up to be, you know, agile and able to move to whatever at a moment's notice. And that's helpful if,

[00:42:55] Chuck: we'll leave your ass.

[00:42:57] Robbie: yeah. So, [00:43:00] I do want to find out No, you went to France. You told me a little bit about it.

But, I guess precursor to that, how did the workout diet challenge thing go?

[00:43:10] Chuck: Went awesome until I went to France. So,

[00:43:14] Robbie: Wait, but they have nothing but vegetables and no

[00:43:17] Chuck: Well, not at all, that's not The butter is the best because it's full fat. They use 85 percent milk fat. That's like one of the big reasons why French, I mean, I had this sandwich once that was literally like a baguette, a smear of butter, and some ham. And it was fantastic.

So simple, was so good. So, I had a lot of rich foods. So I would say that wasn't necessarily great. I did do a lot of walking. Like, I think on the average was somewhere around 10 to 15, 000 steps a day, easily. And then there were higher and lower days, but like, the average was around there. So obviously that's kind of a good thing.

Oh yeah, it was wonderful. Folks were really kind. We spent, we, we didn't really spend any time in [00:44:00] Paris. It was mostly like getting in and out of there. And then we went south to Lyon and Avignon. Avignon was really cool because there was like, decades. There was like four successive popes that were primarily based in, they were French.

They tried to kind of like, there was this like pull back and forth between you know, Rome and, and and yeah, you know, it would be like those provinces or whatever, those areas trying to pull back and forth between like, who has the Pope Italy or France kind of thing in general. But obviously it wasn't like, Italy, the country quite the same, but so, there's a papal palace there and kind of like a second home and then they ended up having like four successive popes there.

And it's like a really cool, beautiful walled city next to this river. And just like so clean and well preserved. We did like a cooking class there. That was like a lot of fun saw some medieval towns, made our way down to Nice. And then like, I did like a day trip to Morocco and some towns in between and everything else.

It was like. Yeah. Yeah. [00:45:00] really beautiful, really beautiful. People are friendly, very people are like very passionate about their regions too. And so that's kind of fun. And I didn't realize it was just that much agriculture everywhere. I mean, everywhere you go, they're growing something. And so, like, they're very self sustainable as a country, like, they're, they, they have a ton of things in country that they make themselves, and that's the products of France.

And so, this import export business that we do in the States, like, they, they don't do that. I mean, they obviously do it, but they're more, well, yeah, of course. And they have a ton in country too, so don't worry. Yeah, I had some nice meals and stuff. We had one that was, like, probably the weirdest meal I've ever had in my life, though.

And so it was in Avignon and it was at this Michelin star restaurant. And it was one of those where it's a prefix menu. It's in this, you know, Oh gosh. I mean, that restaurant probably is almost or the building, not the restaurant, but the [00:46:00] building itself is probably like at least 600 years old or so.

And And they do this multi course prefix thing, and you basically choose meat or veggie, but it's not, you know, vegetarian or anything, it's just, like, not meat forward, and so they're like, we still do fish and some other things here. So we chose meat, yeah, we thought, okay, that'll be fun. And and you don't have a menu, though.

And, I don't know, I think we must have had, like, twelve courses or something. There was just so

[00:46:28] Robbie: Of all different meats?

[00:46:31] Chuck: Of just different stuff in general, like, the amuse bouche or whatever that comes out and like your initial like palette stuff. So there was like this crispy trout thing in a ring with roe on top and like that was different and interesting.

And then there was this little thing of like ice cream with like this olive oil kind of thing on it. But it was oyster flavored ice cream. And then some other thing. And so, but... And, and we got a lot of like, we had this [00:47:00] like kind of taco y thing that was really good, but it was made with a bunch of like French.

I'm going to have to like, come back. There was parts of it that were like, Oh, very good. But parts of it that were a little like. Weird and traumatizing, to a degree. In that, like, there was one, and they brought out, again, like, it would be themed courses. And so you'd get, like, two or three things each course.

