This has nothing to do with Deliverance. The full sentence is that on Super Bowl weekend, I spent 4 nights in a cabin in the woods in Wisconsin with 5 other guys. I’ve known these guys for 13 years but I had never met them face-to-face until Super Bowl weekend.
This post is not to regale you with tales from those 4 nights. The only other context I will give you is that we just played board games and Magic the Gathering (your basic nerd stuff) while drinking. Every. Single. Day.
Gus-Gus
2005-2019
December 6th was just about as awful of a day as I could possibly imagine. Gus, our nearly 15 year old Yorkie-Bichon suddenly collapsed. When I tried to see if he could walk, he kept going in a circle. We immediately drove to the emergency vet clinic. They found that a tumor, probably on his spleen, is causing internal bleeding. They could perform emergency surgery to determine if the tumor was malignant, however that would mean he only has a couple of months, at best. The hemorrhaging may have caused a lack of blood to his brain, which means he probably also had a mild stroke.
The most humane thing to do was say good bye, and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.
Yes, I know a “Maharajah” is an Indian Prince and I’m not trying to be culturally insensitive. Gus had a very strong personality. He was very much a “I want to do it my way” kind of dog. If there was a mound of blankets, pillows, or laundry and you turned your back or stepped out of the room, you would return to find him lying at the top of said mound. We often accused him of thinking he was “the maharajah”. He would lay there with a smug look on his face. This was a behavior he exhibited to the end.
Gus hated wearing costumes and clothes
We’ve had him since he was about 20 weeks and over the years he had many nicknames. His full name was actually Gus-Gus, named after the mouse from Cinderella. Gus was the short version. He had a big dog personality; always thinking he could take on Canadian geese or deer. Therefore I would sometimes call him Battousai the Manslayer, clearly he had that man killer instinct.
He could be a little asshole sometimes. For example if it was raining or too cold outside, then in his mind that made it all right to pee in the house. One time we accidentally locked him in the bedroom, so he jumped up on the bed, walked onto the dresser from the bed, and pooped on the dresser. It was his way of saying “How Dare You Lock Me In Here”. His strong personality was his most endearing quality, it is truly one of thing things I loved most about him.
I grew up with dogs. We had Labradors when I was a kid. A few months after my wife and I started dating we bought Gus. He was apart of our life before we were even married. He was the first dog I ever personally owned (Gromit was the second dog we bought together a few months after Gus). While I adored all the dogs I had around me as a kid, there is something different about the first dog you bought for yourself (or your family).
When I was talking to my neighbor, he told me about a dog he had. He explained that it was almost as if the dog could tell what he was thinking by a simple look or a nod of his head. He said that dog is the dog that all his other dogs are compared to. This is true for Gus. We know there will never be another Gus, but I know we will compare every new dog to Gus. We have a one year old Westie, and I already comment about behaviors he’s exhibiting that he has clearly learned from “his mentor”, aka Gus.
RIP buddy. I will miss you every day for the rest of my life, but I hope we gave you the best years of yours.
“Dogs’ lives are short, too short, but you know that going in. You know the pain is coming, you’re going to lose a dog, and there’s going to be great anguish, so you live fully in the moment with her, never fail to share her joy or delight in her innocence, because you can’t support the illusion that a dog can be your lifelong companion. There’s such beauty in the hard honesty of that, in accepting and giving love while always aware that it comes with an unbearable price.” – Dean Koontz
Gromit
2005-2018
Last week was a rough week. I was sick about half the week and on the day when I was vomiting and running a temperature of 102, we lost Gromit. He had a mild seizure in the kitchen, we rushed him to the vet and they found a weak pulse. They then instructed us to take him to the emergency vet where he went into cardiac arrest upon arrival. They revived him but explained that there is fluid around his heart and he is likely to experience repeated issues. The most humane thing to do, for him, was to let him go. It was really hard for me not to be there. Tuesday, June 5th 2018 is one of the worst days of my life.
