The Dadliest Cast
Dave & Garrett, 2 best friends, get together to talk about being dads, life, hobbies, and some other things.
The Dadliest Cast
Santa Suits and Soda Surprises
What if preparing for the school year brought more than just new notebooks and backpacks? On this fun and heartfelt episode of the Dadliest Cast Podcast, David and Garrett reconnect to share personal updates and adventures, from the start of weekly Boy Scouts meetings to navigating the back-to-school season. David humorously recounts the struggle of moving a heavy mattress from the Original Mattress Factory, underscoring the importance of teamwork and resilience. The emotional journey of sending Annabelle off to college adds a layer of sentimentality, as the dads reflect on this family milestone and the challenges of adjusting to an emptying nest.
Ever wondered how to tackle the financial labyrinth of college tuition? David and Garrett dive into the intricate world of securing financial aid for Thiel College and discuss the unexpectedly high costs. They provide a comparison between chaotic move-in days at larger universities like Pitt and the more organized process at Thiel, complete with upperclassmen's assistance and the college's logistical support. The conversation is imbued with excitement for the unique campus life at Teal, giving listeners a sense of anticipation for the new experiences awaiting their kids.
To lighten the mood, David and Garrett entertain the whimsical notion of dressing up as Santa and an elf for a toy drive, sparking laughter as they imagine explaining Santa's presence at a store. They then embark on a taste-testing adventure of rare Mountain Dew and Dr Pepper flavors, sharing their candid thoughts and personal favorites. This episode is a delightful mix of heartfelt stories, logistical challenges, and light-hearted banter, offering a perfect blend of relatable experiences and humor. Tune in for a dose of laughter, nostalgia, and perhaps a new favorite soda flavor!
Anyway, school's back in. Eagle Scouts Boy Scouts, I mean started back up weekly now, so we might as well get this show on the road. Welcome to the Dadliest Cast Podcast. I'm your host, david, sitting across from me, your other host, garrett. We're back together. Finally, I think it's the first time you and I have seen each other. Yeah, it's been quite some some time. It's been a bit. When I came and got the pavers from you, I think it was legit. Nearly the last time I saw you, yeah, um, when you saw lori what a week or so ago. Yeah, when you helped her get that mattress, which is really nice, by the way yeah, yeah, that's super nice.
Speaker 2:Original mattress factory is uh quality bed heavier than dead man dude? Yeah, forget it. You can't move it by yourself no, I tried, I tried.
Speaker 1:I got home that night and I was sitting down there and nobody was home. I'm like, when are they getting home? So, like I stripped the, I stripped the bed of the sheets and stuff and, uh, got the old mattress off the bed, which was a ikea mattress we bought years ago and it served its purpose and we got our money's worth out of it. So I got that moved and I'm like I'm tired, I really just want to lay down, let me try. So I go downstairs, I grab, grab the mattress and I start like moving it by myself and shimmying it. I get it up a couple of steps and I'm like I need someone on the back end. I can't get it.
Speaker 1:I'm sitting there trying to work the geometry in my head. If I did this and started doing some physics and if I prop it up this way, maybe if I put a board under it, I can just get it to slide. Maybe five minutes of just overanalyzing this whole bed situation, in comes the wife and kids. I'm like, awesome, put your stuff down, grab that end of the bed, let's go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it takes three people to move ours. Yeah, it's a ours. Yeah, and it's a chore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and this is a double-sided pillow top. Yeah, so this one requires flipping. Yeah, so get ready, it'll be six months. Six months, that's the key. Yeah, awesome, but yeah, so school started. Caitlin and Emmy started what? Wednesday, yep, jake started Thursday. So Jake went to ninth grade, caitlin's 10th grade, yep, emmy's second grade, oh boy.
Speaker 1:And Annabelle heads off to college tomorrow, which my wife says she's going to just be a blubbering mess. I don't know how I'm going to react. I don't know if I'm going to start crying because my wife's crying. Don't start crying, I'm going to cry now. Annabelle's super excited, though she's still packing away for the rest of the night. She should be.
Speaker 1:It's quite an achievement, absolutely. She worked her butt off. It was crazy, though, because we didn't have the same amount of time as the senior families did this year to go visit colleges and apply for grants and apply for additional scholarships. So, like we missed the cutoff date for FAFSA or not FAFSA, um Pennsylvania's assistance, fia, yeah, yeah, we missed that cutoff. We got FAFSA and then, with all her grants and stuff like that, we still ended up short just under 10 Gs, which, all things considered, is not hateful Nowadays.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I misread. I Googled tuition cost and it was like $27,000 a year for Teal College. That's how I read it. It's $27,000 a year for Teal College, that's how I read it. It's $27,000 a semester. It's a $50,000 school. Yeah, and I think it has something to do with the 700 college student population that they have. I think it would be cheaper if they were like a 1,200 student school. You know, they have more body, so they can bring the cost down a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but she's excited. She's going for, like environmental science, biology, water conservation. I'm not at all certain on what she's planning on going for. She was doing the whole nursing thing and that fizzled out a little disappointed in that, but it's not my life. So, yeah, she's excited.
Speaker 1:It's like a hour 15 minutes from our front door, so it's not like we can't go up on a Sunday to visit her, or you know she's like, hey, I need to go to Walmart and get this, that or the other. Can you come up Sunday and take me, cause there's a Walmart nearby. There's a Walmart nearby everywhere anymore. Um, but it's cool cause, uh, they have a weekend shuttle for the students if they want to go into town, the town of Greenville, or if they want to go to Walmart, they'll shuttle them. Like here's the time that shuttle and here's your pickup times. Like be at that pickup spot at these times and we'll get you back to school. If you miss the shuttle, I guess you're screwed. You're staying at Walmart, yeah yeah. So they even shuttle kids to the airport for holiday breaks and stuff like that. That's not a short drive. That is not a short drive. That's probably a two-hour drive from that school. But they do a really cool thing where I know. Move moving days at colleges tend to be stressful and chaotic.
Speaker 1:Usually every man for himself. Yeah, yeah, like in Oakland, where the University of Pittsburgh is and Carnegie Mellon University, they're like right next to each other, even Carlos right there. Yeah, there, yeah, um, if you drive through oakland on a sunday morning during moving day, it is a zoo of students and families with these massive, almost like giant laundry carts yeah, you got to get there early.
Speaker 2:See, when I was moving into pit it was, uh, it was an all-day event. Yeah, you know, there's only so many carts to go around, yeah, and there's so many dorms and I mean you can imagine a school the size of Pitt, the incoming freshman class, yeah, that, maybe it's changed.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's a little more organized now, but it was definitely unorganized chaos when I moved in it's been a few years since I've driven through oakland on moving day, but I distinctly remember seeing those massive laundry carts, bright yellow, bright yellow.
