How Do Ya Like Them Apples?

Tom Brown sounds like the name of a guy in the witness protection program, but he's a 79-year-old retired chemical engineer who loves apples.  More specifically, he spends his retirement researching and hunting for obscure apple varieties in Appalachia.  I know this because I read this article.

So far Mr. Brown found over 1,200 different varieties of apples, some that were thought lost for over 100 years, and he grows them on his orchard, Heritage Apples.  Oddball names include Greasy Ball, Bug Horn, Curtis Cheese, Cow's Snout, Smutty, and None Better Seek No Further.  

I never knew there were so many different kinds of apples.  This is a pretty wholesome way to spend one's retirement.

104 (Misspent) Days of Summer Vacation

My kids spent their summer vacations, for the most part, actively resisting doing anything much at all. If they had their druthers, they'd have spent the entire break staring at any one of a half-dozen screens cluttering our home. As a highly productive, consistently motivated bundle of ambition, I can't for the life of me figure out the source of this behavior.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I came home from work on Friday (a day that the kids spent home alone, as my wife returned to work as a teacher earlier in the week) to find that my 13 year-old had learned how to use GarageBand and begun recording an 'album'.

Her working title is 'Factual Fiction'. The first two tracks are an original called 'Fantasy Land' and a cover of CHVRCHES' 'Gun'. I think she's pretty good, but I'm not really an impartial observer. Lord knows her musical talent didn't come from me.

Apologies for the Dadbrag, but, you know, post count. Also, please feel free to send to any major label executives you know, because my retirement compound isn't gonna build itself.