Feeling Cleveland
Sports can bring out some less than rational actions. I don't get it when people turn violent over the outcome of a game, but I can understand how it will…
Embracing New Veggies
As a kid, I had a tremendous advantage. My parents had already raised seven kids so they didn’t have much willpower by the time I came around.
I didn’t grow up without discipline, but it seems as if they simply gave up trying to maintain an advantage in certain areas of life.
One of these was certainly vegetables. I really had no fear of having to eat my vegetables if I didn’t want to. I don’t really know how all of this developed. It just did. I said I didn’t want to eat peas or corn or anything like that. They didn’t have the energy to fight it. My siblings protested.
As far as I’m concerned, I was merely getting some sort of karmic payback for all the torture I endured from my older brothers. They may have had to eat lima beans, but I got wedgies. Lots of them.
Fashion Sense
The middle school had a very important event last week. As part of some sort of Spirit Week, Bridget and the other kids had a chance to dress up for…
Home Alone Again
Nothing makes me happier than coming home at the end of a hard day and seeing my wife and daughter. We really have a lot of fun together.
But when I get a chance to have the house all to myself for three days, I’m not going to turn that down.
Maria and Bridget went to visit some friends last week, leaving me to my own devices.
Making Myself Useful
I don’t like yard work. I spent a number of years trying to find euphemisms to look less lazy, but I have come to grips with this reality over the…
He’s Crafty
I enjoy making people laugh, especially my family. Several times a week, I express mock anger because Maria did not laugh at a joke or pithy comment.
But even I have to draw the line when I know I’m being made fun of.
When Bridget started school five years ago, we made an important decision to have as much involvement in her school life as possible. That has made the PTO an important part of our lives.
One night last week, I offered to help Maria with getting the presents to teachers from the PTO together. She has worked a lot this holiday season and needed a break.
So I started out with something simple – cutting string. I could totally handle that. I measured eight inches, cut and moved on. No problems at all.
Then I hauled boxes of t-shirts into the house. Again, something that was right up my alley. I felt very helpful and even cracked a few jokes in the process.
But the fun soon came to an end. Well, at least it did for me. My wife and daughter were getting ready for some serious comedy.
A Futile Quest
One of my biggest problems is that I don’t always learn from my mistakes. Generally this doesn’t affect anyone else, but I inconvenienced the rest of my family on Labor Day when we decided to go out for lunch.
Holiday weekend really provide ample opportunity to do whatever you please. We had already put together a nice weekend of fun, but had done a bunch of it separately.
I thought a nice lunch together would give the three of us a chance to wind down the weekend together. We didn’t see each other much on Sunday so we could spend the time catching up on what happened the day before.
I’m Baa-ack
So I went to the beach and said I was going to blog since I had free time, then said screw it. I did read three books so will review…
Luckiest Guy Ever
We exchanged Valentine's Day presents a day early. I got my wife some jewelry she wanted. She got me perhaps the greatest Valentine's Day present ever. In fact, it might…
Yahtzee!
I learned a lot of things at college.
My academic program prepared me for a career as a writer. Playing a varsity sport provided many lessons about hard work and dedication. My social and leadership activities helped me learn how to work effectively with many different kinds of people.
But in my free time, I learned one other valuable lesson. I learned the importance of strategy in the game of Yahtzee.