#AtoZChallenge: M is for My Status Update is … Trill AF?

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photo credit: Blood smeared and battle weary #Finn #StarWars #FN2187 #stormtrooper via photopin (license)

So my boss said I was “trill AF” tonight.

MI had to look that up on urban dictionary, of course. It’s pretty bad-ass, actually. Totally not me, though. I just wanted to cap a rough day with a Red Baron pizza and a 40. Yeah, a 40. Only, apparently, I don’t know what a 40 is.

I bought a tall-ass can of Bud Light at Food Lion right after practice.

Not that tall, though. This can is my under-tall counterpart of the beer-can world. I bought, apparently, a 25. Twenty-five fluid ounces of wimp-ass Bud Light. Oh! The can says, though, there’s an extra ounce. And I’ll probably finish the whole thing in two, three sittings, max.

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#AtoZChallenge: L is for List of Things to do with your Kids

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photo credit: A Tribute to DigiNik13 via photopin (license)

Life’s better with the kids.

L.jpgYes, dad needs downtime. He’s got to write these posts and, oh, earn a living and stuff. And sometimes, he coaches other people’s kids and even goes out to play disc golf. Really, though, those times we sing AC/DC in the car or crash the Taco Bell happy hour, those are the best of times.

As a dad, I’ve washed my car inside and out with my girls. I’ve taught them to score a baseball game. I’ve coached them in soccer, which changed them almost as much as it changed me.

If you’ve just brought home your first baby or maybe you’re looking for ways to find quality time with your kids, especially girls, here’s a look at my list:

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#AtoZChallenge: K is for Keeping up with my Shiznit

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photo credit: “When I grow up, I’m gonna be the tiniest, most powerful-est Sith Lord in the whole galaxy!” via photopin (license)

So, I forgot what letter we’re on.

KTwice. And what’s even better, I razzed fellow blog dad Eric of All in Dad’s Work about a guest post he promised me for this Wednesday. In the midst of the A to Z Challenge. For both of us.

Only, Eric has already guest posted for me.

In what can be attributed in equal parts to Canadian kindness and just being a standup guy, Eric wrapped up a post in his drafts folder to deliver the guest blog he didn’t have to deliver. Good man, Eric.

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#AtoZChallenge: J is for Just Unplug

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photo credit: Stormtrooper via photopin (license)

I clutch a wadded up and imagined life instructions list in my figurative if not literal hand right now.

JLook at it. It’s utterly impossible. Stupidly, ridiculously inconceivable. What the hell? Check it out.

  1. Use, even for a second, my ability to take control of my life
  2. Still my mind
  3. Release attachments

Seriously. I wouldn’t take that first list over this second one, at any odds.

  1. Slam-dunk a basketball
  2. Catch up in your inbox
  3. Become a Jedi

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#AtoZChallenge: I is for In This Moment

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photo credit: Construction of The Death Cube Mk. I via photopin (license)

I color with 64 crayons.

II mean this figuratively. Such an array makes for incredible detail, contrast, depth. It’s also maintenance. It’s lost time sharpening crayons. It’s keeping them all in the box, and just enough in each of four compartments. You know what I’m talking about.

It’s exhilarating, and also exhausting.

So exhausting that sometimes I envy guys who color with eight crayons. Say what you will about limited options; sometimes, the simplicity outweighs the complexity. Complexity becomes complex, sometimes. I’m destined for 64; at times, I’d like to pick the eight out of the box, and run.

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#AtoZChallenge: H is for Hippos, and Other Animals That Ought to be Mascots

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photo credit: Another First Order Stormy Portrait via photopin (license)

It all began with a blue-footed boobie.

HBoobies are badass. They’re odd-looking seabirds found in Ecuador. I learned about them through a blog called Ecuador In My Eyes. Joanna Sormunen writes the blog, and I found it through the now-defunct Hump Day Happenings blog linkup.

Did you catch all that?

A travel blogger wrote a beautiful piece with beautiful photography of one of the world’s coolest looking birds, and I chimed in with a comment that said there ought to be a team somewhere that adopted the blue-footed boobie as its official mascot.

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#AtoZChallenge: G is for … Go Ask Daddy?

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photo credit: After the Clone Wars, Cody quit the Grand Army and struck off on his own, searching for something to believe in. via photopin (license)

Some things just fall into place.

GLike, the time I called Jeremy Mayfield’s race team shop on a Friday afternoon to talk to his publicist. All I wanted was a snippet of news I could use as padding in my racing notebook in the Hickory Daily Record. That publicist said, “I’ve been so busy with this driver change for anything else!”

“Oh!” I said. No idea what the hell she meant. “How’s that going?”

She went on to tell me all about the complete team switch happening between Mayfield’s team and another. I played along, and asked more questions as I learned more about the team transaction. It just fell into my lap.

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#AtoZChallenge: F is for Finding a Way with Teens

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photo credit: Bday Enigma [16/52] via photopin (license)
Teens get a bad rap.

F image.jpgWith white conservatives and Denver Broncos fans, teenagers rank among the ranks it’s still okay to belittle. They’re moody, they say. They’re unpredictable, they say. They’re a bubbling, volatile cocktail of angst and hormones and turpentine.

Okay, I made that last one up.

Natasha at OMG Parenting wrote of five parenting truths for the OMG teen years. Just this week, Andrea Mowery of About 100% posted the Most Important Lessons for Teens. “The most important thing a teen will learn,” Andrea writes, “is love.”

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#AtoZChallenge: E is for Everyday Guide to Bravery

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photo credit: First order stromtroop via photopin (license)

Hi.

ESo, you’d normally see a guest post in this space here, midweek. Sometimes, that doesn’t work out. When your blog’s page authority registers at just 54, and your favorite baseball team is 1-1 with 16 runs scored (and 16 runs allowed), the universe asks you to sit down and take a number.

No gripes, though.

It’s in those spaces of forced improvisation that revolutionary ideas gain traction, or at least decent facsimiles of such. My friend Deb (of Deb Runs) poses a weekly challenge, Wednesday Word. Of all days, it falls on Wednesday, in the midst of the A to Z Challenge.

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#AtoZChallenge: D is for Daddy School

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photo credit: Exploring Beautiful British Columbia via photopin (license)

What if … what if I could just stay home with the kids … and teach?

DI would. I could. Daddy Homeschool lessons slipped in easily when the girls were young. At the zoo, in the grocery store. At the ballpark. In the park. When we hiked or fished, shopped or ran errands, colored or ventured out on daddy/daughter dates, learning was fun.

It’s not so easy now.

Kids become a bit jaded with age. Inspirational teachers are fewer and further apart. One girl – I won’t say who – issued a cease-and-desist for all “how was school?” inquiries. Ever. Commutes to school aren’t filled with talk of faraway lands and long-lost eras.

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