Responsibly Wild Blog

To celebrate my birthday, a gaggle of coworkers and I went out for lunch. As is tradition, the birthday celebrant was tasked with choosing where to dine, and as far as I could see there was only one choice; Applebee's. Over the last few months Applebee's has been using Fred Hoiberg's "The Mayor" celebrity to sell hamburgers and raise money for the United Way of Story County, and as mandated by law the burger has the perfect pun name; the Hoiburger ™ .  So we hop in our cars, make our way to the local AppleBee's and as fate would have it I end up sitting below a sign selling the very sandwich I specifically came to consume. Being a big goober, as soon as my Hoiburger ™  arrived I saw it as my civic duty to snap a picture with sign, mimicking Fred's pose. Kissed by serendipity, I instagram my picture –including The Mayor's Twitter handle– and prepare myself to eat my half pound of chuck topped with sliced ham, american cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle...

Kids and I get along like potato chips and cottage cheese, so good it's scary. Every time I go to a family function, friend's party, or meet new people I always end up becoming their kids best friend. There's no secret to my awesomeness, I just play with kids the way they want to play . Want to pretend the backyard is the ocean? Great, let me grab my imaginary surfboard. Have a load of dragon toys? Fantastic, I've been itching to burn down a castle. Want to draw or make a ton of noise? I was going to do that anyway. One of my longest running fans is a fun kid named Nolan, who is the son of my wife's best friend from high school. On our fifth or sixth date Marieta submitted me to her friend for approval. On the whole I'm a generally likable guy, but introduce me your kids and there is no way to say I'm anything but the coolest guy in town . Nolan might have been 18 months old, but we hit it off practically as soon as we introduced and have been buds e...