...so is the Cheddar of our lives.

1. How do you relax after a difficult day?
Um...relax? Dude, I've got 3 kids. When I get home from work it is barely manageable chaos until the spawn have been hermetically sealed in their pens and shortly after that I go to bed. No, there's no relaxing after a difficult day. I relax before a difficult day. I awaken to gentle woodland sounds and the gentle drip, drip, drip of the coffee maker brewing up a pot of fresh Columbian Supremo. I have a long, slow, relaxing smoke and drink my too hot but oh-so-good coffee out on my big ass veranda (that's "lanai" for some of you, "porch" for others) and either lose myself in a book for an hour or sit there and enjoy the air and the wakening natural world that surrounds our abode.

2. What's your favorite form of transportation?
Trains. Roller coasters are my favorite trains but I pretty much love 'em all. Subways, elevated rail, monorail, even cable cars. Love 'em.

3. What is your worst travel experience?
A bus ride from Buffalo to Portsmouth, VA. This is a trip I used to take at least once a year by car or plane. Plane is great, just a couple hours and you're there. Car is fine too 'cause I generally traveled with a bunch of friends and it only took a half day with tag team driving. I went down once on a bus as I was strapped for cash and wanted to visit my girl before I went to California (activated Reservist, Desert Strom). 29 hours of sheer hell. The bus stunk. The bathroom stunk. My fellow passengers stunk. After a day of sitting in a bus I stunk too. I will never ever so long as I live set foot on another bus that is going anwhere outside its own metro area.

4. When did you know you were an adult? I.e. what event made you stop and recognize that you were no longer a member of "those damned kids"?
I'm not too sure I ever had that event. With me it's been a very slow and gradual thing. I guess if I had to pick one particular thing it would be when I was spending the night in the hospital with little Burger who'd just had surgery. He wasn't even half a year old and my little guy's guts were so messed up he had to go under the knife or he would have died. It was a tense and sleepless night with me basically just standing there looking at him. Even though Burger is kid #3 that was when it really hit me that I was the daddy and everything got really real for me.

5. Why do you blog?
I love to hear myself talk. Since I get funny looks when I do that I write instead. I'm pretty pedantic and very prideful of it so putting my words out on a public platform appeals to me.

6. How does your real life persona compare to your blogger one?
Surpisingly the two are very close. I don't go as over the top with exaggeration and hyperbole when I'm speaking as I do when I'm writing. I'm not quite as forward either - I'll usually reserve comments until someone else has broken the ice. Other than that what you read is pretty much what you get.