Haircut Again

I know I thought the last time I grew out my hair would be the last time, but I kinda snuck another one in... I've had my hair styled back since I cut it a year and a half a go, so its been a little long on top, but I've always been sure to keep it short on the sides and back. I kind of got a little lazy with the haircuts, and it all kept growing out. Diana trimmed up the back once or twice, but before I knew it, the (thinning) hair on top was about  10 inches long! I always love having long hair, but the evil villain called 'male pattern baldness' keeps thwarting my plans! The day finally came where I finally accepted my fate and told the wife to grab the trimmers. Off it came, and this time I didn't try to keep it longer on top- buzz it all!

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Being A Butthead

So there's this funny YouTube channel that Ledger likes to watch. It's called Chadtronic, and its this guy who watches crazy commercials and comments on them. He's pretty funny; funny enough that Diana and I enjoy watching it too. There was one commercial that he watched about these crazy toys that for some reason are butt themed. Stupid and gross, I know. But also hilarious! The guy on the video kept laughing at this product, called 'Buttheads', and we were laughing right along. We probably watched that part 10-15 times, laughing each time at how ridiculous it was. Well, me being me, I looked them up online and saw that they were a real thing and actually for sale. Me being me, I of course bought one right away! I didn't tell Diana or Ledger, I just waited for it to arrive and had Ledger open the package. He roared with laughter when he realized what it was! I got him the robot one where you pull down his hand and it makes fart noises. We got a lot of laughs from this thing! Ok, I guess the internet isn't totally useless...

Young Papa

Last time we were at my parents' house, my mom pulled out this old photo. With them moving recently, she had been going through all of their old photo albums and she came across this picture of my dad in sixth grade. We were all shocked at how much Ledger looks like him! Ledger's in the middle of sixth grade, so he is one year younger than Papa in this picture. So crazy!
You know how sometimes when you look at someone's child you can tell they are related just by looking at them? Growing up I would look at my dad and see that I definitely looked like him. I always assumed the same would be true when I eventually had kids. Well, here I am with a 10 year old and I look and him and don't see myself in there at all! Other people say they see it, but I thought it would be obvious to me too. Now that I look at this picture, I can see that Ledger definitely has our genes!

Time Capsule

I saw this fun idea online and thought we could give it a try. Today is kind of a special day: February 2. That means the date is 2/2/22. The idea I read was to have your child make a time capsule and open it up in eleven years, on the date 3/3/33! What fun! That would work out to Ledger being 21. As a 21 year old, I bet he would think it was pretty funny to see what he was into way back when he was 10.

I ran the idea past him and he thought it sounded pretty fun. We spent the afternoon picking out different things that he was willing to tuck away for 11 years, and even wrote himself a note, a message to the 21 year old him! He wouldn't let me read it, so it'll be a fun surprise for all of us when we open it. Can't wait!

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...Gone Tomorrow

... Unfortunately it just couldn't last. I am heartbroken to announce that I did, in fact, go and get my hair cut. I've been dreading it for weeks now, knowing that it was coming.

There has been a lot of uncertainty at work the past year and a half. Shocking I know! There is uncertainty about the future at an office furniture company? While everyone is working from home and no one needs office furniture let alone an office? Surprising, right? That along with the fact that the guy I lead the shift with recently left were enough to finally make me start looking around for a more secure job. I spent about an hour submitting resumes online to a bunch of random places, and wouldn't you know it- I've got two interviews lined up! That's the real reason why I am finally getting a haircut. I certainly wouldn't have done it just for myself. I was much happier with the long hair, but I think if I get a job offer it will soften the blow!

Check out the new look here!

Hair Today...

My hair has gotten kinda long... I have always loved having long hair. It wasn't really something that my mom and dad were not very happy about when I was growing up. My older brother had long hair for a little while when he was in high school, so fortunately got the brunt end of punishment and disappointment from my parents. By the time I wanted to grow my hair out it was already old hat for them. They still didn't like it and complained about it to me all the time, but I still went ahead and grew my hair out. My Junior and part of my Senior year I had longer hair. Eventually my mom bribed me into cutting it, which I always regretted.