Speaker 1:And they have blue ones too, because you know yeah, yellow and blue and families just pushing them and students pushing them and they're filled to the brim with stuff uphill, yeah, and oakland's got all these like hills and side streets and alleys and and all their crosswalks are nuts. Yeah, the roads aren't well paved and they've put in like these massive speed bump crosswalks, yeah, um, throughout the campus streets. So you gotta like time your crossing and everything and it's just, it's pure chaos down there. I don't envy families moving into like crazy schools like that. So, no, it's an experience.
Speaker 1:Teal sent an email, was like hey, incoming freshmen, you come up on Sunday. There's upperclassmen who have already moved in. I guess, like band football and stuff like that. They've already been up there a couple weeks. What you'll do is you'll drop your student off at a designated area and then you'll be directed to a parking lot with an assigned parking space for you. You pull in and there will be a team of students to unload your child's dorm items and we'll take those items directly to the dorm room for you, so you don't have to lift a finger. I'm like that's sweet. That's what $54,000 a year gets me you just gotta get there.
Speaker 2:Hopefully you're the first person in the dorm so you get to pick what she wants the top bunk or the bottom.
Speaker 1:No. So Lori and Annabelle did a tour and they've got three different buildings that have dorms in them and apparently two of the dorms are pretty small and the third one's actually a decent size, but I think they reserved the third one for upperclassmen and athletes probably. I think she ended up with one of the smallest dorm rooms of the three, but I think it's a left-right.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the beds are on tracks that raise up and down so you can have like under bed storage okay. So it'll be my first time seeing the buildings and actually seeing the campus. I've driven past the campus a couple of times just for, like, some Boy Scouts, stuff like camping up at Pima Tuning, but it'll be my first time and there's like an all-day event there Food, activities, festivities, all sorts of things are happening. So I don't know how long we're going to be up there. I plan for at least five or six hours, but our time to be there is 10 am. I'll be there at 9.55. Yeah, and it's straight up 79, over to 80, up 19, and up 58. So Google says anywhere between 115 to 130. I'll probably do it in like 105.
Speaker 2:If you can't beat the GPS by 10 minutes, you know Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so our personal vehicles at home aren't large enough to haul everything she needs to take up. So I took a vehicle from work. I ended up taking a Ford F-150 Raptor and it was traded in. The guy had it tuned slightly, he put a downpipe on it and he put an aftermarket exhaust on it, so it's pushing out a little bit more horsepower than a standard raptor does and it's turbocharged, yeah, so, yeah, we'll make good time in the morning, yeah, so that's going on. And then, uh, yeah, so that's going on. And then, once she gets up there, we're off to the races with our respective children. Still at home, jake's not doing anything for fall sports, he's not playing football this year, but, uh, caitlin's doing band again, marching band marching band is in full swing and has been for a little bit now.
Speaker 2:So band camp for two weeks we had our band, family preview and picnic night, and first football game was last night.
Speaker 1:They get the W.
Speaker 2:Got the W Nice.
Speaker 1:So we got no skin in the game for fall activities at school. Annabelle was obviously not doing marching bands so we have no reason to go to a football game for her to see her perform. I mean, and Jake's not playing football so we have no reason to go to see him play. But I'm slowly turning into the neighborhood uncle, where just everybody knows me and just calls me Hunk now, and the senior class that's playing this year, which would have been Annabelle's class, they all know me. They're like you gotta come to the game, hunk. You gotta come to the game. I'm like I don't know guys, I don't really have a reason to. They're like come on, you gotta come to the game. I'm like I don't know guys, I don't really have a reason to Come. On, you gotta come watch us play. Yeah, come watch your favorite nephews. So I'm gonna try to get to a couple Northgate home games this year and definitely try to get to at least one Shaler game this year to see Caitlin perform.
Speaker 2:They got a really good show this year. It always amazes me how quickly they put it together Nuts. Within two weeks these kids have this show, all the drill down. They're not carrying music with them. It's impressive. It's beyond impressive to me who couldn't play a triangle if you handed it to me that these kids are able to put this type of show together?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it only gets better each week as they tweak it and add some movements.
Speaker 1:Continue practicing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, continue the practicing and by mid-season it's definitely something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your guys' band Shaler Area Marching Band. You guys are an impressive band. I've seen you guys perform on the YouTubes and stuff like that. I don't think I've ever seen you live.
Speaker 2:In a game no.
Speaker 1:In a game or anything.
Speaker 2:No, because it's always been opposite of. Yeah, Annabelle.
Speaker 1:But I know just, we support the band, at least on the social media side. Following here at the Dallius Cast, we follow them and we try to give them a shout-out whenever it's a football week. Following here at the dadliest cast, we follow them and we try to give them a shout out, uh, whenever they're it's a football week or, um, they're traveling.
Speaker 2:You guys are a travel band, almost competition band yeah, yeah, they're actually, uh, in march, uh going to be marching in the St Patrick's Day Parade in New York City.
Speaker 1:So you guys are headed to New York City, didn't you guys go to Virginia Beach?
Speaker 2:last year. Virginia Beach was this past school year.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:Nashville. They marched in the NATO Parade of Nations in Norfolk and then the year before that was Nashville.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the band comes home with some serious awards. Yeah, they do.
Speaker 2:Every year it's quite a haul. But it's not just marching bands. You know the wind ensembles and the concert choirs and chamber choirs and jazz bands and orchestra, and even you know drum line yeah, the majorettes and the dance team.
Speaker 2:And caitlin did drum colored right she did yeah, yeah, that was the national year, right yes, so I mean, all these kids perform, perform, and almost every single one of them almost comes home with first place or superior performance awards, and it's very impressive what type? Of shows they put together and the program that they have available to them. Together and the program that they have available to them, because not every school puts that type of emphasis on performing arts.
Speaker 2:Or just the arts in general Music and whatnot. So we're very lucky to have the faculty that we have and the focus on it, and the kids respond to it in amazing ways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you guys have a wonderful music program at Shaler Area School District and it shows and it really does prove a point you know that the arts, the musical arts, the creative arts, the performing arts really helps students in their academics. Yeah, it does. You know, they say that a student that knows how to play an instrument proficiently does better in math. Because they're constantly like marching band students are count, constantly counting out measures in their head while still having to play. And if you're in marching band, you have to know your drill, which, uh, for folks that don't know what marching band drill is, that's the steps that they take on the field to make the formations or to march left and right, back and forth. At certain points they may have to take eight steps and do it within two measures of a song. So they've got to count their steps, know where they're at in the music and that's, that's all math. You know, knowing their speed and staying in line with the person in front of them, behind them and next to them. The Northgate Marching Band is coming along. We're growing. I think when Annabelle started her seventh grade year, you were talking about 30 kids tops, and I might be pushing it at that to this year. I think it's tickling 70. Um, but this year northgate marching band is going to disney down in florida and we'll be parading through Disney World yeah, disney there.
