tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67267015852154406062008-07-25T23:17:09.634-04:00Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comBlogger109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-76820946428997478312008-07-23T00:01:00.001-04:002008-07-23T00:01:01.611-04:00

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-52145835663766206682008-07-19T13:17:00.008-04:002008-07-22T09:51:41.874-04:00

I received this in an e-mail. Whether it's true or not isn't a concern of mine. I think the message is very clear. "Some people!" snorted a man standing behind me in the long line at the grocery store. 'You would think the manager would pay attention and open another line," said a woman. I looked to the front of the line to see what the hold up was and saw a well dressed, young woman, trying to

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-38581518965899065792008-07-16T00:00:00.000-04:002008-07-16T00:00:01.037-04:00

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-35119289573635466222008-07-11T06:00:00.008-04:002008-07-11T19:45:05.488-04:00

In an article by Nicholas Carr that I caught most of on TheAtlantic.com, the dumbing down of America is being blamed on the Internet, and more specifically Google. I began reading "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" wondering if the article would be about the spelling of keywords used to search for specific topics, or maybe the fact that we no longer had to commit anything to memory simply because we

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-23827932899751009502008-07-09T00:30:00.001-04:002008-07-09T00:30:00.822-04:00

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-79801077633559599542008-07-06T22:38:00.009-04:002008-07-07T12:11:38.202-04:00

Today is the day I told David that he would show me a maturity level to match his age, which is something that he's refused to do for over four years. I shared with him last night that when he came to me, he was an 11 year-old exhibiting 8 year-old behaviors. He's nearly 16, and by his own admission (in a previous conversation), he's now exhibiting--on a consistent basis--the behaviors of an 11

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-56447023133571949742008-07-03T18:00:00.006-04:002008-07-03T20:51:32.310-04:00

I had a bunch to do last weekend in order to prepare for a gathering our church youth group's teenagers had planned for Monday night. They were coming to practice a puppet show they'll be performing for the younger children during August's Vacation Bible Camp, and were wanting to swim in the pool afterward. On Saturday, David asked me what I had planned for the day. I told him that I had to

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-80274104900853822552008-07-02T00:30:00.002-04:002008-07-02T00:30:00.729-04:00

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-37234170693700291252008-06-26T06:51:00.002-04:002008-06-26T09:40:56.317-04:00

Best Life Online has released its list of the 100 Best Places to Raise a Family. Congratulations to the city of Virginia Beach, which came in second to Honolulu, and was one of only two east coast cities to crack the top twenty. You can view the rest of the list (and see if your city made it!) on Best Life Online. Although Best Life Magazine shares the criteria they used to determine their Top

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-26459852455139514272008-06-25T00:01:00.002-04:002008-06-25T00:01:01.158-04:00

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-34417077910068317982008-06-22T19:38:00.011-04:002008-06-23T16:04:41.319-04:00

One year ago, my son was received into the Orthodox Church. I documented this occasion with a blog post entitled "Illumined on June 23, 2007." In the past year, I've seen him develop relationships with the other children at church, earn second place on the parish level in the St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival, serve during a very exhausting Holy Week, volunteer to help the church Men's

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-21740119801808141522008-06-20T23:04:00.012-04:002008-06-21T00:41:06.309-04:00

This year marked the fifth year I've lived in this house. I've always liked the pool, not only because it's a refreshing place to seek shelter from the heat and an obvious place to get some much needed exercise, but also because it takes up a nice chunk of backyard leaving me with less lawn to mow. Sure, it takes some time to maintain, but the half hour I spend a couple of times a week getting

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-3085987561719814092008-06-18T00:01:00.001-04:002008-06-25T00:03:27.814-04:00

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-30478690892837889842008-06-16T06:00:00.001-04:002008-06-16T12:31:24.909-04:00

I remember the first weekend my son spent with me, he looked out the back window, saw a swimming pool with a deep end and a diving board and said "You didn't tell me you had a pool!" I responded with "Well you didn't tell me you knew how to swim. Do you?" "Sure I do." I opened the pool early that year, and during his spring break we took that first frosty dip. He was a little clumsy in the

