Why I Oughta...

I suppose it is more like seventeen years and seven weeks.  I seem to have missed chronicling the 17 year mark of publishing the Web here on the blog back in February.  February 16, 2004 was my very first post on my Weblog that traveled from JoinTomCross to RhodesSchool to JakeParrillo.  But, thankfully (lol), I've brought over all of those posts to this one place online.  Seventeen years is a long time for anything. For me, it is 40% of my life.  I fell in love with the Web back in 2004 and haven't looked back.  But, plenty of you others have moved on - to other platforms and other tools.  But for me, there's a lot of joy to be putting my fingers to the keyboard and everyday: " Show up, sit down and type. " That exercise - writing something, every day, is because I fear atrophy.  As I've reached my 40's, I realize (painfully so) that my body is atrophy'ing.  But, my mind?  And the idea of creating?  I can fight that off by pushing "publish"

There's a well-established pattern of a spouse using their social media presence to wish birthday greetings on their partner.  It is a nice little experience - in that one gets to express their birthday wishes and (typically), the partners share parts of the social graph, so the community of friends and contacts get to weigh in. And while, I *have* social media profiles, I actually don't use them to post.  But, like any child-of-the-Web-who-came-of-age-online-in-the-early-aughts, I have a blog.  And, I can use that to crow about our family MVP Natalie. I'm posting this on July 11th - which isn't her birthday.  But, like some of you, she gets the daily email that gets sent out with my posts on the following day.  So, when she reads this (or you are reading this), it will be her birthday. Nat is the glue that keeps us together.  But, she's also leading by example for our three kids in every facet of her life.  She's the leading voice in their world on r

Today marks the beginning of my 40th trip around the Sun and as such, it seems like an appropriate time to ponder the state of the blog.  Yeah...I'm a blogger.  And have been so for more than 14 years.  I have the archives to prove it !  I started with the JoinCross Blog and then RhodesSchool and have been settled in here at "Why I oughta" on my personal domain for more than a decade.  And now with more than 3,000 individual posts, I've left behind quite a bit of digital and personal brick-a-brack over the years - especially with a handful of recent one-post-per-day-every-day years.  I'm on track to keep up the one-post-per-day for 2018, too. Like a lot of you guys, I've read a bunch of the 'is blogging dead' pieces like this one, but a few have stuck out and I feel are worth sharing to talk about the place of a personal blog in the face of publishing platforms like Facebook and Twitter and Instagram what-have-you.  Now...I'm on Facebook a

Depending on when you read this, it *might* be Nat's birthday.  I know that the only way she consumes my nonsense here on the blog is via the email broadcasts that go out in the mornings, so I'm posting this on June 11th knowing that she'll end up reading it on June 12th. Or, more likely, she herself, *might* read this.  And her not reading my pithy blog posts isn't a slight.  It is due to the fact that she barely gets a moment to herself and is always in a constant state of movement. I likely don't need to tell you all this, but, because of all that she does for us, as the title of this post states, she's our family MVP. Without her, we wouldn't be here and mostly dressed in clean clothes.  Despite her hating my socks with mandals look and protesting at every turn, she keeps us all on track and the kids looking good and in good health.  If I'm not wearing a tshirt and dirty shorts (with my socks and mandals), that's because Nat had the good

Mickey the Mouse was born on November 18th, 1928.  And we happened to be in the parks on November 18th of 2016.  As we walked in, they handed out these cute pins.  They're all over eBay for up to $7 a piece, which is nuts.  Ours will be on the girls pin boards where they'll be right in line with their other pins they've collected/traded for over the years.

Hard to believe that the Babe has hit seven years of age.  Went by in a blink.

Over the weekend, we gathered friends and family and celebrated our little guy's first birthday.   There's more over on the family blog, but if you've been to a first birthday party, you know the best part of the entire thing is watching what the baby will do (or not do) with his own cake.  Some kids smash their face/fists in.  Some kids don't do a thing.  Some kids just wail and push it off their table.   Mine?  He picked up the whole thing and ate his cake like a boss.  

