Apparently the traditional tenth wedding anniversary gift is supposed to be “tin” or “aluminum”. I know this because I looked it up last week. Well, I’m nothing if not a stoic traditionalist (hint: I’m so not) so today, the day of our tenth anniversary, I got my wife two four-packs of Trader Joe’s Cafe Mocha in […]
The Ides of Smarch
I often forget, as I live my life through a constant stream of updates to Facebook and Twitter, that I have a blog. And it’s really a platform that I shouldn’t ignore. So often I get the itch for a long-winded diatribe on a particular topic, but end up simply regurgitating contracted thoughts in 140 […]
My 2011 New Year’s “Opportunities”
My general thoughts on new year’s resolutions pretty closely echo those of fellow Iowan Romelle Slaughter II (sidenote: I really want to meet Romelle someday. He seems like a really interesting person /sidenote). I hate new year’s resolutions. I really do. For a long time I would create some resolutions, and then either lose interest […]
Holiday Letter (Blog Post) 2010
I’m too lazy and last-minute to do this the “traditional” way, where I sit and write out a long and heartfelt letter outlining all the things me and my family have done this past year. My thinking is that the people who don’t care about my life wouldn’t even bother to read it, and those […]
It will someday be a playhouse
My wife got it in her head a couple of weeks back to do some major backyard landscaping renovations. The centerpiece of the work would include converting our old shed into a proper playhouse for the kids. I loved the idea. I mean, who wouldn’t? We’re not using the shed for anything more than storing […]
Social Disconnection
You never really understand just how dependent (read: addicted) you are to something until you are forced to be cut off from said “thing” for an extended period of time. Case in point: for the past two weeks, my workplace has blocked social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This has likely been done in […]
Time
Man, where has the time gone? In the period since my last blog post back in February, I have experienced the following (not necessarily in this order): We learned recently that my father has been diagnosed with cancer. I suppose this probably warrants more than just a bullet point on a list, but I’m trying […]
I’m boycotting Amazon
Well, it appears as though the dust has finally settled on the Amazon/MacMillan fight this past weekend. I’m not even going to begin to attempt to summarize what happened. You can follow the Google search link I embedded into that first sentence, or check out some blog posts below from some authors whose opinions I […]
Good-bye two-thousand nine, hello twenty-ten
Is it the reflective time of year already? My how time flies when you only manage to craft one blog post a month for an entire year. Of course, it should be noted that that is completely intentional. 2009 was a pretty good year overall, with the one exception of the current month of December, […]
Iowa State Fair 2009: some observations
So, yesterday AND today we hauled the entire family — myself, my wife, our two boys, and our brand new (1 month old) daughter — to the Iowa State Fair. It’s a trek we take every year, though not always twice. This year was slightly more problematic than in previous years, though not necessarily for […]