“Aloha!” the barista in the garish Hawaiian shirt yelled from under the kind of headset I usually associate with greasy burgers, not tropical breezes. “OK,” I said, my voice swallowed by très tiki hut décor. This newish coffee shack had been...

“Oh my God!” Hearing my wife Lala yell from the bathroom, I tore back there expecting to view an item off our slight tragedies menu: spilled bathroom cleanser, an unsightly and never previously spotted mole, poor commode aim from one of the male members of...

One of the ways that my father shows affection during our visits with him in Florida is through sandwich making. Each morning before we leave him for the beach, my dad happily takes orders (as long as I write them down) and expertly slathers mayo on wheat or mustard...

I was lying on my couch watching The Darjeeling Limited, a movie whose virtues only include the extensive use of the color yellow, when London padded in in a padded Hulk costume. His face was as long as his hair, which brushed the top of his green shoulder pads. I...

I’m a teacher so naturally I want my kids to enjoy school. I’m happy to say that except for a few minor incidents, both my children have not needed bubble gum bribes or threats of stints in the hole to get them to class on time. Poppy is in her last year of elementary...

Is there anyone (besides drivers of bus and municipal plow alike) who doesn’t like a snow day or at least a delay on account of the white stuff? All the kids and adults I like live for the moment where their school’s name flashes across the bottom of the television...

Over the Thanksgiving break, my in-laws invaded. Since my niece and nephew had never been to New Mexico before, the eight of us raced around the state, climbing into the ceremonial caves at Bandelier and hiking among the moonlike landscape of Tent Rocks National...

My wife rarely travels away from home without the children and now I understand why. She recently flew to California for a week to visit her sisters and here’s a transcript of the first 16 hours under my watch: 5:30 pm: I let Poppy and London decide where to pick up...

I felt surprisingly fine about driving around with my daughter Poppy’s old Power Wheels Barbie Beach Ranger Jeep in the back of my minivan. After all, my wife Lala and I were doing some creative cross-gender parenting in an environmentally friendly way (or so I told...

My father and I recently spent a week together traveling back East to see old friends in old neighborhoods. One morning we were sitting across from each other at a table adjacent to our free hotel breakfast buffet under a giant screen television blasting CNN. The rain...