Well, here we are again. I know we are fast approaching the end of another calendar year when I sit down to write my annual Christmas letter. While I’ve lost track of exactly how many years I’ve been doing this, I am 100% sure this will be the FINAL edition. Wait! What? Why? OK, before you start filing protests with the Holiday Letter Writing Commission, hear me out. I started writing this family update a few years into my lengthy run as a stay-at-home dad – as that’s what people with young kids do! They update everyone about everything: as babies become toddlers, then rugrats, then tweens, t ..read more

73 months. I had quite the streak going, but as they say: “all good things must come to an end.” If you’re wondering exactly what I’m referring to, here’s the deal. I had published at least one article per month since launching my Dad@Home blog on April 11th, 2016. However, that “ironman streak” officially ended on May 31st, 2022. For 73 consecutive months, I consistently cranked out content. It started out primarily as stay-at-home dad stuff, but somehow it morphed into a much wider range of topics – from battling a speeding ticket in court, to playing beer league hockey, to my take on the il ..read more

Game 1 of the the 2022 Battle of Alberta It Wasn’t Supposed to End This Way It had been 18 years since the Calgary Flames made a deep run for Lord Stanley’s Cup, and all signs were pointing to the team’s first appearance in the Final since 2004. They had the same head coach as ’04, they had four players with 35 or more goals, they had a Vezina trophy finalist between the pipes, and they finally had some DEPTH! What more could a Flames fan ask for? Well, I guess we could have asked that they actually found a way to win. How could such a well-built team fail so miserably, especially since the la ..read more

Ash cleaning the floor in their college dorm room on move-out day could be the first time I’ve seen them use a vacuum… like ever. We knew the move wasn’t permanent, but the tears were definitely flowing when we all travelled to Oakville, Ontario in early September to help settle our first-born kid into a college residence. The emotional goodbye was hard on all of us, and why wouldn’t it be? After sixteen years of being a household of four humans, we were suddenly down to a threesome. Related: Having One Less Kid@Home is Kinda Weird for This Dad@Home For eight months, we couldn’t believe h ..read more

Is this the face of a man ready for the playoffs? I’ve been playing beer league hockey since the fall of 2015, and I can honestly say that I’ve loved every minute of it. Yes, I know I’m old. Yes, I know I’m slow. Yes, I know possess zero offensive skill. Yes, I know my defensive ability is suspect. Yes, I know my shot is weak and inaccurate. Yes, I know my passing needs work. Wait, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, how much I love to play beer league hockey. OK, I think you get the picture. I’m obviously not a great player, but it’s never been about personal success for me. I just like gettin ..read more

This world of ours is no stranger to acts of war. Before the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine completely took over the news cycle, let’s not forget that there are other active war zones spread out all over the globe – from Myanmar, Afghanistan, Yemen to Sudan. Each one of these terrible conflicts has resulted in at least 10,000 casualties within the last calendar year. And while the loss of life in those countries has been devastating, those particular wars are half a world away and far removed from my daily life. Not to sound callous, but they didn’t really affect me. They didn’t really ..read more

This was just a tad different from my last job interview. Yes, you read that headline right. Today, I had to dig deep into my closet and find a decent shirt that didn’t look too damn wrinkled because for a change, I had to look sharp. I had a job interview! A couple of months ago, I boldly proclaimed that I was looking for a full-time gig and since then, I’ve probably applied for 30 to 40 jobs in the fields of journalism, communications and advertising. Today, I finally broke free from the endless cycle of rejection letters. Related: Is Dad@Home Ready For Full-Time Employment? The last ti ..read more

Is this a photo from Christmas 2020? Yes. Do I apologize for that? No. Well, here we are again. I know we are fast approaching the end of another calendar year when I sit down to write my annual Christmas letter, and while I have lost track of exactly how many years I’ve been doing this, I am painfully aware that this is my second pandemic edition. While I really hoped we might be through the worst of it by now, I still want to highlight some of the POSITIVE things that happened in 2021. Come on, we still did some cool stuff! Right? It wasn’t all doom and gloom! 2021 kicked off with ..read more

About a week ago, I reached a relatively minor milestone but to me if felt… significant. In late November 2020, I dipped my toe back into the job market by accepting a part-time job covering the Calgary Flames for TheHockeyWriters.com. As I mark my one-year anniversary, I have to admit that I’ve really enjoyed getting back into “the game” after more than a decade and a half staying home with the kids. RELATED: Is Dad Back@Work? Well, Kind of… Yes, self-publishing my book and producing a monthly blog has been a fun little exercise, but starting this sportswriter job 12 months ago felt quit ..read more

Sometimes I forget that the original purpose of this blog was to push sales of my self-published “masterwork of non-fiction” Dad@Home: Fully Domesticated. It was released with as much fanfare as I could muster in early December 2016, but after a couple of months of family and friends snapping it up, the excitement (and sales) quickly ground to a halt. I’ve been told many times that the less people see my face, the better off we’d all be. I tried to boost those lagging sales with Goodreads giveaways and reports on my latest positive book review but in the end, the people who followed my at-home ..read more