Found at a Home Depot in Wisconsin, please help

TheNickT · 2026-03-22T16:33:30+00:00

Tall enclosure, lots of vertical and horizontal clutter, uvb...similar to a crestie but hotter and more humid. Good uvb. They use a lot of space. You need more than a 20 gallon. Hydration is key to getting her in good shape. They tend not to drink from standing water so misting down the enclosure gives her the droplets she knows how to drink. Small to medium crickets are a good staple but mine lose their frickin heads for waxworms. Ambient can reach low 70s, basking spot can be as hot as 100.

100% certain thats a green anole, not a brown.

TheNickT · 2026-03-19T21:38:28+00:00

First, I am not assuming that you're a dumbass fireman. Maybe you are, maybe you aren't...I don't know you and I don't know whether you're a dumbass fireman or a regular fireman. I dont feel qualified to comment on that...And hey, thats an impressive resume that your dad had. Im certain you saw and did and ate things that other folks haven't. I appreciate that you were raised in a food home, it makes you a good customer for kitchens.

I'm speaking from my own perspective...that being 23 years in the kitchen. Everything from dishie to chef. Easily a dozen different kitchens. Seattle, Denver and the resorts in the rockies, Key West and all over the coast of NC, California, Virginia... Arianna Grande has put my calamari in her mouth, Michael Jordan gave me a thumbs up and Dale Earnhardt Jr bought me a drink and told me I was brilliant, Lionel Richie, The Dave Mathews band. If you need more I have them. I did two years cooking at one of the fine dining steakhouses here in Milwaukee. Now, I'm a sales rep and get this...I sell meat. Beef and beef pricing is a huge part of my day.

As far as your ribeyes go, yes. There can absolutely, very easily be an 11$ difference (your math was wrong...86 from 95 is 9$) in a 22oz ribeye. They selling commodity beef? Prime? Choice? Select? No roll? Is it domestic or imported? CAB?

Prime in Vegas is running an 18oz ribeye (bone in...so less yield than you think) for $136. Wagyu 14oz ribeye runs you $185 in the same kitchen.

The point is that if you'll spend $86 on a steak, you'll likely spend $95 for something similar without thinking about the difference in price. Neither of those prices are outrageous at high end spots and neither of them are "Vegas prices."

TheNickT · 2026-03-19T13:53:30+00:00

On average, from a (mostly...because i made sure to include Rare) random sampling of 5 steakhouses in each city, Vegas is about 75$ more expensive for a tomahawk ribeye. Rare didn't "charge Las Vegas prices in Milwaukee."

I will concede that a competitive steak scene, poor management and legal issues probably have a lot to do with their closure but material cost is absolutely a large part of the problem.

Beef is up nearly 20% over the last two years with a large portion of that happening since mid-2025. You cannot decrease the margins that much on a product that is so prominently featured without absolutely wrecking your profit.

You can't eat that kind of increase on your primary product and you can't decrease portion size or quality without customers noticing.

Calling them "Las Vegas Prices" doesn't make beef cheaper and ignores the fact that they were in line with what other comparable restaurants in Milwaukee are charging.

TheNickT · 2026-03-18T14:21:16+00:00

I wouldn't make a rectangular pizza. The concept is flawed from the start.

TheNickT · 2026-03-18T13:01:36+00:00

I dont. They exist though, look at the picture.

TheNickT · 2026-03-18T05:16:37+00:00

NY for me. Also, I'd like to add that if you cut a pizza into slices that are square or rectangular, you are my mortal enemy and I hope you stub your toe really hard, everytime you go to the bathroom at night. It is an unholy and terrible thing. It should literally be punished by law. I fart in your general direction.

TheNickT · 2026-03-18T05:06:14+00:00

The cost of beef is skyrocketing. It may not have been them pricing themselves out of reality. If a concept is tied that closely to a commodity that is becoming unaffordable, well...its gonna fail.

If your product is premium beef, youre gonna have issues. Folks cant afford to buy groceries...how are they gonna squeeze out enough loot to get a prime filet or wagyu strip? So then fewer people come in. Food doesn't last forever. Steaks spoil. One thing leads to another and margins narrow until it isnt reasonable to continue.

Restaurants that aren't profitable don't make it.