When I was in college a few friends and I decided that we were going to grow our hair out together. Two of the guys had curly hair, so they had an awesomely big afro by the end! I kept it long for the next year and a half, only cutting it a little so that I could get a respectable senior picture. It was kind of important because the pictures we submit for our senior picture were photos they would send out to schools across the country as prospective new teachers for them to hire. I cut it a little, but not too much. I figured 'Sure, I need to look respectable, but I am trying to be an Art teacher, after all, they kind of expect a little strangeness, right?'. Well, it worked and I got a job. I oscillated between longer and shorter while I taught in Salt Lake City. Once it was time to get a new job again I had my hair nice and trim. I was applying to be a Bible teacher by then, so I had to look very clean cut and presentable. I kept that Bible teacher job for 12 years and during that time I never tried to grow my hair out. By the time I left that job I figured my time for long hair had passed. Not that I no longer wanted long hair, rather, the unfortunate reality of male pattern baldness was starting to creep in... 

Then the pandemic hit. My hair was already getting kinda shaggy when the whole thing started, and with the fact that there was no where to get a haircut during that time, I thought I'd just let it grow and see what happened. Diana decided that she kinda liked the long hair, so that was all the excuse I needed- no haircuts for me! It's been almost two years since I had a haircut and I love it! It is a great joy to me that I can have long hair one last time before the MPB monster steals it from me once and for all. I usually wear it down, but I have on occasion, just because I can, put it into a man bun. I honestly don't care if my long hair looks terrible or not because I love it.

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Meme Mystery

 So there I was, minding my own business, scrolling through Reddit, when I came across this meme. Kind of cute, isn't it? A harmless little meme meant to be an encouragement to those who read it. It's lovely. But as soon as I saw it I freaked out! Why? Well, there's something in particular about it that shocked me. It's a bottle of soda and a drawing of a stick. But here's the thing, that's MY drawing of a stick! What?!? You may have noticed that the name of my blog is 'Poke It With A Stick'. Did you also notice in the banner for this blog that there is a drawing of a stick? Well, way back in 2005 when I created this blog I drew that stick on a piece of paper, scanned it in, and did the photoshop thing and made that banner. Somehow someone took the stick I had drawn and turned it into clipart? I honestly have no idea! That is definitely the stick I drew, but how did it find it's way onto this meme? Seriously, how did this happen? It's a mystery I'm sure I'll never solve, but it is kind of strange that my drawing is a part of a meme...

Let It Grow

When the pandemic hit there were a lot of things that changed. One of the biggest changes was that everything closed down for a long time. This included hair cut places. I figured since I couldn't go get a hair cut anyway, I figured I'd just let mine grow out. Well, its been a year and a half and I still haven't been to the barber yet... I've always loved having long hair. I used to have long hair in high school and college, but once I entered the professional world I haven't been able to have long hair. My current job does not have any sort of professional expectation- I work in a warehouse! I figured that this will probably be the last time in my life I'd be able to grow my hair out again, so I took advantage. It's getting pretty long now! Diana likes it, so I'm thinking I'll keep it going as long as I can. Might as well, because if I don't grow it out now I don't think I will ever be able to do it again. It's pretty thin already and it's only going to get worse...

Vaccine!

