8-2-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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Odyssey. I return for the hump show just in time to help you all get over the hump and downhill toward what will be the hall of fame weekend in Canton, Ohio. Do you know that the NFL preseason kicks off under 48 hours from mark? Oh my goodness. I actually thought the game was this weekend.

I didn't realize it was Thursday until Jay and I were show prepping, and I realized the schedule actually said Thursday, so the pomp and circumstance will be fun, no doubt. I can't. There's no way Aaron Rodgers plays. Maybe he suits up, but I don't have any sure that's a realistic possibility. What we see is Zach Wilson probably.

Who knows? Anyway, it's Jets and it's Browns. I don't know what we'll see from either team because of the extended preseason for them.

They're likely to mostly use backups. Players that are trying to make the teams of the practice rosters, but maybe we'll get a lot of the interviews with players that will be starting or names that you know on the sidelines while the game is going on, and certainly the hall of fame festivities are always the centerpiece of this now extended weekend. So yes, Jets and Browns and that's fine in Canton. It's totally fine coming up on Thursday night football. Oh, it's gonna sound like football, maybe gonna feel like football for all of five minutes. Whatever it signals the start of the 2023 campaign, the run up to the actual kickoff and kickoff is second weekend in September following Labor Day weekend.

So looking forward to that. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. You've got a few minutes left to send your questions for Ask Amy Anything. We're now 30 minutes away and you can post them on our show Twitter after hours.

CBS, my Twitter of course and then our Facebook page and the last I knew there were well over 50 questions and so we'll see what producer Jay comes up with. You could ask me about the heat in Texas. It was hot. A couple times I did just apologize to Bob and say I'm sorry but it's so damn hot. No, I didn't say it like that.

Isn't that Will Ferrell? It's so damn hot. So I didn't quite say it like that. Go ahead Jay.

Are you gonna play it? It's so damn hot. Milk was a bad choice. I didn't actually say it quite like that but I did have a little bit of a wind in my voice. Not after running in the thousand percent humidity. I was really proud of myself but after just being, well first of all, we were at his parents to visit his parents and his dad gets cold kind of easy and so the rest of us were, we were a little warm and I was wearing a dress and so it was just it yeah it was a little sweaty. I was a little sweaty but his family still loves me. I think they were all in the same boat.

Anyway for those of you who want to know, I know many of you have asked about it. It was a great day. It was a great experience meeting his parents first of all. Already get to to feel like I've known them forever so that's awesome.

His, the rest of his family, lots of lots of boys, lots of brothers, lots of everything. Lots of significant others so I had to try to keep all the names and the phases straight. Thankfully a couple of the other significant others that were there were very talkative so that made me happy. It made me feel right at home. It was good. The challenge was that I had to talk twice as long as I do for a radio show.

Are you ready for this? We got to his parents house at about 11 20 on Sunday morning. We did not stop talking and I mean all of us, it wasn't just me.

We did not stop talking until six o'clock in the evening. I talked because I was really trying to connect with every one of his family members and let's see and think how many people were there. His mom and dad kind of commandeered me as soon as we walked in the door which was great.

I was, I've already communicated with them some. It was really good to finally meet them and hug them in person. So let's see, his parents six, seven, eight. There were eight of us when we were first there. Oh no, six, eight, ten of us when we were first there including me and Bob. And then as soon as one group of people left, the next group of people came in.

So there were 10 and then there are 13 different people that were there at the house and so I wanted to be able to connect with all of them because Bob had told me a lot about his various family members and so I wanted to be able to speak with them individually and get to know them a little bit and that meant just keeping the conversation going. But it wasn't just me, although I suspect that Bob may have fallen asleep in the chair while we were doing the second round of visits. I know his dad fell asleep in a chair in a different room for sure. He wasn't feeling great and so, so I'm pretty sure I looked over at Bob a couple times and his eyelids were were half closed.

Quick power nap. Wrong, that's wrong. I'm entertaining. I'm talking to your brothers. I'm talking to your mom. I'm, I'm meeting the sister-in-law and you're over there napping, cat napping in the chair.

