Happy Birthday Princess!

Today we will celebrate Maddy Rae's 6th birthday.  Maddy will always have a special place in Papa Frank, Nana, Mimi and Papa Larry's heart.  She is our first grandchild.  Maddy is best described as a happy, smart, assertive child.  She smiles 10 times more often than frowns.  She likes to be in charge, directing how every event is managed.  I bet that she is already working on the seating arrangements for her birthday party. She displays a mothering instinct when dealing with her younger brothers.

This fall, Maddy begins Kindergarten..  Never has a child been so ready.  Maddy hungers for knowledge.  She once asked her Nana to teach her to read, like her Mimi was going to teach her to play the piano.  I am convinced that in a year or so, Maddy will be reading to her brothers. 

Watching her grow the past 6 years can only be described as pure happiness.  We love you Maddy. 

Happy Birthday Princess!

I am not a smart man... but,

Today, July 30th marks the 33rd anniversary of my marriage to Terri.  What more can a man say than how blessed he is to marry the woman of his dreams?  The only words that come to mind are those spoken by my personal mentor, Forrest Gump.  I am not a smart man, but I know what love is.  Forrest and I have a lot in common.  Infatuation with a particular woman is one of them.

I once blogged about how I met and fell in love withTerri.  It was eerily similar to how Forrest proposed to Jenny. 

Forrest/Frank Gump: Will you marry me?
[Terri turns and looks at him]
Forrest/Frank Gump: I'd make a good husband, Terri.
Terri Hansen: You would, Frank.
Forrest/Frank Gump: ...But you won't marry me.
[Terry laughs]
Forrest/Frank Gump: Don't you love me, Terri?
Terri Hansen: [laughs again]
Forrest/Frank Gump: I'm not a smart man... but I know what love is.

There are many quotes from the movie that I can relate to, or describe me well.  Just like Forrest, I can be dense.  Forrest has an excuse much better than mine.

Forrest Gump: Lieutenant Dan, what are you doing here?
Lieutenant Daniel Taylor: I'm here to try out my sea legs.
Forrest Gump: But you ain't got no legs, Lieutenant Dan.

Jenny Curran: His name's Forrest.
Forrest Gump: Like me.
Jenny Curran: I named him after his daddy.
Forrest Gump: He got a daddy named Forrest, too?
Jenny Curran: You're his daddy, Forrest.

Bubba: Have you ever been on a real shrimp boat?
Forrest Gump: No, but I've been on a real big boat.

Jenny Curran: Do you ever dream, Forrest, about who you're gonna be?
Forrest Gump: Who I'm gonna be?
Jenny Curran: Yeah.
Forrest Gump: Aren't-aren't I going to be me?

Thanks for the 33 years, and I love you Terri Lee.  That's all I have to say about that.

Happy Birthday to the Wookie

Today is my daughter Allison's 22nd birthday.  As I reflect on the last 22 years, I see a person who has gone through tremendous change.  During her early childhood, Ali was very active socially.  When attending one of Lyndy's sporting events, she would spend the entire time socializing with complete strangers.  We would find her sitting on the lap of other parents carrying on a conversation. 

When Allison played sports, she used the games as a social outlet.  I remember a particular soccer game when she was around 5 years old.  Those games were more accurately described as herd ball.  During one such herd, Allison and her new team mate and friend were seen strolling out of the herd, arms around each others shoulders, talking about whatever 5 year olds talk about.  Allison did not like to play softball, I suspect because playing the outfield can be lonely.  I have memories of her chasing butterflies in center field, and slowing moving to the left or right enough that she could talk with the other fielders.

Allison was always a very girly kid.  She had a princess dress that she wore over her normal clothes.  She wore it everyday for months.  That was during her Little Mermaid phase, when she watched the movie at least once every day for nearly a year.  For toys, Allison liked Cabbage Patch dolls and Mapletown.  I don't believe she even showed an interest in playing with Lyndy's giant Skeletor collection.  They were two different kids.  As part of her girly personality, Allison liked long hair.  That, along with her hairy arms and legs earned her the nickname the little Wookie after the popular Star Wars character.

As Allison grew older, she changed significantly but never lost the girliness.  Terri and I were very unaware of the character she was building.  We saw an immature young lady, when just under the surface was growing a principled person with strong character.  It took the misfortunes that her and husband Jimmy encountered just after their marriage to expose just what a good, kind, and decent person we had raised.