And it would be like, this is more seafood y, this is more meat, this is almost like a little, like, street food y, but fancy. And they brought out this thing that, like, had, like, a foam cream on it. And there's little langoustino tails and then like something else go there and we were like, oh, okay, good. And our like one of our servers came out and she just like thought it was funny and she was like, So what did you think of that?

And we're like, oh, yeah, seemed pretty good and this and this and she's like, So the cream? Sheep's brain cream. And it runs away. So we're like oyster ice cream, sheep's brain cream. Okay, I don't know what's going on. So there was and then they bring us [00:48:00] back for some like Pallet cleansing course, which was good.

It was like a black currant kind of, you know, ice cream with like a little brandy drizzle on it, and you will go back to the kitchen, and, and you know, see what's going on, and like, they like talk to you a little bit, and then I see this chart at the corner of my eye, and I was like, you know, what's going on over there?

Oh man, okay, like this is, this looks familiar. This is some of the stuff we definitely got, and I see on the list, pigeon. And I'm like, I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to like, let's see what happens. Go back. And that next course is pigeon themed. And on the plate, it has like a pigeon leg that's been kind of charred and, and what, you know, like a tiny little leg, but the foot's still on it.

And then there's a bread and like, it's not like street pigeon, I guess it's like, you know, bread for this purpose in a certain region of France and a delicacy, but like, maybe not in this form. There's like. It's kind of like a little [00:49:00] sliver of breast, it's, you know, like a duck breast would be, like, kind of oily, kind of, like, meaty.

And there's that, but very, like, rare. And there's something else, cause I forget, because the next thing is, it's almost like a little croquette you know, like a little mashed potato fry ball thing. But apparently it has a pigeon heart in it.

[00:49:20] Robbie: Oh god.

[00:49:20] Chuck: And I'm like, I don't know, I'm just gonna go for it. So I just pop the whole thing, eat it, and I was like, I don't know, Sarah, I think this is, uh...

I, I think this is just potato, or maybe it's stuffed, or whatever else. It just tastes like potato, so just do that. And she just can't, she can't blindly trust. So she's peeling it back, and she peels back, and it's a big, like, after the crusty layer, you got a big pigeon heart there, which they maybe stuffed with more potato or something, I don't know, but she was like, and I'm out.

I can't do that. They brought some dessert stuff that worked, but, you know.

[00:49:51] Robbie: I get very traumatized with that sort of situation and I think on some level like It's [00:50:00] they're just showing off like the the chefs that are really good or like how can I get the most Disgusting ingredients and make it taste amazing because that's like wow, you're a great chef, right? And on some level that's cool Like give me a thing.

That's a little weird like not as weird as a pigeon heart Croquette but like You know things that I normally wouldn't try and make it taste good to me. That's kind of cool but like Don't make it like, so visceral and like, I don't know, it's just a little strange,

[00:50:33] Chuck: Hiding it well was fine. You know, like the oyster ice cream. I just finished it even though I thought it tasted weird.

[00:50:40] Robbie: yeah, and that's, that's the pressure too is like you have such a tiny little plate of like a taste so you have to finish it all or they can tell you didn't like it, so it's like, you know, I always feel the pressure of like, alright, it's only like four bites, I can do this, like, you

[00:50:54] Chuck: like, this in a way is almost like a little bit of an imposter [00:51:00] syndrome just for me as an individual, right? Because this is a fancy restaurant, you dress nice, you go in and you're paying them a bunch of money to do this. And at the end of the day, if I don't like it, why can't I just be like, I don't care, but then I feel like, well, now I look like I'm, I don't, I don't get it or I don't fit in or something.

I don't know. In the moment I have some of these like imposter syndrome

[00:51:25] Robbie: Oh yeah.

[00:51:26] Chuck: feelings. And so I just do the best I can. And I, I'm usually someone that says like, I pretty much will eat any, I mean, I've eaten inside parts before. I'm not like completely opposed to that, but some of it. It just tasted weird and some of it just looked a little too close to home.

