The Rewards of Fatherhood, Fitness and Frugality

Flickr by gremlin90

So this past weekend I’m watching Liam Neeson’s latest flick, Taken. It’s one of those movies where you can tell the plot and the ending just from the trailer. But it’s definitely a movie that caught my attention the first time I saw the trailer run in the theater. What? Some masked men are taking this dude’s daughter? Maaaaaan, that heat started welling up in me immediately. I immediately put myself in Bryan Mills’ (Neeson’s character) place. Maaaaaan! If someone tried to take my babies!! Boooy! Umph! Umph, umph, umph.

Only a father of daughters can really know what that “heat” I referred to earlier feels like. Those cats at 20th Century Fox had sold me a ticket although I hadn’t purchased it yet. After I finally saw this movie, I thought about all the movies that had fathers who definitely earned their “Big Piece of Chicken”. Here are 10 that come to mind: [Read more →]

Flickr by tantek

How tempting is it to go it alone? The American spirit celebrates the individual and treats achievements as if they were all self obtained. So each one of us has a little something in us that makes us want to be a trailblazer. We’ll look at someone doing something with ease and skill and think emphatically to ourselves, “I can do that.”

I’ve done it myself. I’ve seen a furnace put into a buddy’s rental property and after it was said and done, I thought I knew a few things about installing furnaces. I’ve tackled small plumbing jobs around the house on my own. I have even given myself a haircut. I have had varying degrees of success with each endeavor. I won’t go into details. But I will say that my degree of success was highly correlative to the amount of time and effort I put into practicing and studying the endeavor prior to attempting it which was very little.

I am a true believer that anyone, given enough time and the right tools, can learn to do anything. The question becomes, should anyone do anything. The answer is probably no. [Read more →]

Flickr by lilybdcsa

I thought I’d take this “25 Random Things…” meme I’ve been getting from a bunch of my friends and put a BPC twist on it.

1. When Chocolate Thunda (my 3-year-old daughter) curses like a sailor (so far it’s just “sh#t” and “f*ck”) I have to hide my face in a pillow or look away because it’s hilarious to me.
2. Being called “Dad” or “Daddy” is about the best thing in life I can think of but hearing it 30 times in less than 5 minutes makes me want to pull my hair out… what’s left of it.
3. I know all the Top 40 hits because I can’t listen to hip-hop in my car anymore.
4. Thing One (my 8-year-old daughter) was being followed by two boys, probably about 10-years-old each, on bikes the end of last summer while the two of us were walking to a movie. I finally asked what they wanted, one got scared and rode away and the other said quickly and loudly to my daughter “You have pretty hair!” Then he high-tailed it. They must have seen the steam coming from my ears. NOT UNTIL SHE’S 21 PUNKS!!!
5. I don’t believe in spanking but I raise my voice way too often.
6. I hate playdates!
7. T-One is smarter (and tougher) than me and C-Thunda is tougher (and smarter) than me.
8. I have cried more since I turned 30 years-old than I did in the 30 years prior to that. Having daughters will make you sensitive.
9. Sons are so overrated. “Sigh”.
10. My stomach aches when they go back to their mom’s on her visitation time.
11. I know how to wash, condition, wet-set, braid, cornrow, flatten and curl.
12. I wish my daughters liked me as much as they like Blooregard Q. Kazoo.

[Read more →]

I have had some tech difficulties with the WordPress software and am in the process of rebuilding the site. Please remain patient.

Thanks.
Ben