Happy Father's Day!

I hope all the dads out there, especially mine and my daughter's and all my dad friends and relatives, are having a wonderful day!! Big hugs to every one of you.

Me and Dad, Galveston, 1971 (click for larger)

Patrick's Sunday Seven

Name seven cool or interesting things you’d tell people about your dad.

1. He is an amazing singer, and particularly loves singing opera. He's been in a performing choral group for years.
2. He has a masters degree in Math.
3. He worked in simulation technology and image processing in the aerospace industry for most of his career.
4. He's German- born and raised in Bavaria. After he married Mom and they had me, we came to the United States. He became a citizen of the US in his thirties.
5. He has two children- a German son born in the United States and an American daughter born in Germany. Ha!
6. He lives in an honest-to-goodness log cabin on a beautiful chunk of acreage in upstate New York.
7. My favorite dad story: 1983. He took me to a Duran Duran concert in London (from his home in Brighton) just because I saw it in the paper and absolutely freaked out about how cool it would be to see them there. I was a HUGE fan. He just said, "Let's go!" My step-brother (two years older) reported that it was sold out. Dad said we would find tickets somehow, once we got there. Dad and I hopped on a train and ended up 11th row on the floor at Wembley Arena. He barely knew who Duran Duran was, but he was dancing and getting into it as much as I. One of the best nights of my life. I loved that he wanted to take me just because I thought it was cool. I loved that he just stood up right there in the kitchen and said we should do it, without any concern of the money or time it would take to get there considering how hard (or impossible) it might be to get tickets. I loved that he embraced my music and was the hit of the evening with the teenagers around us at the concert.

Just awesome.