DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Too much B.S. Griping going on, so this is the Good News Thread

Well, we DO know she got her awesome from you because well... Arch is Awesome.

It was just a joke arch. Please lighten up a little. I truly meant no harm.

Arch, I'm horrible at keeping updated with people. I apologize for not doing so, it's nothing personal. However, I hope your daughter healed up!

Speaking of how people are doing .... how are you doing?

I think she got her awesome from her mother cuz Arch still has his.

quote above by DevilDawg:

"Dude! You have to go through ALL of that just to graduate off the street corner wearing the robe and crown holding the sign?! lol"



They don't make me dress-up (but they make me use a walker).

Little late on this. Monday evening Sooga came home from softball practice just as I was taking a pizza out of the oven...you know, sit on the couch eating pizza and watch the game.

Told her "We have pizza if you're hungry." (wife was already at work).

She fumbled around in the kitchen and then starts going upstairs carrying something in paper towel.

Sooga, what do you have? You don't want pizza?

"Dad! I have 2 oranges and a banana."

Ha! My wife, daughter and one son when they are around eat like that but always come a runnin when dad fires up some bacon.

Well, after all, bacon is meat candy.

DawgTalkers reunion 2017 Lake Erie...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a1e_1484208451

I see you and your buddies were the first to arrive.

At a h.s. basket ball game last night.

Apparently, Ohio was honoring vets. I think it was an Ohio thing - can't for the life of me say what the term was, but...

Big rivalry game between the good guys (Archbold) and the bad guys (Wauseon).

Vets and current service members got in free.

And in between games, all vets and current military were asked out onto the floor. The Wauseon pep band played each of the songs.......again, I'll sound dumb here......the service songs? Well, the army song, navy, uscg, marines and air force.

It was cool to see. Some guys were in their 20's, and on up. One went out in his wheel chair.

There wasn't a fan sitting. Disliked rivals, disliked visiting team rivals, men, women, republicans, democrats, indpendents.......

Cool.

So... I did this gig today.

I got to narrate a piece that was constructed thus:
Beethoven 5/1st movement is performed... and I get to describe it to the audience in sportscaster play-by-play fashion, a la Jimmy Donovan.

(Beethoven 5: dit,dit,dit daaaaaaa.... dit,dit,dit daaaaaaa....)

I had a wing man- a sidekick- a 'color commentary man' sitting at the table with me, downstage. Our Orch Manager, Keith, was my Doug Deiken.

It was 'Family Concert' Day.
'Sports' was the concert theme. I wore my vintage original official NHL Phoenix Coyotes jersey as my concert attire:




Keith and I have done this joint 4-5 times, and often go off-script. Today was no exception.

The crowd didn't just chuckle... we actually heard belly laughs from the house today. Keith did this whole stand-alone bit where he cut loose from the script, and interviewed the conductor (bad guy) and the concertmaster (good guy) in 'sidelines interviews.' I was laughing so hard, I had to cover the mic!

There is no loftier 'high' than hearing others spontaneously respond to the ideas one has prepared for them.

Except for this:

My Wife and I took a wild 3-hr ride back from EC to NW Ohio to get to my rehearsal... because we would never have missed our nephew's wedding ceremony. After playing at 750+ weddings over 30 years as a free-lance musician, "Uncle B" wasn't on the hook to play a single note. He just got to be a fine young man's uncle- at a touching and sacred ceremony.

Erik is My Beloved Nephew on My Wife's side. I was 5th in-line to hold him after he was born. His 'newborn scent' is still imprinted on me to this day (don't front- ALL of you know what I mean...)... and we have loved each other in that deep, primal way that only Family can engender.

There was no force of heaven, hell or earth that was gonna keep me from that kid's Most Important Day. That 6'5" young man almost crushed me in his appreciative embrace. If Alzheimer's ever takes me over, this is one of the last memories it will ever steal from me. Saturday was that important to us all.

__________________


So.... after months of not posting in this thread, because I had nothing to contribute- I finally experienced not one, but two events that I deemed 'post-worthy.' Within 24 hours of each other.

2016 was one of the worst in my life. Losses- familial, personal, professional and philosophical- hammered me. from start to finish.

Yet, here we are: 1/22/2017... and I'm already "two experiences to the good."


Damn. I made some really good/smart/lucky choices, some 30+ years ago.

Now, as an old man... the're paying dividends.
I'm simultaneously 'Running My Own Professional Game,' while also enjoying the benefits of a family that wants me to be with them on their most important days.


I was born into this world with no family at all.
And now- two (extended) families claim me.
I'm now a central piece in their ever-expanding picture puzzles.
And the things I do add to their stories.

All this... from a 'wild card' that God dropped into place.


I'm the luckiest mf in this entire community.
Beyotches.


At least for tonight.


#feelingblessed@thismoment,
Clem.