A vaccine! Though its impressive how quickly they were able to tackle this virus, it still feels like we've been waiting for one forever. Diana and I called to make an appointment as soon as we were able. We have really changed a lot in our life because of this thing, so the idea of building some immunity and doing our part to lessen its effects was an easy choice. You see, the thing is, we both have brains in our heads, so the obvious choice was to do our part. I don't usually get political on here, and I'm still not going to because getting a vaccine isn't political. Obviously you get one for the betterment of society, doing our part to help ourselves and others. It has nothing to do with political affiliation, no matter what anyone says. So if you haven't yet, go get one.

quarantine begins

So this is kind of strange.  The state of Michigan has cancelled Ledger's school for the next 4 weeks and closed up almost all businesses.  The covid-19 virus has been sweeping the world and our best way to deal with it is for the country to put 'stay at home' orders in place.  A lot of this is hard to process as we are going through it.  Almost everyone is of two minds: sad for those who have the virus or lost someone, but also kinda excited because this means I don't have to go to work!  Ledge is especially excited, he doesn't exactly understand the full scope of this thing, but he's glad that he gets an extra month off of school!
These next few months are going to get pretty weird...

the captain

posted here without comment.

joto

About a year and a half ago I happened to be randomly scrolling around on kickstarter and I came across this really cool project that was trying to get funded.  It was for something called a Joto.  I explained it to Diana and sweat talked her into letting me put a pledge in to buy one.  It only took 18 months, but it was finally made and delivered!  We set the thing up and it is awesome!  Here's what it is: its a dry-erase board that has a little mechanism that can draw whatever you want on it.  There's an app that you can download to your phone and sent a doodle from anywhere and it whirrs in to action and draws the picture or message.  We've got it set up now and it is really cool!  I've used a few times already and its very fun.  The whole point of it was that I could send Ledger messages or pictures from work!  I tried it the other day.  I pulled up the app at work and wrote a 'good morning Ledger!' message and drew a silly face.  When I got home I asked he and Diana if they got it and they said that it came through at just the right time: Ledge was sitting at the table eating breakfast before school and it nearly scared him to death when it started whirring into action!  They both got a great laugh out of the startle and were pleased to get a special message from daddy before the school day began.  Mission accomplished!

officially named 'best snugger ever'

I'm sure this will disappoint a lot of other fathers out there, but it's time to face reality: you lost. Many of you gave it a good try and performed admirably, but the results are in and you didn't quite make the cut. My son recently informed me that I had been awarded the much-coveted title of 'Best Snugger Ever'. I even have the plague to prove it.
I'd like to thank all the cozy evenings on the couch and the times we laid on the floor reading books.  Also, a shout out to Diana who did all the heavy lifting on this one.  She was busy keeping the household together while I was in training.  Being the best snugger ever does not come easy, there's at least 2-4 hours of practice every single day.  She really has been a trooper while I've been going through the rigorous snugging in preparation.  Again, I'm amazed that I won the award, I mean, it's just an honor to be nominated.  There were some strong contenders this year, but it looks like I was able to pull out the win.

Better luck next year, guys!

happy birthday to me!

for my birthday i only asked for one thing.  now, this is going to take some explaining...  so, last fall we went down to nashville as a whole gang and had a great time.  on one of the nights we were down there we stopped in one of the bars called Tin Roof.  we didn't actually get any drinks, but aaron and i asked for waters.  they gave us the waters on huge disposable cups.  we ended up carrying those cups with us for the rest of the night, sipping the water.  we took them back to the place we were staying and used them for the rest of the week we were there.  as we were packing up to head home from the nash, i grabbed those two cups and brought them home.  ever since then i have used those two cups exclusively at home- putting them in the dishwasher and everything.  well, over the past 10 months they have started to show a lot of wear and tear.  the logos faded, the top ring has become cracked in a few places, etc.  the wife asked what i wanted for my birthday so, on a whim, i said 'i want new tin roof cups!'
low and behold, she had contacted tin roof and got me a whole sleeve of new cups!  i now have 25 new tin roof cups and i'm the happiest boy in all of whoville!
thank you, my dove- you are the best!