Speaker 1:So a few years ago they went to Universal and they had an uptick in Students joining and then the following year they had a little bit of a drop off. Uh, because the underclassmen were like yep, we had our trip, see you, bye, like we're not doing this again. We just wanted to go on the trip. Um, they went to cedar point last in, like May, and they did a parade through Cedar Point and you would think May would have been decent weather. Apparently it was slightly crappy weather. My wife went up and shop around that. It was Annabelle's last band performance as a high school student. She was the drum major last year, so she's like you have to come, you have to come, and I couldn't get the time off to get up there, so at least one of us made it.
Speaker 1:But on that note, it is important to be involved in your kids. Obviously, academics, with school starting, getting an idea of how they're doing in their classes, how they're doing socially, how are they interacting with others, their teachers, those dynamics, you know, getting an understanding of that, but also being there to support them with the extracurriculars. You know, for a few years there, when Annabelle was in marching band I think 7th, 8th and maybe even 9th grade Lori and I did not miss a single game. Years there, when Annabelle was in marching band I think seventh, eighth and maybe even ninth grade, lori and I did not miss a single game.
Speaker 1:And you and I were talking a little while ago about high school football and, uh, in western Pennsylvania it's broken up into six classes, basically based upon the size of your school. Right and Northgate is class one, which is the smallest and it goes up from there, and class one. Schools are so spread that our average travel time for a road game was about 50 minutes. And that's just me driving. That's not a school bus. Yeah, who's actually doing the?
Speaker 2:speed limit. Yeah, I was going to say who's actually probably obeying us to the lowest yeah.
Speaker 1:So you know we were traveling on average almost an hour to all her away games. And you know, as we got older my wife tried to make it a point to try to get to some away games. And you know, as we got older my wife tried to make it a point to try to get to some away games for her. But she understood it's just like. This is tough. You guys have a hectic road schedule you travel for.
Speaker 2:Some games. It's not usually a lot of travel, but this year, or this season in particular, the high school, the football stadium, they're doing some renovating, yeah, some construction, much needed, you know, fixing up the bleachers, handrails, things like that Right Fresh coat of paint. So they've been working on it all summer. It's not obviously ready for the beginning of the school year, so we open with four straight road games, so it is a lot of travel all at once, right right out of the gate. But a lot of the schools that they play are within a reasonable amount of time distance-wise, so we don't really travel more than 30 minutes, maybe once or twice.
Speaker 1:That's not hateful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and one of the longest drives actually is a home game. You know to get to is a home game this year for homecoming, so that takes that one off the table. But yeah, yeah, it's, you know it's an investment every Friday night.
Speaker 1:It is, it is, and as the season progresses or as the marching band season progresses, you're going to have different things going on Winter concert and stuff like that. The performing arts is a year-round thing.
Speaker 2:All the dates are already booked for winter concerts on both the choir and the band side. Of course, basketball gets underway after football. And now you're looking at pep band Okay, which Caitlin participated in a bit last year Musical pit for musical. And by that time you're rolling right into spring practices for the trip, which is going to obviously be earlier this year, since they're traveling in March instead of April, and of course all the practices that go along with that, the fundraising and all of the financial commitments also.
Speaker 1:Are you selling anything right now?
Speaker 2:We're in between right now. I think we have taco kits coming up. Just finished a hoagie order. You guys do a strong stromboli one. The strombolis were the very first thing. That was actually the end of July yeah, how did I miss that?
Speaker 2:but that one we do twice, so it'll come back again. Alright, sweet me up. I personally like the Strombolis. I think they're my favorite. I usually buy 8 to 10 of them and stock the freezer Because they make for a nice quick dinner. They're trying a couple new ones this year Pies, I think Chorus is doing. Pies Band's doing a taco kit in conjunction with or in partnership with, I believe, chipotle.
Speaker 1:I'm out. If you'd have said Moe's, you might have had me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's probably my favorite of the two also, but I'm sure I'll be buying some taco kits 100%.
Speaker 1:I might buy one just to help out. It is my niece after all. I can't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think we're doing candles this year. They might be doing soaps and I don't know, air fresheners or something.
Speaker 1:I hated the Christmas, like the wrapping paper and the garland and the door wreaths.
Speaker 2:I hated that. I think choir might be doing that one, I'm not sure. Hated that one.
Speaker 1:Our marching band does and I missed it. I didn't buy anything from the marching band this year. Mums Fall, mums.
Speaker 2:Well, Emily is doing mums with soccer.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, she does play soccer. Yeah, fall soccer, kicking shins and taking aims. Yeah, buddy, have you seen? This is an older video, but it still makes its way through social media circulation. It was a girl who played for, I want to say, north carolina state women's college soccer and she was like the bad boy of soccer. Uh, there was video clips of her going around like yanking girls down to the field by their ponytail, throwing elbows into the lower back, the bottom of the spine, kicking them out from under their knees, stuff like that. I'm like man and people hated this girl. Apparently she was a really good soccer player, but she played rough to borderline dirty at times, so people just didn't like her and, as we all know, uh, emmy is a little rough and tumble, no nonsense she's my favorite.
Speaker 1:I live vicariously, angrily through her she's solid, she takes no crap no, she doesn't.
Speaker 1:She don't care who you are, what you are, how big you are, how old you are. She stands her ground and she lets it be known she does. Um, because you shared the story about the time when she was in kindergarten she slapped a third grader on the bus. Yeah, so, I mean. So when you told me she was getting into soccer, I immediately pictured her just pushing other girls down. Is this co-ed soccer? All girls? Um, it is all girls, okay, pushing other little girls down. You know, if a ball rolls in front of her and there's like a little girl that's tripped and fell, she kicks the ball right in her face. You know all those comical like child soccer clips you see on youtube and uh, tiktok and all that. Yeah, that's what I picture.
Speaker 2:She did very well in the spring term with goalie. Oh okay, I think she enjoyed that better than some of the other positions they rotated through.
Speaker 1:She knows what she is. Yeah, she ain't running up and down that field all day long.
Speaker 2:It's very much and it's nice. It's very much a learning program at least obviously at this age, where they practice once a week and then on Saturday's game day and they play a short game and they rotate through it know, everyone gets to play every position, yeah, so it's very much just teaching a little bit more than competing, just get out there and play.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so they're learning actually how to play the position right. Yeah, what to do. That's good, that's good. So it's a very good program. Yeah, you don't have a.
Speaker 1:I find soccer parents to be the worst of the sports. Parents, I think. Soccer parents, I think, are the absolute worst when it comes to yelling at coaches. Get my kid more playing time, stuff like that. I would say soccer, followed by football and probably basketball, because it's just the amount of kids on the court or on the field at a time. The soccer parents are wild.
Speaker 1:There's always some news report happening somewhere where soccer moms and soccer dads are fighting each other in the stands. It makes me chuckle. It's embarrassing, but I can laugh about it from the outside, but I can reprimand you from the outside as well. Don't be that sport parent. Yeah, go and support your child, go and uplift them, uplift the rest of the team. You know there's a reason why. If your kid's not playing or not getting enough playing time, there's a reason. Either your kid's not good enough, your kid hasn't worked hard enough, he hasn't earned it right. There's no participation trophy, this whole. All the kids have to play and all the kids need a fair shot. No, get that out of your mindset.
