| FAMILY, LIFE |
2023-09-26 |
 End of an Era, Part II
End of an Era Part I here.
Logic dictates that when one thing ends, another thing begins, and this new era has plenty of interesting fodder in the folds. For one, it, the new era, is marked by Marty and I being the parents of three grown children. There are many curious things about watching your children ste...
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| FAMILY, LIFE |
2023-09-25 |
 End of an Era, Part I
Bella and I were sitting on the couch. I hadn't seen her in several days. Before now, travel-aside, I could count on one hand the number of times I did not see my oldest child for consecutive days. But those times have passed. Now, seeing her two days in a row is the unusual experience. As we sat catching up, she said she recently had a few tough emo...
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| FAMILY, FRIENDS, LIFE |
2022-12-22 |
 I'm going to close this year's books by sharing the best parental compliment Marty and I have ever received. Bookpimp and I were catching up after not having spoken for a few months. After giving him the family updates, the following ensued.
BOOKPIMP
If you and Marty had another kid, they'd be a shithead right?
TROY
Uhh, what?
BOOKPIMP
If you and Marty had a...
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| ENTERTAINMENT, FAMILY, LIFE |
2022-12-21 |
 Now that the kids are older and either moved out or are often out, Marty and I are edging our way into those scary waters where a couple has just one another to talk to. When I was younger, I thought this period would resemble life before having kids. Light. Carefree. Easy. In some ways, it is, but when you have sent children you love more than you thought possible into the world, I think my mind ...
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| FAMILY, LIFE |
2022-12-20 |
 Alex recently came to Marty and asked if she was ok. She was and said as much. He asked again, seemingly not believing her first answer. She repeated she was fine and asked why he was asking. He said that he noticed that she had not made dinner on two of the three nights this week. Marty took a moment to recall the week, and yes, because of some atypical evening events, we did not have our usual f...
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| ENTERTAINMENT, FAMILY, LIFE, TECHNOLOGY, WEB |
2022-12-15 |
 MARTY
This is Marty's tenth year back in the classroom, after taking a nine year hiatus to stay home with our kids. This year she returned to peak form. She would have gotten there sooner, but the covid-disruption set everyone's plans back. She is a marvel in the classroom and is someone who connects with young people far better than most. I see this every time we go to a school event in the w...
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| FAMILY, LIFE, WEB |
2022-12-14 |
 For years Bella wanted to be a waitress. I believe this began after she heard, "waitresses make bank!" After working a few counter-service jobs, she got hired at Red Lobster. They said she couldn't serve tables because she had no experience, but they would start her as a hostess and get her waiting tables in time. That never happened, and after a half year or so, Bella gave notice.
She t...
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| ENTERTAINMENT, FAMILY, LIFE, SPORT |
2022-12-13 |
 Anthony. Where to even begin in describing what it's like to exist near a now 16-year-old Anthony Walter DeArmitt.
His life mantra for the past few years has been, "it will probably be ok," and to date, he has been 100% right.
Even though academics might be one of his top skills/gifts, he has applied to a trade school where he will study the construction arts in his last two ye...
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| FAMILY, LIFE |
2022-12-12 |
 I recently, to Marty, compared Anthony to Bella saying that something he did reminded me of her. With zero pause, Marty quickly corrected me with the following.
Bella appears confident, even when she is not.
Anthony is confident, genuinely confident, and is never pretending.
Then you have Alex who might not look confident b... |
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| FAMILY, LIFE |
2022-12-09 |
 Anthony walks into the kitchen to find me running the last serving from a box of Raisin Bran through a kitchen strainer.
ANTHONY (15)
Are you washing your cereal?
TROY
No, just sifting all the tiny broke pieces out. I don't like those.
ANTHONY
That's quite a process.
TROY
Not really. I've learned you just gotta be smarter than your problems.
...
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| ENTERTAINMENT, FAMILY, LIFE, SOCIETY |
2022-12-08 |
 Bella will graduate from college in December 2022. She will receive a degree in Public Policy & Administration. We, her parents, are doubly grateful as her college experience got off to a faltering start, mostly because she didn't want to go. She wanted to volunteer at a woman's shelter in Nepal straight out of high school. Marty and I deemed attending college a non-negotiable, at least for the fi...
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| ENTERTAINMENT, FRIENDS, LIFE |
2022-12-07 |
 Best friend Mike, known around these parts as Bookpimp, recently turned 50. To mark the milestone, he had planned a gathering of his three best buds, which techinically is two best friends and a brother. The original celebration got axed by the pandemic but was salvaged in late 2022 when things started normalizing. Months before the gathering, I reached out to the other two invitees, unbeknowst to...
