Friday, June 26, 2009

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday to everyone's favorite septuagenarian.....Dad! I hope you have a great day, and get to relax and eat good food and hang out with Duncan and all the Wyoming peeps. Thanks to everyone I got a pretty good list of things you like:


Golf! Pretty much anyone who knows GW knows he loves golf. One of the Dad's favorite things is his yearly trip to Vegas with Scott to play golf. I think it's a great tradition and glad you and Scott do that.

Dad has always loved dogs, but there seems to be an extra special bond between him and Duncan. This is such a great picture of Dad and Duncan.


Dad loves toothpicks! You rarely see him without a toothpick in his mouth. And he has a cute tradition of drawing a frayed toothpick whenever he writes a note to mom.


Dad loves steak.......


and Jesus! You requested I add steak and Jesus to your birthday post a few months ago Dad, and it has cracked me up ever since.


Dad loves to play games with the family. One of his favorites is Hearts. I think some of our best family laughs have been playing games with Dad and some of the things he does and answers he gives. Dad has really given some "weinie" answers in some games.


According to Dad's Myspace profile he loves space gasses and nebulas! Here is a picture of the very cool Horse Head Nebula. I googled "space gasses", and well, I decided to just do nebulas.


Dad has always loved to read, and passed that love on to most of his kids. He really likes mystery novels, and one of his favorite writes is James Patterson.




Dad loves Clint Eastwood! (how could you not?) The Dirty Harry movies are some of his favorites. I remember seeing one of them with Dad in the theater. I think it was Dead Pool.
Dad loves his snacks, and right now one of his favorites is Double Stuf Oreos!


And he loves Kipper Snacks.


Dad loves to shop at Sam's Club! Matt says one of Dad's favorite things to do is take the day and go to Casper and eat a good dinner and "hit Sam's".


One of Dad's all time favorite movies is Terminator 2.

And finally, Dad loves to nap. I don't think a family gathering goes by that doesn't involve at least one nap. Here are a couple classic pictures of Dad napping.






This one is my favorite.


Dad is also known for his made-up words. Fern Zippy and Dinglefritz are the best. I think all of us and all the friends we've ever had have been called one or the other.
Happy Birthday Dad! I hope you like the little tribute! Your kids love you so much! I love hanging out with you and I especially love to make you laugh. I hope to see you soon!
Love you!!! Kisses!!!!!!

38 comments:

Cat said...

Happy Birthday, Dad. I love you, you're the best!!

Emily said...

Excellent post Sue and Happy Birthday dad!!! Love you so much.

Amy said...

Love you lots, Dad! Dad actually had to go to Casper this morning for some training for work. Maybe he'll get to "hit Sam's" before he heads home. Tonight they are going to dinner at the "Depot" and to see "Transformers 2". Sounds like Dad's kind of night! Happy Birthday Dad!!

Amy said...

hey grandpa!:) i love you very much and appreciate all you do for us:) your great! i hope you have a great birthday!:) love, KELLY:)

Matt Wright said...

Happy Birthday Pops! Love you so much. Glad we got to light so many dangerous fireworks together yesterday!!

Cat said...

So sad I missed the dangerous fireworks.

Matt Wright said...

COME UP FOR THE 4th!!

Dan W said...

Happy birthday George! You deserve to be celebrated big time. The comment about how fun it is to play games with George made me think about some really fun moments in that realm. My favorite (and I'm sure all of you have funnier ones) was his scribbling something unidentifiable during a Pictionary game and then simply tapping the picture over and over the whole rest of the time. No attempt to help by clarifying the drawing or anything. Anyway, funny memory for me.

Your birthday, George, always holds another special place for me as it was on your birthday in 1982 I quit smoking for all time. You all were in Tahoe on a family vacation and I had to stay behind to work and had a real strong feeling come over me that led me to chuck my pack of cigs out into the orchard never to pick them up again. Fun to think about that and all the ways living with you and the family helped me so much. You're a huge huge person in my life. Many more great years to you my friend.

Sue said...

I should have put how much dad loves fireworks! Remember his secret fireworks box he kept in his closet in Mapleton? good times.

Matt also told me, and I forgot to add it too, that dad will tell people to "tap it lightly" when he parts with people. Matt has asked him what it means, and doesn't get a straight answer. Now I can see it being a euphamism for 2 or 3 things that I won't mention. Dad, when you read this, could you please explain "tap it lightly"? Or is it going to scar B too much?

