October 21, 2018
Parenthood. What a roller-coaster ride. Saturday our kids competed against other Catholic schools in the Pittsburgh Diocesan Championship at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds. We had high hopes for The Animal, who as a 3rd-grader has shown great promise, regularly beating runners 2 or 3 grades older. Honestly, I just wanted him to try his best. But I knew…
October 11, 2018
One thing I’d really like to be more mindful about is eating. I eat fast. Way too fast. Like a-school-of-piranha-feasting-on-a-side-of-beef fast. As a result, rarely if ever do I fully appreciate and enjoy my meal. (And I’m sure it doesn’t exactly heighten the dining experience of those around…
October 10, 2018
One thing I’ve always tried to be mindful about is my kids. I’ve always tried to be present in and appreciative of each and every moment I have with them while they’re still young. This isn’t always easy, of course. Take when The Animal decided to use his head to obliterate the glass on our oven…
October 1, 2018
I like change. I think it’s terribly boring when every day seems like a carbon copy of the previous one. Lately I’ve noticed just about every day has been following a similar pattern: Wake up at 6 a.m. Drink coffee while checking social media, i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram Take the kids to school Come home, check…
July 25, 2018
No changing diapers. No gaiting stairs. No baby-proofing the house. No fighting over cell phones. No asking if they can borrow the car. No staying up late worrying about where they are or what they’re doing. In the world of parenting, you might say we’re right smack in the eye of the hurricane. Ten years into the…
April 30, 2018
Lately The Animal’s been playing his Xbox a little too much, and I figured a little father-and-son time might be in order. So the other day after school we jumped in the car and headed to…the arcade! To be specific, we went to Pinball PA in Hopewell. I’ve been wanting to check out this place…
April 16, 2018
When I awoke on Sunday, if you’d have told me that by mid-afternoon I’d be holding a gun to my wife while watching someone perform First Aid on a snake, I would’ve said you were crazy. Then I would’ve asked what the heck you were doing in my bed. The day actually started off pretty…
February 8, 2018
Sometimes in life bad ideas seem to fall right out of the sky, like frozen blue poo from an overpassing jetliner. “Let’s go visit my sister and the girls for New Year’s,” I said to my wife one evening after one-too-many glasses of red wine. “It’ll be so much fun!” They’re not kidding when…
February 6, 2018
“Who wants to go the grocery store with Daddy?!” I asked my kids, who responded in unison, “Not me!” But then when I added, “Whoever comes with me gets to get a toy out of the machine on the way out!”, both quickly changed their response and made a beeline to the car. I’m referring, of course, to those…
January 19, 2018
It was cold yesterday. So cold that I had on two sweaters, with another layer underneath, plus a tossle cap (For those of you who don’t know, that’s Western PA lingo for a winter hat.) I also had on long underwear beneath my pants and a pair of super-thick wool socks. Yet despite all that, I was…