Too close to the real thing. I was just a little like, that's why I don't like bugs. That's why I don't want to eat bugs. Because they just like, roast them and then put a bug in front of you. They don't put a cow in front of me. Are you kidding me? Yeah.

[00:51:57] Robbie: texture and the [00:52:00] presentation matter. Like, there are a lot of things where the flavor is probably fine, but like, if you can tell what it is still, it weirds you out.

[00:52:08] Chuck: You're right.

[00:52:08] Robbie: yeah.

[00:52:09] Chuck: Now that said, I do love oysters though, in general. I don't want them in my ice cream, but I do like oyster. I actually, I think it's because I see it, I know, okay, it's like you're going to have some whiskey. Okay. Okay. You know, you salivate a little bit, you know a little burn and stuff is coming, like, I'm not surprised by this.

I'm not eating... I don't know. I'm not eating like a jelly bean and then all of a sudden getting whiskey flavor, you know, like burning my throat. Like, I know this is what's coming for me. Oh, here's an oyster. This is what's coming. I, you know, I'm kind of prepared mentally. Go into it. Now I'm like thinking about those flavors.

Great. I eat some ice cream and I got those flavors. I'm like, what the, what the hell just happened? So, yeah. Anyway, so that was France. France was great. Enjoyed all of it would recommend, you know, 10 out of 10, would recommend. Nice [00:53:00] is incredible large, large city too, and it's pretty expensive the closer you get to the sea, like, it's ridiculous that you're like, I would like a cocktail, it's 25.

Well, I'll just have one of those.

[00:53:12] Robbie: now though, yeah.

[00:53:13] Chuck: A lot of places, that's the thing, this is the inflation thing too, that I'm thinking about, like, what used to be a, like, well, this is a, a nice vacation cocktail, it's 16 bucks now, it's, you know, whatever. If you go into town, though, you don't really get those, those same things, so it's kind of nice.

[00:53:31] Robbie: Yeah. So I do wanna, we don't have a ton of time left, but I wanna find out Do you have a family Halloween costume this year?

[00:53:40] Chuck: Of course we do, because it's ridiculous. This one is Mario themed, and I am going to be... I'm just thinking, now I forgot his name. The Mushroom Guy.

[00:53:51] Robbie: Oh, Toad?

[00:53:52] Chuck: Toad, yeah. I'm Toad. So, Aiden is Mario, Charlotte is [00:54:00] Peach, and Sarah is Luigi. That's, that's what the kids picked. So, and I get to be toad. I was like, toad?

Really? Thanks.

[00:54:09] Robbie: Eh, Toad's fine.

[00:54:11] Chuck: yeah. Everybody

[00:54:12] Robbie: He doesn't have as fun of you know, just spouting off random Italian esque phrases. But

[00:54:19] Chuck: New York City Italian, yeah. New Jersey Italian, really. Ah, yeah, I was like, how about Bowser? How about, how about Yoshi? Can I be Yoshi?

[00:54:29] Robbie: Yoshi's my favorite,

[00:54:30] Chuck: Yeah, I didn't get to be any of those. They voted. And then I'm like, Sarah, when can we be done with this family stuff so they can just do whatever they want?

And she's like, I'm milking this as long as I can.

[00:54:40] Robbie: Yeah, yeah, we are doing Sesame Street, so I'm gonna be Big Bird and Finn is Elmo and Katelynn is Abby.

[00:54:51] Chuck: Nice.

[00:54:52] Robbie: So

[00:54:53] Chuck: know, who's Abby?

[00:54:54] Robbie: a newer one. She's like a Like a fairy costume kind of, [00:55:00] so

[00:55:00] Chuck: Okay.

[00:55:01] Robbie: it doesn't really make sense. It doesn't scream Muppets or Sesame Street. So it's like, it'll make sense in context when she's like standing next to us, but otherwise people would be like, are you a fairy or what are you?