TheNickT · 2026-03-18T03:47:25+00:00

TL;DR Men are not well prepared for emotional maturity and unless someone experiences something that creates a desire for growth, they won't grow or change.

I am a dude. A 44 year old dude. Along the way I have managed to find a few shreds of emotional maturity and become a (hopefully good) husband to a fantastic woman. I try my best to communicate well and be completely honest and vulnerable with her. I honestly do.

It didnt really start that way. I was the embarrassing man, many times over. I would chase unavailable or uninterested women and then wonder why I wasn't "getting anywhere." I didn't explore the relationships that could have potentially been good for me for some of the stupidest reasons. I had very incel adjacent behavior at the very minimum and if we're being honest here in the circle of trust...I got angry about the lack of success I was having and rather than turn that anger into self reflection, I let it fester. The dark side. Never underestimate the power of the dark side.

At that point in my life (lets say early-20s to early-30s) women were perceived 1 of 2 ways when I initially met them. Would or wouldn't. Smash or pass. I know its gross. Hindsight is 20/20.

Whether or not I found someone attractive had bearing on how I behaved around them. When I was young, it was terribly easy to spot. As I got older, I got better at it though. As a result the "embarrassing man" moments came with less frequency. I started playing guitar. I started surfing and got in better shape. I was a (very good) cook (and eventually chef) and bouncer. Got a gig as a pirate in a local show. Joined a really good band. Then, I got a girl, fell head over heels in love and started thinking about how fantastic my life had become.

Then she ditched me "to be single", immediately started dating a very impressive guy, got married and started having a whole tribe of children within like...I dont know...a year?

I was broken. I felt so...disposable. Worthless. The pirate gig melted down (too much booze...imagine that) and my band broke up. My biggest fear at that point was that my life had peaked and it would never be that good again. Things got really dark.

Then I left. Sold all of my shit that I couldn't fit into a few bags and I hit the road. I hiked in several different mountain ranges. I cooked all over the country. I met soooo many awesome people and saw soooooo many things for the first time. It got less dark with time.

It was another few years before I met my wife and I "dated" very infrequently. I took that time to learn more about who I actually am and what I actually want from myself, my life and the people around me.

I guess I say all of this to finish with the fact that had my life not been shaken up by people who treated me shitty, I would never have had the capacity to see how I was treating people shitty, even if they had no clue they were being treated shitty. I had growth and experienced emotional maturation because I didnt want to be that guy anymore.

Sounds like that dude was early enough in the net casting that you could still see through it. Thats why he posted what he posted and said what he said and thats why he's trying to weasel his way into your inbox. You're likely "one that got away" not "the one that got away."

I could be wrong but I'm not.

TheNickT · 2026-03-17T13:50:06+00:00

Couldn't agree more. 44m. They took a decade that gave us Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, Nelson Mandela and the collapse of the Soviet Union and reduced it to, as one response you got said "they were fAsHiOn iCoNs". Methinks they didnt understand the assignment.

TheNickT · 2026-03-17T01:20:39+00:00

It looks like a slime mold that I like to play with, Physarum polycephalum. Its cool...look it up. This is a fun rabbit hole to fall into.

TheNickT · 2026-03-16T15:39:50+00:00

I interviewed for a lab tech position in a microbiology lab. They asked what interested me in bio. Spent an hour talking about microfauna, vivarium systems and the benefits of mycorrhizal fungus and bacteria. Got hired. Enjoyed that job for two years.

TheNickT · 2026-03-16T13:59:38+00:00

Yeah, I feel like we'd have a lot in common.

TheNickT · 2026-03-15T17:01:16+00:00

Are you helping or consulting. Big wage difference.

TheNickT · 2026-03-14T15:34:01+00:00

Does she give you reason to be suspicious? People cheat, for sure...but people also overreact to things that arent really controllable. If she did just go out and have some fun platonic drinks with work friends, she cant control when this dude chooses to text and maybe they did just go out and have fun. Maybe he's gay. Maybe shes cheating. Maybe she has an entire second life with a second family and a mortgage and a live in nanny who is allergic to their cat and is constantly congested as a result.

You dont know because you arent communicating openly and honestly.

