So last week my oldest daughter’s school they had a read with your bear thing. The kids got to bring in a teddy bear and read a story with it. My daughter forgot a bear that day but was told she could do so again a few days later. Since that moment last week, she’s had a new best friend. This bear comes and goes with her everywhere now including bed.They have become inseparable.

See…

Seems normal right? Well there’s something you can’t hear from this picture. This bear has one of those little button thingy doo-hickies in it that plays a sound when you press it. Instead of a ferocious roar though, this was a record your own. On it is something that is odd and a little tough for me to hear. It is a recording of my parents saying I love you to their grand child. Both parents. My Dad’s voice is there and it was done about a year before he died. So I am thankful the battery, or whatever keeps it going, still works because 5 years later it is still very clear. I can hear the total joy in his voice as he says his 2 lines before my mom says hers. Lately, I’ve been hearing it quite a lot too. She plays it a lot and each time I hear it, I miss my Dad. I don’t now how long it will last and I’ll be paranoid to change the batteries in case the recording lives because of the batteries. Her sister has a bear too, but alas, only her grandma can be heard on it.

She loves to listen to it. A lot.

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Sorry to all you blizzard snow storm folks. It only rained here a lot for about 2 hours today. Hard to have snow when its 75 degrees F outside!

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Three days ago I got an email informing Mr. Ben Folds will be bringing his “Ben Folds and his piano” show here to my hometown next month. If you’ve been here for a while you’ll know I absolutely LOVE Mr. Folds. What’s even cooler than that is a REALLY old friend/neighbor from junior high found and connected with me on Facebook about a month ago. I heard a rumor she worked at the same venue as Mr. Folds and I asked if she could get me to meet him. No word on that yet, but she came through in as big a way as possible. She reserved tickets for myself, my wife, my best friend, and his girlfriend to sit in the very small reserved seating area of the venue gratis. Totally unnecessary but yet completely appreciated.

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Last night I got to go see my team in person. I only get 2 chances per year and this year was the first in a while I got to go to both games. This was a weeknight, so the kids stayed home and my brother in law joined me. It was a good guys night out and we had fun aside from my team losing their 6th in a row. What was really cool, besides our 4th row seats for $43 was what happened after the pre-game warm-up. I always like to be there for the pre-game skate and hang out next to the glass and take cool pictures and see the players up close. As it was ending, one of my team’s players, Bruno Gervais(#8) motioned to me from the ice and then proceeded to pass me a puck over the glass. Cool.

Great View huh?