And yes Dan, that Pictionary example you gave is SO dad! Have you ever played a game like charades with him? He pretty much makes the same moves no matter what he is trying to act out.

haha! Love you Dad!

Emily said...

Haha, your two comments bring to mind the night of charades where dad had the act out "robot" and he kept doing this hula dance thing. That is all he would do! Robot for anyone else, should be a 5 second clue. Nope.

Sue said...

The hula dance thing is the move he always makes!

And I am quite disappointed Dad has been in Casper all day and hasn't gotten a chance to read the post. I got up at 5:15 this morning so I could get it posted before I had to leave for work! I wanted him to enjoy the comments trickling in all morning! hmph!

Emily said...

Hey guess what dad? You share a birthday with Colin Greenwood, Radiohead's bass player. Now don't you feel special?

B said...

Happy Birthday Pops! I'm glad you can hear me speak now. You're the best father and father-in-law that anyone could ask for.

My "tap it lightly" theory is that it has to do with putting?

Sue said...

Putting! Wow, my brain went in a totally different direction.

What do you mean by "I'm glad you can hear me speak now"? Did dad get a hearing aid or something?

Amy said...

I don't think it means anything about putting. I think Sue was closer. Love the charades and Pictionary reminders. Remember the Liberace comment in "Abstract"? For those of you who weren't there, I'll share. The game is a "if you were a...what would you be?" kindof game. Dad's word was "Liberace", his question was: "If you were a shape what would you be?" he answered, "I would be the shape of a gay piano player". Total weenie answer! We love you Dad.
Last night they got shut out of Transformers 2, (they even bought tickets early and couldn't find seats). So they will go tonight. They decided to come over to our house. We lit fireworks, baked a birthday cake and played "Hearts". He didn't win, but he shot the moon on the last hand. We were happy for him.

Pops said...

Yo, Peeps, I am back!! For better or for worse. Thanks for all of your comments and reminders of what a dorkus I am. I will never play charades, pictionary and the like with you again. Some fun stuff though! hahaha, I remember the picture Dan mentioned. I am such a spazz. I beat out B by a mile in the spazz department. I did shoot last night in the last hand and came in second behind Mom in the seven player game. Props to Mom. "Tap it lightly" is not about golf or putting, nor is it sexual, you retards.
I'll leave it a alone for a while just to make you think and ponder. Steak, Jesus and Clint. Now there is a trio that is not put together very often in any context. Nice! Yes, Duncan is special and close to me. I am sad watching his bone cancer grow on his ankle, but it does not bother him so I am glad I still have him to feed, give rides to and scratch his ears and belly. His big brown eyes are way too cute to be on a dog.
You forgot fishing, flying, going to movies and eating. Napping is good, except for Matt making fun of me. At least I am still here above the grass playing golf instead of beneth it. Shot a 82 Thursday and beat Skippy by one shot. Next year I am planing on shooting my age and I'll send you all an autografted ball for a momento. I am too old to learn to spell, so just deal with it!! Love, kisses Dad.

Neaners said...

Glad u had a wonderful birthday. We all appreciate you. Great post Sue. Duncan is so cute. Dogs are so wonderful. You have had some good ones over the years. I remember Zippy:) and of course Annie's namesake. Have an awesome and healthy year!
My word is boodgeog. Coincidence?

Matt Wright said...

Dad. Your comment made me laugh out loud SO many times!! Your the best!

Pops said...

"I started a joke" speaking of old jokes....Why don't blind people like to skydive?? It scares the crap out of the dog. The whole worlds crying...

Neaners said...

Skydiving rocks Pops! Funny joke. It would be fun to have a blog of jokes.

B said...

I used to be pretty intimidated by Dad, and I spoke in a really timid voice, and he couldn't hear a word I said. Matt was an interpreter for about 6 months. Now I now that he's about the least scary person ever, and that I have to speak up, and if he just sort of shrugs, then he didn't hear me. Haha, on Halloween when we were dating, Matt and I dressed up as punks, and he called me a "Skanking girl." I didn't know that Skanking was a kind of dancing, and I thought he'd just called me a slut!

Matt Wright said...

HAHA! Good story B.

"I started a joke..." So, Sue- Do you think of Zoolander every time this song starts playing?? Because I sure do. I know the version in that movie isn't the BeeGees, but yeah.

Sue said...

Yes, I think of Zoolander everytime the song comes on! I love that movie so much!

Sorry I'm so retarded dad. That comment made me laugh for a long time. Still waiting for the explanation.

