Category Archives: Family

Family, Life

Hugs

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I’ve largely stopped paying attention to news cycles, specifically local and regional news and opt to stay informed via social media, specifically Twitter. My disgust with television news began about ten years ago when my wife and I lived in our last apartment in Chicago and literally everything reported on was death. Non-stop death and pain and I just didn’t see the point in turning on the tv to that every morning. I couldn’t even watch the local news if I wanted to since I’ve been without an active television signal for about six years now. I’ll not turn this into a rant about how much cable services suck on pretty much all levels as this is largely a rant about sensational news reporting and my extreme distaste for it.

Life is hard, people get hurt, people die, bad people get away with things that they shouldn’t get away with, I get it. To wake up every morning and have someone smilingly read you those very same points over and over again day after day is very tiring. I dared not become desensitized to it and just turned off the tv. For good.

Entertainment delivered to me via a large glowing panel of liquid crystal are now mostly fictional tales about people who run fast or have some other sort of superpower. I like it this way since the death and dismemberment news cycle is still spinning, faster and more furious than ever before.

When I do occasionally catch a glimpse of the cold world outside that feeds the mass media all I want to do is go home and hug my family until they get sick of me, which is sometimes pretty soon if I haven’t shaved in awhile or someone’s in the middle of a video game. And my wife just thinks I’m trying to get fresh so I can’t really catch a break when there are hugs to give out.

Charlie, Family, Life

Death of the pizza

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I’ve been making pizza from scratch for a good long while now. I started when Ginger and I were living in the apartment in Chicago and I got a bread making recipe book that had a really good pizza crust recipe in it. I would up serving that pizza at parties and for guests to many favorable reviews and continued to make it when we moved out to the house in the burbs but eventually started using a pre-made dough that a local grocer offered. It made things much easier and didn’t taste all that different and I’d actually grown to like it even a little better than the recipe I started with.

Eventually it became a tradition to make it for the kids, one I very much enjoyed. It’s really nice to be able to make something for someone where that’s their favorite of that thing, I was always happy to do it. Well, just recently my oldest decided that my pizza is no longer his favorite, even so much as he didn’t eat any of it when it was served and opted eventually for something else that night for dinner. At first I was a little rattled, wondering the whole time if I’d somehow screwed up the recipe or maybe did something slightly different that would throw him off. He’s actually very sensitive to little changes in food and has been for a long time, it would not have surprised me if it was a small misstep that I was unaware of that threw him. At least I hope it was that, until it happened again.

With Charlie’s relatively recent expansion of his palette, I can’t take it too personally and really shouldn’t even if that wasn’t the case. My tastes have changed over the past few years to include things that I wouldn’t have ever considered eating previously so I understand how it all comes around eventually. I do hope I can find something that he enjoys me cooking for him but with as much as I cook lately it’ll probably be a bit before that happens.

Charlie, Family, Jimmy, Life

Thank you, best family ever.

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It’s nice to sit back and count your accomplishments for the year and realize that you got there with the help of a fantastic support system, specifically an amazing family that has achieved quite a bit on its own in the very same year and it still going strong, full speed into the next year without showing signs of slowing down.

My amazing wife is a published illustrator, again. She might take her previous efforts of getting published in fantasy work lightly but it was really an affirmation that showed she’s had it in her all along. Not small potatoes either; however, this is big time now. Every major book retailer sells her new book, and it’s something she’s really proud of and me and the boys are pretty damn proud of her for it. It’s a major accomplishment and totally freaking cool to go to Amazon.com, search for her name and have legitimate results come up. People try their entire lives for something like that and never make it, this was her first try at children’s book illustration. First. Proud hubby, very proud.

My boys continue to amaze me on a daily basis but sitting back and taking stock of a year to realize how well they are growing up and how wonderful they are gives a different perspective on their overall achievements and development as boys on their way to adulthood. I say that lightly since I’m sure that if I pause for at least one second to let them get ahead of me I’ll be staring at two full grown men before I know it so there’ll be no resting and plenty of reflection on their years as well as mine. Especially since they’re doing so well with that growing up thing they keep doing.

I thank my family for being the type that pushes you to be better, the type that supports you along the way and the type that makes it easier to do the hard stuff because they are totally worth every bit of blood, sweat and tears that goes into it. Love you, best family ever, and happy new year.