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We left the valley yesterday afternoon, loading up the car with everything I could cram inside the car and topper. Our summer in the Sonoran Desert is over. One more day in the mountains before starting another long drive (see re: the trip down in June). In some respects I wish I had written more about our summer sojourn, but I'll do my best to sum up the experience. In surviving the summer in Phoenix you hear a lot about 'beating the heat.' As well you should, the temperatur

We tried something different in Alaska this year, and it took me a bit to decide how I felt about it. But I think I've got it figured out. As you likely know, my wife's sister's family lives up in Alaska, near Homer on the Kenai Peninsula. We visit near annually for about a week and it's always an adventure. I've written in the past about Homer specifically, as well as our ordeals in traveling there (see posts tagged Alaska). We've always flown through Anchorage, gotten to Ho

'It's a dry heat!' It was a comment we heard countless times before reaching Arizona at the onset of the summer. As if that makes up for 115 degrees. But, still, somewhere in my brain it was a sort of consolation. At least I wouldn't sweat that much, even if I was warm. Or so I told myself. As a quick aside I've humorously learned that this saying is also oft repeated here in the desert. For one example I found it on one of my brother-in-laws t-shirts, as a joke. I'm likening

We only had a short time back at the house in Minnesota. But, yet again, the air conditioner was struggling to cool our house and I'd had enough. The past year at least this has been an annoyingly consistent issue and, for a time, I'd chalked it up mostly to the orientation of our house (with the back, our dining room, kitchen, master bedroom all facing northwest, i.e. the afternoon and evening sun) combined with the fact we only have a single zone for a three level house. Se

Over the course of our relationship, my wife and I have worked on getting to all 30 MLB ballparks. We're both baseball fans and that was a large part of why we started dating in the first place. Our first trip together was down to Kansas City to see the Twins and Royals. The year after we got married we did a week-long stretch of seeing a game almost every day on the way to my friend's wedding in the northeast. Living in Maryland was helpful in this. Our progress did slow sig

Saturday was America's 250th birthday, or semiquincentennial. There was a party in DC that I didn't follow and I don't care about all the talk it generated, for good or bad, as it all regarded our current president and the over-the-top opinions that surround him. That's not to say I do not think 250 years is incredibly cool. It is, and I'm stoked our republic has made it this long. May it survive 250 more. As for this blog I didn't really have anything planned in advance. It'

In anticipation of Nolan's upcoming film, and because I wanted to read it anyway (especially after the Iliad), I recently consumed the classic epic the Odyssey, one of humanity's most enduring and oldest surviving stories. I went for Robert Fagles translation from the 90s and it's incredible. It largely keeps the format and timing of the original verse yet uses language utterly readable to us in the modern age. Something would be lost in reading this in prose. The biggest hur

When we visit Alaska in the summer, an annual thing in our family (see Alaska posts), one of the big adjustments is to what we're heard referred to as 'Alaska Time.' As a result of the long summer days, the sun going down at like midnight in July, people stay up late and then sleep in well into the morning. For us this has frequently meant we can get up at, I don't know, 7am (aka 10am in Minnesota), go into town, get some coffee and/or breakfast, mill around a little while, t

We made it. After leaving Minnesota last Saturday afternoon (we're crazy and also did a birthday party first) we made it to Arizona. It took something like 53 total hours, 24 active driving, and involved transversing more than 1500 miles before we reached my parents summer home in the mountains Monday evening. That felt like the end of the long journey, even though it wasn't the final actual destination. Tuesday afternoon we tagged on the last couple hours and landed at last

Last month I visited a friend in Massachusetts. It was unusual for us, as we were both without kids, and we made hay with our limited time. All day Saturday was spent exploring Boston itself, culminating with a trip to Fenway Park. But prior to that we did a lot of walking and checking out sites of the home of the American Revolution. It was glorious. To show its history and impact on the revolution, Boston has an actual red brick trail weaving through the city called the Fre

Most years around Easter as a kid I'd see at least a chunk of the 1956 epic The Ten Commandments, as it was always on TV. I had assumed this longtime tradition must've ceased at some point, but apparently even in the year of our Lord 2026 it was on ABC, as it has every year going back to 1973, the night before Easter Sunday. The long and the short of why we, as Christians, are a fan of this timing is the connection between Passover (portrayed in the film during the Exodus) an

As stated when I wrote up House of the Dragon , I was extremely unsure about any Game of Thrones spin-off series. While the world created by George RR Martin is endlessly fascinating, there's also that whole mess (gestures in the air). The author, who I'll refer to as GRRM, talented as he is, is at this point most defined by his greatest skill, creating ludicrously complex storylines. His plotting is so complicated, in fact, that even he doesn't know how to untie all the pr

As written about previously (see Leaving home , The best decision we ever made , Where we're supposed to be for a few examples), my wife and I are both from Minnesota originally and live here now, but have experienced life elsewhere. To friends outside the state that probably doesn't seem all that notable but most Minnesotans never leave, and if they do they frequently come back. It's cultural. Though moving away was difficult for me I grew to love living out east, largely b

This winter I took the next step in my coaching career (if we can call it that) and coached our eldest son's basketball team. That long season came to a close Valentine's Day and I want to record some thoughts, and feelings. Here's the story. Early fall there was discussion amongst parents at our son's school about signing up together. This is how it starts, and what's resulted in flag football teams, this basketball team and, from what it sounds like, a baseball team this up

I've been holding onto a bottle in my cupboard for a while and I'd like to finish it off. But I want to write about it first. So let's do it. A part of the fun of getting into whiskey is the hunt. I wrote about this (see ' Whiskey 104 ') a ways back when I was just getting started in American whiskey. There's always a selection to look for when out and about, commonly everything from Buffalo Trace ( BT itself , Blanton's , EH Taylor etc) and special bottles from just about e

Over the last year plus, I think that's right, the kids have showed more and more interest in Pokemon. And, let's be honest, how could you not? The cards are popular again and all our oldest kid's friends seem to have them. There's a trickle down effect even infecting the three year old. The creatures are cute, or cool. This interest thus far has mostly revolved around the cards, the only media they've consumed. We haven't watched any of the anime nor up until recently played

While the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings are by far the most well known of JRR Tolkien 's stories, that's not actually where he started building his world. Way back during WWI, as a young man, Tolkien started working on his own grand myth, including the creation of the universe , the rebellion of the most powerful of the gods , the birth of the children of Ilúvatar and much tragedy that followed. What's called the First Age began with the awakening of the first Elves, saw

I've never been into New Year's resolutions. It seems pointless to me to wait for a calendar turn to make changes if I feel they're necessary or valuable. And I generally think I can make those kind of lifestyle changes, it's been done before (like, say, when it comes to diet ). As I say all this here I am writing about a post about resolutions. But I can explain. As with many aspects of my life I'm going to credit my wife. For 2025 she bought, and successfully completed, a s

This year, in the days leading up to Christmas, I read Dickens' A Christmas Carol to my kids, particularly my oldest but all who would sit for it. I got started on it later than intended, who isn't overly busy this time of year, but we were able to line it up and read the last chapter (or 'stave') called 'The End of it' on Christmas Day morning. This is when Ebenezer Scrooge joyously reveals his changed attitude and expresses it all around town. It was glorious and I want to

We all want to share the things we love with our children as they grow, hoping they'll take on those interests for themselves. We also instinctually know reading to our kids is overwhelmingly positive, to bond with them, to stimulate their brains, and at night to help them sleep. Reading has always been something I've enjoyed, in particular when it comes to old, classic stories. There's usually good reason something's lasted decades, or centuries, and I want to be part of tha