The Houston Chronicle has a gallery of vintage photos of Schlitterbahn that really bring back memories of pretty much every moment of my childhood summers growing up. These look like they’re mostly from the 80s so some stuff changed by my era, but really crazy how vivid these make my memories.
Fanatics acquires Topps trading cards (after killing them)
Fanatics, a company that doesn’t make trading cards, got exclusive rights to make MLB cards and drove Topps out of business on their 70th anniversary. Fanatics has now acquired Topps.
My brother and I have a Topps baseball complete set of every year back to 1987. Unnecessary money grab by MLB and MLBPA to end 7 decades of history.
How This Texas Town Became One of America’s Fastest-Growing Cities
New Braunfels grew and changed a ton while I grew up there until I left for college at 18. Both of those things have only increased in the 20 years since.
The New York Times did a profile on why New Braunfels is one of America’s fastest-growing cities and talks of course about it’s German roots, Schlitterbahn, and Gruene Hall but also how being situated directly between Austin and San Antonio has resulted in explosive growth and change.
(In a sign that the small town roots are still there, there are also several quotes from my middle school principal and friend’s dad who is now the current mayor.)
Ikea Hack | studio desks
With the entire family working/schooling from home for at least the rest of 2020, we have been looking for ways to give everybody in the house a comfortable and productive workspace. This Ikea hack of a kitchen countertop on some white Hemnes dressers looks great so we’re going to see if we can mimic it for our space.
Watching dancers at the State Fair
Watching dancers at the State Fair, the kiddo knows exactly which side of the line we are supposed to sit on.

Spoiled/scared little baby pups go to the dog park
They did eventually get a little more adventurous, but Reesey and Leah were certainly not overly psyched about all the strange dogs around everywhere. Leah definitely likes people more than dogs, she tried to crawl up into whoever’s arms she could for protection.
Video: Christina teases Leah (and Reesey)
Hello world!
New WordPress blog finally installed, old Movable Type version retired.
View the old blog at brianbehrend.com/blog. Stay tuned for more updates via automation of links, photos, videos, twitter, etc.