• First Gig

    So how’d it go? Not bad. I’m fighting heartburn and indigestion today because I found out, after publication of course, that I made a minor but glaring error in my story. The kind of error that I glanced right over but a reader caught right away. Ugh. But it was kind of cool to go down to the RCA Dome…

  • The Curse Of Being Second

    M. always gets her way. At least when it comes to music in the car. Perhaps it is because she knows how to shout the phrase “I WANT M. MUSIC” continuously until we play Laurie Berkner. Anyway, I thought it was telling when I made an immediate transition after dropping M. off at pre-school today. On the way to school,…

  • And So It Begins

    I think I’ve vaguely touched upon the fact I was lining up a writing gig. It’s been confirmed for about two weeks, but I was waiting until all the paperwork was complete and I had my first assignment before I shared it with the world. This Saturday I will return to my earliest journalism roots and start covering high school…

  • Fives: Five Best Movie Experiences

    (This was supposed to be posted Friday. I made the list mentally Thursday, then when I sat down to put it together, had a total brain cramp on one entry in the list. Naturally I remembered it over the weekend, so here’s my delayed list.) Thursday I saw my first movie at a theater in over two years. I saw…

  • A Bad Case Of The Whys

    I was dumb for even thinking it. For some reason, since M. only used the word “why” occasionally, I thought we might miss out on the endless repetition of that word. Sadly, however, she’s come down with a bad case of the Whys. All of a sudden, she’s saying it roughly every 7.5 seconds. I blame those little monsters she…

  • Much Ado

    Rick Ankiel. Apparently I’m supposed to be shocked, appalled, devastated, and disappointed by the revelations that Cardinal outfielder Ankiel received shipments of HGH three years ago. Over the weekend the sports pages, airwaves, and blogosphere were full of people expressing strong sentiments about the news. I kept wondering why. First, I didn’t understand why Ankiel wasn’t subjected to the same…

  • Top Five Albums: Revolver

    No list of best albums is complete without a Beatles disk. I say that as someone who really didn’t like the Beatles for most of my life, finally learning about and appreciating their genius over the last five years or so. (My dislike for the Beatles was perhaps the first manifestation of my contrarian side. When I was little, my…

  • First Day(s)

    Big day today in la casa de B. It was M.’s first day of preschool and C.’s first day of class at Gymboree. As I have shared before, we’ve been working hard the last two weeks to get M. to understand that we would be dropping her off at preschool and leaving – no mommies or daddies allowed inside. She…

  • Top Five Albums: Achtung Baby

    All great bands must have an album that changes all the rules, destroys all expectations, and challenges their fans to open their minds to something new and unexpected. Achtung Baby was exactly that for U2, marking a dramatic shift from the sound they perfected on 1987’s The Joshua Tree. While U2 could have kept cranking out the same sound, and…

  • Fives: Favorite Albums

    Remember a while back when I mentioned a new gimmick of lists of five things I would be dropping on you? Haven’t seen list #2 yet, have you? Well, there is an explanation. This list is a biggie, and I’ve been struggling with how to properly roll it out to you. I’ve finally figured out how I want to do…