10 Reasons My Father Is Still Cool!

Happy Fathers Day to all of the dads out there!  I'm writing tonight about my own father.  As any of my readers know, I am very close to my father.  We share many of the same interests, and we really have a special relationship, that is more of a friendship, than a typical father/son relationship.  I have tried over the years to emulate my father, with varying success.  There is only one Leo Costantino, that is for sure!  Ok here goes, here are 10 reasons that my father is still cool!

He is pushing 70 and can still ski the moguls like a 25 year old, and he can do it all day long!

Like my old Friend Billy to the left he is always there when I need him.  This photo is at this year's Purple Stride Rhode Island which is a run/walk I have been the event coordinator for since it's inception.  My Father never shies away from helping out when he can.

Even when I have a stupid idea he still listens.  Hell he loves stupid ideas too!  This is me, and a water wheel contraption that I built out of an old heater blower.  Notice the beer bottles in hand.

When I rode my first 200 double century to honor my friend Karen Petty and to fight against pancreatic cancer he was there to support me in the support car for 14 hours straight, and then jumped on his bike for the last 10 miles to ride in with me.  Last year he rode 100 grueling miles of the ride at 68 years old to honor our friend Karen, and to support a cause that he knows is so important to me.  He has an iron will, and spirit that won't quit.  This morning while we were all laying in bed he was out busting out 50 miles on his bike.  He's 69 and he still does that like it's cool!

The man is the most mechanically talented person I've ever met.  Here he is flying in a plane that he built from scratch.  It was literally a pile of lumber when he started working on it.  Last Christmas he built me a miniature working steam engine out of scrap metal, and it's beautiful!

He's still an awesome teacher.  Where I sometimes lack the patience to teach my kids about the things I love, he calmly teaches them about things that he thinks might interest them.  Whether its sewing with Abby or cutting foam with a homemade hot knife with Ailey, he is always thinking of cool ways to show the kids about the things we love, and he passes those interests on so well!

After all of these years he can still take a joke!

He's always there right at the opportune moments to make a complete jack ass out of me.  Here I am after snaking a 6" flue pipe down my chimney.  Actually I couldn't have gotten that thing in without dad's muscle that day!

He's always there for my kids.  Here he is at an event my daughters ran to help raise funds for the Wounded Warrior Project.  This was a proud day for this Father/Son Marine duo!

He's an eternal jackass!  Here he is goofing off with his buddy Frank.  He's always up for a good time.  Always!

What can I say.  I've been blessed to have such a great father.  Almost all of my hobbies and interests that I love today were learned from my father.  Those interests have led me to an active lifestyle that has been awesome for me and my family.  I am truly honored to be called Leo Costantino's son.

Good God.  This is all going to go right to his head.  I'm almost afraid to press the publish button, but what the hell, it is Fathers Day after all!

Happy Fathers Day Dad!

You're Wacky Son - Eric

Happy Flag Day - June 14th

Happy Flag Day to all my fellow Wacky Americans.

Wacky Takes A Night Off - Grilling Steaks With Longhorn Steakhouse!

“I participated in a campaign on behalf of Dad Central Consulting for LongHorn Steakhouse. I received a gift card to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank-you for participating.” 

www.dadcentralconsulting.com

In my house I do ALL of the grilling.  Much to my chagrin sometimes.  There are days when I walk in the house an I see my wife murdering perfectly good pieces of beef under the broiler.  I instantly panic and see if she wants me to finish them on the grill to try to give them some life support.  That usually elicits a scowl that makes me back off rather quickly, and I enjoy the shoe leather as much as possible!  (Its great shoe leather Cathy!)

Enter Longhorn Steakhouse.  I recently received an offer to dine out at Longhorn Steakhouse and to write a review about my dining experience. Tough right?  If anyone wants to take the grilling off my hands and do it for me, than I'm all for it.  I love a good steak! We went last night, and I must say I was impressed!  I considered it an early Father's Day present, and was really excited to try a steakhouse that I hadn't been to before.  Longhorn is relatively new to our area, and with 3 kids we don't always get out to eat as much as we would like to.   

You can see my deprived daughters are ready for a night of meat eating too!

We were greeted warmly when we walked into the restaurant  and even though they told us we'd have a 5 minute wait, we were able to sit right down after about 2 minutes.  A good thing, because my 5 year old Mia was starving!  Our server was great, she instantly made friends with my hungry little daughter, and got her some Crayons and Kids Menu to play with to give mom and dad a break.

  

I believe Mia mentioned something about me having big nostrils.  That is her likeness of me!

We all ordered up our meals.  I picked out the 20 oz. porterhouse steak with a one of those decadent butter and cinnamon sugar covered sweet potatoes to go with it and waited with bated breath for it to come out.  The salads were great, and I was thrilled to hear that they had Italian dressing. That is an instant negative if a restaurant doesn't have Italian dressing.  I mean come on!   The food came out quickly, especially for a steakhouse, and it wasn't like the place was empty, they were actually pretty packed for a Thursday night.  Here's what they presented to me.  Can you see why I was happy?! It tasted great, perfectly seasoned and tender as can be!

