I remember hearing about the joys of parenthood many times over…and then I had 4 kids in 7 years. What joy is there in sleepless nights, constant mess, dirty diapers, monotonous routines, and sheer exhaustion? On top of that, I was told to try and have fun with my kids. Really? Comedian Jim Gaffigan put my...
As a parent of four, it’s very easy for me to spend a vast amount of my time cleaning up, watching out for, correcting, disciplining, planning, talking with, doing homework, entertaining, or resting from my kids. Over time, and sadly over a lot of wasted time, I’ve begun to realize how certain aspects of parenting are...
On a recent trip to Boston, I visited Fenway Park for the first time. Being at Fenway is like being in an old church. They have been playing baseball there since its gates were opened on April 20, 1912. It is the oldest park in the major leagues. I saw the Green Monster (pronounced “Monsta”...
When I was a high school student there was a large group of us that played a strange card game called “Mau.” This game was unlike any other card game I had played before, because the only way to learn it was to fail at it miserably. Let me explain. One of the first rules...
If you ever saw the classic 1987 movie ‘The Princess Bride’, you probably remember Vizzini as the short Sicilian man whose plots to kidnap the princess were disrupted by the ‘inconceivable’. In his last scene, as he engages the Man in Black in a battle of wits, he tells Wesley that he fell victim to a classic...
Are you sitting down? Because I have something crazy to tell you. Your spouse probably speaks a different language than you do. No, I’m not talking about that Spanish class you took freshman year, and I’m certainly not talking about English. (Although some of you might swear your spouse doesn’t understand English sometimes…) I’m talking...
Alright ladies and gents, it’s time for the third installment in our current series “How Can I Make My Marriage Last?” We previously discussed John Gottman’s 5:1 ratio in PART ONE, and then addressed some marriage killers affectionately known as the Four Horsemen in PART TWO. Obviously we couldn’t leave you hanging without the antidotes to...
In my last blog entry, I dropped some science in your lap about John Gottman’s 5:1 ratio of positive interactions to negative interactions. What you did with that info is your business, but I hope you went home and made some love bank deposits. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out...
Valentine’s Day was a couple of weeks ago, and if you’re still dating your significant other you might have spent the evening staring into each other’s eyes, trading loving caresses and coming up with pet names for one another. If you’ve already been married for a while, however, you might have gotten a heart-shaped box...
I am reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I am going beyond the text by watching old videos online, including a joint discussion with Jobs and Bill Gates of Microsoft that took place in 2007 where they talk about the history of the personal computer and what Jobs called Post-PC devices. I love reading about...
