Welcome to Slapinions!

I started Slapinions just after the '04 Presidential election, when I was still in full-throttle campaign mode.

In fact the first post wasn't even original, just a copy of an email I'd sent out to some very bored family members about the election results.

So it's understandable that the first few months of the site featured a strong political bent - I did articles on Colin Powell, Yasser Arafat, Time's selection of Dubya as Person of the Year, the Kerrik fiasco, and more.

It didn't take long for the focus of the site to shift more towards family based humor, but to tell you the truth I felt a little guilty when I didn't write about politics. Pompous as it may sound, I thought I was betraying my readers.

Thankfully neither one seemed to care.

So I settled into a comfortable routine of writing about whatever popped into my head.

There were articles on sports (the NBA brawl,the 2005 MLB season).

There were a few about books (my favorite authors)

There was a four-part summary of my trip to D.C. for the Inauguration (1,2,3,4)

There were posts on current events (the reserves, Chai Soua Vang, scandals in the Milwaukee Police Department)

There were children's stories (the coffin tale, Why Snow hates Cars)

There were posts that comically explored my philosophy of life (my ideology pt 1, pt 2, New Years resolutions, my birthday)

There were posts about my terrifying fear of mice (my neighbors have mice)

There were posts that confirmed my knack for writing tributes/eulogies (The Pope, my paternal grandfather, Artie Shaw, Kurt Cobain)  

There were attempts at photoblogging (billboards, snowstorm, lights, storm)  

And then my son was born.

Part of me is ashamed to say that his birth turned Slapinions into an occasional daddy blog.

The other part of me just thinks my kids are cute.

Whereas I'd always written about the family and/or kids, after March you could find posts about prepping for the newborn (nursery, bunk beds), my son's birth and intro to his sisters,family outings (zoo, Domes), events (baptism, dance recital) and plain boring details about our daily life.  

Of them all I'd rank the following as my favorites:  

The One about GOP - yes, my children's initials spell out GOP. A humorous post about the paranoid reactions to my 'conspiracy' to brainwash my children . . .  

The One about the Mouse - 6'3" tall, 300 pounds - and I'm cry like a ninny when I see a mouse.  

The Tsunami - reproduced in full on another site, I think this post on the disaster is worth reading  

Fr. Yaniak - the passing of an old family friend  

The Swingset - the dangers of having me and a screwdriver in the same zip code  

Jason Giambi - my favorite sport, and a post that for whatever reason generated the first real reaction from readers  

The One about the evil work of Donnie Osmond - the title says it all

I'm glad I started this blog. It's been an occasional pain in the keister, but by and large it's been a blast.  

I hope you enjoy it too.

 

Dan

ps. Some of these posts were written before I added comments to the site; if you wish to comment on any of them, click here.