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-78640474637421710462008-06-12T22:00:00.010-04:002008-06-15T23:21:04.180-04:00

I'm still in a bit of a state of shock after receiving the news yesterday that my former roommate and friend of nearly 20 years died from liver disease. I spoke to his wife last night, (she and their children are in Chicago, he was with his parents in Kentucky) who said she'd had a conversation with him the night before and he didn't indicate that he was feeling any different at all. He'd had

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-65145749466102004532008-06-11T06:00:00.002-04:002008-06-11T06:03:28.107-04:00

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-13410346754479121992008-06-10T00:30:00.002-04:002008-06-10T00:30:03.828-04:00

So, here we are, the 100th post on "Ramblings of a Single Dad." Part of me wants to throw a party. Part of me is too tired to have that much fun. So to mark this occasion, I dug through the last 100 visits to this blog to see what, besides that R.I.P. Stick post, is driving people from Google to "Ramblings of a Single Dad." It turns out, not all of the visitors that click through are

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-87583041663383237462008-06-08T19:44:00.008-04:002008-06-08T20:49:10.551-04:00

A few weeks ago, in the midst of a torrential downpour, I was gathering up my things to leave my chiropractor's office while he was running my credit card. I remember peering around the corner from the office where payment is made to make sure my umbrella was where I left it, signed the credit slip, and was on my way back to work while visions of ark-building danced in my head. The next day, I

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-25952647523363569682008-06-04T00:01:00.001-04:002008-06-04T00:01:01.598-04:00

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-36812559833289009572008-06-02T22:15:00.007-04:002008-06-02T23:39:17.518-04:00

Glory to God! Voting ended at midnight on June 1, 2008. Ramblings of a Single Dad received 56% of the votes in the Adoption Blog category. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to deliver a speech or anything here, but I do want to offer my heartfelt appreciation for not only reading these ramblings, but for the advice you've offered and the experiences you've shared. The beauty of blogging, I think,

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-35047473522353860382008-05-30T21:11:00.008-04:002008-05-30T21:57:55.369-04:00

Every once in awhile, conversations with my son sound as if they were lifted from the script of a sit-com. It probably happens more often than either of us would care to admit, but we're just so used to it that it doesn't seem especially funny at the moment. But then there are days that I get a pretty good belly-laugh out of his responses when I play along. Take for example these quick

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-45899666901959884012008-05-22T09:50:00.009-04:002008-05-30T00:03:01.425-04:00

As you may have seen in the comments on the last post, "Ramblings of a Single Dad" is a finalist in the Best of Blogs Adoption blog competition. If you would like to vote and show your support for this blog, you can log onto the Best of Blogs site, click on DonVa (which is how my blog is entered) on the ballot, then click "vote!" Thank you for reading, and for voting! Feel free to vote more

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-53802508021699770862008-05-19T19:17:00.007-04:002008-05-19T19:35:44.543-04:00

Maybe you'll recall the unusual behavior my 16 year-old puppy, Barney, was exhibiting last year when we put up the Christmas tree. I wrote about it in a post called The Ornamental Canine. Turns out, it may not be strictly a holiday tradition after all. I captured these pictures of him last week. Sure, it may look like he sees something going on in there, but there's nothing. He just shoves

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-89171631211059835332008-05-14T19:30:00.006-04:002008-05-14T19:48:58.729-04:00

We've had some fun on here guessing what the meals my son whips up on his night to cook dinner are. I give him an "A" for his desire to be creative in an attempt to come up with something that may, one day, become his "specialty." After lent, he placed his first "post-lent" plate of food in front of me. I had been bracing myself. Meat was back on the menu and I had no clue what he would

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6726701585215440606.post-46984300031477481502008-05-09T17:40:00.007-04:002008-05-09T18:17:32.949-04:00

On a recent trip to visit my parents, we stopped by the birthplace of Mother's Day in Grafton, West Virginia, which neighbors my hometown. Not many people know about Anna Jarvis, or her birthplace, or her mother, or how the holiday that's been celebrated for one hundred years even began, so I thought I'd share a couple of pictures, and historical information I was able to gather at West

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07489955518434293078noreply@blogger.com