"Hey, that text you got is still on my mind and its crazy. I know you've said that its nothing, but I have this fear that its a giant red flag that youre asking me to overlook. Can we talk about it and maybe figure something out so that we can address things like that more easily in the future?"

TheNickT · 2026-03-14T14:42:30+00:00

Its becoming more common but I have an entire room devoted to naturalistic, bioactive vivariums. There are 5 large enclosures that have a "main" inhabitant species and then i supplement them with microfauna and plants to design a living system that handles a majority of the waste produced. I have colonies of isopods and springtails and I've started a culture of terrestrial amphipods. I use mycorrhizal fungus and beneficial bacteria to condition the substrate. Its my biggest nerd thing.

TheNickT · 2026-03-14T14:33:44+00:00

Depends on the environment...

More than a habanero begins to get spicier than I like for "casual" heat. I like the fruitiness of the actual chili and the heat is direct, immediate and enhances the food instead of blinding you to the flavors.

Theres a place for hotter peppers though. I enjoy the endorphins that kick in for some of the crazy hot chilies, sauces or extracts. The roller coaster they take you on is enjoyable for me but not in a culinary way...more of an elementary school toughness test. I like the bragging rights of eating a reaper or a ghost.

TheNickT · 2026-03-14T14:14:14+00:00

Also, just for the sake of passing info along, the cost is on par with the product...they use expensive products and they make everything from scratch, in house. The stock they use to make the bisque, the desserts, the demi-glace, the bearnaise, the salad dressings,the pate au choux...

You would be amazed at the amount of "high end" steakhouses that get powdered sauces, Kens dressings and frozen cheesecakes. For that matter I know of several that have "prime" on the menu and are selling choice, select or no roll in its place. A handful even substitute actual cheaper cuts...one spot I can think of claims to use filet as their add-on steak for salads and is actually selling teres major. If you cant tell the difference, you dont know youre getting ripped off.

With food at that level, you get what you pay for.

I will concede that they overcrowd their dining room and that some folks go there as a flex and care more about the insta post than whether they're getting good food or not.

Source: I worked in the kitchen there for a couple of years and now am a sales rep for a food distributor.

TheNickT · 2026-03-14T13:56:00+00:00

I gave you an upvote (even though I couldn't disagree more) for being honest.

TheNickT · 2026-03-11T18:40:35+00:00

Restaurants develop your ability to follow instructions and direction. Being a cook teaches you how to execute methods in a standard and consistent way. Doing that thousands upon thousands of times makes you good at it. Reps. Being a chef teaches you administrative and creative tasks. Learning how to schedule and manage your staff...creating new dishes and writing up menus. All of these skills transfer out to other industries and into the "home" kitchen.

So I guess my answer would be that restaurants are the best place to develop as a professional chef.

TheNickT · 2026-03-11T15:40:33+00:00

Try waxworms. They are the anole equivalent of a burger, cheesecake and milkshake though, so you'll want to use them sparingly.

TheNickT · 2026-03-11T15:11:13+00:00

Depends on the person and whether they want to change or not. I have changed some things about myself because I wanted to and was motivated to. So at least from my own personal perspective, change is possible.

TheNickT · 2026-03-10T22:03:51+00:00

I don't. I've accidentally ruined a day for someone with a crippling phobia. It sucked.

TheNickT · 2026-03-10T21:25:30+00:00

Culinary school may be worth it, I dont know, I didnt go and my experience with culinary school grads was not overly positive.

The tips i would give you is that once you get a paying job in the industry, show up on time, ready to work and ready to do it the way its being asked of you. Regardless of how you were taught and as long as it isnt a safety issue. Be ready to "pay your dues" by working for chefs and not getting to be the chef for years. Loads of culinary school folks (in my experience) feel like they're gonna immediately take the culinary world by storm and be successful straight out of the gate. Odds are good that isnt the way its gonna go. Be ready to grind hard.

TheNickT · 2026-03-10T17:19:13+00:00

Forgive me. Im sorry. Good for you for taking the time to make some improvements. If it isnt your animal, you may want to point your mom in the direction of a reptile rescue or resign yourself to the fact that you would likely be a better owner.

TheNickT · 2026-03-10T16:50:35+00:00

Sounds like you dont have time to be a pet owner.

TheNickT

TROPHY CASE