lee's artwork

so there's this guy who has a podcast that i listen to...  his name is lee sargent.  he is also an artist who does these amazing drawings in a cartoony style that he then paints using watercolors.  i've talked about him before and even gotten some of his artwork before.  he made an awesome stargate series for me.  the stargate set ended up looking so good that i decided to commission a couple more sets.  i thought about what some of my favorite movies are and quickly came up with the two sets i wanted him to do: bill and ted, and beauty and the beast!
lee loves to document his process and was kind enough to write a post about my commission here!  it's really awesome to hear from the artist what goes into making them for us.  we will love showing them off forever- thanks lee!
(a few pictures of them framed and hung)

goodbye, craig

ah, the end of an era.  i've always loved late night talk shows.  i remember when i was in high school i would set the vcr every night to record letterman so i could watch it the next day (it was on way too late for me to actually stay up, so this was what i devised so i could still watch it!).  i had one tape specifically set aside so i could keep up on the fun.  after high school i got out of the habit of watching late night, but when craig ferguson took over the late late show, i decided to give it another try- and i was hooked!  that crazy scott was so funny that i wanted to watch every episode he made!  thankfully i didn't have to set the vcr and set up a tape every night anymore because i now had this wonderful invention called tivo!  i never missed an episode!  i became obsessed, to be honest.  i even went so far as to create a whole new blog where i would summarize every episode and highlight some of his best jokes from each monologue.  i did this every day for almost six years!  (by the way, you can check it out here!)  i had such a great time seeing what he though of the days events and enjoying his amazing interviews with different celebrities.  he had some great bits and jokes that i just loved!  i even got one of those great rattlesnake mugs that he would always use!
unfortunately, like all things, his time comes to an end.  since we moved from griffith we haven't had a dvr, so i hadn't been able to see every episode for the last year or so of his run, but i made sure to make time to watch his last week.  it was great to spend just a little more time with him and his crazy show- he will be greatly missed!

a little (more) off the top

it seems like diana has a new look every week, changing hair colors and styles, but i've looked about the same ever since we met.  granted, i've grown out my beard in the winter, but thats not all that big of a chance considering i always have facial hair.  well, now that its summer, diana convinced me to take the plunge- to shave off all my hair!  well, not all of it, but to let her use the clippers on all my hair, cutting it all short.  i was a little hesitant, knowing how little hair i still have left, i was nervous to get rid of those precious few!  in a moment of daring i said, 'ok, do it!'  and off it came!  it is taking a bit to get used to, but i must admit, it's starting to grow on me.  diana loves it, so i guess its here to stay... maybe...

birthday treat!

how depressing.  for the first time in my life i had to actually work on my birthday.  boo!  i was pretty disappointed, i had to work from noon til eight so i didnt even get to have a birthday dinner.  i was feeling pretty sorry for myself when i got home, but then i was given this little surprise and everything was right with the world again!  diana had been visiting her mom earlier that day and had gone for lunch with her to hacienda, one of my favorite restaurants in the world!  she came home with a big container of salsa and a huge bag of chips for me as a special birthday treat!  now thats about as good as it gets!  my woman knows how to treat me right!  thank you, diana!
oh, and here's a picture of my birthday prize!

soda flashback

the other day i was at menards getting some supplies. i know its half way through the winter, but i finally got around to weather proofing the windows in our bedroom. after i got the stuff i needed, i walked to the checkout counter. as i was waiting in line i noticed the soda cooler at the end of the lane. the specialty soda looked familiar so i stepped over to see what it was and it turns out that it is sprecher brand soda! that was actually the brewery that diana and i went to check out in milwaukee with miranda and levi! i was quite surprised that such a small brewery had some of their soda all the way down here in indiana! we really loved their different sodas when we took a tour of the brewery, so its good to know that we can pick up some more any time we want!
(here's my post about when we went to the brewery)

new members

we made it to church on time (barely), and found a place to sit. during the service pastor kris invited all the new members up on stage to be welcomed. it was really great to be able to stand up and become a member of our new church family at crossroads and to have all those we love there with us to support and encourage us! we love our new church and look forward to growing in our spiritual walk there!

(i asked bubba to take a picture of us while we were up there, thus the quality of the picture...)

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