That is all.

Today we celebrated my dear wife on the occasion of her birthday.  We also got together on Thursday (her actual Birthday) to celebrate along with my Mother who shares the same day, but these celebrations at the Moran Household are always very special.  I certainly don't say it enough, but my God, this is one special woman.  She's an amazing wife, a heroic Momma, and a spectacular Best Friend.  Love her more every single day.

How very thoughtful of the fine folks at Menards:  they gave me this 14 piece LED precision screwdriver set last week for my 34th Birthday.  I've been accused (rightly) of having a Menards addiction.  Now, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing; I just prefer to do my shopping there over Home Depot or Lowes not based on location (HD is 5 minutes from our house, Menards is 15) but on a number of factors including price, knowledge of the store layout, a better seasonal section, their Christmas stuff in particular, and their selection. This screwdriver set retails for like $15.00.  For that small amount, they've bought even more goodwill from me now that will likely ensure that I spend all of my home improvement dollars there.  That's just good marketing.

My sister Vic gave me this Fighting Ilini candy bar for my birthday over the weekend.  Pretty clever idea by the folks at Russell Stover to license NCAA teams, isn't it?  Makes buying a chocolate bar a neat gift, doesn't it?  Thanks, Vic!

Yes.  Today is *both* my wife Natalie and my mother Dorothy birthday.  Crazy, eh? As we've done in year's past, we went up to Ravinia to celebrate.  Just like last year, they both are holding cupcakes in the photo , but because we went to see the CSO, they're 'shhhhsh-ing' us like the folks sitting around our group were doing all night.  Here's two incredible special women that I wouldn't be the same without in my life.  Happy Birthday, Nat.  You too, Ma!

Today is his 8th Birthday and to celebrate, we went out to Home Run Inn for pizza and (the best part) a Cookie Monster.  Based on this photo, I'm not sure which one of us is more excited about digging into the Cookie Monster. We were supposed to go to the batting cages before dinner, but the weather didn't cooperate so we opted for a quick game at the Cosmic Bowl. Happy Birthday, G-Man!

It is Birthday Week on the blog it seems.  First, it was Balone's birthday on Monday and now I'll chronicle one of the Babe's cousins' big day. Yesterday, we were able to stop by my sister's (and Equation Boy/Man's) place for a quick birthday party for her son's 5th Birthday celebration.  This was just some parts of our family who could get together, but it was fun.  The birthday boy is also my Godson so he gets a little bit of extra attention from me!  Happy Birthday, buddy! He's wearing his Bulls jersey - to mark the occasion.  While the cake looked delicious, I did not have any, unfortunately.  I have a tuxedo I'm trying to fit into in 10 days.

Here's to the only guy I know who still has a Birthday Party at his parents house in the suburbs - my good friend Jason.  I've know Jason for the better than 25 years and he's a pretty a pretty amazing guy.  From his critter days to lots of laughs along the way, I'm proud to call him a friend.  Happy Birthday, Jason!  BTW...Look who got in there right next to the cake (on the right):  the Babe with her Noonie (My mom).  She looks mesmerized by the candles, doesn't she?  (it was past her bedtime, so that may be the reason.) Although the weather didn't cooperate and there wasn't any Jarts, Whiffle ball nor beanbags, there was a lot of fun.  Thanks for having us, Balone.  Can't wait until next year.

What a party Nat threw today!  Wow - she did a great job with all the details.  Thanks to everyone for coming! And...special thanks to Uncle Bill for his chalk rendering.

Happy Birthday to my lovely bride, today!  Here's to MANY more happy years.   Hope today is a great day. Love....Teej and the Wheeze And...strangely enough, Happy Birthday to my Mother.  Born on the same day, some years apart.   The photo above is from this weekend's festivities at Ravinia.  Cheap Trick/Squeeze were a lot of fun as we toasted the two birthday ladies.