Last Friday, Susan and I took a day trip to Denton, Texas. Susan had tickets to attend a TEDx event at the Texas Woman’s University, and while she was there I had around four hours to explore the town and do some shopping. I haven’t visited Denton in several years and a lot of things have changed since the last time I was there, but I have always had good luck finding treasure there and this visit was no exception. My first stop downtown was at Minifigs Bricks and More, a LEGO resale shop. This wasn’t my intended destination, but… (read more)

I’ve been to a lot of Czech Festivals over the past 40+ years, but 2021’s may have been the most memorable yet. In 2020, Yukon’s Czech Festival and Parade was cancelled due to COVID. This was the first year Yukon did not have a Czech Day since the tradition began in 1966. For this year’s parade, the role of planning and coordinating the festival fell on my friend, Jaime Olvera. I’ve known Jaime since he was on my soccer team in grade school, and the two of us graduated together in 1991. Jaime has organized portions of the parade before,… (read more)

Twelve years ago, I was surprised to discover a new video rental chain was moving into town. I was so surprised, in fact, that I wrote a fairly unkind blog post about it. I haven’t always been the most tactful writer, and even though I was a bit confused by their business model, it wasn’t very nice of me to wish them bad luck. Sorry, Family Video. Although my insults against Family Video may have been overly dramatic, my confusion was honest and sincere. In 2009, Family Video was moving into a market dominated by Blockbuster, a company who itself… (read more)

The first My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult (TKK) album I ever owned was 1989’s Kooler Than Jesus. Life before the internet was different; back then we discovered new music through MTV, magazines, radio, friends, and occasionally, live shows. When I was sixteen I’d cash my paychecks and drive directly to Rainbow Records of Midnight Music, where I would browse the heavy metal section and buy new cassettes based solely on how offensive the song titles or album covers were. A few years later at Pizza Hut, a middle-aged coworker of ours became so concerned that my friends and… (read more)

For our Kansas City weekend getaway, Susan booked a night in an Airstream trailer that had been converted to a permanent residence and being advertised as an “AirBnB tiny house experience.” Susan and I are always up for a fun adventure, and we were both excited to spend a night in this Airstream-turned-rental. The drive to the property seemed sketchy. It was located near the end of an alley and surrounded by an industrial solid metal fence. The outside looked more like a maximum security prison than a weekend getaway, but once we were inside the view changed. Outside the… (read more)

Yesterday was my 48th birthday, and I spent a lot of the day thinking how lucky I am. I was lucky to have so many people reach out to me both online and in real life to wish me a happy day. I’ve said this before, but sometimes when Facebook prompts me to wish people a happy birthday I forget, or don’t get around to it — but of course on my own birthday, I count and get excited by every single one of them! Over the weekend, Susan and I took a quick anniversary/birthday road trip to Kansas City,… (read more)

After blogging for more than 20 years, it has become more and more difficult to find interesting things to say about annual events like holidays and birthdays. But on my wedding anniversary, it is always easy for me to find something to say. Due to the pandemic, Susan and I have spent more time together in our home over the past year than ever before. In 2020 for our 25th wedding anniversary, we planned to take a cruise to Alaska. Obviously, that didn’t happen. “We’ll do it next year,” we said. Instead, we spent twelve months at home together —… (read more)

Last week, Susan and I took an overnight road trip to Kansas to pick up some props for our daughter’s high school’s band. The school had paid for the props, but needed someone with a truck to pick them up in Kansas and transport them back. When I rolled my eyes, Susan added, “Plus, I found a haunted hotel for us to stay in!” I’m in. The Elgin Hotel is located in Marion, Kansas, about an hour’s drive northeast of Wichita (roughly 250 miles from Oklahoma City). Half an hour before we reached Marion we had dinner at the Genova… (read more)

The mosquitos are terrible in Oklahoma this summer. Our backyard has been absolutely overrun by the little bloodsuckers. A couple of weeks ago I attemped to repair a section of our fence that the wind knocked down. Before I could even reach the fence, I had seven mosquitos biting my left leg and five on the right. We sprayed the entire yard and hung repellent, and it seems to have worked. Our swimming pool became the final resting place for hundreds of the little buggers, and we spent several days in a row scooping them out with a net. The… (read more)

Vic Sage — blogger, podcaster, and one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet — announced his retirement from the retro scene this week, bringing an end to multiple podcasts and his website, Pop Culture Retrorama. I met Vic through the Retroist’s website, Retroist.com. In the beginning, all the articles and podcasts that appeared on Retroist.com were created by a single person (The Retroist). Over time, a handful of like-minded individuals were invited to share their own nostalgic-themed content on the site. Vic was one of the earliest contributors to the Retroist that I remember seeing, and his articles were… (read more)