Bottom right on Quordle toady was scary. Got it on the last guess.

Got all but one on Sedecorle, which strangely seemed easier. These are too much though. Quordle is enough for me.

I got Sedecorle in 19. Used 15 unique letters for my first 3, then I knocked out 16 words in a row.

I agree it’s too much. I’m playing wordle, quordle, nerdle, Poeltl, Heardle, and worldle every day.

There's also Evil Wordle.

Dfw airport is a terrible place to take a dump.

You're covering a lot of ground there.

I vomitted in a DFW airport bathroom.

The NYT bowed up on Devang Thakkar and made him take down Wordle Archive.

Octordle today is funny.

Today i had to do the ol song and dance with Sirius and for the 1st time ever they didn’t offer something ridiculously low to keep me. Usually it’s something like $9.99 for 6 mos. Today’s best offer was less channels at $86 for the year. I don’t think I’ll miss it that much.

Yesterday, Titette moved out of the house and into her own apartment. It's not like we've seen her much these past couple of years, but it's still weird to see her room empty. She moved with a friend to a nice place in the West Plano/Carrollton area, but actually is in The Colony. She works full time, and apparently can pay for this herself, so I'm fine with it.

One down, one to go.

time is moving too quickly!

We got the kiddo enrolled at UTA in the music program. She's been playing the flute for 5 years and is prettay, prettay good at it. Even better when she practices. I've tried to convince her to live on campus but she'd rather keep living at home for now. I'm hoping that changes soon after she starts attending.

That's awesome about the squid. Tit Jr has been accepted at UNT and is trying to get into the music program there. He plays bassoon and made All-State this year on contrabassoon. His band director just recently told him he doesn't recommend kids go to UNT Music since they're hella intense about it there. He recommends UTA instead. Thanks, dude. Where was this info a few months ago?

When I was in 6th grade, they let us all come to the Junior High to try out all the instruments before deciding what to play in the Junior High band program. Naturally, every kid wants to play drums, saxophone, or trumpet (in that order) so they let you try everything out to show you that you probably aren't cut out to play drums etc. They rated you 1-10. I got 9 or 10 on every low brass instrument, 7 or so on trumpet, maybe 5-6 on French horn. Drums and woodwinds were in the 4-5 range. I only got lower than that on one instrument. I literally got a zero on it. I literally could not produce a single sound on the bassoon.

tl/dr: The fact that your kid made all state on bassoon is fucking amazing.

It's kinda crazy because he didn't start bassoon until his freshman year. He wanted to play bass clarinet but there wasn't an opening, so he took up bassoon instead while playing tenor sax during marching season. He made a deal with the band director to play contrabassoon his senior year, so he made All-State with only about six months on the instrument. I know there aren't a lot of contra players out there so his path to state was easier than, say, the flutes, but I think it's pretty fucking amazing too.

As I type-posted about it last night, he was coincidentally at a lesson/interview with one of the music directors up in Denton. It sounds like he made it into the program up there. We still have to receive the official acceptance letter, but his normally grumpy ass was pretty giddy last night.

There aren't a lot of contra players because it's so difficult. Any of the double reed instruments are that way. A girl I went to high school learned oboe as a Sophomore and picked it up quick. She now lives in Germany making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year playing antique double reeds.

That's good to hear. I wasn't sure what to think of his choice to be a music major when he excels at all the STEM courses, but he doesn't want to pursue that.

He was also lucky the school had a contra he could use. I didn't mind buying him a clarinet in middle school, but a $30k instrument? Uh, no. But I did buy him an otamatone last Christmas. It looked goofy and I think he drags it out to fuck with his friends when they're playing Destiny 2.

Great job by TJR getting into UNT!

The kiddo auditioned there as well but didn't get in. I was disappointed about it more than she was. She picked up playing really quickly and easily outpaced her peers when she first started. A few months after she started, she was practicing in her room and I heard a distinct vibrato. I asked her if her music teacher taught that to her and she said it just developed naturally (and the band teacher encouraged it). She said no other kids were able to do it. Since the kiddo had some natural talent and she liked playing, I immediately got her in private lessons to help her be all she could be. It paid off, because every year she has been first chair in symphonic band, been in the wind ensembles, placed in the UIL events, gets concert & marching band solos, etc. Her freshman year she was first chair in the honor band for the HEB district.

What's always bugged me though is she doesn't practice nearly enough. She usually just practices at school but a couple of week before a concert she'll start practicing at home, too. It's the equivalent of cramming for exams. I've tried to encourage her to always practice at home every night regardless of her concert schedule. (At least do scales for an hour!) She's really competitive (though she won't admit it) and since she's always been better than her peers so I guess she doesn't have that internal push to improve.