Went down to Columbus for a funeral Thursday. Sooga drove. She did great, other than 2 things. She argued with me about sleet on the road, and the road possibly being slippery. And, on a 4 lane (8 lane) highway, she tried merging into a center lane, that was clear......but a semi, 2 lanes over, was merging into the same lane. Glad "mean old dad" happened to glance over and look. "No, no, go back, go back!" Imminent accident avoided.

Met some friends for supper, at Tuttle Crossing.




Saturday, went up to Detroit, Joe Louis Arena, to see Jeff Dunham, with mo in law, sis in law and bro in law.

He's a bit salty in the language, but it was a good time.

Now, we get to go to another funeral tomorrow.

I'm about halfway done building my new ecommerce site. Its fun because I learned bootstrap to make it. I am a backend/middleware developer by trade so converting to a web developer has been challenging as I mostly suck at the UI UX stuff. Bootstrap makes it easier. I am a fan.

Don't know what you said but I liked it.

High five. ;-) There used to be some techie people on this forum. They will know what I said. ;-)

Me, me! I do mostly middleware type services and front ends for POS which are thick client C# and C++. I've been teaching myself Angular 2 recently - pretty cool stuff. Using Firebase as the DB for my "learning" apps.

Very cool. We are using different technologies to do the same thing. ;-) lol

I'm doing my taxes next week and if it's not too bad, I got approval from my wife to begin turning our toy room into a new theatre room with 100" screen, surround sound, in-wall sound proofing, 8 recliners, black-out window shades... Kids are now 13 and 20, the only toy either of them play with anymore is their phone so they don't need a 260 sf room to do that.

Super bowl party at my house next year.... well, for 7 of you.

Something kinda cool happened to me today...

While eating lunch today at the Chinese Buffet I happened to notice a group of Soldiers coming up for food. I sat to eat but was looking them over because their uniforms were different from anything I have seen before.

Desert color with camo but but the camo was strange and the desert coloring seemed lighter.

I wondered if they were from the Forest Service, Boy Scouts, or something else.

So I got up, grabbed a plate and walked over the most senior looking Soldier.
I said hi and asked what kind of uniform that was, it looks different than anything I have seen.

The Soldier proudly raised his head, smiled and said they are German uniforms, Ve ar from Germany!

I fought off asking if Trump had called in Hessian Troops for his security and said "Welcome". He smiled and thanked me.

Later I went to their table as I was leaving and thanked them for their service even though it was for Germany, it really is for all of us. The table laughed and thanked me.

That one's going to be trouble. Good luck from another stepdad.

Dummy the dog (and before anyone gets ticked, my dog has 2 names: Hunter, which my wife and daughter call him most of the time, and Dummy, which I call him all the time. And responds to both. And furthermore, a dog doesn't word associate like humans do - so, for him "Dummy" is just what he thinks his name is.)

So, anyway, he goes for rides with us. Gets in the vehicle, we back out of the garage, no problem.

He and I go for walks alone our road. No problem.

He's been in the garage with us/me/wife/Sooga when someone has left. No big deal for him.

Tonight was apparently the first time we've been out for a walk when a car backed out of the garage.

We went out to get "paper and mail", and boy, does he know what that means. So, we're out getting the paper and mail when my wife backed out of the garage to leave for work.

Dummy looked at the car (some 25-30 yards away), looked at me. Then sat down in the middle of the road. Looked at the car, then back at me. Then back at the car, and I swear when he looked back at me he stood up and the look he gave me was "What the hell? A car just came out of there. I don't know what to do."

He didn't know if he should bark, or if he should run. He just looked to me for guidance, I guess.

Anyway, I found it funny. Like I said, he's apparently never seen, from the road, a vehicle back out of "his" garage/house.

Lots of bickering, time to revive this thread.

Well, my son made it to Hungary. He's near the Serbian border working with refugees that have been vetted by the Hungarian government. He's been to refugee camps in Serbia and Romania. They're trying to develop education systems to quickly acclimate the refugees. He's on his last week there, and we're praying that he has a safe, productive end to his excursion. The political climate there is still a little tense, as Hungary has just recently gotten a handle on the immigrant problem (that's a really interesting story in itself).

I couldn't be prouder of my boy. When I was 19 the only thing I worried about was where the next party would be...and here is my son trying to do something to address the world's problems during the day, and trying to keep up with his full load at BGSU in the evenings online. Luckily he has wifi in the guest house he's staying at.

Agreed. And kudos to your son.

Well my son who is a Senior at THE Canton Mckinley High School has decided that he is going to pursue his degree in music ed at the University of Akron. He has already been accepted at 5 schools music programs, including Oberlin(my first choice) and Bowling Green(thanks Clem), but he chose to stay closer to home and go to UA.

So he went for placement auditons Saturday morning , which was fun because Kent St Mens Bball snapped Akrons 30 game home winning streak Friday night, so I proudly wore my Kent State Basketball Staff jacket. Was actually a pretty friendly conversation piece.