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| ENTERTAINMENT, FAMILY, LIFE |
2022-12-06 |
 Aleo began his college career this Fall. Like Bella, he elected to stay local. I already talked about his unsolicited scholarship, which made his attendance in a film program at this private university possible.
Alex has been interested in video production for years. He's watched hundreds, possibly thousands, of hours of videos on the subject...
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| ENTERTAINMENT, FAMILY, LIFE |
2022-12-05 |
 After her morning shower, Marty dashes to the basement to get clean underwear. All she had on was a tank top. When she rounded the corner into the laundry room she saw anthony standing there, wearing only a hooded sweatshirt and, like her, no pants or underwear. Seeing his naked buttocks she pulled up and the following ensued.
MARTY
Oh!
ANFER (16)
Oh. hey.
MART...
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| FAMILY, LIFE |
2021-12-29 |
 It was a Friday. Marty was home because it was parent-teacher conference week. On these weeks, Marty works three, twelve-hour days and, in return, gets a Friday off. The boys were home too because if there are no teachers, there is no school.
I woke at my usual time and started working. After a few hours, I heard Marty's feet pad to the bathroom. I snuck to our bed, so I was there for ou...
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| ENTERTAINMENT, FAMILY, LIFE |
2021-12-28 |
 Yesterday I talked about the challenging and rewarding parts of the deck project. Today let me share the most exciting part of the build. A few years ago, Marty got me a GoPro for Christmas. It was a great gift and something I often use. I record everything from tennis matches to family dinners. A new thing I've been using it for is to make time lapses of work I do. ...
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| ENTERTAINMENT, LIFE |
2021-12-27 |
 Our deck has been falling apart. Though it might be more accurate to say that our deck fell apart, and we have just been crossing the remnants of what used to be our deck. We didn't fix it earlier because we were planning on addressing it when we did our complete home renovation. The problem is that the complete home renovation's start date keeps getting pushed back, and the deck ran out of life. ...
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| ENTERTAINMENT, FAMILY, FRIENDS, LIFE |
2021-12-23 |
 A friend of mine wrote a musical. I knew he'd been working on it for a few years. I mainly knew because he asked me to go to some recording studio and scream into a microphone for a demo reel. After a few takes, they thanked me for my time and sent me home. Not a soul was surprised. I'm a writer, not a yeller.
Then one day years later, he mentioned, in passing, that his musical was being...
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| FAMILY, LIFE |
2021-12-22 |
 Anthony began high school this year. This means a few things. First, it is the last time he and his brother will attend the same school at the same time. They had a nice long run in elementary but will only have this one year left. Unless you count the covid year, that was a very special setup for the two of them as they spent that entire year side by side, and as each other's best friend, they we...
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| ENTERTAINMENT, FAMILY, LIFE |
2021-12-21 |
 Alex would not be described as an outdoorsman. He lands squarely in the home-body category and this includes even staying inside his home. This became a conversation point at a family dinner. We were telling Alex he needed to get out more. Get some exercise. Get some sun. When the sun topic came up, the following exchange took place.
MARTY
You should sit outside everyday for fifteen ...
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| FAMILY, FRIENDS, LIFE, WEB |
2021-12-20 |
 When I worked at the university, one of their benefits was free tuition for your children. When I left the university in 2016 to start my company (and when Bella was a high school junior), I walked away from a million-dollar tuition benefit. In fact, the benefit was so valuable, there is an employment syndrome there called the golden handcuffs. This happens when someone no longer likes their job b...
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| FAMILY, LIFE |
2021-12-17 |
 One of the first things I do each day is make note of what happened the day before.
Each year, there are always a few stand-out days. This year that day was May 4th, 2021. Here is my daily re-cap from that day.
- this was anthony's first day back to school in over a year. he has to go in for end-of-term testing and they won't/can't let kids do that from home. i could tell anthony...
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| FAMILY, LIFE, SPORT |
2021-12-16 |
 For as long as I can remember, I've been telling Anthony there are two things he should try–debate and wrestling. Debate because he has an unreasonably able mind and wit. Wrestling because when young he spent as much time climbing trees as he did walking the earth. As a result, Anthony sports a collection of striated muscles that would be the envy of even the most committed gym-rat. After every ...
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| ENTERTAINMENT, FAMILY, LIFE |
2021-12-15 |
 Marty turned 50 last year. Her main gift was passports for the entire family. I know that to your average person, that seems like a pretty lame present, but those who know Marty realize it is spot-on. First, she has been talking about getting passports for the kids (and renewing our own) for many years. Second, this has never happened because of the hassle and the expense.
So the kids an...
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