Gromit came from a pet store in the UP Mall in South Bend; he was about three months old. However, he was still younger, by about three months, than our other dog Gus. They are also completely different breeds where Gus is about half the size. Despite the difference in genetics, they were brothers at heart. I may even be so bold as to say they were figuratively and literally akin to Lenny and George from Of Mice and Men. While he was trainable, Gromit wasn’t the smartest dog I’ve had (although he was house trained sooner than Gus). However his vapid demeanor was part of his charm. You knew when he was a happy dog, although behind that smile you can tell it was a thoughtless void.
The dog loved to give kisses. If he sets his mind to licking you, he will find any exposed skin to complete his mission. If you found yourself in a vulnerable position (ex: on the bed or the couch) and laughing hysterically, you may soon find him in your face. I was the common victim of Gromit’s tongue bathing. He was maniacal about it; literally pinning me down thus making me laugh harder. The experience was never too awful, aside from the fact that his breath smelled awful! I don’t know if gingivitis is or halitosis was part of the breed but there were other health related issues common to Wheaten’s.
He was afraid of everything, even Sphero BB-8
Gromit was a pure bred Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier. Unlike Gus, whom we researched before we bought him, Gromit was on a whim. We didn’t know anything about Wheaten’s prior to bringing him home. One thing is certain, he was afraid of everything. My little Sphero BB-8, dish towels, anything that made a noise (so just about every toddler toy we own).
An ailment common to Wheaten’s was a sensitive stomach. It’s highly recommended not to suddenly change their dog food. He did seem to suffer from stomach issues; acid reflux seemed to be a something we dealt with regularly. Unfortunately his solution seemed to be swallow anything he could find lying around on the floor, including our toddler’s socks.
Wheaten’s are hypoallergenic but he had allergies, which may have been something that contributed to his stomach issues. He had a mild allergy to yeast, which is often found in dogs skin. Yes, he was literally allergic to his own skin.
The older he got he did become a bit more aggressive, especially toward other dogs. He was not aggressive toward our other dog until starting about a year ago. Apparently this behavior is common in the breed. We had to be careful if he was around any other dogs; unfortunately he was in his kennel often during visits. Despite his bizarre allergies and his weird temperament when he was older, he was a good dog. We miss him and the house does feel emptier.
Me and friends with Dierks Bentley (circa 2003)
It’s not very often that you get to meet a celebrity. I have had very few celebrity encounters but the time I got to meet Dierks Bentley was pretty cool. The picture you see above is from several years ago, circa 2003 (as is evident by my skinny stature). There is a country bar in Lafayette called Riehle Brothers. I frequented it a couple of times while I was attending Purdue. I don’t even remember what we paid to see Dierks Bentley and Brian McComas, who were performing in front of a meager bar crowd. It was a fantastic concert. I even danced (which is rare and I’m sure I was coaxed into doing it by one of my friends, also in the picture above).
Dierks’ only hit at the time was “What Was I Thinking“, now he has an amazing career. Sadly Brian McComas wasn’t quite as fortunate, although many songs on his album were still pretty good. It was one of the best nights I spent with my friends in that picture, Beth and Alan. I became a quite a big Dierks Bentley fan after that concert, and I still enjoy all his music. I haven’t had the opportunity to see him in concert again since Riehle Brothers but that’s not saying I wouldn’t.
TBT is one of those crazy Facebook trends. It stands for “ThrowBack Thursday” and often times people post pictures. I know the old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words” but most of the time the pictures I want to post have a great story behind them. In my traditional nerdy fashion, instead of just a picture I want to provide a blog post for my TBT moments to share those great stories. I will not share stories in which the context will embarrass or incriminate myself or my friends and family.
It has been a really long time since I have written a “Throwback Thursday” post. I’m upset that I didn’t think about writing this post sooner as Homecoming was nearly two weeks ago. Therefore, this TBT post serves a dual purpose; not only was it a Boilermaker Homecoming, it was also our anniversary celebration. We were going back to see our friends, to visit our Alma Mater and to celebrate where we were married.
One of my favorite parts about going back for a Purdue football game is seeing our friends. To paraphrase what a friend once said to me, “the sign of a good friendship is being able to pick up right where you left off even if you haven’t seen each other in years“. It has been over 10 years since all of us have graduated. Every time we all get back together, it feels like we do pick right up where we left off. It’s tailgating at the home games that brings us all back together each year.
