Regular Life

Shannon had never ridden a horse. On the drive to the stable, she was a little nervous. I had at least two unpleasant experiences with horse rides in my past, but nothing that caused injury. In fact, despite one horse who liked sudden 360-degree turns and another who loved to bite the tail of the [...]

In honor of Blitz Krieg, who announced Thursday that he is putting his blog on hiatus, I decided to post an archive photo. He made a habit of posting at least a few a week of himself and/or his friends from the past.
I’d say regular commenter (and my only brother) Charles snapped this pic, probably [...]

Changes, time’s makin’ changes in my life
Rearrangin’, can’t seem to stop the hands of time.
- Tesla, Changes
What has the early time change done for you so far?
For me, it has meant getting ready for work in the dark. I know, I know, a lot of people do that every day, but [...]

Although I played with fire many times in my youth, one incident rises above the rest, pulling me along to the pinnacle of Mt. Stupid.
There are certain things we parents hope we pass down to our children. Our honesty, our courtesy, our compassion and humility. We can’t just perform a download that imbues in them [...]

Yesterday I featured a few quotes culled from Ben’s everyday speech. Last night, I clipped on my microphones and recorded while he and I played in the back yard.
Ben’s a verbose boy. (As usual, headphones or earbuds are best.)
He likes to invent his own games, and here he combines his interest in frisbees with his [...]

Because Ben is pronouncing all his words correctly now — “bullnozer” has gone the way of the “spacebat” (placemat) and the “L” sound is a regular occurrence — Benglish has evolved from a cutesy account of a toddler’s language mangling to… a cutesy account of his use of the language as he makes his way [...]

Baby alien Ben reclines with Lexie, our dear departed doggie.
Lately, Ben has been talking about her a lot. One day after he saw a picture of her on the kitchen counter, he said, “Daddy, I miss Lexie. She’s our favorite doggie, isn’t she?”
“Yes, Ben, she’s our favorite doggie.”
When we brought him home from the hospital [...]

Twice in one year (barely under the wire, though), I’ve been sitting perfectly innocently on a toilet, completing the final stages of that task, and looked down to see water flowing all around my feet.
And that’s after the earth-shattering kaboom.
Everyone knows that any part of going to the bathroom can be rushed, but the very [...]

Bill Watterson, creator of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, never licensed the images he drew. That means any t-shirt, bumper sticker, or other item bearing the likeness of Calvin, Hobbes, Suzy, or the rest of the gang, is illegal.
Now, I’m all for homegrown homages to favorite entertainment figures. You want to draw your own [...]

Saturday morning, Shannon and I decided she and I should take care of number one, respectively. Her mother agreed to come watch Ben while we dragged ourselves to the nearest recommended clinic for adults.
Told we had a 30-minute wait, we hung around the packed waiting room, standing-room only. Most of those present were parents with [...]