I thought I'd use a bunch of random pictures from my phone to catch y'all up a bit. This is Tarek. He will be sixteen soon so the whole driving nightmare is about to begin, but I'm really hard of all the hard work he puts in to school and football. This is Tarek again. Back earlier this summer when my buddy Alex Keto came down for Maryland to take some photographs. Alex is a fine arts photographer who would never stoop to taking a shot of someones backside as they are trying

That's right folks, that is me lurking beneath those snow-white whiskers and red hat. And here is the story of how I became a mall Santa and happened to have a six foot plus two hundred and something pound red-headed man sitting on my lap. The year was 2001. I was just shy of my 29th birthday, far too young to make a good Santa but then again I never claimed I was a good Santa. The previous spring I'd agreed to play the Easter Bunny at the mall so the Santa gig was my secon

I do the vast majority of my writing late when my two boys are either asleep or at school, and I started this endeavor when the oldest was just a newborn. These two facts combined meant that neither of my boys fully comprehended the fact that I am a writer. Every night before bed I read them something and for a good while now, The Captain Underpants books by Dav Pilkey have been at the top of their list. Nothing is funnier to a four and six year old boy than an underwear cl