A Father's Confessions 10:13 PM

After my boy goes to sleep, there is a void in my house and heart. There are no heavy feet "hopping", no fat cheeks to kiss, no little stout torso to tackle you when you aren't looking, and no sweet voice calling out a favorite Thomas the Tank Engine (Toby, which sounds more like "Oby!").

Sometimes, the hole in my heart is too much, so I tiptoe around the "choo-choos", put my chin on his crib, and gaze at my no-longer-baby boy. He lays there with stretched-neck under-stuffed kitty in one hand, Toby in the other, blanket ("hanket"), stuffed basketball ("beebaw!"), and Elmo ("Melmo") all kicked to the side.

I wonder how often my Father tiptoes around my toys and puts his chin on the side of my bed?

In about ten hours, we will be awakened by some combination of "My Mommy!" "My Daddy!" "Out!" and "Poo Poo!" I will go to him, place my hands under his outstretched arms and say, "Good Morning, my son."

Necessary Reform 8:56 PM

There is a crisis in this nation.

If left unchecked, this crisis threatens to obliterate the very foundation of our existence. There can be no compromise. Rather, we must stand steadfast and demand the following reforms as if our lives and legacy depended on them...because they do.

I am talking of Waiting Room Reform.

The Waiting Room does not discriminate between right, left, man, woman, black, white, Christian, or pagan. It is a black hole of brimstone with a two-month old Good Housekeeping orbiting a galaxy of airborne assassins. There can be no rest until the following reforms are implemented - deficit or not!

1) Each waiting room shall have a variety of selection of magazines. I am not interested in how Kirstie Alley got her bikini body back, nor do I plan on expending the time or the attention necessary to keep up with the Mating Habits of Amazonian Monkeys. Further, the ten minute tuna casserole is of no interest to me. Waiting Rooms should contain magazines for all genders and interest...let's say, Time, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, and People. Good Housekeeping (which has hitherto had a monopoly on waiting rooms) is permanently banned. Money spent on the fish tank can be better spent in magazine subscriptions.

2) Each waiting room shall have up to date magazines. Time capsules belong in the ground and in the back of yearbooks.

3) Each chair shall not share armrests. I understand that patient privacy laws prevent me from determining what is wrong with the person whose arm is rubbing against mine. Rubbing arms is the front line in defending disease.

4) Each chair shall contain mandatory sanitary dispensers that spray like the produce at Kroger. Constant freshness and sanitary-ness.

5) Prevent particular television shows. What did waiting rooms show prior to The View? Daytime television (I am looking at you too, Arthur) is banned from waiting room television sets. The Price is Right is the only exception. Waiting rooms must only show movies that one would stop and watch if you catch them while flipping through channels. These movies include anything that is a trilogy, anything by Pixar, and anything with Tom Cruise. Saved by the Bell is also acceptable.

6) People are slotted in seats based on sickness. I love Jesus, I want to love people like Jesus loves me, but I do not want to sit next to someone who is throwing up. Thus, there should be the following color-coded sections in each doctor's office waiting room. 1. cold / respiratory issues 2. diarrhea 3. vomiting 4. unknown / multiple systems. Someone will have to help me choose the colors...I am color blind.

I will continue to pay 25% of my salary for health insurance only if these bi-partisan reforms are implemented.

This Is Hot 1:24 PM

This guy and the guy with the homemade Wolverine claws should get together. I would never go above the speed limit again.

Poor Boy Pitino 1:58 PM

In an integrity emergency, please break glass and do the following.

1) Blame the media. (Pitino: You guys are the ones that are showing this...It's a sad day when Ted Kennedy dies (this is in the news)...If you are a fan of anything good this program has done, pleas watch something else...read something else.")

2) Smear / talk-down your accuser (Pitino:"This person... Her husband is trying to get 100% custody of the children...")

3) Play the family card ( (Pitino: "This has been hell for my wife nad my family. My friends and family had to read this garbage / these vicious things...")

4) Point forwards to the trial. ( (Pitino: " I will wait to the trial...my lawyers have asked me not to speak about this...the truth will come out.")

5) Claim you are ready to move forward (Pitino: "Let's move onto ... crucial things in life like basketball.")

6) Claim "victim" status. ( Angry Pitino: "I've been blackmailed...it's a sad commentary on our society (that we are paying attention to this)" )

Pitino Problemo 8:24 PM

In the land where the grass is blue (but it's really green), hearts are hung on ten-foot hoops. In this painted-area promised land, Rick Pitino has been anointed (not begrudgingly) savior not once but twice - resurrecting a penalized Kentucky program and shaking the University of Louisville out of the Denny Crum doldrums. The man in the white suit then slapped his savior-ship on two books and products stretching from Louisville to Lexington.

And now the other shoe...and the pants..have dropped. Pitino the father and husband has admitted to an affair and a payment for either an abortion or health insurance.

Despite his Xs and Os genius, Pitino was unable to XYZ and the response has been more difficult than getting caught in said zipper.

I will be torn - the name on the jersey represents a place I love enough to throw up a "rock on" sign at the mere mention of "the ville". Yet the self-described devout Catholic and his supporters fail to grasp the gravity of the situation. Pitino not only marketed his success, but also his piety. Not just his heart for the hardwood but his passion for people and their success.

And thus, Pitino can prove his ultimate love for others by not only admitting his mistake, but also accepting the consequences therein - by resigning. Never mind that coaches should be worthy of respect and universities should be places of learning and character building, Pitino can prove himself to be the man he calls others to be by sparing his family the vicious and vociferous venom lobbed at his loved ones. Regardless of whatever consequences he has felt like he deserves, his wife and sons deserve none. By falling on his clipboard, Pitino not only protects his family but incarnates his ultimate demand from his players: team play.

Voice in the Wilderness 9:05 PM

I am the voice, calling in the wilderness. I am the voice of love, of reason, of a life connected with God...and sometimes I pop up out of nowhere to share my prophetic guidance.

High Five 10:43 PM

What are the moments that changed everything? The things that, when you relate them in story are preceded by an ominous “and then it happened.” The happenings that don’t hit your plan off course but rebound a new one into existence. What are the flashbang moments that caste everything in back-lit relief?

If you could shave the whole of your experience to a flash-bulb beginning – what would it be? Not the birth of a child, or the passion-underscored conception of it, but the fleeting first glance, the hesitant first kiss, or the initial dawning of daydreaming love.

Mine would be this: a sticky summer night where flag-football practice gave way to the blue-eyed brunette on the sidelines. My friend Dustin called the brunette for himself, and I nodded with zero intention of agreeing. She was mine. Several months later, in a dorm room kitchen over creamy EZ-Mac, I told that brunette that I was falling in love with her. Four years later, on the banks of the Ohio River, I slipped a ring on her finger and told her that I would love her forever. Five years later, I love her more than I did then. My life is cast with a Dana backdrop that enhances and improves each part of it. I would have it no other way.