[00:55:12] Chuck: Yeah, I know that even Zoe was a newer character that I was like, you know, kids got some set or something. I was like, who is this? Oh, okay. I mean, even Elmo was

[00:55:22] Robbie: new ones for like diversity and like, like I know one of them is like a foster kid or something like

[00:55:27] Chuck: Gotcha.

[00:55:28] Robbie: just to have more relevant, like, I don't know. Woke

[00:55:33] Chuck: loves Grover anymore.

[00:55:34] Robbie: Mm. Mm hmm.

[00:55:36] Chuck: you know? That's the thing, is Elmo came into play and he sort of stole the limelight from Grover.

[00:55:41] Robbie: Yeah, I was... I was wondering about that, because like, Elmo wasn't an original, right?

[00:55:49] Chuck: No,

[00:55:49] Robbie: And then, like, when exactly did he become popular? Was it the whole, like, when Tickle Me Elmo came out, and like,

[00:55:57] Chuck: Well that, I mean, he got super popular. [00:56:00] So he was kind of like a baby monster, you know, that was like the thing. It was like, he's, you know, you got Grover and then Elmo came on. It's like, it's me Elmo, you know, I'm a baby and I'm figuring things out. So he was not an original and I don't know. I mean, I, I feel like he was, he came into play.

Like he was more like my brother's timeframe. So it would have been like. Seven to 10 years later and and you're like, okay, I'm familiar. Ha, it's funny. And I think I used to do the voice some as a kid to be funny. bUt before we bounce off of that topic, by any means yeah. So we, I did a thing with my kids last night where we like took, had some TV time, but we were doing more like episodes or shorts and it was like, let's all take a turn. And like I picked the nineties X Men cartoon first. And cause I thought, yeah, the kids might be kind of into that.

Aiden was asking me questions about Wolverine and stuff. It was like kind of cool. And I was like, great, now Aiden, [00:57:00] it's your turn. Do you want to watch more of this or something else? And they both were like, something else. This was for you, Dad. And they watched their things. There's like a mini thing, and Oh, a Groot.

I am Groot. Which is funny, so whatever. So then my next turn, I watched Oh, on Disney Plus you can watch the original Muppet Show, too. So I did an episode of that. I was like, Muppet Show, we're doing that. And that actually got a little more, yeah, they got a little more fanfare out of that one, so.

[00:57:27] Robbie: Nice, nice. Yeah, I feel like everything now is so fast paced that like, most of the older stuff won't keep kids attention anymore. They're just like, no, I don't want that.

[00:57:39] Chuck: can't tell you how many times my son chooses to watch other people playing Minecraft. I was like, I would rather you just play

[00:57:46] Robbie: does that. Like, like let me watch a full, like some of them make a little bit of sense. Like if it's a game where it's story based and it's like, I care about finding out what happens in the story. I don't want to play the game. Okay. Watch that. But like, yeah, things where [00:58:00] it's just like,

[00:58:01] Chuck: World

[00:58:01] Robbie: end or whatever.

It's like, why, why, why don't you just play it? Like, if you think it's fun to watch them, you could, you could do that.

[00:58:08] Chuck: can just be that. You're controlling that. Anything you want. I kind of thought at first it was like, Oh, you're just learning how to do a couple of things. That's cool. Yeah. And then it was just like, You're picking that over doing the things. I don't understand.

[00:58:22] Robbie: Yeah. All right. Well, we are over an hour here, so, yeah, if anyone is still listening at this point please let us know if you enjoyed this format, if you want us to do more of these, where we don't talk any tech, if you would like us to stop doing whatnot in general and do more tech, we could do that too, I guess.

[00:58:42] Chuck: Then we'll retire the show. If

[00:58:46] Robbie: so if you don't like the whiskey, we don't care. But yeah.

[00:58:52] Chuck: I don't have some whiskey, I'm not talking into this mic. That's probably not totally true, but...

[00:58:57] Robbie: Well, yeah. Alright, well, [00:59:00] thanks everyone for listening. If you liked it, please subscribe and leave us some ratings and reviews. And we will catch you next time.