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Today is my father’s 78th birthday.  I am forever writing about my father and the sadness that’s taken up residence since the cancer came.  He died when he was 66.  Today he would be 78.  Today,  we’re celebrating his birthday.
I look at this photo, the one I scanned for this post, many times every day.  […]

About 11 months ago, I went from joking about doing a triathlon to actually training to do a triathlon followed by doing some triathlons. I remember the time because I announced that I had been in training for a few weeks to my family during a reunion in Disney World over Columbus Day Weekend. […]

For nearly forty years, the pinnacle of ice cream experiences has been the Jersey Mud.
A tulip sundae glass. Chocolate ice cream. Marshmallow sauce. Vanilla ice cream. Chocolate sauce. Malted milk powder. Whipped cream. A cherry.
When served, the first step is to stir the malt powder into the rest of the ingredients. Otherwise the spoon is […]

Now that we’ve covered getting the house ready, preparing food, and buying gifts, let’s talk about holiday traditions.
I remember our Christmas celebrations growing up.  We always opened gifts from youngest to oldest, and we’d take lots of time doing it.  There was plenty of time to see everyone open and appreciate what they’d been given.  […]

There are holes in our minivan. Rust, left unaddressed, ate its way through the metal. And now there are holes.
Friday I decided to paint the sections which were without paint and were unholey. Saturday I decided to deal with the holes.
After searching for “DIY auto repair rust” in my favorite search engine, I ended up […]

I spend a lot of my childhood on the outside. Outside of my friends, my family and sometimes, outside myself. The only time I really felt like I was inside something worthy was when I was buried in a book. Or? At Nana’s house.
Some of you know a little about that lost girl, from […]

Damp auburn hair. Blue
butterflies stamped on her cheeks,
nose, didn’t wash off.
“I miss my childrens
in Russia!” our daughter wept
at lights-out. Again.
Older than her brother,
she recalls the orphanage—
and, maybe, life before.
She learns directions, moves
furniture, decorates,
to control her world.
Butterflies on arms,
my son sleeps with books, all closed
except for Pirates;
Knobby knees at chin,
pj’s and pull-up thrown off.
His boy-doll’s nude, […]

I write about my family — a lot. My wife, 2 1/2-year old daughter Fern, and her sister-to-be are fodder not only for my pieces here at GNM Parents and my public blog, Doodaddy, but also quarterly articles for a local parenting magazine, an advice Web site, a private family blog, two Twitter accounts, and […]

I was visiting my Mom this weekend, and she was cleaning out her basement.  She gave me several boxes of my childhood mementos to take home.  Some of these things, like the stamps made out of old linoleum, and the prints on manilla paper are clearly destined for the trash bin.  But what do I […]

I was five or six.
It was about 8:00pm just outside Webster, Wisconsin. We were at my grandparent’s house. We had probably driven a couple hours from our home in New Hope, a suburb of Minneapolis.
I don’t much about arriving, about the conversations. My first clear memory of that evening is walking next to my Swedish […]