Can You Hear Me Now?

This is me Dogga

A Trip to the City

I went into NYC Monday as usual, and here are some pictures

Statue in Columbus Circle

The new Time Warner Building - Columbus Circle

Two Cherubs hanging out

Inside looking up at the Guggenheim Museum

Peace - A Jeans Store on the West Side

Reflection of a building off of the WR Grace building on 57th

Last, butt not least, checking out some colleges for Dylan

"Crikey!"

This is rather shocking. You really never know when your number is up I suppose. Here's a quote from the article.

"He came on top of the stingray and the stingray's barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart," said Stainton, who was on board Irwin's boat at the time.

Walton Lake

	The narration is lame, the sound is not right but I added it after the fact, it's 11:30 pm and I have to get up at 5 am for my weekly NYC trip. I've lost count but it's in the 70s for sure. Afterwards, I am meeting up with Dana and the boys and we are going to the Guggenheim Museum to see a Jackson Pollock exhibit (among other things). It should be fun. Then, Tuesday the kids are back in school!!!!!!!

Spider Web

We've been having a bunch of rain lately, so I was really amazed to go outside today and see this GIANT spider web that must have spanned two feet at least and was about 12 feet off of the ground in our Red Maple tree on the side of our house. I'm hoping it will still be there tomorrow and that I can catch some better pictures of this.

Tagged by Lindzy (and others)

Things That Scare Me
~Freak Accidents
~Being falsely accused of a crime
~Cancer

People Who Make Me Laugh
~Me
~My Kids
~Seinfeld
~My blogger friends

Things I Hate the Most
~Litterbugs
~Bad Drivers
~Hate

Things I Don't Understand
~Why bad things happen to good people
~Why good things happen to bad people
~Religions

Things I Want to do Before I Die
~Live
~Vacation in Greece, Italy and Ireland
~See my kids graduate college

Things I Can Do
~Play guitar
~Play the banjo rather poorly
~Put up with pain

Ways to Describe My Personality
~Humorous
~Humorous
~Humorous

Things I Can't Do
~Draw or paint
~Write poetry
~keep my opinions to myself

Things I Think You Should Listen To
~Your gut instinct
~The sounds of nature
~Your kids

Things You Should Never Listen To
~Gossip (sure, why the hell am I blogging then?)

Things I'd Like to Learn
~To read music better
~To make ceramics
~To sing

Favorite Foods
~Ice cream
~Grilled chicken or a nice cut of beef
~Fresh fruits

Beverages I Drink Regularly
~Water
~Cranberry/Grape juice
~OJ
~I love a good Ale but I'm not supposed to drink

Shows I Watched as a Kid
~Leave it to Beaver
~Rat Patrol
~Bugs Bunny cartoons

Martin Guitar Tour

Last week I went on a tour of the Martin Guitar factory in PA. I don't own a Martin, I own a Gurian which in my opinion is comparable in the price range ($1500- $2000) but the factory that made my guitar burned down in the early 1980s so there goes that tour. I've never been to a guitar shop like this before, it was a wonderful experience. They take you around and show you all of the steps involved in making a guitar. The normal process is roughly 60 weeks from start to finish although they can fast track it to about 10 weeks. They make about 300 guitars a day too and the average price is about $3000. One thing that was very cool is that while you wait for the tour to start, they have a bunch of guitars that you can play. Many of them are in the $7000-$8000 range. Those were real nice. They also have a pickin parlor that they keep locked where they have even nicer guitars. I was able to get in there too. The factory is about 1 1/2 hours from my house, there is no charge for the tour and they also have a museum there that has a bunch of vintage guitars plus some of the special edition ones they made. All in all it was a fun time.

No Soup For You!!!!

The Original Soup Nazi has opened a franchise of his Soup Kitchens. This one is on Lexington Ave around 55th street in NYC

This billboard could only appear in NYC

Are you SURE you want to remove that?

I bet he gets a lot of dates.

I keep thinking of the joke:
Did you hear about the guy with 5 penises?
His underwear fit him like a glove...

Grif

I'm sure this may sound strange to some and to others it doesn't, but I kind of feel that Dylan was put on this earth for Dana to learn from and Grif is here for me to learn from. Not that I don't love Dylan because I love him so much, but I think there's a slightly different connection that I have with Griffin. It's also possible that it's late, I had a beer so I'm babbling a bit. I don't think it's unusual for parents to have a favorite child. I know our love is supposed to be equal and unconditional but it sometimes isn't. The thing about Grif is that we often have a lot of fun together. I did with Dylan too but now it's different. I suppose that I have grown a lot as a man/father and that could be why I feel this way now. Today, Dylan was playing with one of his friends who is a little bit older. Usually they include Griffin but today was not one of those days. Dylan is at that age (nearing 13) where he doesn't want his kid brother around (nor his Dad either) and I can respect that. So Grif and I went swimming (the water is cooling down to about 77 degrees) for a while. I have been teaching him to swim and today he did the length of the pool, 24 feet, doing the doggie paddle. He's taken off over the past two weeks with his swimming. He went from being afraid of the pool to being an otter. After an hour of swimming we went to the Castle, a place for mini golf. They have other things there but we like the golf. After a round of that, we went to the snack bar, then off to get some pizza. We hit the supermarket next then headed home. It was getting late and it has been raining but he asked if we could go swimming, the Magic Words for me. I said sure, let's go. So I lit all tiki torches and off we went. Dylan and Tyler didn't want anything to do with it. Grif doesn't bat an eye, he approaches the pool deck and off he goes. I of course, have to just follow him in. I can see him swimming with me near the end of September in 62 degree water. I just feel we have this bond. Of course, there was one point when I was watching Runaway Jury that he's begging me to make him a roasted marshmallow on our electric stovetop. I kept trying to divert his attention to one of the other fine snacks like Fruit by the Foot or Oreos. Bascially, something that didn't require me to get up off my lazy butt in the middle of a movie to make something that I never really tried myself doing on an electirc stove. As it turned out, I caved in and made him the best looking golden brown toasted marshmallow that there ever was in the entire world. He hugged and kissed me and told me this was the best day he's ever had and how he loves me so much and how I'm the best Dad in the whole wide world. He always tells Dana he loves her infinity, but tonight he said he loves me infinity too.
Boy, can that kid work me or what... :-)