Speaker 1:I'm a firm believer on. If I'm the head coach of a team and I've got 15, 20 kids showing up early ready to go when practice starts, they work their butts off during practice. They're taking constructive criticism, which a lot of these kids can't do today. They're taking it, they're growing and they're learning. And then I have a couple of kids who show up late, put in a half-ass effort during practice. They don't handle criticism well at all. They want to backtalk me.
Speaker 1:You ain't playing. That's just what. It's going to be. All right, give me the kid who's going to work his ass off day in and day out over the kid who's got God-given talent any day of the week, because hard work trumps talent, in my opinion. Because, at the very least, I can rely on you, I can trust you, I know you're going to be there for me, I know you're going to support the team, I know you're going to help as best you can, whereas most of the kids with the talent, they get lazy. They think they're the best and they might be the best, but there's always somebody out there that's going to be better than them, more talented than them, more gifted than them. So kiss my ass.
Speaker 2:Be the kid that you know nobody's going to outwork.
Speaker 1:Do the work, do the work and grow and learn along the way. Right Like Jake. Jake didn't get a ton of playing time last year during eighth grade football. He missed a couple of games with a concussion, which I think led to his decision not to play this year. Because we play some farm schools Like these are some big tractor pulling, cow tipping boys that we play, so that has something to do with it too. Even when he wasn't cleared to play, he was on the sideline rooting for his teammates, coaching them up. When they'd come on the sideline he'd get them water. He was a great team.
Speaker 1:Give me that kid any day of the week. He's not sour that he's not playing. He's not sour that he's not getting the ball Stuff like that. He's gotten a little bit more brazen, especially with basketball. He's a big basketball kid. Now he's going out for ninth grade basketball, which I think starts next week. Actually, our basketball program is really coming together. So I think they're trying to get basketball started a little early, get the conditioning in, get prepped for the actual season. I think they're one of the favorites in their class to make a deep run as well. But he's getting brazen talking trash on the hoop court A little swagger. Yeah, he's got a little attitude to him when he plays.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and last season he played eighth grade ball and I missed it. I wasn't at the game. My wife happened to be there. It was an away game and she missed it. But she overheard what happened. He got a technical on him. He got teed up in a game. Apparently he was playing defense and he is a glove on defense. He's a good defender. I've watched him and I've played against him and he can keep up. But apparently he is up in this kid's face, giving him no room and I think the kid stepped out of bounds or he traveled. So he ended up turning the ball over and he started crying to the ref that jake was fouling him and all this stuff. And jake was like shut the up, I didn't even touch you, just play ball. And the ref hurt.
Speaker 2:Gotta be a little more covert in your trash talk.
Speaker 1:Technical foul and I don't remember what number he was I think he was 22 or something like that Number 22 Northgate. So they got to shoot a free throw. So Jake had to go over to his bench and the coach is like what did you get tacked up for? He goes the ref heard me swear, the coach goes. Well, don't let them hear you next time. Like and I've said this before, I don't care if my kids swear. I don't you want to swear. Swear because I know you're doing it with your friends, I know you're texting and I know it's happening. Just own up to it. Don't celebrate it, don't use it disrespectfully, don't do it to your teachers, don't do it at us, whatever. I'm like. So you're feeling a little bit more confident to swear now, since you've got busted swearing.
Speaker 1:And he got teed up a second time last year for backtalking the ref and I kind of laid into him for that one. I was like don't ever backtalk a ref. That is completely disrespectful. It's uncalled for. They got a job to do. They made a call. You know these kids that backtalk a referee in sports just frustrate me. Yeah, they do. It's just like okay, he made a call, move on. Yeah, these are volunteers. Yeah, given their time, they're making a judgment call, especially in football. A lot of the times it's a judgment call in basketball. If they're calling a foul on you. There was a reason, there was a foul. Yeah, he heard you slap the player's arm. Maybe you bumped them enough to move them off of his path, whatever. But like, don't ever disrespect a referee, like don't do it. And I think it was on a in a way game. I wasn't there for that one as well.
Speaker 1:Um, basketball is going to be tough for me to get to this year because they play upwards of three times a week. They're always at seven o'clock, jv's at like six. So it'll be tough for me to get to a lot of those games, but I'm going to do my best to get to as many as I can. But I love high school sports. It's the purest of the sports. It really is High school football, high school basketball. These kids are playing because they love the game. They enjoy playing the game. A lot of them want to try to get to that next level, play collegiate ball, regardless of what d1, d2, d3, juco, whatever. Um, college sports, college football has has been tainted ever since the nil and the transfer. The transfer portal started the tainting of college sports.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, but the NIL has really tainted it. Let's just call it what it is it's the NFL's minor league.
Speaker 1:It basically is. I do respect the hell out of Baylor University. They have shirts like NCAA-approved, licensed shirts that you can order that says we pay players. They're like, yeah, we pay them, that's why we're going to field a good program. So schools like Pitt unfortunately that their endowment doesn't cover a lot of these big five-star recruits that are coming in they're going to be mediocre, they're going to be a middle-of-the-road team for the rest of our existence, in my opinion. And schools like Alabama, texas, georgia, ohio State, michigan, penn State, usc and Notre Dame are going to be able to still get those five-star recruits because they can pay those kids.
Speaker 2:I don't like it. I don't either. I don't like it, I don't. You't like it, I don't. You know these kids can graduate and not pay a penny. They're getting paid to go to school. They get a free education, you know, and there's plenty of people that could use that education, that can't afford it. Absolutely, and because they're not athletic right, I would accept. Free education is payment in my eyes. Okay.
Speaker 1:I would. I would go the opposite direction and accept an NIL payment versus a scholarship. But let's say you go to a school where the annual semester, first year cost is $60,000 and your player the school says hey, you're a great athlete, we want you to come play for us. We're going to give you $260,000 to come play for us, but guess what? We're taking $60,000 away from you to pay for your school. I'm okay with that, but you don't get a scholarship. I'm okay with that, but you don't get a scholarship.
Speaker 2:I'm okay with that. Save the scholarship for someone that can actually use it.
Speaker 1:Do you know how many scholarships most Division I programs get per year? No, I think it's 88. Because they can have, I think, 93 or 97 players on the roster. Between red shirts and all that stuff, they can have close to 100 kids on their roster, whereas the NFL is what a 53-man pro roster Right. So I think they're capped around 88 total scholarships between full and partial.
Speaker 1:Take the scholarships away from the programs and say these scholarships are for students. Yes, academic scholarships. If you want to pay an athlete, you can pay them, but they've got to pay their tuition, but they've got to pay their tuition. So we can either deduct Because I don't know how the athletes actually get paid like are they given a weekly check, a monthly check, whatever? I don't know how they're paid but deduct their schooling right out the jump Paid Right, which I think is a benefit to the school as well, because then they're actually getting direct funds, because the NIL money comes from boosters and donations to the endowment of the program itself. It's not money that the school raises and in turn John gives to the student.