Nice presentation - Here's the meat!

Everybody else's food looked great, and even the 5 year old was raving about her chicken fingers (they were really good, dad snagged a taste).  

I was impressed that I actually got a perfectly "Medium" steak like I asked for!

What can I say.  It was good times all around, everyone was happy with their meals, and we got in and out in probably about an hour which is great when you have young kids.  I would recommend Longhorn Steakhouse to any family who is jonesing for a good steak, but just doesn't feel like firing up the grill that night!  Oh one last thing.  I always love the huge steak knives that are available at steakhouses, but the ones at Longhorn were really extra sharp, and heavy duty, and they actually have a signature set available for all of you Longhorn loving dads out there.  Here's a pic of what they look like.  They are very heavy in the hand, and I'm confident you might be able to saw through an oak tree with one!

And for any of you grill challenged folks out there, I have a nice grilling fact sheet to provide you with.  Next time you even think about firing up the broiler, remember Wacky Dad, and break out this hand guide!

Here are a couple photos of our experience!  

Enjoy and happy grilling!

Wacky Dad

The Energizer Bunny Goes Nightcrawling

Recently, I was presented with the opportunity to write a 
post about an Energizer Night-Headlight.

My Night Headlight!

Being the meathead that I am, I was super excited at the opportunity and jumped at it. I am a total flashlight junkie!  While shopping at Wal-Mart for the light, I opted for the 70 Lumens Trailfinder.  As every self-respecting meathead should know, it all comes down to lumens when talking about lighting.  I always opt for the most power, and I snagged the biggest, baddest version on the shelf.   I have a graveyard of flashlights that I have beat up and destroyed over the years, and that included my previous headlight that my mother-in-law gave me when headlights first became popular.  If you read my blog, you'll know that I am always up to some manner of activity that requires lighting.  Cleaning a carburetor at dusk, working under the truck, climbing in crawlspaces and attics, you name it, I do it.  I had something a little more fun in mind for my new, night headlight this time though.  

NIGHT-CRAWLING!

Mia, The Fearsome Worm Hunter

As a kid we never bought worms for fishing.  We all had "worm boxes".  We went night crawling after every major rain storm.  Those big, fat, juicy worms would be up, out of their holes, soaking up the moonlight, and we were there to grab them!  My worm-box was an old wooden box I found somewhere that I re-purposed and turned into a worm-box.  But a worm-box can be pretty much anything.  The plastic container that Mia is holding in the picture above is just fine.  It's been a while since I had taken the kids out night-crawling, and I had never tried a headlight to hunt for them so I was totally into the idea of freeing up one hunting-hand and trying the "two handed" approach!

Fashion Diva Meets Worm Hunting

So basically, there isn't any brain surgery to hunting night-crawlers, except that you need to be very stealthy, and you need to be mindful of your light and where you point it.  Night-crawlers can sense you coming at them.  It must be the vibration of the ground that they feel because you need to tread very lightly.  Also if you shine a light directly at them, they "scram" back into their holes as fast as can be.  One thing I was intrigued by on my new beam headlight was it's ability to operate with "red light".  My daughter Ailey and I hypothesized the red light would probably allow us to sneak up on the worms without scaring them away.  It turns out that we were right on the money with that guess!  The red light mode on our night headlights was a "killer" for sneaking up on the worms.  It was almost as if they couldn't sense it at all.  It allowed us to get right up on top of them and grab them before they knew what was coming.

Ailey Showing Off Our New Secret Weapon - Red Light!

Note The "Two Handed" approach and the fabulous head-light quality and brightness!

This time of year you often find two worms snuggled up next to each other, which can only be some sort of worm mating ritual.  Kind of gross if you ask me but invariably, you only catch one of the worms when you're holding a flashlight since you only have one hand free.  Last night was the first time I was able to "Double Fist" and actually catch 2 worms at a time! Having two hands free, and the red light mode made us unstoppable!  We probably pulled in about 2 dozen worms of assorted sizes.  Below you can check out the big bruiser that Ailey spotted!

All in all, I was super impressed with my new night headlight from Energizer.  The build-quality seemed good, the water tight case impressed me, and the battery compartment was easily accessible as well as watertight.  All things that are a must for any true outdoors-person.  I am certainly a happy customer.  I'm also glad that my kids and I were able to enjoy a night out, night-crawling, and reliving some of my childhood memories, while also helping them to hone their night-crawling skills!

Note the red waterproof gasket surrounding the battery compartment.  Very cool.

For all of my fellow meatheads who are going to run out and pick up a headlight for their next worming excursion, I highly recommend the Energizer Trailfinder. Be sure to check out Energizer at www.energizer.com and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Energizer

Don't forget when you store worms, you'll want to keep them in a very cool place (I prefer the refrigerator). We like to feed our worms old coffee grounds.  It makes them fat and juicy, as well as super energetic (maybe the caffeine?)!

Just A Teaspoon full Of Coffee Grounds!
Disregard the messy kitchen in the background!

OH, AND BY THE WAY...

And Always put a warning sign on your worm box!

Happy Hunting!

Love,

Wacky Dad