My Dad

1. Will always offer to make you food if you come over. Even if it's a random time of day when people don't usually eat, he will still  be happy to make you a fried egg sandwich.

2. Once told me when I was a know-it-all teenager and I was telling him "how it was", that it was "scientifically impossible to be right EVERY SINGLE TIME." He said it in such a way that it showed how very tired I was making him with my annoying teenagery ways and it actually made a serious impression on me.

3. Once told me that if I was going to experiment with smoking things, he would really prefer I tried pot to smoking cigarettes.

4. Frequently offers to take my car and fill it up with gas while I'm visiting my parents in Bellingham.

5. Does my taxes (and the taxes of everyone in our family) for free pretty much every year.

6. When discussing financial planning for my long-term future, suggests that the best course of action is just to buy a lot of lotto tickets.  (He's joking)

7. Snores so loud sometimes it wakes me up in Seattle. When he's sleeping in Bellingham.

8. Every night, since the beginning of time, my Dad wakes up around midnight and shuffles into the kitchen, looks in the fridge while scratching the back of his head and then eats a weird midnight snack. If you interrupt him during this process he will jump and startle like a cartoon character. Then he will go back to his snack without saying anything.

9. Would always remind me that "LIFE isn't fair" when I whined (which was often) that something wasn't fair.

10. Despite being teased about being cheap, is actually one of the most generous men I know. He ensured that I graduated college debt-free, helped me buy my first car, and always pays for dinner even though we are grown ups with jobs now. But he also taught me the value of earning my keep and working for things. AND that saving for retirement is (aside from maybe loving your own children) pretty much the most important thing you can do.