Alan and I started tailgating the fall after we all graduated. The first year we parked right in the middle of a 10 year tradition of tailgaters. We would reserve our spot on the hill by 6 am (sometimes as early as 1 am). We would walk a full size grill six blocks, at 7 in the morning to begin cooking breakfast. It was breakfast that endeared us to all those folks up and down the hill that unexpectedly had us barging in on their tradition. We cooked up several sausage and egg breakfast sandwiches on English muffins and distributed them to our neighbors.
A couple of years later Alan and I had to step away from tailgating. It was all going to end before it even began. Then along came Tammy and Mike, who picked up the mantle and have been carrying it ever since. They are doing an amazing job and I’m really glad that they have been able to continue the tradition and give us all something to come home to.
Married at St. Tom’s
Clearly what all of our tailgates lacked were delicious desserts. As a single guy I couldn’t bake, besides my place was behind the grill. Beth was always a member of our “clan”, she hosted just as many parties as she attended inside the group. She is an amazing baker and thus provided bakery quality desserts. When ESPN GameDay came to West Lafayette, Purdue (undefeated) was playing Wisconsin (also undefeated). At this tailgate we exchanged contact information, and around Halloween when we went on our first date in West Lafayette.
In 2006, when Purdue was visiting Notre Dame, we got engaged. We got married, a year later, at the church we attended as students at Purdue, and held our reception on campus at the Student Union. We are around the 4th or 5th couple to marry within the group. Purdue holds a lot of fantastic memories. So this year we wanted to spend the weekend at the school that brought us all together. We wanted to show our daughter where we met some great friends.
Parties and tailgates, football games and breakfast club. Putt-putt, late nights at Steak-n-Shake, and midnight bowling in the Union. Squirrels in the dorm, Rez, Mario Kart and the All American Marching Band. To quote some song lyrics, they are “Nights I can’t remember, Friends I’ll Never Forget”
/Boiler Up!
February 15, 2015 a three and a half hour comedy special aired to celebrate 40 years of Saturday Night Live! I actually remember watching the episode that celebrated 25 years. It was really great to see so many great actors and comedians return to the studio and reprise some of SNL’s most classic characters. I think the Wayne’s World skit that provided a Top Ten list of what’s great about SNL nailed everything that truly is great about SNL. Here is the YouTube video of that skit, if you didn’t see it:
Oh Kanye, I’m so glad you can laugh at yourself for your ridiculous antics during awards shows. I doubt Beyonce enjoys the negative publicity. I also did not enjoy your bizarre “musical” performance on SNL 40. In fact I didn’t really enjoy Miley Cyrus’ performance either. Actually, I hate to say it but Paul McCartney’s performance was painful to watch. His voice isn’t what it used to be and sounds worse at 72 than Frank Sinatra’s did at 80. The musical performances were probably the biggest downside of the celebration, which is unfortunate because SNL has always had some amazing musical talent.
I realize that this post is a couple weeks behind and I almost deleted it, but SNL has been such a pop culture staple for the past 40 years that I couldn’t bail on the post. I hope by now you have watched the 40th anniversary episode, and if you haven’t then you need to as soon as you can. The show did have its peaks and valleys. It really depended on how talented the cast was. It’s obvious when the show was at its peak because it usually created so many amazing careers. We probably wouldn’t have had the Jimmy Fallons, Tina Feys, David Spades or Chris Farleys without Saturday Night Live.
Speaking of Chris Farley, I really enjoyed the montage dedicated to those SNL icons that have passed away and it really shows how close the cast and crew are when writers, cameramen and other crew members are included in the same montage as John Belushi, Phil Hartman and Gilda Radner. I am a little surprised that Robin Williams wasn’t mentioned but I can’t remember if he had ever been on SNL. I included a link to the SNL 40 In Memoriam Tribute, so check it out when you get a chance.
I know there will never be another show like it so I hope it sticks around for at least another 10 years so we can celebrate 50 years of amazing satirical humor and extraordinary comedic talent.
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