A guide to some of the things I’ve published on Medium and elsewhere. — Conversations with My Wife Conversations with My Wife (collection) The collected conversations, in case you liked some and want to read more.medium.com Lessons & Observations I Like Being Married One weird guy’s experience being married to his best friend(s)byrslf.co Start With a Partnership Romance is good, friendship is good, but a romantic relationship has got to be a working partnershipmedium.com

Something like that? Asking for a friend who can’t talk yet. — “Next, please.” The clerk was not totally paying attention to his next customer at the liquor store, so he had already started to scan the six-pack of cheap beer before he noticed that the woman bouncing the infant on her hip was actually a teenage girl. In his defense, not…

Remembering the (bad) old days. — A grade school classmate, Marny, now a Facebook friend, was irked that a new area code was being overlaid on her current one. MARNY: They did this several years back where my brother lives, and my brother learned he had to dial 11 digits to call his next door neighbors…

“Wait… is today when the eggs go in the nest?” — He got breakfast for his lovely brown lady but— she seems a no-show! We have a cardinal pair who are regular customers at our feeders — we like to call them Mr. C. and Mrs. C. Chat with Deb — Mr. & Mrs. C. It’s not just our birds, it turns out…medium.com He regularly feeds her seeds and suet. Allegedly this is courtship behavior, and yet…

“I, for one, welcome our new washing machine masters…” — We got a new clothes washer and dryer when we moved into our home twenty-two years ago. They got so tired that Deb¹ had to be careful about full loads and remember the real settings (“Very Dry” means “Barely Dry” and so on). …

Because now, the ghosts can talk back — Jon could hear their voices before he got to the kitchen, so he knew what to expect. As he entered the room, he saw his wife standing at the counter, wiping her hands on her apron, while his father sat on the kitchen table. “There’s my boy!” boomed his father’s…

It’s not just our birds, it turns out… — ME: (to Deb, as she enters our kitchen) You just missed Mister and Missus C! Our kitchen window and our back porch have great views of our ornamental cherry tree and feeding spots (why yes, we did have it planned it that way, thanks for asking) for critters. …

It’s the 2020s, and women are STILL forced to raid their boyfriends’ drawers? — In a month, roughly, we will be in Vancouver, BC, checking out the city for a few days before getting on the MS Nieuw Amsterdam for our cruise to Alaska. We have been planning this since before we were married, and saving for years¹ to make sure we can afford…

“Ever wondered how things might have turned out, if only…” — I wrote a story about a guy who signs up for a virtual reality simulation of his high school experience after meeting a classmate at a reunion sixty years later. It’s a “seduction package,” where the participant gets to indulge in a “what if we had…?” fantasy with someone from…