I am in a small city in Texas on business. I need to stop by several of the cities here to accomplish various things. As of this moment, I’m in Waco. We were in Fort Worth this afternoon and Oklahoma City this morning. Tomorrow, I’m heading to Dallas for a few days for an unrelated…
Now that the desserts, chocolate covered strawberries, and spa water are done, my sisters have arrived and the Italian food is being made. My niece asked me to go outside with her and play with sidewalk chalk so I braved the 90+ degree heat and we broke out the giant box I keep at the…
As we approach my 30th birthday, I thought about taking a look at what has happened to the economy of the United States in the three decades I’ve been alive to gain a sense of perspective about where we have been. This is the time period during which I went from childhood to adulthood, and…
I went to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City to see the new Rodin exhibit with Aaron and Jimmy. You already know Aaron, but Jimmy is a mutual friend from college. I had a fantastic time, especially in the 17th, 18th, and 19th century furniture exhibits, for reasons that will be no…
My family is having a houseguest fly in from Houston this weekend, but since the house is still under renovation, we had to improvise. An extra bed was put in the formerly empty guest room, which had been vacated as part of the redesign, and we spent all day yesterday running around Overland Park looking…
My schedule was completely reshuffled this afternoon because my grandmother and four-year-old niece stopped by for a wonderful surprise visit. During the conversation, it came up that Ellie had never seen Mary Poppins. Completely unacceptable! We cancelled everything else for the day, bought it on Apple TV, made English tea with sugar and milk (though,…
My dad likes building stuff. It’s actually one of the coolest things about him. Whereas I design things on paper, then work with people to bring it into reality, he pictures it and then does it himself. Since I was a kid, my dad has wanted to restore an old Ford pickup truck. He…
The great thing about making decisions in life through the lens of decision trees and opportunity cost is that it allows you to focus on what you actually want. You tend to protect yourself against giving up what you really want for what you want right now. Everything in life has an opportunity cost. It doesn’t…
I left work and went to Lowe’s to pick up a few things for the home renovation project. As I’m walking and conversing with Aaron, with whom I was speaking at the time, I see pickaxes out of the side of my eye. I think in the back of my mind, “Oh, I need that to…
I happened to go into the kitchen for something in the middle of working from home tonight when I had an idea … an icing-based filling consisting of mandarin oranges, cinnamon, and vanilla. I threw open the cabinets and began formulating the base. We were so successful with the lemon zest icing for the honey…