Speaker 1:So, like these, the University of Pittsburgh Panther football team golf outing All that money raised would go towards an NIL deal for players. So, like these, the University of Pittsburgh Panther football team golf outing All that money raised would go towards an NIL deal for players. I'm cool with that because it's not costing the school anything. But I think the whole NIL concept of everything has really tainted the game itself, because players aren't going to go to a school to play more so than they're going to go and get paid well, I mean, and on the flip side I totally get the NIL deal why should the school profit off of?
Speaker 2:the students millions of dollars that they bring in a student's name or image that you know. How long has that been going?
Speaker 1:I mean since the beginning of time, yeah, Well, let's Curiosity and I mean we're going on a tangent here, but I think this is a good episode to have it, because we haven't seen each other in so long. Let's look up what Alabama's football revenue was for 2023. In 2023, alabama's football revenue was $129.3 million less than operating expense of $83.3 million. So about $50 million is what Alabama football brought to the university in 2023.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wrap your mind around some of these numbers.
Speaker 1:These schools are putting up Fortune 500 revenues. Yeah, you know it is, and that was just their football program. Yeah, you know like it is and that was just their football program. Yeah, take into account all the other athletic programs that they bring money in from. It's absurd, but let's get off that tangent. Parents, dads, go support your kids' extracurricular activities. I think that's where we kind of went left field your kids extracurricular activities. I think that's where we kind of went left field.
Speaker 2:Any. I wanted to ask you like any goals your kids have this year.
Speaker 1:I gotta laugh because your niece, we know which one. Anytime I say your niece, I know, you know exactly what it is I smile so big every time you say it too, she wants to be the smartest kid in second grade. Good for her.
Speaker 2:How are we going to get there? Not sure, but she was making her own flashcards, aw, and like a few weeks before school even started. That's adorable. So that's adorable. Beyond that, I haven't really had that discussion with Caitlin yet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jake just wants to play basketball. That's his goal this year is to play basketball, get some PT. All right, and, to his credit credit, almost every day this summer he's been down at the basketball court hours on end. He also lost in the game of horse to the avalon police chief. I witnessed it. The chief pulled up to the park, drove through, turned his squad car around, came up parked right at the court, looked at my son. He said you want to run a game? And apparently he played on before.
Speaker 1:And this is something that the police chief does all the time, which I hope I don't get him in trouble. To anybody that listens and knows the police chief If he sees anybody playing down there, he goes down and plays with them for a little bit and then gets back into his squad car. To anybody that listens and knows the police chief if he sees anybody playing down there, he goes down and plays with him for a little bit and then gets back into his squad car and goes on about his day. He steps out of his squad car with his combat boots, full utility belt, full uniform and beats my son and horse and just, I think it was-r, it's a horse so and he was beating him on just the basic shots, bank shot, stuff like that. He, uh, I will, I'll never forget it. He was like what is this? If I make this and you miss it, that's he right, that's game. And son goes yeah, he laces probably. 18-foot jump shot from the wing. Swish Jake comes up, takes his shot, he misses Game over. Cop gets the ball back, goes to the same spot, looks him dead in the eyes and goes I'm going to make it again, just so you know, it wasn't luck. He laces it again.
Speaker 1:I'm like, ah, I'm laughing at myself. I I'm like you lost to a full, full uniform police officer in a game of horse and my son being the competitor, that he is all right. Well, you come play, you come play. I was like I'm not playing a full game of horse with you, but let's play pig. I probably beat him at pig. So you're you're turning into a whole farm here, jake.
Speaker 1:But he's been putting in the work. He's also been doing his Boy Scout stuff through the summer and they go back to meeting every single week. Now During the summer they used to meet every other week and today one of the older Scouts who's preparing to finish up his Boy Scout career and is applying for his Eagle Scout status and in doing so he has to do a project to better the community in a basic way of thinking about it. So a couple of examples of Eagle Scout projects in years past that I know about. Up here in North Park, the One Nature Trail, all those pollinator boxes on the trail were built by hand by an Eagle Scout at a local Boy Scout troop in that area. Up at Marshall Marshall Lake, those big like platforms that are just out in the middle of the lake, those are turtle boxes and and turtle stands. Those were hand built by an Eagle Scout.
Speaker 1:I didn't know, that yeah, that's a very old one actually and then other ones. Like you might see, benches at a park there's. There have been some really crazy ones out there. Like you can google some crazy eagle scout projects that have been done across the country and within my troop we have one eagle scout. Uh build four benches and a brick and mortar by hand fire pit to do American flag retirement ceremonies.
Speaker 1:Another scout soundproofed the band room, the practice rooms up at the high school. He soundproofed those walls and he built his own simple soundproofing. He built a false wall and created and put the padding in and all that. Another Scout built benches for the local dog park so that families could sit while their dogs run around the park. So this today my son helped an older Scout out with his Eagle Scout project. There's a very old cemetery in our community and when I say old, some of these headstones are from the 1800s old. We as a Boy Scout troop have done community service up there where we've raked the leaves and we've cleaned up all the dirt and trash and debris and we've mowed the grass so that you can actually see the headstones. Well, this scout has built a bench there like a memorial bench and he and a team of scouts assisting him today have are cleaning and it's going into tomorrow as well all the headstones.
Speaker 1:So I don't know if you've seen it on social media where the people show up to the graveyards with like yeah, I actually follow a guy on Instagram that does this yeah, like these, like small little brushes and these aerosol bottles that they spray this, and it's supposed to be like all natural stuff so it doesn't damage the grass and damage the actual stone. Yeah, so they're by hand refinishing and brightening and cleaning up these headstones. So I think that's kind of cool, but yeah, so Jake will be busy with that for the rest of the school year. We're off and running. We're to the races.
Speaker 2:Yeah, school starts in December, before you know it.