What, Jay? It's a quick power nap to give him the energy to, you know, to continue with round two. It was warm in there.

Also, here's the, here's the best part of the weekend. His dog is crazy. Like, his dog is crazy. His dog is my cat in a dog's body. Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh, she's nuts. Okay, so when he picks me up in the truck, the dog is in the truck, right? So the dog's there. I'm sitting in her seat because I'm in the front seat. Apparently, she sits there. She's a mini Aussie but she's also the runt. So she's only about, she's not even 20 pounds. She's little.

She's got, she's just, she's crazy. She's got some insecurities. She's very much, yeah, well, attuned but also very much attached to Bob and so I was sitting in, first time I met the dog, she wanted nothing to do with me.

She wouldn't come anywhere near me. She was hiding behind him the whole time and I had said to Bob, oh, dogs love me and then the dog hated me and so he was like, uh, well, that doesn't bode well. I was like, I know, that's the last time I brag about any kind of dog loving me. Every other dog.

Right, just not your dog. And so when I'm in the truck in her seat, she was actually sitting then up on the console between the two of us, which is funny. She's like playing chaperone in between the two of us.

I'm watching you kids. And so anyway, she, yeah, she was allowing me to pet her because I was in her seat, he thinks. We get to my mom's house. So Daisy's there with my mom's dogs, who are 11 and very territorial. They're full grown Aussies and they're just, they didn't like her. One of the, one of my mom's dogs did not like her and so you had to be really careful. Uh, and then Daisy was stealing their food and so she would like steal some.

Well, that's why. Yeah, well, and then in addition to stealing her food, my mom was giving her their food and I was like, mom, no, I totally get it from their point. Dude, who is this coming and taking my food, getting food from my owner that should be mine. So my mom's tried to make friends with Daisy, so she's taking her dog's food and feeding it to Daisy under the table. So it was just, it was much, it was much of a disaster. I went once to try to pet Daisy and the, I mean, these are not my dogs, but I've known them since they were puppies.

One of them had a fit. Really? Don't even look at that dog. No, yeah, exactly. Don't talk to her.

What are you doing, you traitor? And so anyway, yeah, so there was some, some loud dog conversations, if you will. Uh, so anyway, then Daisy wanted nothing to do with me. It was almost like she couldn't figure out if I was on her side or if I was on their side and she would not come near me again.

Yeah. Uh, Friday, same thing. The dog comes over because I made dinner on Friday for all of us. Uh, and actually my mom kind of inserted herself after, you know, saying you're making dinner. She decided to do it with me and for me.

And so that's mom. And so anyway, there was much, there was more, we had to keep the dog separated because one of my mom's dogs was not having it. She was going after her. It was a real feud.

Oh yeah. It was a blood. It was like a blood feud.

Don't mess with the sisters. Uh, and there was much barking, but we, uh, this is kind of funny. We went out and we went swimming and Daisy, I guess decided she wanted to see what the pool was like. So she just, she jumped in, but, but then freaked out a little bit realizing it's like water. So she starts to flounder and Bob just picks her up and puts her on the pool deck between us.

What does she do properly? Shakes all over both of us. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, so we had fun.

We swam a lot on both, uh, Friday and then again on Saturday morning after the workout, which is, which is neat. Oh, Jay. Jay knows this. The first fancy date with Bob.

Cause again, long distance relationship. We had a couple of dates, but this was our first fancy day. Jay is so jealous. Uh, we went to the Houston symphony. First of all, we went to a nice steak house, which was his idea. He picked it out.

It was our first fancy date. Uh, is it bad that I offered to, to pay like split some of the bill? I think he was, yeah, I don't think he was, felt disrespected, but he promptly shut me down as in zip it. Yeah.

I don't think that's wrong. Okay. I just write that he probably shut it down. Shut it down.

Shut me down. Yeah. It was, it was a really nice dinner though. We went, for those of you who live in the Houston area, we went to Perry steakhouse.

So it was a really nice dinner and we enjoyed it. And then we went over to the Houston symphony. They're playing star Wars, a new hope, meaning the symphony plays the score live.

