The Thrill Of Victory

Spencer celebrates his victory over Cole in a raucous game of sand skee ball. Notice the evil eye the defeated Cole is giving his big brother... 

Gone Fishin'

The boys head to the New River Inlet just above North Topsail Beach, NC, to try and catch some fish. 

Clouds

Because I have this idea of one day doing a coffee table book consisting of nothing but photos of clouds taken in various parts of the world.

Summer 2006, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 

Pool Play

Spencer and Cole at the pool at Meadowmont in Chapel Hill. We sucked it up and joined the pool for the summer... and man what a blessing that was!

This summer was only the second time ever in my life I had tan feet. 

Learning To Skate

Spencer on a recent Saturday morning working on the finer elements of skating like learning to fakie, to do kick-turns and trying to master the all-essential ollie.

Coming Soon!

Lots of update.

Now that school has started for my 6-year-old first grader and my 3-year-old toddler will do the preschool thing three mornings a week starting tomorrow, I'll have plenty of time to dedicate to putting words up on here.

Until then, enjoy some pictures from the summer...

Tasty

Can't you just smell the Old Bay? 

The Family Portrait

Chuck E. Cheese style. 

Bros

Spencer with his best friends Karl (middle) and Aaron (right).

These guys are trouble, I'm telling you.

Not Only...

Is my 6 year old son Spencer jazzed about his favorite hockey team the Carolina Hurricanes being in the Stanley Cup playoffs, he's also jazzed about....

GRADUATING FROM KINDERGARTEN!!!

Nice job dude. 

My Son The Caniac

Spencer has been obsessed with hockey for a few years now.

So he's tickled pink to now find the local press hopping on the Hurricanes bandwagon as the team chases the Stanley up. 

I Rock

Yep. Nuff said. 

Three

Cole happy to turn 3 years old.

May 25. 

I Scream For Ice Cream

Really.

You should have heard the lungs on this boy, tired from walking the NC Zoo and so thirsty that only Gatorade would do (and of course they don't sell Gatorade at the NC Zoo).

So what do you do?

You make do with an ice cream sandwich.

Double Negative

Kevin Collins of Raleigh's Double Negative pixelated during a performance at Chaz's Bull City Records in Durham.

Yeah. Chest Pains played too.

www.myspace.com/thechestpains

The Ghost Of Longboarders

Really.

Why some guy is standing next to me at a show in Carrboro, NC, sporting a longboard is a mystery.

A mystery. 

BENT

Bellingham, WA.'s Black Eyes And Neck Ties.

My band played with them last week. Horror-influenced garage rock kind of like the Murder City Devils.

Yeah.

Kinda like that. 

Spelling

That's existential.

See.

It has been awhile.

Stop/Go

Haven't felt the urge to purge my words on these pages for quite some time.

Here.

Look at this and ponder your exestential existence. 

Glory Days

So I took the family to see a rugby game on Saturday. I always forget to take advantage of the fact that collegiate sports are just a hop, skip, and jump away.

Carolina played Florida. I missed the A game but got to see the majority of the B game.

Man, it really made me miss playing rugby. Some of the funnest times of my life were had on the rugby pitch and even more fun times after the games and off the pitch.

Feeling Blue

After Saturday's rugby game (which also was surrounded by a lacrosse game and gymnastics tournament) and Saturday night's Carolina/Duke basketball game, I decided to take the family and our cousins who we were watching for the weekend to a UNC baseball game.

Cole worked on his cracking open peanuts technique while his older brother Spencer brought his baseball glove in the hopes to shag a foul ball.

It was super nice weather and the perfect cap to a very Carolina weekend.

Family Tradition

Last summer we got a new kitchen floor.

The old one was olive green and black and was the original floor – circa 1973 – of our house. During the course of our occupation, the color started to wear on my wife and I, plus the seams started to curl up. But money was tight so we went about our lives, sucked it up and just dealt with it.

Years past, and two boys later, and it was apparent that the vinyl floor was in need of repair. The constant barrage of makeshift hockey games, toy monster truck rallies and general tomfoolery rendered the floor all but useless.

So we sold some stocks and invested in some faux Italian marble tile vinyl from one of the local chain hardware stores and had it installed. It’s quite nice actually and soon became the springboard to give the kitchen a much need facelift: the yellow walls and cabinets were painted white, our olive green range and hood were replaced by a hand-me-down white stove from my sister-in-law, and the pantry was removed giving the kitchen more space for our growing family.

But there is one problem with the new kitchen floor: I cannot keep it clean to save my soul. I Wet Swiff it on a weekly basis yet there always seems to be a crumb, a leaf, a harden strand of spaghetti staring back at me.

Some days I feel the floor mocks me. “Nan, nan, na, nan, na, you can’t clean me.” I have visions of early ‘70s Saturday morning cartoons; of a Syd & Marty Croft caricature come to life out of the floor dancing with its gaping mouth around me, it’s Witchey Poo apparition of a boss floating over said creature’s shoulder.

The other day I dropped a knife and it stuck into the floor.

I thought I heard someone say “ouch.”

It then occurred to me that maybe I should do like my family did – have a carpet in the kitchen. Growing up I never knew how odd this was until late elementary school when friends started to visit my house and I theirs. “Why do you have a rug in your kitchen?” my friend Tommy asked me in 6th grade. “I don’t know,” I said. “What don’t you have a rug in your kitchen?”

There was only one person who could answer to this question, my father. So one morning over breakfast, I asked my dad why we had a carpet in our kitchen. “Nobody else I know does,” I explained to him. And, typical of my stoic defense contractor dad, he replied, “I don’t like cold feet.”

I don’t like cold feet either, nor do I like to fight the fight of keeping my kitchen floor clean. I think it just might be time to take up the family tradition, I think it might be time to start thinking about putting carpet on the kitchen floor.

The Reverend Craig Finn

Holdin' steady 

To Gentrification!

On my walked back to the club I make a toast to the gentrification of Rosemart Street. 

Walkin'

I walked to ghetto mini mart on Rosemary Street and buy another Hurricane, say hi to the cops as they laugh at some black guy who has bought a forty and not turned his headlights on to leave. 

Time To Kill

I have some time to kill before I meet up with a friend so I go to the mini mart and decide to buy this Budweiser spin-off called Hurricane which is 8.1 percent. I park my truck behind the place that used to be a restaurant called Pyewacket and drink the double deuce while talking on the phone to my actor friend Mike in LA. Some drunk couple comes up and gets into their Carmen Ghia convertable, both slamming their doors into the cars next to them. A short while later, a girl who looks just like the girl that played Blossom in the show of said name - and her friend - get into the car right next to my truck. I am sitting on the curb. "You're not trying to steal my hubcaps are you?" she says with a nervous laugh. "Nope," I say. Beer done. Phone call over. 9:30pm. Still have thirty minutes to kill. 

The Hold Steady

Last thursday night I saw The Hold Steady at the Local 506 here in Chapel Hill, NC.


Story to come... 

Yep, That's How They Roll

Street Shark's style.

Rocking the loafers.

Amen.