So he was immediately accepted for their marching band and Pep band. Will know in about a month about his scholarship offers for the music program, but the bad director said if I already know I want him, the other faculty will too.

It was surreal experience to take my first kid to college. All I coud think was the old Greek guy from My Big Fat Greek Wedding " WHY YOU WANT TO LEAVE ME!!"

What's your boy play? Which l instruments, and style of music?

He can play anything brass, but he wants to specialize in Baritone/Euphonium. He does marching band, concert band, pep band, Jazz band and I think a brass ensemble.

Very nice. I didn't know what hell a euphonium is, so I googled it. Music teacher .... awesome!

Sooga's (my daughter) first day of official softball practice was today. She's a sophomore.

At home, she said "coach said I have an opportunity to play varsity." Me: "well, good, right?"

Her: "Well, I don't know. Varsity pitchers pitch a lot faster." (this from the girl that led the jv team in batting average last year) "Coach told me I need to be more enthusiastic."

Yeah, well, she doesn't have that in her. In volleyball this past year, after a block, or a spike she slammed down, she'd lower her head. Her coach even said numerous times "Sooga! You just blasted that ball!! You can't even be happy about it? Show some enthusiasm!" (reminds me of softball last year. took her about 3 games to really get her swing going. She finally had a triple and the coach said "Sooga, I've been waiting for you to hit like that", and Sooga said "yeah, me too.")

I think he is more looking to be a band director, he is going to pursue performance too, but decided to do the music ed to aactually have a job.

Mine had her first day of tryouts today also.

New school but I guess they were pretty bad last year and the coach told me his varsity will be really young again this year. I think she will make varsity for her power hitting ability alone.If she had stayed at McKinley the varsity coach said she will probably play JV full time and dress for varsity and be used as a situational hitter.

My niece's travel soccer team (based in Westlake, OH) traveled to Arizona for a tournament this past weekend and won the Championship yesterday!


I recently started Crossfit and am getting daily doses of humility

I can judge the quality of my live by how often I see this show:



Haven't seen it in weeks.

I can't watch it if I'm out. In fact I've been so busy, I've been averaging ~ 1 hour total TV per day. Usually 1/2 local news in morning and an old 1/2 hour sitcom on youtube with supper (lately Hogan's Heroes).

quote above by YTown:

"God willing, I will be starting piano lessons in February."

I hope this is what happens. If you could stick with something like this for awhile (a year plus), you will be greatly rewarded.

Daughter and I went to the girls b.b. sectional semi finals game tonight, at Sylvania Northview H.s. Wife had to (read: got to) work.

No big deal, right?

50 minutes of drive time to get there, and not much time to do it since she didn't get home from softball practice til 4:50. (game was at 6:15)

Her, driving, me telling her where to go. 50 minutes of conversation - just her and I. Covered a lot of ground.

Got to the game, and split up. She sat with friends.

After the game, due to her desire to eat, she wanted me to drive. (no way am I letting my 16 yr. old eat and drive, especially on roads with a lot of traffic, and she's not familiar with).

The ride home was 60 minutes filled with more conversation.

Good time.

I'm getting ready for a long day at work. (which I love, always a lot of action (work, stuff to do))

Temps here expected in the mid-60s.

I'm gonna wear shorts. Probably get in trouble.

Think I'll bring a thermos of ice for ice coffee.

(The owner Raj making a rare guest appearence at the office I work at.)

So, wife had been leaving for work at about 6:15 pm. No problem.

Sooga has practice until about 6 pm. No problem.

Sooga gets home tonight, eats. A bit later she asks if I can help her clean her car. Dad senses go off the chart: there's a problem, somewhere. She's never asked for me to help her clean her car.

I know when I asked my dad something similar, it was because I had something going on. I know when my son asked me something out of the ordinary, it was because something was going on with him.

So, "yeah. Let's go". Into the garage. We start working away and I said "so, is something wrong at school?" No. "Did you get pulled over by the cops?" No.

"Problems with your friends?" No.

"Boy problems?" No.

I was so ready to offer help/advice whatever. Even just a hug. "So, Sooga, why'd you want me to help you clean your car?"

Because, dad, I didn't want to do it myself.

Owned.

I got some good news recently. The robot, Mechan 9, my friends and I built for Burning Man has been getting noticed in the arts community. We've been invited to Los Angeles in June for a festival called i3 Arts Festival. http://www.i3artsfest.com It'll be displayed outside of city hall. I've never been to LA and this falls on my birthday weekend. It'll be cool to get an all expense paid trip.
We're also in talks with an event that may see Mechan 9 displayed in Washington DC as part of a larger arts event for the Smithsonian. Don't want to jinx it so I'll say no more now.

I love the name Sooga. Curious about the origin?