Jane. I just did this with the empire strikes back in the New Jersey symphony. It is awesome. Our seats are really good. We were first level the balcony, but we were just off to the right of the orchestra.

And so we were so close. Movie is playing on the big screen. He barely notices I'm alive for like the next two hours because he was so engrossed in not just star Wars, but also the music. So yeah, it was really neat.

But pregame lobby, they're stormtroopers. So this is the hobby center. Really nice. Oh, sorry. I don't know where that came from. Thank you.

I could have just turned off the mic, but then you would have wondered where I went. So really nice concert hall, downtown Houston, the hobby center. And they have multiple levels. One, which is a level where you can get drinks. So bar, there's also some food wide open. So it's, it's an atrium.

It's all windows. It's beautiful. And we're there at about seven o'clock in the evening.

And so it's brightly lit with the, you know, the evening sun, really beautiful. There are stormtroopers walking around the stormtroopers walking around. There are also various members of the different movies, right?

So, but, but droids, not, not people. There might've been like a Ray character or there was definitely a Kylo Ren. So they were, even though this was a new hope, they were kind of incorporating some of the newer characters. I can't remember if there was a Darth Vader as well, but there were a bunch of characters that were, people were standing in line to get pictures with them, right? Actually, this was crazy.

Speaking of the Houston heat, I didn't even tell you this, Jay. We come up the stairs into this atrium and we see one of, it wasn't a stormtrooper, but it was a, it was one of like Vader's guards or something like that. So he was wearing all black, but like a full mechanical suit passes out and fall falls on the floor.

So underneath and people start freaking out, right? Because the people who had were kind of putting on the show with these, with these characters realize right away, that was not part of the show, but like the people who are standing around waiting for pictures, don't know if that's part of it. Cause there's a, there's a younger child. Who's got a lightsaber, you know, I mean, there's like people, we didn't know if it was part of the show.

He's faking a Vader chokehold or something. Right. Exactly. Like no joke face down bang, right on the ground and people. Yeah. So right away, start freaking out. It actually, as they take off the helmet, it's a young, it's a young woman.

So maybe a teenage girl, college age girl. And she was out cold. And so it was really scary that thankfully she woke up, they got her water. They, they were able to cool her off, but yeah, that's how this is inside in the air condition, but because it was so warm and humid in the suit, she, she passed out inside in the air condition. No, seriously.

It was, it was really scary. So after we kind of walk away from that, we're about to exit the atrium on the other end and go find our seats. Who do we hear? R2-D2. We hear R2-D2. And he is, he's, he's chattering away.

R2-D2 and people, there's a short line. So he's kind of making his way. He's just wheeling around. I don't know if he was remote controlled, if there was actually a baby. Yeah. A child in there. I'm not sure.

Like a Roomba maybe. Yeah. I'm not sure, but he was tweeting or tweeting.

He was Twittering away and just having a grand old time and, and personality like you wouldn't believe from the movies. And there's a short line of people who want to take their picture with R2-D2. So of course I say to Bob, can we please get our picture with R2-D2? Can we please get our picture with R2-D2?

So we did. We stood in line, the guy behind us, and there was no official photo. You just handed your phone to the people behind you. Of course, the people behind us were like two little kids who wanted their picture taken. Then there's two adults who wanted their picture taken and another little droid roll.

Yeah. Another droid rolled up. He was an Imperial droid. But we got our photo taken with R2-D2. I did not touch him.

I wanted to, but I did not. I felt like that might be, that might not be allowed, but it was pretty cool. He was just chattering away. So that was awesome. That's a cool touch to have like carriages and stuff walking around like that.

It was really cool. And there were people dressed up. So dressed up as in, we were fancy dressed up. I was wearing a dress.

Bob was wearing, you know, long sleeve, it was long sleeve button down shirt. There were people though dressed up in character. Wow. As you can imagine. Like a comic con? Yeah.

But not as many. It was much more fancy. Yeah. It was an orchestra show.

Yeah. Houston Symphony is very, it's very fancy. There are a lot of people that were dressed to the nines. A lot of people who are dressed up and then people who are in character, which was pretty funny. So that was amazing.

