I thought this would simply be another ridiculous YouTube video, and it turned out to be true!

I work with couples, and many times I wish they had learned how to handle frustration early on in life.  If you are going to get married, you are going to experience frustration at some point.  It is just part of the game.  But I believe many people learn the exact wrong way to handle frustration, much like this skateboarder…

I hate to even post this video, but I had to! I had not seen this yet until a few days ago, and I’m still laughing.  My wife almost shed a tear for this poor girl.

After a rough day at the office or a nasty interchange with a rude store clerk, a great joke can often quickly lift us out of a bad mood.

Now, Dutch researchers think they’ve verified why this is so and how a joke helps us — most of the time – laugh it off and turn our negative mood positive.

It’s not as obvious as you might think, says Madelijn Strick, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and the lead author of the study, published in the journal Emotion.

“Most researchers would argue that humor counters negative emotions because of the positive emotions it elicits,” she tells WebMD in an email interview.

via Good Jokes Cure Bad Moods.

For almost all of my life I have hated fish.  This has to change because I know how important fish is to healthy living.  You don’t have to be a diet expert to know why you want to eat fish.  So for the love of all things healthy, I made Tilapia last night!  I can honestly say that I absolutely loved the fish.  It probably had something to do with the fact that I was totally hungry when the dinner was ready, but I still loved it!  All I did was cook this fish on the skillet and seasoned it with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.  I used no oils or anything on the fish and I must say that it was awesome as well!  I might have even liked this better than the steak the previous meal.

On a side note, my son David (who is only 7) greeted me in the morning with a huge smile on his face.  He jumped up off the couch and gave me a big hug and said, “Daddy, you look great! You must have lost 175 pounds already!”  That was encouraging in two ways.  One, my son feeling the need to compliment me because he can feel the struggle I’m in to be healthy, and then for him to follow through and encourage me was fantastic.  Two, thank the Lord I don’t have 175 pounds to lose!

I about fell out of my chair when I saw this clip on YouTube!  I can not even begin to tell you how much this relates to my life as a single man in high school and college.  Thank you Seth Rogen for sharing this all with us!

I still can not believe I had my boys participate in the Coney Island Boardwalk game called “Shoot the Freak”. Check out the video and watch my sons shoot at a live person with a paint gun. Maybe it’s just me, but something just does not feel right about letting your kids take aim at another human being and shoot!

Of course I still let them do it, so I’m not sure what that says about me but I’m sure you all can leave comments to let me know.

All we wanted to do was get from the Subway station at Bowling Green to the free Staten Island Ferry so we could see the Statue of Liberty.  As we headed across Battery Park we got held up by three guys as they began their show.  Their acrobats and dancing were incredible, but the finale was even better! That’s when the kids get involved, but you’ll have to check it out (if you don’t want to watch the whole thing, because they’re not you’re kids, just skip toward the end and you’ll see the final stunt):

I had to turn on the lights in our family room and get this shot of our daughter Reagan asleep on the couch with our dog, Fergie.  I am a bad dad for leaving my daughter on the couch, especially since my wife just repainted her room at our daughters request.  She said her room needed to be updated to reflect more of a “tween” theme!  Am I in trouble or what.

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You may have heard by now that I posted a status update in Facebook that got quite the reaction from my friends. Read the full story