Regular Life

Ben and I enjoy a goofy moment. Note the sneaky tickle.
My wife and I enjoyed almost 11 years of marriage as a childless couple. Our wait was born of some circumstances beyond our control, but mostly it was that neither of us felt ready to take the plunge into parenthood.
We watched friends have kids, made [...]

About the only things I collect are turtles. Or, rather, inanimate representations of them. I don’t know exactly when it started, but I suspect it was when as a teenager I accidentally drove over a turtle and heard the crunch. Family and friends over the years have grabbed unique turtles for me when out of [...]

Some of you have read my fiction and/or nonfiction. You may ask why I write. I like this quote, found on a local friend’s blog:
You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.
Ray Bradbury
Reading is a great escape, but writing is [...]

Our new dog, Cassie.
Remember when we got a puppy, and that only lasted two nights? You don’t? Well, now you know.
After a few days to mull things over, I told Shannon that what I really wanted was another cocker spaniel. Lexie had made us fall in love not only with her, but with the entire [...]

With Shannon’s fever reaching about 101.5 Wednesday and our packing delayed until I got home from work, we got out of the house at 7 p.m. Arriving at 2 a.m. was not our idea of a good time.
My brother, Charles, has lots of points with a certain national motel chain and volunteered to donate some [...]

I sit next to Ben, his head on my shoulder, as a show called “Wonder Pets” blares from our television. They just freed a young unicorn whose horn was stuck in a tree. A dragon chased them down, but instead of broiling them, he thanked them for saving his friend.
This is a show whose three [...]

Being a good parent is about being there. Being a father is not a state of being. It’s an activity. It’s a verb, not a noun.
– Michael Kimmel, author, The Gendered Society
Any father who strives to be a good dad should see the truth in this quote.
I try to make sure I’m a big part [...]

I had a post about fatherhood all set to go, but when I read my friend Emily’s bulletin on MySpace, I decided that I had to participate. She’s an old friend from high school, so I’m doing this in honor of my Friendships post earlier in the week. The bass player in a rock band, [...]

This eye looks with love,
This eye looks with judgment.
Free me, take the sight out of this eye.
- Edie Brickell, This Eye
A girl, about 16, burst into the waiting room from an interior door, wearing brightly colored polka-dot pants that looked like pajamas. Her hair was part blonde, part pink. She walked quickly to a [...]

Sometimes Ben utters phrases that amaze me. Other times, he spews gibberish, often in an effort to be funny. Sometimes it sounds like Klingon, which is funny on more than one level because he’s never seen Star Trek. Some of the more befuddling sentences I think he gets from a show he watches here or [...]