Really enjoyed that. Got no sleep. Then turned around and went, not no sleep, but not as much sleep that night because it was a late night.

Turned around and went to visit his family on Sunday. Talked for seven hours because, you know, that's just what I do. I told my niece and she was like, oh, that sounds terrible. Well, it wasn't.

I mean, it was, you didn't really have a time to pause. We had barbecue though for lunch. That was awesome. That's nice. Oh, and my cookies were a big hit. They disappeared. I was going to ask. Yes. So his mom made oatmeal butterscotch cookies.

I made the buttermilk chocolate chip cookies and yes, they did disappear, which was good. My mom though, no joke. This is my mom. She has no V chip.

No, no filter. I take the cookies, some cookies to my house and we have them as dessert after Friday dinner. My mom takes one bite and goes, oh no, no. And like hands it back to me.

I'm like, what mom? Oh no, that's too many chocolate chips. Too many chocolate chips? Yeah. Is my mother the only person on the planet who doesn't like chocolate chips? I know. Those are tremendous. I didn't think of any flaw with those cookies at all. Thank you.

Right to market. She's the only one who didn't like them. With that reaction, visceral.

It was awful. So even as Bob and I are eating them, she's like, oh no, no. And here. Oh, sorry for bringing you cookies.

Excuse me. Anyway, so that was great. Some shopping and some appointments. I got my hair done, of course. Um, and just, I felt, I don't know, Jay, you tell me, is it too much to ask that almost the entire time, except for our date on Saturday and the drive to and from his parents. And then a few hours just in the pool where, you know, my mom and her husband were not in the pool. It was pretty much family time, the whole visit.

It was either my family or his family. We got very little time, just the two of us. That's all right. We didn't have our date, but yeah, you got the date in there, which is nice.

And that was kind of too much to ask though. No, I mean, I feel maybe moving forward. No, but like, you know, this was like kind of a big part of that trip was meeting his family for the first time and then meeting your family and stuff.

All three of our dinners other than our date night, we're, we're with Thursday, Friday and Monday. I feel like it had to happen. And now it's kind of like, that's out of the way. You know, the family's all mad. Everyone knows each other.

We're all chummy. Now we can, when next time you're in Houston, you don't have to go out with the dinner with them every time, you know? Right.

No, no. We were at the house even, even, even better with all the dogs, all the crazy dogs. Yeah. So Daisy couldn't decide if she loved me or she hated me. So she would go back and forth, waffle back and forth between letting me pet her when she was afraid of the other dogs versus like when it was just me and Bob. Nothing to do with me. Yeah. The dog is not, she can't make up her mind if I'm a keeper or not.

So maybe that means he can't make up his mind whether or not. I don't know if that's correlated. I got to say though, that dog, I think I'm on the side of your mom's dogs. I mean, she was feeding them, not just their food, but also their treats.

You can't do that. Wait a minute. So when Moose has Charlie come over, he doesn't ever eat Moose's food or get Moose's treats?

No, no, no. Oh my gosh. Could it be toys? Like, you know, one of Moose's toys just laying there on the floor. Moose hasn't touched that toy in two years.

Charlie goes to look at it. Moose wants that now. No, he can't. That's his. He plays with it every day.

Yeah. He's very territorial. Wait, does Charlie ever try to get in Moose's bed? Cause I know he has the stack of dog beds and he likes to climb up on his throne.

Yes. Charlie. No, he doesn't go in the beds, but I don't think, I think he, maybe he might've tried and he's learned his lesson. He's a little afraid of Moose. Honestly, even the size difference. Is Moose tough? He's like not at all, but he still is a bulldog. So when he gets angry, like he's stocky. So he's like a linebacker trying to like, he plugs the hole when Charlie's trying to like run and he just bodies it, you know. He's a linebacker. I was going to go with the Hulk analogy.

You went with linebacker. Hulk works too. Yeah, that's funny. Also, does Moose get upset when Charlie climbs into the kiddie pool with him? No, they actually have a good time together in the pool.

Okay. So they do, they share the pool. They share the pool. They share the kiddie pool.

Last week before the storms came through, it was super hot. Did they spend time in the kiddie pool? They did indeed.