Dad, have you seen Gran Torino? Holy Crap! It is such a good movie! Cam and I watched it yesterday morning and kept laughing out loud at some of the things Clint said.

Pops said...

I have Gran Torino in my netfliz Q. Can't wait for I heard some good stuff about it and if you and Cam liked it I'm sure I will. Didn't know it had funny in it. What comment? "You retards" That the one? Just wait. I didn't realize that song was in Zoolander. Like I always said I don't do music much or pay attention to things like that. Glad you and Matt do. Thanks Matt and Sue for kind remarks about my comments and them having some laughs in them. Humor is good!

Sue said...

Yeah, it was your retard comment that made me laugh the hardest.

What made Cam and me laugh so much in Gran Torino are some of the things Clint would say, and he growls at people a lot. He is the most un-pc person! It is almost shocking some of the names he calls the minorities, and some of the things he says to them in the movie. But, it works really well in the context of the movie, he has to be that way.

I'll give you an example. During the famous "get off my lawn" scene, he is trying to get an Asian gang who started a fight on the lawn next door, off his lawn. He points this huge gun at one of them and that kid starts giving him crap like "what are you going to do old man shoot me?" And Clint says something like "In Korea I shot gooks like you and stacked up the bodies and used them as sandbags". He is constantly saying things like that and it cracked us up. Maybe we are sick and wrong, but it made us laugh.

Sue said...

I just want to clarify something. Cam and I didn't find it funny because we like that kind of language and think it's funny, and wish we could use it. It was funny because it flowed so easily out of Walt (Clint), and he wasn't afraid to say it to ANYONE'S face. When we laughed, it was more like a "I can't believe he just said that!" kind of laugh, not like hahahaha that is SO FUNNY like Zoolander made us laugh.

The movie definitely has a lot of dark and disturbing themes and scenes, and we didn't giggle through the whole movie. Just maybe 30 or 40 times. And like I said previously, what Walt says and does works well in the context in the movie, it's not like the screenwriter was just trying to get away with a bunch of racial slurs.

Dan W said...

Lorri and I had the exact same experience with Gran Torino, Sue. Laughing so hard at what he said just because it was so totally over the top racist (along with his growls) but not because we think racism and name-calling are funny.

Emily said...

I'm glad you guys clarified that you aren't racist bigots.

(I'm kidding, I think we all know this)

Sue said...

I'm sure everyone here on the blog knows me well enough to know why I laughed at Gran Torino. I was thinking more about people who may read the blog that aren't part of the blog and don't know me. Sounds like Ami and Emily read it here and there, they probably know me well enough. If not, they at least know mom and dad well enough and know they didn't raise a bunch of racists. I just wonder if there are other people that we don't know who read this. Do you think that happens? Is there a way to tell?

I'm glad you and Lorri felt the same way Dan. There are a lot of over the top things that Walt says. I love that scene where he drives up and those 3 black guys are harrasing the neighbor girl. Some classic lines spoken there.

Pops said...

I knew what you meant the first time without the clearifaction of the 2nd or 3rd comments, Sue. I knew you and Cam would not laugh because you were racist bigots. No way! you don't wear a "UNITY" tee shirt like Matt, but I don't think any of you peeps have a racist bone in your body. I'm still looking forward to seeing the movie.

Sue said...

Thanks Dad. Next time you're in town we should go eat at PJ Chinks.

Cat said...

Ha Ha! Oh man, that was a good one Sue!

Pops said...

HaHaHa, Sue, P.J.Chinks...how about the Slope Cafe or the Wetback Grill and the Woparoni Grill. The redneck fried chicken place might be good with their secret spices.

W.V. is tubprat. I haven't fell in the tub for a long time. I better watch out.

Pops said...

Gran Torino is next up and I should get it on Tuesday. Yea!!
I do love the horsehead nebula. I have seen it in pictures of space stuff. Very impressive.

Emily said...

Hey dad, I just finished Harlan Coben's Hold Tight last night--yummy.

Pops said...

Waytogo, Ems. Glad to know someone else has read a Coben book. The all have some sort of supprise ending. Good reading.

Emily said...

I think Harlan Coben and Stephen White are the best most interesting writers of that particular genre. I happened upon White on my own, but you introduced me to Coben. Thanks for that (especially since you seemed to have passed the gene on to me that enjoys such reads. I think Dave and perhaps Ben, may be the only ones out of the kids that read mystery/suspense/thrillers.

Pops said...

Ems, if you haven't already, you should try a Lee Child book. His character "Jack Richer" is very good. I've read all of Stephen White books. Good ones!