About That Manning Up Thing . . .

A week ago I told you that my brother thinks my blog is too girly.  As in emotional. And unrelatable for men.  I asked for your help.  And you came through by offering up all sorts of great suggestions for appealing to the male readership – if there is any male readership besides my two dads. 

You suggested guns, action flicks, sports, blowing things up, greasy food, manly fashion, hot women {thought I’d already covered that by posting a picture of myself every now and then, hardy har!} and the like.

But instead of broaching any of those topics today, I’m going to start this manning up experiment by giving you – my mostly female readership - a manly blog recommendation.  Because believe it or not, for over a year and a half now, I’ve been reading a manly man’s blog . . . that is almost 90% sports related . . . and I don’t miss a post. EVER.  Because he is just that good.

Ladies and gentleman, I’d like to introduce you to Fatty.  As in the Fat Cyclist. This self deprecating, faux-egomaniacal, downright hilarious blogger has had me laughing so hard some days that the Hubby will pipe in from the other room, “What on earth?” only to turn the corner and see me reading Fatty.

Fatty is a cyclist of both the dirt and road variety.  Am I a cyclist?  No.  I’m a postpartum  mommy who hasn’t moved her jiggly bum in months. But I am related to this:

And I’m married to this:

And I have been known to enjoy obsessing quite a bit over this during the summer:

So, it would stand to reason that I could handle a little blog about cycling.  Except that this blog isn’t little.  It’s another one of those super famous blogs {Fatty might just be the third most famous blogger I pretend to know in real life, right behind Pioneer Woman and Nie Nie}.

It’s not that reading Fatty’s blog makes me want to become a cyclist.  In fact, most of the time, his posts just give me a lot more to laugh about where my husband and brother are concerned.  He’s just gut splittingly funny.  And I enjoy his sense of humor on a very personal level.

But there’s this other thing. I think it might have been my friend Sue who first mentioned Fatty’s blog to me during my father’s battle with cancer. You see, what started for Fatty as a blog about biking soon turned into a blog about biking and his wife’s battle with breast cancer.  And then it turned into a great way to raise cancer awareness and money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Huntsman Cancer Institute. 

Having watched a loved one deal with cancer first hand, I was instantly drawn to Fatty’s candid, emotional writing concerning his wife and her struggle.  And I was moved by his love and care for her.  And amazed at his ability to combine his love of biking with his love for his wife to raise over HALF A MILLION dollars towards cancer research through creative contests and amazing giveaways. Seriously, this guy is a force to be reckoned with. I wonder if there are any cyclists out there who DON’T know about Fatty.

Last fall Fatty’s wife passed away after her 5 year fight against cancer.  But he’s still continuing the fight against cancer.  And he’s still riding his bicycles.  And thank goodness, he’s still blogging about it.

You can check out a few of my favorite  recent Fatty posts here and here. And you can thank me later.