They love that thing. So when you had your cookout for dad's birthday, were they in the kiddie pool? Oh yeah. Oh man.

It's just, you can't. Forget kids. You actually have dogs in the kiddie pool. It's just like, and then, but then Charlie especially, cause he just doesn't stop running the entire day. You know, he wants you to throw him the ball the whole time. Oh, that's Daisy too. Over and over and over again.

Yeah. But then he, but he's just all soaked and gross at that point. He goes right up to you, brings the toy, whatever he wants you to throw around to your lap. So you just can't like wear nice clothes when he's over.

It's gross. Dog stories, dog tales with the families. All right, coming up, we're 20 minutes away from Ask Amy Anything. So send your questions to Twitter after our CBS or our Facebook page and straight ahead, Damar Hamlin. First practice in pads since January, early January, when he had his cardiac arrest on the field, you will hear from him. He's always inspiring. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. My heart is still in it. You know, my heart is still in the game.

I love the game. It's something I want to prove to myself, not nobody else. You know, it's just, I just want to show people that, that fair is a choice that, you know, you can keep going as something without having the answers and without knowing what's at the end of the tunnel. Or, you know, you might, you might feel anxious. You might feel any type of way, you know, but you just keep putting that right foot in front of the left one. Getting you to the good half of your week.

It's the Hulk Show on After Hours. Going back to mid-April, Damar Hamlin announced that he would return to football. His intent was to pursue his football career again, despite having suffered not one but two cardiac arrests on the field in early January in Cincinnati. And even as he speaks, I am inspired.

And this is why I love hearing from him. We know that his story inspired millions and millions of people and millions of people gave millions of dollars to his charitable organization. He's now using that all over the country to do things like provide equipment to high school football teams, so that if a player suffers a cardiac arrest, the team, the athletic trainers have the equipment to revive them. And, and so there's a lot of good that he's doing with that money, but he didn't want to give up on his own football dreams. And so he decided that he could not be limited by fear that he would return. And on Tuesday, his first practice in pads since that game on January 2nd.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Man had to feel emotional. Man, it feels amazing. It's a rollercoaster of emotions.

I was kind of all over the place, you know, just kind of being back for the first time, but God don't make no mistakes. You know what I'm saying? I'm on God's timing.

As much as the NFL is, you know, on schedule and camp starts this day, this is all God's timing. You know what I mean? So you'll hear me say that a lot up here. I'm trusted in him.

And that's, that's my strength in all of this right now. There was a reporter who asked him about mentally, what it was like to be back out there on the field in pads. You had to imagine there were flashbacks of some sort. The reporter asked him about the mental side of things.

And was he dealing with any of those types of kind of images or visions? And he said it was tough. He did say it was tough, but you got to fight through it.

And he refuses to be limited by fear, which I appreciate. Also though, physically and mentally, the path, the journey, the challenge of getting back to the point where he could be cleared to play football. A super big hurdle, as you can imagine, you know what I'm saying? Like, pretty much lost my life playing this sport, you know what I'm saying? So to come back and do it all over again, you know, it's just a, it's a, it's just, you know, it's, it's all over the place, you know what I mean? But I'm rooted in my faith. I'm rooted in, you know, the love of, that I received from my family, my teammates, you know, and the love all around the world that just, it keeps me going, you know what I'm saying? And I got goals that I, that I still want to achieve within this game, you know, and football teaches you so much about yourself. It teaches you so much about life. You learn so much about yourself through the game, you know what I mean? And honestly, you know, nothing, what, what bigger challenge, you know what I mean? It's a, it's a challenge.

So, you know, I'm embracing it. It was, it was tough, you know, just first day in pads, you know, but just trying to keep everything as normal as possible. And, you know, just having my family here today, that was like that, that joy, that brightness, just to, just to keep everything in perspective, you know, that, that, that, you know, I'm be okay.

I hadn't thought about it until I heard Damar mention his family and how they were their practice and what a nice gesture by the Buffalo Bills for his family to be there. And maybe there were other families too, but certainly his parents who sat by his hospital bed in a vigil for the better part of two days, his little brother, I think his little brother was eight, seven or eight, if I remember correctly. And we're talking about a little kid who's second or third grade, and this is probably his hero and the near death experience.

