Bought a Travelpro Premium rollerboard - with a lifetime warranty - 18 years ago.  I'm now on the third iteration, and they continue to replace them without question.  Considering in those 18 years I've logged north of 2 million miles on planes, they've held up well.

Mrs TGA & I will celebrate our 27th next month.  A few things I've picked up along the way:

1. Understand that both of you will change - in 5 years you'll be married to a different person.  As will she.  But she gets to choose how she changes - not you.  And vice versa.

2. I've seen several book recommendations, most of which I would concur with.  Here's another - Sheet Music by Kevin Leman .  Read it together.  At least once a year.  It's from a Christian perspective, but it's downright fun!

3. Commit this statement to memory: "I'm just here to make you happy, Honey."

4. Make sure she understands that you can't read her mind.  The same would go in reverse, but it seems the female gender often has more difficulty with that concept than the male.

5. Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  Communicate.  

Thank you, and God bless you Aaron.

The standard for an actor vs a movie star - in my opinion - will always be Anthony Hopkins.  Anyone who can pull off both Hannibal Lechter and C.S. Lewis (Shadowlands) is just plain fantastic.

#bettertolearnhere.thanfromsomesnarkyteenager !

I mentioned the drama teacher posting this on FB - his comment was that they didn't even change the lyrics.  I responded "Perhaps because the stories are not all that dissimilar?"

Don't forget the stupid animal hats.

#daughtercallsthempoopsacks

ROFLMAO! #senselessuseoftextjargon

Did I use it right?

KP - my daughter's former HS drama teacher (Jewish) posted this on FB yesterday.  I love it!

And a capella is coming on strong - NBC is bringing back The Sing Off this Fall!

Spent 4 days a couple of weeks ago with my daughter, her future roommate and the roommate's mom down in LA.  The young uns were looking for a place to live.

Overall it was uproarious - a 19 and 20 year old, both with quick wits and engaging personalities produced many great memories.

But they kept referring to hashtag this, hashtag that.  Now, I fancy myself a relatively "in touch" guy for a 53 year old - the 19 year old daughter has seen to that.  But the whole hashtag thing had me baffled all weekend.  I do FB and have an account on Twitter, but none of my friends have started using the tags on FB and I religiously check Twitter once a year.

Thanx Fred - for explaining it a little bit to me!

EJ - I hear ya on being the household IT guy.  Tell me if this sounds familiar to you:

Sitting in my office quietly perusing Ricochet or ESPN or some other site.  Suddenly I hear my beloved cursing and swearing at her computer in the other room.  I go out to see if I can fix it, but she is much more interested in denouncing the computer than she is in actually having it work properly.  Trying to keep my head as low as possible, I skulk back into my office and slip the ear buds into my ears...

And while we're ranting - I would like to address my beeping kitchen.  Not beeping as in expletive deleted, but rather as in - why does everything in the kitchen that plugs into the wall have to beep at me?  The fridge beeps if someone doesn't close the door completely.  The coffee maker beeps to tell me it's done.  The microwave beeps every time I push a button AND when it's done.  Ditto the stove - which also beeps when it reaches the desired temperature.  The new toaster (I call it the aircraft carrier) beeps - I could go on.  ARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!

Sounds like a great opportunity for a life lesson at an early age.  You sit the child down for an earnest discussion on the pros and cons, give them a day or so to mull it over, and if they still want to quit - so be it.  11 is an early age to have to do it, but there is a definite potential for making the child miserable if you force them to pursue it.

I don't know about tennis specifically, but there are a lot of studies showing that children who excel in a sport pre-adolescence often fall behind those who don't develop their skills and talents until they reach their teens.

I have a son who tests at the genius level in math and physics (36 on that portion of the ACT for example).  He felt called to major in Theology and Educational Ministries in college.  Was I a little disappointed that he didn't pursue math/science?  Maybe a teensy bit, but that's far outweighed by how proud I am of him following his faith.

Didn't Steppenwolf invent driving music?

Two questions:

1. Does she really NEED a degree to get into the desired industry?

2. Will a degree ensure that she'll find employment in said industry?

The entertainment industry - second only to professional athletics - is based on talent.  This goes for the technical side as well as the acting side.

Has she tried to find entry level employment in your area - perhaps at Key Arena, local theaters, etc.?

I've come to the conclusion that when it comes to US colleges & universities, the rankings should range from Least Bad to Absolute Worst.  On an economic scale it would be from Minor Rip Off to Unabashed Extortionist.

I'm afraid Portland is pretty much the same as Seattle.  In defense of the over-reactive Administrators, we had a new District Superintendent a couple of years ago that figured a few icy patches around the district were no big deal.  A bus fish-tailed a bit - no accident, no injuries, no traffic jam - and the howls coming from the parents were loud and long.  Poor guy didn't stand a chance.

Best one, however, was when I flew into Raleigh a few years back right as they were getting hit with a "major" snow storm.  It wasn't deep enough to cover the grass, but he city was absolutely paralyzed.  3,000 kids spent the night at school because they couldn't get them home.  Driving down the freeway the next morning I saw 30-40 cars on every off ramp where the owners had abandoned them and walked the rest of the way home.  Even Portland isn't THAT bad!