Speaker 1:Speaking of I mentioned it in the last podcast that I did by myself, between your schedule, my schedule, not being able to link up, and every other reason why we were unable to do our back-to-school supply cookout giveaway whatever you want to call it this year, and I feel bad about that, like I'm still kicking myself over it. So I mentioned it in the last podcast. Garrett and I we talk all the time. Even though we may not see each other and may not be able to link up to get these recordings done, we still talk and we still text. I had mentioned us wanting to do something soon, and the idea that I pitched to Garrett a little while ago was a Christmas toy drive for underprivileged children and families. The school supplies are awesome. I think even families who struggle a little bit to get by can still get fairly inexpensive school supplies. But Christmas and the holidays is a different story. You have a lot of families who struggle just to put a, put a singular gift under the tree for their children or child. So, uh, garrett and I want to do a toy drive and I'm going to start reaching out to local community groups to see who we can partner with to collect these toys and then make a big donation to the Salvation Army or Toys for Tots or that needs it, and we want your help. Like I said in the last episode, we need classroom participation. So if you're local and you want to buy a toy, uh, don't gift wrap it. You know, you hear about it all the time. Brand new in the box, seal, don't wrap it. Uh, if you want to donate that way, reach out to us, we'll, we'll tell you where you can drop something off to us. We'll come and get it ourselves. If we're close to one another. If you're not local and you want to mail us something, dm us, we can give you our address. Or if you just want to donate money and Garrett and I will go to like a toy store, maybe do like a video of us shopping for toys, yeah, and getting a kick out of like what we like, right, instead of the mind of a five-year-old girl. Maybe we'll take emmy with us actually, yeah for that and say, okay, listen, none of this is for you, and then, like, watch your turn. What do you mean? So why am I even here? Um, no, emmy's a sweetheart. I think she would understand the concept and be really happy to help us with that and we can do a video and make a post about it. But that is something I think we want to do collectively One way or the other. We're doing this Because I'm the neighborhood uncle and I want to see these kids have something under a tree, and I think this also isn't localized to my community, like it was with the back-to-school supply, wouldn't be localized to your community up here in Shaler.
Speaker 1:So we could find an organization who collects toys and make one big drop off. You've got a nice big truck, so you know, we'll get you, we're gonna get you a santa suit, no, no, and then we'll dress you up as santa when we do the drop off. All right, all right. So if you guys, if you guys want that, you gotta, you gotta let us know. Um, I think that would be fun.
Speaker 1:I'll dress up as an elf. I don't care, I'll do it. I mean, I'm short enough as it is. I will dress up like an elf. You can dress up as santa. We could ho, ho, ho, this thing all the way through the north hills, yeah, um, so that I think that's a. That's something as, as, as fathers, um, we see other families struggle and that resonates with us, and even on a human level. You don't need to be a parent to really understand and empathize with a family in need and a family that struggles, right, yeah, so I'm going to work on some social media posts on my downtime and get that up for you guys. I'll come up with some clever name for it I don't know or chat GPT a clever name for it, honestly, because AI is why.
Speaker 2:AI is kind of it's wild, but it's also kind of like scary.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you, man it's. I had to type up a letter, more or less like a certified letter, to send to a manufacturer about a customer complaint that we received, and the manufacturer was like give us an explanation as to what the hell is going on here. And so I literally went on the chat GPT and was like hey, we have a customer who's angry about this and our bosses want to know why and give us a good reason. Click and it gave me like four options and I literally just like sniffed and clipped bits and pieces from all four options and put together a really nice sounding letter in like 30 seconds. I was impressed. Yeah, I mean like my direct boss was impressive. You come up with yourself. I'm like no, absolutely not work smarter harder.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in that particular case. There I go on a tangent again. But yeah, that's what we want to do this year and Garrett and I have plans to be more consistent with this. And I think I know I don't even just think this I know, as we build this consistency, that we'll get back into the habit of doing the back to school supply drive and the toy drive and we can do both of these things every single year.
Speaker 1:Last year we planned it and I think a month like from when we sat down and put it to paper, like this is how this is going to work, this is what we're going do, and he and I started reaching out to our contacts and making connections and getting the donations. Listen, it's August 24th, that means September, october, november. We got three and a half months to put this thing together. You know I don't want to show up Christmas Eve somewhere and yeah, here's your toys. Right, I'll go play Santa and get these to the houses tonight. No, I'd like to get those donations turned in a couple of weeks in advance so that they can get sent to the families that need it. Who did it? Barrel Subaru when we worked there together, and I think you guys still do it. Who did it? Beryl Suru, when we worked there together, and I think you guys still do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, is it the Salvation Army? Salvation Army, the Giving Tree, I think it's called Angel Tree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 1:So you actually get a name and an age Right and then you can go out and purchase a gift, yeah, and that's a wonderful thing you guys do. I want to do something similar to that, but more general. Yeah, I don't want to feel the pressure of having 10 names or 12 names or whatever, and not being able to get everything for these kids or get every child done. I would feel like a piece of shit if they gave us, you know, ten names and we only collected enough donations for nine of them and it's just like sorry, little Timmy, guess you're getting cold this year. So I'll reach out to the Salvation Army and see if there's more of a general thing we can partner with them with. And I don't know, maybe we reach out to the school. I know schools have been doing that. I think that's becoming popular. The school is doing a toy drive, yeah, so maybe we'll reach you reach out to Shayla, I'll reach out to Northgate and see who's willing. If they're both willing, maybe we just split it in half, click as many donations you can and half the one school, half the others, that they can both get the recognition, stuff like that, because we're not doing this for our own recognition, we're not doing this to make ourselves feel better, right, we, we genuinely. You know we have that, that father heart, that we don't want to see a child in need. We don't want to see families feel embarrassed and beat themselves up over this.
Speaker 1:It's hard and trying times that we're living in now, not to get serious and not to get on a soapbox, but the country is in so much turmoil debt's at an all-time high, interest rates keep climbing, inflation, the cost of basic necessities a gallon of milk is five bucks right. Families are struggling. So, you know, as fathers who really want to practice what we preach, we're going to put this into practice. We're going to put this into practice. We're going to put this into motion and help families out. We're going to have fun with it. Obviously, like I said, I'd like to dress up as Santa in an elf and show up with the donations. Maybe dress up as Santa in an elf and go shopping During that. If we're shopping as Santa and an elf, I think we've got to keep the kids away. Though how do you explain that Santa's in the middle of Target buying toys? Well, there's a labor strike at the North Pole.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The elves refuse to work. Sorry, kids, I don't know how would you explain that inflation, inflation. The cost of parts and materials are all-time high. It's just cheaper to buy. A supply chain shortage, uh, processor chips, computer chips, yeah, still affecting us. But how funny would that be. We're just walking down the toy aisle and some kid sees us. Oh.
Speaker 2:God, it's Santa. What are you doing here?
Speaker 1:Just getting a head start on the holiday season. Little one, have you been a good child this year? Oh, that would actually be comical. Hopefully they're not Jewish and go Jewish. You know, cheapskate. I knew you weren't paying those elves, but yeah, anything on your mind, brother no, my mind's been busy working.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I got some news from at work that it is what it is. I'm not going to talk about it, but you know there's going to be some changes happening, and I don't know for better or for worse, but that weighs on my mind, you know, I don't know for better or for worse, but that weighs on my mind.
Speaker 1:Fortunately, the business that we're in, the only constant is change, yeah, so yeah, and it's just a matter of what scale, and what's happening at my place of employment is a large scale. So there's a lot of unknowns that we're heading into here in the near future. And I've talked to my guys and said you can't let it bother you. You still got to show up, you still got to work, but back in my mind I'm going man, what the hell? What the hell is going to happen? A lot of uncertainty there. I've been stressed to shit for a while now. I've been sleeping like crap. I've lost weight. I can feel that I've lost weight. I haven't been trying to and that's the worst way to do it. So not drinking enough water as we sit here and enjoy our Baja Blast together yeah, which, speaking of which, are you aware of how many variations of Mountain Dew there are?
