Scott Nagele's Blog, page 12
August 24, 2017
Literally cooking on air, in the figurative sense
I dislike this frying pan. It’s probably no worse than any of the Teflon pans we have in our kitchen. I hate it because it’s supposed to make Teflon seem like cookware from the Stone Age and it doesn’t. You may have seen it advertised on TV. It’s shilled by a guy with the most […]
August 17, 2017
Once we master wheels we can move on to laces
My wife says there are three childhood milestones parents would pay somebody else to teach their kids: potty training, riding a bike, and tying shoes. There may be others, but these three are a good intro to the world of parental frustration. Multiplied by three kids, we tallied nine hurdles of child rearing. Six are […]
August 10, 2017
Local boy avoids 257 bone fractures in one day
My wife has discovered local swap meet web sites. This can be useful, like when she scored us a free elliptical machine, or not as useful: “Do you need 160 square feet of patio pavers? It’s only 50 bucks for the whole pile.” I admit, that would be a good deal if we had a […]
August 3, 2017
Cue the vultures
My birthday is in August – the far end of August. Notwithstanding the entire month in between, the automated corporate birthday emails arrive on August 1st. Most of them are from restaurants wanting to remind me how well they treat me: “Present this birthday coupon for a free thimble cupcake with your next meal!” It’s […]
June 29, 2017
The joy of no more poopy pants
The three pillars of parenthood are puke, poop, and pee. Though puke is probably the most difficult to remove from random places within the house, it is encountered least often. Pee is most often encountered. Little boys can make a mess with it, even when their intentions are beyond reproach, if their marksmanship forsakes them. […]
June 22, 2017
Conversations with my wife: Early birds
If it’s not the skunks, it’s the birds. None of God’s creatures wants us to get a good night’s rest. I’ve mentioned before how we have a thriving skunk community in our neighborhood. They like to offer their perfumes to us in the night. If you’ve ever shared property with skunks, you know they can […]
June 15, 2017
Driving lessons from a preschool graduate
With the warm weather, we’ve pulled out the Power Wheels convertible. We bought it second-hand for Big Brother’s birthday, five years ago. He’s wanted to bring it outside since March. It’s cute how much he loves that car. Too bad it’s sad how he won’t accept the reality that he’s too big for it now. […]
June 9, 2017
The best 10 years, so far
Ten years ago, this happened. She was young and beautiful. She’s still young and beautiful. I’m still short on hair. I wouldn’t want to go changing on her. She’s given birth to three boys since then, which makes her youth and beauty even more amazing. The boys alternate between aging me and making me feel […]
June 1, 2017
How neglecting lawn maintenance killed the dinosaurs
I’ve figured out why the dinosaurs disappeared. The answer lies where the lawn meets the sidewalk. In a word: edging. Long after the dinosaurs disappeared, I came along. Being a country kid, I didn’t know much about sidewalks and their struggles with the encroaching Earth. Hence, I believed the dinosaurs were probably killed by an […]
May 25, 2017
Keep your jelly beans in perspective and your thumbs where you can find them
When we were potty training our first child we fell into the trap of offering him a toy as a reward to motivate him to use the toilet. This quickly became an untenable strategy; we are made of neither toys nor money. The boy had to learn a hard lesson about terms being subject to […]