And, and he's waiting for his brother to wake up. That, that had to be emotional for them too. But is there hesitation, right?

Is there any part of him that thinks maybe this won't work out or it's not a good idea or what if it happens again? Football, you can't, you can't hit that field with no hesitation. You know what I'm saying? You're putting yourself in more danger by doing that. So, you know what I mean?

Like I said, I made the choice to play, you know, but I'm processing a thousand emotions. You know, I'm not afraid to say that, you know, it crosses my mind of, you know, being a little scared, you know, here and there, but, you know, like I say, my, my, my strength is rooted in my faith and my faith is stronger than any fear. And, you know, so that's, that's what I, that's what I want to preach up here. And that's the message I want to spread onto the world that, you know, as long as your faith is stronger than your fears, you can get through anything.

And so that's, that's what I'm living by right now. I love his authenticity. I really appreciate that he's so genuine and he is willing to wait into the deep end, so to speak. Of course, I mean, he, he died for all the world to see for a few seconds there until they could revive him.

It was on national TV. His story transcended sports, obviously, and now everywhere he goes, there's cameras, there's interest, but he has remained fairly down to earth. Now, I don't know him personally, but everything that we've heard from him about the experience, about football, about his family, seeing him on the stage at the ESPYs, where he just collapses in tears and the bond with the athletic training staff and the doctors of the Buffalo Bills, the way that they support and encourage each other and inspire one another, he is determined that he is going to make this experience into a positive for other people. And he's, he's determined that his cardiac arrest will not be in vain and that this was part of the plan for him to make a much greater impact beyond just the football field and his ability to make that impact beyond just the football field.

And it's not as though fame and recognition are the goals here. People play football for all kinds of different reasons, but we know he already had a big heart and had charitable endeavors going long before he got to football. Remember he played, what did he play, Pitt? Yeah, he's from Pittsburgh, so he played and he had already started an organization, his own GoFundMe page.

This is, this is kind of the place that was buying toys for kids at Christmas time under privileged kiddos that didn't have their own Christmas presents. And he was doing that and then this GoFundMe page just went viral and now he has a platform that he likely would never have had if it was just about football. That's the part that's so crazy. Yes, he almost died. There's a lot to deal with, but the platform has grown in ways that never would have happened if he had, even if the Bills had won a Super Bowl game.

DeMar Hamlin makes an interception in the end zone to seal the game. It's not the same platform as it would have been or as it is right now. It's not the same reach. It's not the same story. It's not the same inspiration.

It doesn't resonate with as many Americans as it does if it's a simple sports play. So that's the part that I love is that he is moving forward. He's not feeling sorry for himself and he's taking this opportunity and he's not going to waste it. Yeah, the fact is everything DeMar does puts him in the national spotlight.

I honestly would love to do this whole process under a rock, get myself together and then pop back out when I feel like my best. You know what I mean? But I think there's strength in going through a process in front of everybody's eyes. It shows vulnerability. It shows strength. It shows perseverance and that's things I would love to stand for. I didn't even think about that until I heard him say it.

Yes, it's hard to do this in the national spotlight simply because you have people in your face all the time. At the same time though the fact that there's interest in his story means that he has a platform and an avenue to be able to help others and to spread the word about his passion now. At the same time he's not in football shape. He just went back to his first padded practice on Tuesday. I don't want to say he's behind the eight ball but he didn't participate in physical OTAs the way that his teammates did.

He didn't have the same run up to the start of the pre-season and he's competing now for a job, for a starting job to be sure but more than likely it's going to be a backup job and it's going to be snaps and reps. There are people on our Facebook page who said he's going to get caught he sucks which is so not even the point. The fact that he's out there competing is what matters but yeah would it be easier to get back to full strength mentally physically to be in tip-top shape when no one's watching? Sure.

