Anyone who drive long distances on a regular basis is familiar with “road trip buzz,” that feeling in your head and your body that comes over you when you get out of your car at the end of a 13-hour day on the road. It is a curious combination of mental fatigue and the result…

Ordinarily, despite all good intentions, holiday meals get quickly out of control. If there are eight people involved, for example, there are essentially eight different holiday meals to be prepared, followed by more leftovers to stash and more dishes to rinse than anyone imagined at the start of the day. Many of these holidays have,…

My Best Vegetarian Joke… Q. How many vegetarians does it take to shingle a roof? A. Three, if you slice them thin enough. Last June, Abby saw a lavish propane grill on sale at Home Depot and brought it home to me as a surprise. At first I wondered why, since we’ve never been grillers,…

In January, I introduced Dan Marsh to an old haunt, the Wichita Mountains. In late March, I embarked on what turned out to be one of my best hiking trips so far, My Two Cents. In May, long-time friend Scott Andersen, who I hadn’t seen in nearly 20 years, came for a visit. In the…

Abby and I just returned from a Christmas excursion to Winstar Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma. Abby’s best friend had some free rooms, so she invited us to tag along. She hadn’t been to Winstar for some years and it has grown by leaps recently, so she wanted to try it. Winstar is noted as one…

My wife Abby is currently going through a boot phase. She’s always liked cowboy boots, but in the last few months, they’ve become her thing. She has about four pairs now. From my perspective, I not only support my wife in her creative attire endeavors, I also think this one is particularly sexy. She looked…

My wife Abby has wanted to see some of the Oklahoma State Fair, particularly the very large livestock, for years now, and we finally remembered to add it to our calendar. Today was the last day of the fair, but featured two events Abby was eager to see: the Draft Horse Show, and the North American…

Nine and a half years of marriage and I am still in love with this woman. Cool.

My sister Nicole and I grew up in a house full of cigarette smoke. Our parents both smoked, Dad about twice as much as Mom. In their defense, when they started smoking, the evidence of its detriment wasn’t as widely known as today. On road trips to see our folks in Kansas City, Dad would…

My wife Abby and I just returned from a miniature vacation. We do that sometimes – drive to some nearby metropolis and get a hotel room, dinner, breakfast, shopping, whatever we feel like doing. It’s fun to get away, just the two of us. We drove to the Oklahoma City metro area and did some…

Abby and I had been dating six months, but in that time, she became the easiest girlfriend to be with I’d ever dated, and being with her felt more natural than with anyone before. At the end of June 2003, she and I flew to Florida for Mom’s birthday and, two days later, mine. Mom,…