Category: family

Vintage photo of MadMania’s founder, c. 2002

Spring 2002, a long time ago. I was out of work–me and everyone else but two people from my old job were laid off right before Christmas. I’m standing in downtown Kansas City. The photo is super-grainy because we are using a 1.2 megapixel Kodak I got from the aforementioned job. The camera was as …

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Review: O’Dowd’s Little Dublin at Zona Rosa

Recently Heather and I took a short weekend off together to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. As most of you know, I love Irish Stew. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find a place that serves it that isn’t called ‘Dan’s House.’ For those of you who don’t know, Irish Stew is lamb, potatoes, carrots, and leeks. …

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The Truth

A few years ago my daughter, Ally, who was seven at the time, came back to my office. “Dad, I want you to tell me the truth,” she said seriously. It’s always scary when one of your kids says that. “OK,” I said. “There’s no Santa Claus, is there?” I took a deep breath and …

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15 Years Today

Today Heather and I celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. I knew I wanted to marry Heather a week after our first date. It’s been a long, bumpy ride, but I wouldn’t have missed it. We certainly rushed in (we dated three weeks before we got engaged, then got married 10 months later). We did some …

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Happy Birthday, Mrs. MadMan

For those of you who didn’t know, yesterday was Heather’s birthday. I can’t say how old she is, but I will say she has been with me almost half her life.

Thanksgiving

Some of my happiest memories are from Thanksgivings past. Family gathered together preparing and then eating a ton of food. Stories told over the dinner table about this cousin or that uncle. Playing various card or board games way into the night. This Thanksgiving will be bittersweet for me though; as some of you know …

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Tales from Hop-Hop Land: Chapter 1

One of my children used to have an imaginary friend, a rabbit named Hop-Hop Bunny, who had a brother named Hop-Hop. They were from Hop-Hop Land (I know you didn’t see that coming). We heard several Hop-Hop Bunny stories from the time our daughter was in preschool through first grade. One day we were working …

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