Capturing Your Creative Ideas

Capturing Your Creative Ideas

About 25 years ago, I sat across from Larry, a graphic designer. He sketched a pair of salt and pepper shakers in his sketchbook as we talked. He told me he used the book to write down cool ideas, draw sketches, and glue in samples of things he liked. And it got me...
Amazon Order from an Eskimo Village

Amazon Order from an Eskimo Village

My wife is a reseller on Amazon and eBay. She was sitting at the table when she told me she got an order from Golovin, Alaska. She had heard me talk about Golovin a lot over the years. I spent a week there in the summers of 1981 and 1982 teaching Vacation Bible...
Making Friends on a Canadian Turkey Farm

Making Friends on a Canadian Turkey Farm

There was a group of 10 of us heading back to Michigan from Alaska. We’d driven up there on a mission trip to do Vacation Bible School and work on parsonages in different Eskimo villages. Was a great trip and we were ready to get home. Through some connection, we...
Overlapping in Hungary

Overlapping in Hungary

A beach in Hungary is different than you and I normally expect. The beaches are actually grass and you use steps to walk into the water on Lake Balaton, one of the largest lakes in Central Europe. In the summer of 1987, I spent the summer with a team of people on Lake...
A Wedding Party Surprise

A Wedding Party Surprise

A wedding album. Pretty innocuous thing. I was thumbing my way through it on a rainy afternoon when I saw a surprise. My wife and I were spending a weekend in Newport, Rhode Island, with her best friend, Carrie. Carrie pulled out their wedding album since Lori was one...
Are Your Allergic to Strawberries?

Are Your Allergic to Strawberries?

My home office could feel stifling so every so often I would go work at Panera when I needed to be around humans. The closest Panera was on the edge of a mall, but I normally didn’t go into the mall because I wanted to keep an eye on my computer. I don’t think I ever...
The Best Lawn Boy Ever

The Best Lawn Boy Ever

It was the summer of 1978. My brother and I printed out a bunch of flyers and put them in the mailboxes of people through our neighborhood. We got several customers for doing lawn cutting and yard work. I did a bunch of work for Bill that summer at a couple properties...
Coffee Shop Connection

Coffee Shop Connection

Casey worked at a digital marketing agency and spoke at a conference I attended. Because I was in the same industry I chatted with him afterward. I expressed an interest in open positions at his company. He said he’d look into it. Casey introduced me to the leaders of...