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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

When you have young kids life just keeps getting busier and busier, especially after entering real (elementary) school for the first time. I've always known this was the case, how could it not be?, that as you increase the number of family members participating in activities there's more to do. When I wrote a post last year (' First real busy summer ') I was, in a way, a sweet summer child, even if I had an inkling how the future would look. A little over a year later, things

READ THIS BEFORE YOU WATCH THE TRAILERS! Next year a sci-fi movie called Project Hail Mary starring Ryan Gosling will hit theaters. It's an adaptation of another book by Andy Weir, author of The Martian. That book came out in 2011, the film in 2015. Project Hail Mary the book released in 2021 and will be a movie in early 2026, about the same timeline. I never did read The Martian but have to say I enjoyed it on screen, my desire to dislike (Team America voice) Matt Damon

I've at no point sought out whiskey made in Minnesota. There's not any history or distilling reputation here to speak of, though we do produce a lot of corn in the state. That said I'll never say no to trying something, especially when it's free. A while back my wife's boss gifted her (us) a bottle of Minnesota-made whiskey and that'll be our topic for today. What I have is 10,000 Drops Single Barrel Bourbon. If you don't know, 10,000 Drops is a reference to the number of lak

Today is Veteran's Day. We celebrate our veterans of the armed forces and thank them for their service. It's intended to be a day for living veterans, as opposed to Memorial Day where we remember those that have passed on. A day for those who served and are still with us. So if you know any veterans, reach out and check in. Naturally I want to look back at why we use November 11th for Veteran's Day. It goes back to World War 1 , as we now call it. At the time this conflict wa

The Lord of the Rings has been a borderline obsession since I first finished it in 8th grade. The timing worked out great too, as the next year was the release of Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), the beginning of the movie trilogy. On my blog here I've written about Tolkien's legendarium on a number of occasions. As part of that I've kinda sorta been making my way through the main Lord of the Rings story, with several detours along the way. So far I've cov

After getting a tip I'm now reading The Roman Revolution , by Ronald Syme, a book about Rome's transition from Republic to Empire and features such figures as Pompey the Great , Julius Caesar , Mark Antony , Cicero and Augustus . This is also the subject matter from HBO's Rome , tremendously good TV which, in all honesty, is helping me read this book. This is not a beginners book on Rome, so I do need the help. It's very dense and blunt and I would not have been able to ge

I don't often say movies change my life, but it's possible that can actually be true. Before we get far down that line of thinking, however, right now I'm referring specifically to the music I seek out. Music has never been an obsession, like movies or books might be, but obviously I do like it. My tastes just don't shift all that much. The last example of this, I think, was Walk the Line (2005) . I remember when Johnny Cash died a couple years prior, and knew it was a big d

There's this meme I've see online, seems like it's fairly new, about people demonstrating competence and bemoaning that they...

My wife a few years ago introduced me to the idea of 1000 hours outside . The concept in basic terms is making it an annual goal to spend...

At the end of August tragedy struck the family on my father's side. My dad, 'Papa' to the kids, is in his mid 60s now. One of his younger...

At this stage of life I didn't think I was a big fan of fairy tales. That's something you grow out of, right? Well this spring I was...

When my wife and I visited the Scottish island of Islay, before kids, there were eight distilleries there. Most of these are quite old:...

I've written twice this year already about our daughter. One of these detailed how she's becoming a handful, thinking she's a princess ...