Lofts are hard to live in. Don’t let anyone fool you. Big open spaces with free-flowing floor plans and no walls sounds really fucking cool in a tree-house kind of way. And – to be honest – it sort of is. But the hipster-modern factor definitely has its drawbacks. Which is why I spent the first 10 [...]

It didn’t snow. The woman who answered the phone when I called to book our room at the Aster Inn was kind enough to give me her account of the situation: “There’ll be a little white on the ground for you when you get here, honey – but we haven’t had a flake fall down in [...]

… From last year’s Christmas column in the Oregonian. Christmas, 1985. I tear into a shiny metallic package from Santa Claus to reveal a long-coveted toy: a motorcycle noise-maker for my bicycle. I beg my father to install it immediately and then sit on my hot pink banana seat in the garage revving my new engine with [...]

It’s Christmas Eve. I’m going to be honest and admit to being a little bummed about not being snowed in like last year, but we’re headed north in the big rig and preparing for QT with family, an outdoor movie theater with the Polar Bear Express, and probably some fun photo-making. We’re not bringing bikes. Or probably [...]

There are a number of things in my life I would do very differently or not at all if I had the chance. My girls, my wife and all those hours and hours spent as an over enthusiastic spectator, or coach, or Santa Claus, or the "house of terror garage" creator / operator are things I wouldn't change for the world.

My mother and father have been reading my blog intently since I began shoving it down their throats roughly a year ago.  The idea of going back to a site again and again for new content is new to them – but they’re catching on. My mother is a newspaper columnist.  Or was.  Still is, I [...]