Speaker 1:Well, let's talk about that for a minute. Let's get off of this network.
Speaker 2:We took it upon ourselves to try as many off-the-wall flavors the Infinity Deuce. So I mean, I know this summer they came out with the red, white and blue flavors around the 4th of July. Yep, not a fan of any one of them particularly.
Speaker 1:I think they all taste the same. Red, white and blue flavor ones yeah, I think they're supposed to be like Rocket Pops. Yeah, they kind of taste like Skitt. Red, white and blue flavor ones yeah, I think they're supposed to be like rocket pops. Yeah, they kind of taste like Skittles to me and I'm not a fan of that.
Speaker 2:So let's go. So I've taken pictures of a can every time we try one. Okay, so we have standard Mountain Dew. We have standard Mountain Dew. We've done Code Red. Obviously that's been around for a long time. We've done Code Red.
Speaker 1:Obviously that's been around for a long time Livewire. Livewire is probably Code Red and Livewire are probably my two favorite Livewire is a very strong contender Baja Blast.
Speaker 2:Baja Blast, of course. If you're a Taco Bell fan and now you can get it in the store, it's absolutely amazing it is. But on Baja Blast they also had two variants this year. They did Baja Point Break Punch.
Speaker 1:Was that like a tropical punch flavor? It was very tropical.
Speaker 2:What did you think of that one? It was a blast of natural and artificial tropical punch flavors. According to the marketing, they also had Baja Laguna Lemonade.
Speaker 1:No, I didn't see that one.
Speaker 2:Yes, now, that was a mango lemonade flavor. How was that? I liked it. Okay, I liked it. I'm sure if you shop at Walmart you've seen Frostbite. It's the blue one with the shark on the label.
Speaker 1:Oh no, I didn't even know about this. So that's a Walmart exclusive. There was a Baja Blast pineapple. I thought Maybe there was a pineapple flavor one. And maybe there was a Baja Blast pineapple. I thought Maybe there was a pineapple flavor in it, maybe it wasn't Baja Blast. Then there's also Voltage.
Speaker 2:I know about that one which is a raspberry citrus, okay yeah, which to me tastes a lot like the Frostbite. They're the same color, they're both blue, but Voltage is a little. I don't want to say watered-down version, but it's not as syrupy, okay.
Speaker 1:Then of course, there was spark oh yes, I didn't like spink one. Yeah, that was like a raspberry lemonade?
Speaker 2:yeah, of course, major melon, I think it's called.
Speaker 1:Major Melon, major Melon, the watermelon one. That was super syrupy in my opinion. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I wasn't a fan of that one. There's a white one too, that is escaping me at the moment, but apparently exclusive to Dollar General was Maui Burst. That's the one I'm thinking of, and let me tell you I thoroughly enjoyed Maui Burst.
Speaker 1:That's the one I'm thinking of, and let me tell you I thoroughly enjoyed Maui Burst. That's the pineapple one. Right, it's the pineapple flavor. Yeah, that one was really good. The little tiki guys on the yeah, my blood sugar's rising just talking about this.
Speaker 2:So here's where it gets a little off the wall. This is a very exclusive one and you can only get at Kroger. Aww, now we happen to have an employee who shops at Kroger across the border in Ohio once a month or so, so they bought a case of this and brought it back. It's Purple Thunder, okay, is it great? It is berry plum, no shit, okay, purple can. Obviously. Let me see that can.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's sweet. I would buy that on the can design.
Speaker 2:Yes, and let me tell you this was hands down by far, voted on by the employees of Feral Subaru as the favorite, exclusive or variant rare string of Mountain Dew. And a lot of these, believe it or not, are available on Amazon.
Speaker 1:I have one for you Mountain Dew related. That is very specific. Actually there's a couple, but Applebeefs serves a Mountain Dew called Darkberry Batch. It is exclusive to Applebeefs.
Speaker 2:We Dew called Dark Berry Batch. It is exclusive to Applebees. We've been researching this boat. Yeah, you can get. Let me see here.
Speaker 1:KFC has Sweet Lightning. Yes, we tried it. I hate that one Don't like it. I think that's the worst of them all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in my opinion, here you go. Case 12-pack. Not quite a case, I guess. I don't know what a case is, at least 24, maybe.
Speaker 1:You know you'd be hard-pressed to even find 24-packs anymore $23 for a 12-pack of Purple Thunder.
Speaker 2:Oh, they got you over a barrel on Amazon. Yeah, that shit's like six bucks at the grocery store. Yeah, maui Burst 12-pack is $26. Yeah, that shit is so you can get a lot of these. What do I want to say, say if you're willing to pay up rare flavors, yeah, yeah on amazon man.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we set out to try as many as possible. Um, kind of got sidetracked a little bit, be honest, after we found that a lot of them there's only so many different ways, I guess, or variants you can have on Mountain Dew when the base flavor is what it is.
Speaker 1:Have you tried the Sheetz exclusive Mountain Dew?
Speaker 2:We didn't, because the Sheetz that's near us doesn't have it Ah.
Speaker 1:Yes, but there is this exclusive Sheetz Mountain Dew flavor and it's only available in their fizz or their fountain. Not a Right, it's not a bottle and it's Goji berry, goji strawberry or something like that. Yes, I've not tried it.
Speaker 2:I have not either, like I said, the one that the sheets that we frequent does not have it on tap.
Speaker 1:I've gotten back into and, as unhealthy as it is, that we're talking about pop like we are, or soda, if you want to be wrong, that we're talking about pop like we are, or soda, if you want to be wrong. Um, I've gotten back into dr pepper. It's, uh, the favorite of the sodas for me, and dr pepper has gone a little crazy with flavors yeah um they're branching out.
Speaker 2:I love myself, myself, some Dr Pepper. It's probably my favorite, and Cherry Dr Pepper is the best in my opinion. I'm not a big fan of the vanilla, sorry, brother.
Speaker 1:Cream soda. The cream soda. Have you tried the strawberries and cream?
Speaker 2:Strawberries and creams. Okay, have you tried the coconut?
Speaker 1:I refuse to because I hate coconut, don't bother.
Speaker 2:In my humble opinion, it tastes like I imagine sunscreen would taste like.
Speaker 1:Right Right With their wild, like their offhand flavors. I actually find that the zero sugar variants are better. So if you can find Dr pepper, strawberries and cream, zero sugar or the diet version of it, I think it's far and wide, leaps and bounds better than the regular version of it. Even diet dr pepper is really good some of the big dr guy Getting back into that.
Speaker 2:So not counting the amp and kickstart flavors. Right, you've got Blue, shock, berry, twister, infinite Swirl. What do we got here? What about?
