BugsySkybone

Popular in the Midwest (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan & Indiana), meat raffles are held at pubs, volunteer fire stations and fraternal lodges as fundraisers. I'm in charge of organizing one for my local club from scratch. It's been quite some time since I've attended one and no one else from the club is familiar with them. So I have to pull this out of thin air in about 6 weeks and need advice on how to structure it, how many prizes to raffle, what else I can offer in addition to meat (i.e. white elephant/fun prizes, etc) and any other pointers. Any and all suggestions much appreciated. Thanks!

This is complicated. I have a friend who's on his 5th tour of duty--1st in Afghanistan, previously in Iraq--who told me he'd like nothing more than for me to send him frozen, deep dish Chicago pizza so that he and his comrades there can have a taste of home. Another friend of mine who works for a meatpacking company said that he'd probably be able to get me 500 lbs of prime steaks donated by his company if I were able to handle the shipping. In both cases, the dry ice packed goods would likely have about 48 hours to make it from Chicago (likely out of ORD) to his military base in Afghanistan in order to not spoil. Any help would be much appreciated. Wondering if I can drop off the package(s) at a military base the day of a flight to Afghanistan or if any of the major service providers (USPS, UPS, FedEx or DHL) can help me. An idea of costs would be good, too. Thanks in advance! If I can make this happen once, I'm going to start doing it all the time!

I planted my broccoli in mid to late May and am in Chicago USA. The plants have transformed from small, apparently edible florets into tall flowering shoots. In addition to the yellow flowers that are attracting tons of bees (a good thing, I suppose) there are seed pods growing as well that resemble string beans. My main question, can I expect any broccoli this year if I cut back the portions that have flowered (and if so, how should I go about doing that) or am I just out of luck and should I take the plants out of my urban garden to make room for the other plants in the limited space?

I'm going to get a big commission check and want to pay as little in taxes as possible so I am going to max out my 401k to drop the gross amount of commission that I'll be taxed on. That said, I've seen most of my investments (value and equity) shrink as of late and I'm hoping to get some advice on how to restructure the "pie" that is my 401k so as to best weather the brutal economy. Any thoughts? By the way... I'm 34 and single, hoping to retire by 55 if that's helpful.

Do they have different meanings or are they interchangable? Also, my guess is that they are both initials for Latin words... bonus "atta boys" or "atta girls" for whomever can enlighten me.

A friend and I are thinking of heading to Madison, WI for a couple nights and she doesn't want to leave her dog behind. He is a 7 month old Great Dane, puppy. He's about 115 lbs and incredibly well trained. Any suggestions?

My hp pavilion zt3000 laptop is on its last legs and I want to back everything up before it completely crashes. I use iTunes on it (have a 30 gig iPod with thousands of songs) and thousands upon thousands of photos, documents, etc.

Also, do you know if I can back up applications (i.e. MS Office) so I can reload on new PC without having to go out and buy new software?

A friend of mine is replacing her old Cingular Motorola RAZR phone and has photos on the phone that she doesn't want to lose, but the carrier is requiring her to send in the old phone in order to replace it. We tried emailing the photos from her phone to an email address, but kept getting an error message. (She does not have email service on the phone, so that is probably why it didn't work.) She has some very special pictures that she does not want to lose. There has got to be a better way... can anyone please help? Can anyone point me to an after market USB cable I can buy that would allow her to download pics from phone to PC?

Looking to have a Saturday afternoon birthday get together for a friend. Hoping to find a sunny outdoor patio/beer garden in Lincoln Park or Lakeview. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I need to be able to get reservations for about 12 people.

I'm planning my brother's bachelor party for about 40 - 50 guys (ages 30-45) within ~3 hour drive from Chicago airports (ORD or MDW). Imperative activities on the itinerary include 1-3 rounds of 18 hole golf, 1-2 nights hotel accomodations, decent restaurants, nightlife (preferably within walking distance) and off-site "entertainment." Possibly hire a school bus or coach and driver for 48 hours. Hoping to offer option of Friday and/or Saturday night late summer or early fall '07 depending on individual budgets and schedules. Any suggestions?

A friend of mine is carrying several thousand dollars in credit card debt right now. She has a decent credit score (~700) and wants to transfer the entire balance to a card that will give her 0% APR for the first year and give her rewards. She intends to pay it off over the next 6 months. Any ideas?

A handful of people that I know have come down with multiple sclerosis in recent years. The majority of them, coincidentally, have, in the past, been known to use cocaine. I saw a special on Richard Pryor, who was rumored to be a cocaine user and also famous for his battle with MS and came to the conclusion that there could be a correlation. Has there ever been any research done on this topic?

1 = not at all, he was a freakin football player, dude. Nuff said.

10 = Oh my Gawd. Did you see him dance? Faaaaaaabulous!!!!

Bonus: By how many points will the Bears crush the Colts?

I bought 4 lbs of raw lean ground bison on Sunday and cooked half of it to make chili. The other 2 lbs is still in my refrigerator uncooked. Today is Friday. Can I still cook with it or will it have gone bad? What is the (refrigerator) shelf life?

My parents and grandparents were born in USA, but great grandparents came from Ireland in 1880's to USA. People have told me that I may be qualify for dual (US and Ireland) citizenship. Is this true?

I have a friend who has been unemployed for a few months. He was an attorney who gave up his pratice to tend to some family issues and never went back into practice. He has a back ground in real estate, criminal and labor law and has held various project management positions with a construction and contracting firm over the past six years. He doesn't know where to start looking for a job aside from sites like Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, etc. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. He is very hungry, but somewhat discouraged as of late and I'd like to help him out.

Do you know of any websites or distributors in the U.S. where I can buy a bottle of this for some friends? They have not been able to find it in a few years and it would be a great gift to them if I could track it down.

With compounded interest, rent is escalating 27.6% every 5 years. I need to determine what the annual rent escalation is. Please show me how you came to your answer and how compounded interest is calculated.

Ex. Rent started at $10,000 per year five years ago. It has escalated annually ever since. Current rent is $12,760 per year, 27.6% higher than five years ago. What percent did the rent increase each year?

Both people are well-travelled, polite and very respectful and sensitive to other cultures. Neither would ever be mistaken for an "Ugly American" as many non-Americans refer to some of our more boorish brethren that travel abroad.

In addition to Marrakech, what about Casablanca, Fez & Tangiers?

Where can I purchase a SIM card that will allow me to use my USA based T-Mobile Blackberry 8700g while travelling in Spain without incurring excessive roaming charges?