So Allison, I promise to not call you The Wookie anymore.  I hope that you have a wonderful birthday.  You Mother and I love you very much. 

Happy Birthday, Douche Bag.

Profanity

I have always wondered how cuss words achieved their status.  I mean, when you think about it, a cuss word is not that different than any other word.  There are no profane letters, and we define a profanity as a series of innocent letters in a particular order.  I turned to Webster for a better definition and received little help.

Profanity:
1 a : the quality or state of being profane b : the use of profane language
2 a : profane language b : an utterance of profane language

Profane:
1 : to treat (something sacred) with abuse, irreverence, or contempt : desecrate
2 : to debase by a wrong, unworthy, or vulgar use

So if Webster is to be believed, a profanity is a word that debases or desecrates something sacred with abuse, irreverence or contempt. Using that definition, I can readily identify why many or most cuss words are considered profane.  But what about that one popular profanity that means excrement?  The definition seems to fall apart.  Would anyone consider excrement to be something sacred?

So while I do not believe there is a consistent definition for what constitutes a profanity, neither will I begin to use those words.  I really never have.  I will admit that a few have crossed my lips.  Over time the number of such utterances has diminished.  The decline may be due to my work environment.  When I was a technician, most of my peers used profanity heavily.  As I moved into management, I heard much less.  Today, hearing a co-worker use profanity is rare, and usually related to extreme frustration.  Sometimes, it has more to do with a small vocabulary.

Lately, Terri and I have become interested in the HBO series, The Sopranos.  While the story of a mafia family is compelling, I fear the expletive laden dialogue has desensitized our ears to profanity.  Hearing the dialogue would have been more than we could withstand if not for the rounds of golf played with SILC, which began the desensitization process.  Okay, I do exaggerate. 

A little.

Party Week!

This is the party week of our year.  Purely by chance, 3 consecutive opportunities to celebrate occur in this one week.  On Wednesday, Madison Rae Farr celebrates her 6th birthday.  It is hard to believe that 6 years have past since we became grandparents.  The actual celebration is not held until Saturday.

On Thursday, we celebrate Allison's birthday.  Her 22nd does not warrant the celebration held last year, but it is still significant because we now begin the countdown to 30.

On Friday, Terri and I celebrate our 33rd anniversary.

PARTY!

Howard Dean Slap-Down

Yesterday on Fox News Sunday, the host Chris Wallace and Newt Gingrich delivered a slap-down of epic proportions to the uber-liberal Howard Dean.  Dean is an over the top liberal who suffers from the Ready Fire Aim mentality.  He often speaks off the cuff providing erroneous information, otherwise known as lying.  If liberalism is a mental disorder, Howard is the disorder's poster child. 

Dean was on his usual rant about how racist Fox News and conservatives are .  He was using the recent flap that led to the firing of Shirley Sherrod.  Dean was trying to make the point that when Fox played the offensive video out of context without investigating the entire speech, they were being racist.  There was only one problem with his liberal logic.  Chris Wallace points it out here.  Priceless!

It's Not That I Don't Like to Swim ...

I have never been much of a swimmer.  Even when I was a kid, hanging out at the pool was not tops on my list.  I would rather play a little baseball than go to the pool.  I enjoy a dip on a hot summer day as much as anyone, but swimming has never been my favorite recreational activity.

Terri usually laughs when she sees me swim.  She says I use twice the energy needed to move about.  She is right.  If I were ever stranded in the middle of a large body of water, I would last about 10 minutes before dying of exhaustion.  This body just wasn't built for the water.

My parents owned a lake home right on the Lake of the Ozarks.  For years we visited them several times a summer.  I think I entered the water once voluntarily, and one other time thanks to niece Heather's jet ski driving inability.  Or was that Lyndy?  All I really remember was my head skipping along the water as I desperately clung to a jet ski after the driver made a smooth bank right followed by a quick 90 degree jerk to the left.  On the fifth or sixth face skip, I decided to just let go and go in.  That was my only time in the water that year.

I can sit next to a large body of water for hours on end.  It just never occurs to me that I should get in.  Last weekend I asked my grandson if he had been swimming.  It turns out he is a lot like me and doesn't have the desire to swim.  I asked him if he was afraid to swim.  He responded that he was not, but that he was afraid of sinking.  He's a lot like me.