Welcome to Kitchen Stadium!

My  brother Colin is one of my favorite people on earth. He is 18 – almost exactly 10 years younger than me – but in many ways, I think he’s the family member I’m the most like.  For example, we share a passionate commitment to laziness; we have been known to argue about who is [...]

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“I’ll Just Eyeball It”: Or, Why I’m Not Allowed To Move For At Least Five Years

The one stereotypically male trait I don’t have and really, really want is the Spatial Sense Gene. I so do not have this gene, and I am constantly, endlessly aware of it.  You know what I’m talking about.  It’s the instinctive way dads have of figuring out exactly what order to load everything into your [...]

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The DPC (Dead Parents Club): Or, In Defense of Gallows Humor

Jordan was first. When my close friend Jordan – husband of my best friend Erin – told me his dad had shot himself, the whole world changed for all of us.  My mom was sick at the time, in the second year of her ultimately three-year battle with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as [...]

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Hell Triathlon: or, Why I Want To Know the Random Things That Inexplicably Infuriate You

So for some reason, I absolutely LOVE to know people’s random irritants.  I can’t get enough.  I love knowing the stuff people don’t like.  I’m not talking about reasonable, universal dislikes (spiders, Paris Hilton, interpretive dance) or ideological dislikes (Bill O’Reilly, Michael Moore, whoever is currently president or was president most recently, and whatever they [...]

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Sal, Dorothy, Lydia & Glen

TRAITS INHERITED FROM MY GRANDMOTHER LYDIA (DAD’S MOM): Obsession with Watergate. Argumentativeness. Stubbornness. Pride in being smarter than people. “Tough love.” Love of retro kitsch like plaster seahorses in the bathroom or commemorative plates from every state in the U.S. Terrible eating habits. Sass. Fierce protectiveness of family. TRAITS INHERITED FROM MY GRANDFATHER GLEN (DAD’S [...]

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My Parents

An excerpt from an article that appeared on the front page of the Oregonian on Easter Sunday (April 8th), 2007, written by our friend Nancy Haught, the Oregonian’s religion editor. The Crossroads of Faith For Christians, Easter is a time to reflect on their lives and their journey While many people celebrate Easter with new [...]

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