Instead I'm doing it. I'm putting myself out there whether I succeed or fail the whole world's going to know about it and there's a lot of pressure there but there's a reason why he's the guy who is going through it and you can hear it you can see it with Damar. There's a reason why in his belief is the Lord picked him for this platform picked him for this job and he is handling it with more grace and class and joy and humility but also thankfulness than most people his age would. He's 24, 25. I mean he's still a relatively young man and you don't have any training for this type of thing but he has not in any way he is not tripped up, messed up, even fallen short. I think he surpassed every goal or standard that's been set for him. He is he blows me away.

He is so um he's so poised and he's so genuine and he's authentic as I mentioned that you can't help but be impressed when you hear him speak and you can't help but believe that he is going to do exactly what he says he is going to do. All right coming up next Ask Amy anything After Hours, CBS on Twitter, our Facebook page too. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Time to ask Amy anything, sort of. Hit me with your best shot. Fire away. It's that time of the week again. I took off. I came back just in time for the hump show and asking me anything and I don't want to take any more time.

Producer Jay I know has been inundated with your questions so yes it's After Hours. It's the hump show. It's your chance to get your questions answered Jay. Well we got to start with some vacation themed questions here. You did mention just before about your steak dinner, steakhouse dinner on Saturday which was amazing but Michael wants to know what was your favorite meal from your vacation?

Well it would have to be that one. If I said any other meal from vacation well two other than the Perry Steakhouse. I actually had fish don't laugh at me. I had a oh it's so good.

I had a crusted red fish. It was awesome with asparagus and then we got family style. They offer sides for two so we got family style loaded whipped potatoes. Oh they were delicious.

Yeah so good. So definitely the Perry Steakhouse meal was the best but also when we were visiting his family in rural Texas we had local barbecue. It was called Miller's Barbecue and it was also really good. Brisket ribs. I didn't eat the ribs because I cannot eat ribs in front of people.

I get them all over my face. I get the food everywhere. So I didn't have the the ribs but I had the chicken, barbecue chicken and the brisket and guess what?

I asked appropriately. I felt like I needed to at the table. Are you a family that goes for seconds? And there's this long pause, long pause. Finally one of the boys pipes up with actually we're a family who goes for thirds and I was like okay phew.

But do you know I give Bob credit. I was desperate because I eat fast. I was desperate for seconds. He saw my plate was empty, got up and said okay I'm going for seconds and I'm like all right if you're going I'm going. What a guy. I know, I know. He understands the way to my heart is with the food always. That's great.

All right so we'll move on here. Mike asks do you prefer to drive or fly whenever you do go on a destination, do a vacation? I'm a road trip girl. I much prefer to drive if I can and usually to take the dog if I can again but in this case when you have only four days really there's no way you can drive from Jersey to Houston.

You have to turn around and drive right back. So and yeah this was the flying. It was it was perfect, perfect both ways. I couldn't have asked for anything more.

It was worth the money. So speaking of the dogs and pets Gary asks did you or have you ever zoomed your pets while on vacation? No who's who's gonna zoom them? No I have put them on zoom with Grammy Helen used to be on zoom with my pets. They the cat made a cameo on one of our Super Bowl videos did she not wasn't it Super Bowl version of asking me anything and I didn't even realize the cat was behind me and the tail was in the video. Yeah so she's done that she's done a couple of different cameos and there are times when I'm on zoom with Jay and I've been on zoom before or a google meet where I've you know put the pets on whenever Bob and I do a video call the pets are part of the video call but to zoom with them they don't know what they're looking at. No they couldn't care less though my mom and I do we do video calls on our androids and her dogs know my voices.

