She's Got A Latin Temper

I know my daughter Syd is supposed to be half English, half Italian, but I'm guessing she leans a little more toward passionate than austere.

Old Hickory Lakes Triathlon- Race Review

I finished my first triathlon of the season, and had a pretty good time doing it.  My goal for the 400 meter lake swim was to beat my previous best time of 12:22, and to swim free-style the whole time.  In the past,

In honor of my nephew's birthday...

Brian Solves The World Cup Problem

I solved the World Cup Officiating Problem. Four Years Ago. Here's how:

(2006) I'd never really watched much soccer before this World Cup, it's actually very entertaining. I know many of you may not have much of a background in soccer, or 'futbol', as its called, so I thought I'd put together this brief tutorial for you. In the World Cup, each country gets together its very best, highly-talented and skilled male models to play against another country's male models. It doesn't

The Proposal (Happy 9th Anniversary!)

Here is the story of how I proposed to Krista. I’m secretly a romantic, and I love to create the over-the-top moment.  For my proposal to Krista, I really wanted to make it a special surprise.  Now, she knew I was going to propose- she’d already picked out the ring she wanted online- so the only surprises I could control were how and when, not if.

My plan was to propose to her at Nanny Yi and Pop Pop’s house (now my aunt Starr and uncle David’s house) in Elkhart, IN on Thanksgiving Day, 2000.  Even though the house is on one of the main streets, Pop Pop had made the large backyard into a Secret Garden of sorts. 

Playing Catch- A Father's Day Story

Note- I had some friends who said this story (especially the 'playing catch' part at the end) really helped them in their relationship with their dad, so I'm putting it up here again for Father's Day.

(From January 15, 2010)

My dad died today. Heart attack. He'd just turned 60 on Christmas Eve. We went over to his house that night after Christmas at Grandma's, for our Christmas/birthday celebration, with his daughter, three sons, the married one's spouses, and a lot of grandkids. 'The Incredibles' was on the TV, the kids were all laughing and playing with the self-inflating whoopee cushion, 'Pee-paw' (my dad) had gotten for Christmas.

Helping My Daughter With HER Dreams

For most of the past year, when you asked my nearly 5-year-old daughter Brooklyn what she wanted to be when she grew up, she replied, "A doctor!"  My mom is a nurse, my grandpa and his brothers were all doctors- heck, I even got certified as an EMT years ago.  Medicine runs in the family.  This was certainly an easy thing to encourage.  We got her the little Fisher Price doctor kit, let her put on Neosporin and band aids when family members got little scrapes, and even got her a pair of little kids scrubs for Christmas.  Brooklyn has a great memory, so we got her a poster with the bones of the body from the teacher's supply store, and she memorized several. (Just go ahead and ask her where her clavicle and patella are.)  Then one day a few weeks ago,