Speaker 1:Voltage. Did we say Voltage no, pitch Black, pitch Black.
Speaker 2:Maui Burst. We did Major Melon Electric Apple.
Speaker 1:No, never heard of that one Darkberry Bash. That's the Applebee's one.
Speaker 2:We had Goji Citrus. That's the one Infinite Swirl. We said Supernova is hard to find.
Speaker 1:I distinctly remember that one Raspberry Lemon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, biker Gangs. Biker Gang just went by, in case you hadn't noticed. We were enjoying the late summer, early fall weather here.
Speaker 1:I know you can kind of hear the crickets in the background. Yeah, solar flare. We tried solar flare, not a fan.
Speaker 2:Is that like an orange, lemon, orange, raspberry. Solar flare is marketed as only available at 7-Eleven in the fountain. Okay, it was only available at 7-Eleven in the fountain. Okay, and it was a tropical punch. It's like a reddish orange, oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I'm noticing a consistent, a somewhat consistent thing with their wilder flavors. Yeah, they're just renames and repackages of other flavors that they've done Mountain Dew, vibe, mountain Dew, overdrive.
Speaker 2:Wilder flavors yeah they're just renames and repackages of other flavors that they've done mountain dew, vibe, mountain dew overdrive. I distinctly remember overdrive wiki, mountain dew wiki, mountain dew voodoo, voodoo.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that'll come out for the halloween season, typhoon I remember that.
Speaker 2:Um, and then, as most things you know, know overseas, for instance, you have almost infinite flavors of Kit Kats. You know, you see, ginger, snap, mountain Dew, baja Punch, baja, flash, baja, gold, baja Mango, yeah, ooh, baja Mango, white Out.
Speaker 1:I want you and I to try to go through as many flavors of something together where we'll try one on each episode, if we can get our hands on it and give it a rating 1 to 10.
Speaker 2:Mountain Dew Legend was, or is, an exclusive flavor with Buffalo Wild Wings. Huh, interesting, it's black blackberry citrus. It is still available, according to the Mountain Dew wiki.
Speaker 1:We are delving deep now, brother. But yeah, this is one of our little projects we had this summer, so I thought about that exploring Mountain Dew, something you and I can do on an episode. Eating food while recording a podcast doesn't tend to translate well audially, yes, but I still want to do it.
Speaker 2:We can do. I would say let's do something soft, like Pop-Tarts. I'm down with Pop-Tarts because there are a lot of Pop-Tarts, a lot of flavors of Pop-Tarts.
Speaker 1:A lot of flavors of Pop-Tarts and a lot of special edition, limited edition and partnerships and mashups, Right.
Speaker 2:I recently had Apple Jacks Pop-Tarts. I saw them, I was curious, but I couldn't pull the trigger it.
Speaker 1:It was interesting. It was for me not a buy again, but I'd be willing to buy it again to test this theory or to do this experiment together.
Speaker 2:I tried the banana bread Pop-Tarts. I love the banana bread Pop-Tarts.
Speaker 1:Really I can't. I love that, I can't Nothing. I'm going to put it on record right now. We're going to start this here and we're going to start trying Pop-Tarts. My unequivocal cannot touch it. Number one is going to be strawberry frosting, not opposed. That's the one I'm putting on my pedestal. That's the flavor to beat, in my opinion, and I don't think we're going to beat it. But you can rank it on a scale of 1 to 10. I'll rank it on a scale of one to ten. I'll rank it on a scale of one to ten. We'll keep track of it and then collectively, we'll figure out what our top three is when we get done, kind of deal.
Speaker 1:We're not going to sit here in one episode with 36 boxes of pop tarts and try each one at a time. Uh, but we'll do it over the course of recordings. Maybe we'll try to. You know, you get a box, I get a box, and we call it a day, and then the bright side is, if we do or do not like them, we have kids to pass them on to. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they'll eat everything. Yeah, yeah, I certainly will. So that's something I want to do. I also also want to we talked about it before you and I doing some more food related stuff on this podcast Start hitting up pizza shops.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I could be down with that and start ranking our pizzas. I saw a guy on Instagram and we'll wrap this up because we're starting to get a little long here I saw a guy on Instagram rank his top 10 pizzas in Pittsburgh and I did not agree with his list. Now I could quickly see in the comments especially people were ragging on him real bad. But he had mentioned at one point these are my top 10 based upon location to me, or maybe where I was at the time and I was able to get that pizza. I didn't agree with his list at all, but it looked like he was in the south hills area because he had fiori's on the list. He had betos or beatos, and that's when I knew I couldn't trust him. Oh, come on, listen. You and I agree on a lot.
Speaker 2:This is the one thing you and I will never agree on, just let it go, jeff, if you're listening out there my man's hating on Betos, damn right I am.
Speaker 1:Listen, if I want a Lunchable, I'll just go to the grocery store and get a Lunchable Right to the heart. All right, I can warm the Lunchable pizza bread up in the microwave and warm the sauce up a little bit and throw the cold toppings on it. I got Betos. That's basically all you're doing. I don't want to hear it, but yeah, I kind of want to do that. But yeah, I kind of want to do that and just have fun. Add a little twist to each of these episodes, but I think we'll start with Pop-Tarts, I like it, and maybe Pringles, pringles combinations.
Speaker 1:So you have this wiki list of all these Mountain Dew flavors. Yep, we can find the wiki list of all these pop-tart flavors. The wiki list for Pringles flavors is probably a mile freaking long yeah.
Speaker 1:I truly believe it. But yeah, and I think a bite of a potato chip is not going to translate well, a little crunchy, yeah. However, I think we still do it. So yeah, like I said, we're getting a little long in the tooth. Let's go ahead and wrap this up for the day. I think I bombed on my dad joke on the last episode, so you need to redeem us. Uh-oh, no pressure, huh, I think you deliver them better than I do. So you need to redeem us. Uh oh, no pressure, huh, I think you deliver them better than I do well, let's see what I can find while he's looking that up.
Speaker 1:Guys, we appreciate you listening in. We appreciate you following along. Follow us on instagram at the dadliest cast, at gwg188, at sharp hooks and wet lines. Follow us on Instagram at thedadliestcast, at GWG188, at Sharp Hooks and Wet Lines. Follow us on Facebook at thedadliestcast. Message us, comment. Tell us we suck. Tell us we're great. Tell us you want to hear more about X, Y or Z. Give us some feedback, give us some topic ideas you want to hear about. We'll do a little bit of research and we'll get into it with you guys. But yeah, we appreciate each and every one of you out there.
Speaker 2:You got one for us In the spirit of school, starting straight out of science class. What do you do with a dead chemist? What you bury him.
Speaker 1:I didn't pay attention to chemistry. I get it though. Oh man, that's an element joke. So you bury them, and with that we bid you guys a farewell. Until the next episode, everyone, have a great day, go out there and be the best you can be every single day. Be better than you were yesterday.
