YONDER BREAKS

It's a momentous week as my first published book, All Roads Lead to Dockweiler: Devotions from the Ocean in the City of Angels , is now officially available for purchase ! It's been such a journey seeing this come to fruition, mostly thanks to my friend and fellow writer, Peter , at High Dive Publishing .  Peter and I met in film school way back in 2008. We were roommates and both one of the few folks at our semester-long program who didn't know a single other person there. We quickly bonded and formed an unintentional trio with one of our other roommates Ian, often spending our free evenings watching the latest Oscar-worthy movies (during which I would often fall asleep) and eating Little Caesars pizzas with individual half-gallons of ice cream (because we were young and could do that back then). As the years progressed, we've written films together, shot videos and produced an award-winning post-apocalyptic comedy webseries along with Ian and a few other friends. H...

I wrote last week on our new adventures in sleeping/napping. In the midst of change, I had a thought I'd like to share here... If you read that last post , you know we have recently moved both of our daughters into one bedroom. I have to admit I was kind of excited about the idea in a way. We have always talked about the girls sharing a room later on, my wife and I preferring to live a little more simply with smaller spaces. My youngest's enhanced ability to climb just sped up the transition. The night of the incident, as we moved Waverly's matters into Ellie's room and moved out Ellie's bed, both became extremely excited at the prospect of sleeping in the same room. They wanted their mattresses next to each other, so they could be closer, and then proceeded to jump on them like trampolines. Great,  I thought, this will be easy, they love it already!  Not so. Even after keeping them up late because of a church meeting, Waverly did not take to the new bed well. ...

It was a rainy day after Thanksgiving, and a friend had tipped me off to an incoming swell that would hit our home break. I didn't expect much, though, as the beach we often surf is rarely outstanding, but surfing sounded better than Black Friday shopping, so I headed to the beach. Apparently my fear of water is greater than my fear of people's opinions, because I ended up grabbing my sister's  NSP  (I like to call it the Butterfly Racer - pictured below). It's wider than my short board, which helps in smaller waves, but still responsive enough to do some carving. I wouldn't advise you to go out and buy one by any means, but I've been surprised at how much fun I've had on this thing. Riding the "Butterfly Racer" at Trestles...don't judge me. When I got to the spot, I was surprised to find a guy dropping in on a head-high left - a rare sight at this break. I watched a set come through ( key to paddling out  on days like this) and head...