The Power of Persistence: The Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb

Posted by on Jul 12, 2013 | No Comments

The balcony of my third floor apartment was so close to Sydney Harbor that with a running start from the living room I could plant my foot on the rail and  dive into the murky waters below. Directly across was the Opera House and to my right was the Sydney Harbor Bridge, affectionately known as […]

The Race

Posted by on Jun 26, 2012 | No Comments

When I was a boy our family would gather around the TV each Memorial Day weekend to watch the Indy 500. Mario Andretti, A. J. Foyt, and Al Unser were some of the super stars of the sport in those days. Inspired by the big race my two brothers and I would race our own […]

In Honor of Memorial Day: The Forgotten Sailors

Posted by on May 27, 2012 | No Comments

In honor of Memorial Day I’m re-running this post about men who made the ultimate sacrifice in a lonely stretch of the  Pacific Ocean. On a personal note, I did “process [the] advice” from the publisher I mentioned and have made some significant progress. On a narrow canal in a Midwestern city lies a memorial to […]

Almost English

Posted by on May 23, 2012 | No Comments

Years ago I worked on a project for ING Bank in Sydney, Australia. Due to a happy coincidence I lived in a million dollar apartment for the two month duration of the gig with a systems engineer from my company. The apartment belonged to the family of the ING program manager and he made it available […]

The Language of Coffee

Posted by on Mar 13, 2012 | No Comments

It may be hard to believe, but there was a day in the not too distant past when coffee came only in black, or with cream or sugar. Several years before an upstart coffee company from Seattle planted their first outpost in New York City, Laurie and I were living in New Jersey—a land without […]

Everyday is Valentine’s Day?

Posted by on Feb 14, 2012 | No Comments

Ten months after Laurie and I started dating we had our first Valentine’s Day together. We were both freshman at the University of Washington and commuted together to the campus. During a break between classes she presented me with a card to celebrate the occasion. Like a typical clueless college boy, I had neglected to […]

A Season for Pirates

Posted by on Aug 9, 2011 | No Comments

Here in Seattle tis the season for pirates, and not just the kind that prey on Microsoft. Our big Seafair festival which ended on Sunday with hydroplane races and performances by the Blue Angels, features a group called the Seafair pirates at many events. Our office even had a pirate day at the office last Thursday. […]

The Christmas Eve Death March

Posted by on Dec 31, 2010 | No Comments

“I feel sorry for people who have no real Christmas traditions and wonder if they sometimes  feel as though the holiday is just another hectic, confusing, and stressful time of year; rather than a peaceful and serene season.” Mike Huckabee in A Simple Christmas No series on my Christmas traditions would be complete without covering […]

The Forgotten Sailors: A Veterans Day Story

Posted by on Nov 10, 2010 | No Comments

On a narrow canal in a Midwestern city lies a memorial to men who fought for our freedom, and then their own survival, on a wide ocean. Last September while attending a writers conference in that city I opted to skip breakfast and take a run, so that I could process some advice I’d received […]

Snack for a Killer Whale?

Posted by on Sep 7, 2010 | No Comments

Before a recent kayaking trip to the Canadian Gulf Islands near Victoria, BC, I asked a question that’s puzzled me for a long time: “Why don’t killer whales think of humans as just another snack?” These spectacular marine mammals sometimes feed on great white sharks or whales. They’re even aggressive enough to snake their way […]

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