So no doubt that's probably why she didn't pass the UNT audition, not to mention she was really dreading the thought of living on campus, too. She applied to UTA a couple of months prior to the UNT audition without even telling me or her mother. When I asked her why her main reason was because it was closer and she could just drive there every day.

I've got a regular Patricia Parker on my hands. Brilliant, but lazy.

Not saying everyone who plays a double reed makes $200k and lives in Europe, mind you. The inventory-control person at the Toys-R-Us warehouse I worked at was a an opera singer who graduated from Julliard.

I was the same playing Tuba. I have wanted to buy a Sousaphone for years, but even a shitty, bashed-up horn is $10k. A new one is the cost of a new car. But being able to rent one from the school for $20 a year sure was nice. My brother shelled out a couple grand for a trumpet for his kid in Junior High and he quit band the next year. And they're like cars, the value only goes down.

He wants to be a band director. We'll see how far he pursues his academia, but he's talked to people about what it takes to get a Ph.D. He also knows I don't pay for grad school.

Gam, Tit Jr doesn't want to live on campus either, but he won't really have a choice. We're too far away from Denton to commute. I'd love to not pay room & board for a year, but oh well. He can handle dorm life socially, I just don't think he'll like sharing a room with someone. This kid takes up two bedrooms at home: one for sleeping, one for activities. He's gonna feel the squeeze in a dorm room.

I read some of these missives to Tit Jr.

D, he said you apparently don't know how to blow thru a straw.

Gam, he wants me to ask you for a pic of your daughter, but I'm not to be creepy about it.

I may not know how to blow, but I sure know how to suck.

You shouldn't have left FB. There are hundreds of photos there. TJR wouldn't have a chance though. The kiddo has a type: gotta be at least 50% latino. She's had a dozen or so "boyfriends" since the 4th grade, and just about everyone of them has been a half breed like her. The other were full blood.

Well he's bigger than me at this point, so she might also be scared off by his sheer monstrosity.

The guy she's dating now is 1" shorter than her and weighs probably 20 pounds less, so you may be right!

Moviedle

If you’re looking for another one. The last 2 days have been pretty easy.

Got today's on first try. Bookmarked.

I only had to take a second guess because I didn't know it was two words.

Same here. I don't really like Wordle, but this one looks promising.

I had to take 2 because I wasn't prepared to see 30 or so images in a second... I thought I was going to watch 1 second of the movie. By the time I realized what was happening it was over

I don’t sleep well or poop much on vacation. My body prefers routine. But my stomach was hurting bad and I was dreading the inevitable. I was going to have to take a shit in a public restroom for the first time since Covid sent me to work from home full time. To my surprise, the restrooms in the Norway pavilion at Epcot were spotless. Would shit there again.

Today was the first time I didn’t get Moviedle in 1 second.

I've found that restrooms at Disney World are top notch for pooping - clean and sufficiently air conditioned. We were just there for a short trip a couple of weeks ago and I experienced the vacation poop difficulties. On morning 2, the captain hung out in our room for a couple of hours. It was brutal.

Tit Jr had his graduation last night. Dang proud of the boy.

Today we have his grad party. I'm currently smoking 4 racks of ribs and my father in law smoked a brisket and is bringing that over. We cook, we eat, we drink til we pass out.

Bassoon jam session?

He had to turn in his bassoon but he's getting one from UNT on Tuesday.

For now, he has an otomatone and I have a melodica, so we can still have a total nerd jam session.

I had to go to three stores before I could find a hoe.

I'm talking about the gardening tool hoe. Not the other kind of hoe.

Got today's Wordle on the 2nd try after getting one letter in the wrong place and nothing else on the 1st.

Pure dumb luck.

Yesterday we got Tit Jr moved into his dorm at UNT (Bruce Hall). Classes don't start for another week but he gets to do music and marching band shit 12 hours a day for the next 10 days. He was nervous in the days leading up to it, but we could tell he was excited when he got there. He called me today when he got a lunch break. He's adjusting quickly to finding his way around and living on his own.

We are officially empty nesters.

I lived in Bruce back in the 70s even though I wasn't a musician. What a fun experience that was.

I am assuming it is air conditioned now. It wasn't then.

It's got AC now though some of the other fixtures may still be from the 70s. There were a lot of music kids moving in that day, but his roommate is a business major. Hope that kid can put up with the noise.

Everybody loves a good woodwind jam session.

My in laws are back in town for a few weeks. We are the opposite of empty nesters.