This Will Be My Last Post

 

After a lot of thought, I’ve decided to pull the plug on Daddydan.wordpress.com. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve enjoyed meeting all of you here. I truly am surprised with the amount of people that have stopped by, and I’ve appreciated all of your thoughts, opinions, advice, and compliments.

With that said, I hope you’ll join me at my new site, Daddydan.net, which is making its debut today. I’ve managed to move over all (or at least most) of my posts and your comments. I’ve also done my best to make sure I did the blogroll correctly. If I messed up your link or forgot to include you, please let me know.

Also, to those of you who were gracious enough to add me to your blogroll, I’d appreciate it very much if you could revise my link. Thanks, and see you all (I hope) at Daddydan.net

It’s (Not) A Small World After All

More Disneyland news……after the holidays, Disneyland will be closing down It’s A Small World! Woo hoo!

No, sorry, not forever. They’re going to do a major refurbishment to it. Apparently, since the ride was built in 1964 for the World’s Fair, the weight of the average rider has risen to the point that the boats have regularly hit the bottom of the canal and gotten stuck. How embarrassing to be on one of those boats, huh? Disney plans on both deepening the canal and putting in new boats, hopefully more buoyant ones.

My question to you: What else should they change to the ride while they have it closed down. Be creative!

That’s all I got for now, since I have to get this in by midnight to meet the requirement of NaBloPoMo.

My Grandpa

I don’t know what it is, probably being a Dad myself now, but I’ve been thinking a lot about my Grandpa, who died a little over 10 years ago. I think he’s been on my mind because I was very close to him and he was such a great father and grandfather and, along with my Dad’s influence and example, I’ve been trying to be like him in the way I raise the Babito.

To this day, I have some regrets and guilt when I think about my Grandpa. A little before he died he had to go in and have an aneurysm near his aorta taken care of. Since he was a lifelong smoker, the doctors said the surgery would be riskier and it may take him more time to recover. He was doing well after his surgery, but then he began getting lung infections and ultimately pneumonia. He never left the hospital after his surgery. He was there for a few month before he died.

My regret is that I only went to the hospital a few times after he took a turn for the worse. The first time I went after he started having lung problems was very, very hard for me to take. It broke my heart to see him like that, and I had a hard time going up to see him after that. Through my whole life he was always there for me, taking us to baseball games, attending nearly every baseball game I played in, and always making the time for us when we’d go over to spend the weekend with him and my grandma. In his time of greatest need and fear I wasn’t there for him the way I should have been. It makes me sad and ashamed every time I think about it. I did make it up to the hospital shortly before he died and was able to kiss him, tell him I loved him, and thanking him for being such a great grandpa.

I’m trying to pay him back by being the best father I can be to the Babito. He was always kind and never had a bad word to say about anyone. He always put family first. He always had a joke when you were down. He was always there when you needed anything at all. I know he’s looking down and watching me, and I hope I’m making him proud. I just hope I can be half the father he was to my Mom and Aunt. I wish he could have lived long enough to be around so the Babito could have known him. My grandpa would’ve just adored the Babito like he adored all his other grand and great-grandkids. Someday I’ll tell the Babito all about him.

Here’s some pictures of my Grandpa:

With my Grandma during World War II:

Working at a gas station in the ’50’s:

With his brother-in-law, and best friend, Tony:

With my Mom on her wedding day:

With me (on the left) and my brother:

With me and my Grandma at my college graduation:

and lastly, with my Grandma at their 50th wedding anniversary party:

My ABCs

Ok, so I was tagged again. This time by Mommyca. I’m happy to respond, since she’s so nice. (or used to be) =P

Rules: List a word that describes you for every letter of the alphabet. Offer as much or as little explanation as you wish. Please keep the words positive (for example, don’t use “fat” for F or “lame” for L), and feel free to get creative. Tag as many or as few people as you wish.

A: Amazed - that I got tagged twice now in the past week. I’m really not very interesting. Anyone reading this one will surely not tag me in the future.

B: Boring - at least today, keep reading

C: Creative - have to be to come up with 26 words to describe myself here. I could say cool, but I know better.

D: Daddy - Proud and lucky to be one.

E: Educated - school taught to an MBA level. street-taught to a elementary school level

F: Family-oriented - self-explanatory

G: Gadget lover - I must have the newest technological toys.

H: Husband - to a beautiful woman, inside and out.

I: Impulsive and Impatient - When I want something I want it now. I don’t like to wait.

J: Jokester - I try

K: K’s a hard one. How about knick-knack loving? I have a collection of bobbleheads on my desk at work.

L: Lovable

M: Mexican food lovin’ - especially carne asada, especially at Chipotle

N: Nerdy - read my other posts

O: Out of shape - I need to join the gym again.

P: Procrastinator - you don’t even want to know. One of my wife’s pet peeves.
Q: Quiet - until I get to know you

R: Reader - love to read every free moment, whether its books, magazines, or blogs

S: Self-depricating - See above. I don’t really think I’m boring or nerdy. I’m just trying to be modest, which I would’ve used above, but I really wanted to include Mexican food.

T: Tired - always, since the Babito has arrived. But it’s a good tired.

U: Unrepentant stat freak - See my list of tags on this post.  I’m adding a bunch that don’t relate to this post at all but will bring in readers.  I’ll report back to let you know how many people were falsely lured to this post!  (Let me know if I missed a popular topic!)

V: Very Tall - ok, I’m reaching now. I’m 6′4″.

W: Worrier - At least I used to be. I still am with the Babito. I want his life to be perfect.

X: are there any X words other than x-ray or xylophone? How about I cheat and say Xciting!

Y: Youthful looking - I don’t think so, but I still get carded from time to time.

Z: Zoo tourer - I’ve been to two! LA and San Diego

Whew!

My turn to tag:

Becky

Momisodes

Nanette

and, of course, the Great Virgilius Sade

Ipod Shuffle

Day Three of NaBloPoMo, where bloggers are being challenged to blog every day in November. Check it out and join up.

Inspired by Nanette at Say It, Don’t Spray It,* I put my IPod on shuffle and here are the first ten songs that played. I did skip songs that belong solely to my wife (Helen Reddy, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez) or the Babito (Baby Einstein, Carnie Wilson). Who’s next? Let’s see the ten random songs that come up on your IPod.

1. The Dance by Garth Brooks
2. One Last Chance by James Morrison
3. Rock the Casbah - The Clash
4. Keep on Loving You - REO Speedwagon
5. Revolution - The Beatles
6. Once You’ve Had the Best - Alan Jackson
7. Three Little Birds - Bob Marley
8. No Ordinary Love - Sade
9. Listen to Her Heart - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
10. Let It Be Sung - Jack Johnson

* I just want to point out that Nanette did a much more thorough job, linking to YouTube videos of the songs and wikipedia articles about the artists. She is MUCH too nice! Never mind. But she IS nice!