They hear me talking my voices they hear me talking and they recognize my voice they perk up and they bark and Bob's dog Daisy actually knows my voice now too because of the number of times he talks on speakerphone it's the number of hours that she's heard me on the phone she definitely recognized my voice so dogs are smart that way they know your voice. I wish they could see the video on the other side they don't really see the video what's going on right all right well you did mention Grammy Helen and this one comes in from Maureen who says I'm vacationing at a New Hampshire lake house right now and I'm sitting by a fire reading your letter to Grammy Helen. What was the best advice she ever gave to you? Gosh that's a good question it sounds harsh but my Grammy would say something along the lines of you need to get over it you need to move on you need to move forward she always encouraged me to be to be bold to be brave to keep pushing forward to be adventurous of course but yeah one of the things she would say is you're just gonna have to get over it you're just gonna have to keep going you're just gonna have to move past it sometimes hard to hear sometimes feels harsh but it's a great piece of advice because yeah there's just some parts of your life that you can't fix you can't control there's not a whole lot you can do except just get over it and move on and then you are in a better place you have more peace and yeah it generally can diffuse the situation as well so you're just gonna have to get over it. Robert wants a plant and coffee update do you remember we were talking about a few weeks maybe a few weeks or maybe a month or so ago now the coffee grounds right I did use the coffee grounds with the rose trellis the rose bush the thing is turned into a monster it is growing out of control it's the vine it looks like a trellis it's amazing the vine is all along the top of my fence it's leaning over the fence into my neighbor's roses it's on top of my hydrangea but there's no blooms so that's the part I do not understand if anyone has any insight neither my hydrangeas or my rose trellis are blooming they're growing like nobody's business they're huge they're leafy they're green but other than a few buds at the bottom of my hydrangea it's got no buds this is the first time since I moved in that it hasn't bloomed the one across from it also isn't blooming I did not cut them back I did not trim them down I left them all winter and the rose bush again it's it's crazy growing out of control the coffee grounds clearly gave it more juice it's got arms and legs everywhere I mean it's so healthy but no blooms so I'm not really sure what's happening if it's too much rain this this spring now it's been super hot I don't know what's going on but the plants my summer plants are not blooming the way that they have in the past my butterfly bush isn't blooming quite the same way either so it's it's an interesting summer at my casa sporadic weather it's either a lot of rain or nothing and then right yeah my orange tire lilies bloomed really well they weren't as thick as they've been in the past but they were real pretty but yeah they maybe I don't know too much sun too much rain I'm not sure but I did use the coffee grounds and yes the bush itself is growing like nobody's business just no flowers this one comes in from academy theater who asks do you have a favorite shakespeare play oh gosh that's that's a great question I do love Romeo and Juliet only because it's so fatalistic right um I and also to is it to tame a shrew taming the shrew taming of the shrew taming of the shrew yeah I like that one too um gosh let me think can I come back to that yeah all right let me think about that for a second here's another one uh this one comes from Aaron who asks other than star wars are there any other sci-fi franchises you enjoy oh love lord of the rings of course I really like the matrix the it was the trilogy I don't know if there are any more to it but I do like I do like the first three anyway to the matrix uh so those those I really enjoyed and appreciated trying to think of any I do not like star trek sorry the early the later ones with Chris Pine I was okay with the newer ones got good reviews yeah I I'm not a you can't be a Trekkie and be a star wars nerd it just doesn't cross but I will say lord of the rings is all is that considered sci-fi maybe not sci-fi it's in that realm all right okay I like I like lord of the rings someone comes from David who wants to know what's your favorite cheese mozzarella but I also like regatt so I'll take regatt any day rich asks have you oh excuse me were you good at jump rope as a kid yes I was good at everything as a kid um I figured it out I remembered now I had to google like some of the Shakespeare plays but duh loved Hamlet did a production of Hamlet when I was in school have read Hamlet multiple times so yes absolutely love him and also really like the the tone of the tenor of much ado about nothing nice Eric another Eric asks do you wear slippers or slides around the house when you're not when you're home well it depends on what season it is I wear slippers when it's fall and winter and early spring I wear flip-flops or slides as he says when it's uh this time of the year summer and now we'll end with a little rapid fire fireplace or bonfire fireplace actually bonfire because it's outdoors sorry that that's better windows open or ac on what time of the year is it right now the ac okay yeah right now the ac it's too hot to have windows open blue ink or black ink blue every time carne asada or pollo asada carne asada give a speech or write a paper give a speech all day are you kidding why why would you even ask me that watch the dishes or clean the bathroom oh watch the dishes unless we're eating chili movie trivia or music trivia movie movie trivia star wars trivia jaguar or ocelot jaguar rhino or hippopotamus I want a hippopotamus for Christmas only a hippopotamus will do