Category: What’s Called Home

In which I discuss places around this place we call home, in various stages of undress.

WSHU – A “Very Special Fundraiser”

Interrupting my A.M. snoozing time/Morning Edition listening hour this morning was Kate Remington of WSHU’s classical music morning telling me that she’d gotten to work early this morning for “a very special fundraiser.” Memorial Day weekend marked our one year anniversary back in the U.S., our return to National Public Radio. I love NPR. I…

Where the White Squirrels Are

I like to be tormented. Anyone who knows me can tell you that. Squirrels are my latest rant. We are infested with them in our yard! Apparently that fat squirrel wasn’t just enjoying the pickings of our compost pile… she was out swinging the cat around a couple months ago and now we have 10…

The Bluest Water

Colin and I like to travel a lot. When we were overseas, you could find us in a foreign country on any given weekend. Our latest adventure, to the Dominican Republic, was thanks to my brother-in-law Jay and my sister Mary. This was their trip, and they asked us to come along. Mary and I…

Get on the Bus!

Or… Where to Find the Best Seat on Earth I really dug Eric Nuzum’s theory on crazy people riding the bus on a new favorite blog, The Prince of Petworth. My pal Cathy lives in this area of Washington D.C. and introduced me to this fab blog about a, at best, up and coming, and…

Why Brett Favre is So Great

Or… The Lost Art of Playing Games Brett Favre is retiring from football. Brett Favre is also stepping down, out of the limelight. He is relinquishing his role as one of the few people left to look up to in sports. It was something he took seriously. There are more than few people we can…

Why Do Paper Cuts Hurt So Much?

Waking up to this blanket of snow is as unfamiliar as if I had stepped into a movie scene for White Christmas. This is the winter I imagined. This is what I expected from Connecticut. But we’ve had lovely, undefined days, mostly. The kind that almost ache in their beauty: winter sunshine stretching out as…

Joyce Carol Oates 1, Professor Buttercup 0

At the Quick Center in Fairfield yesterday (where I was invited generously by my new buddy Carol), a simple author event became a righteous example of what happens when you are a man-professor of a certain ilk, with certain ideas about the world, and you set your puffed-rice expectations against a heady, hidden genius. I…

Good Low-Flow Showerhead… Bricor

Or… How Consumer Reviews Can Help Save the Planet In a simple twist of fate, it seems my desire to be green will inevitably test my patience– especially as a homeowner. This time, it’s waterflow, most specific, our showerhead. Too much water is being wasted whilst I shave my legs and Colin does whatever he…

Iowa in 2008: The Future is Already Here

All my friends at The Warrington in England who didn’t know what or where Iowa is (“sounds familiar though”) are getting their quat-annual reminder today as my fair home state makes front page news internationally, including three front pages in the Guardian, The Independent and below the fold featuring McCain in the Tory Times. As…

The Uphill Battle

Three hours of my time, this weekend, was spent doing this (see photo, right). If you had a look at my yard right now, of course, you’d have absolutely zero inkling that any form of rake had ever touch it. As an estimate, we have 427,783 trees in our yard. Now, this might be an…

Postcard from Kansas

If you’re wondering where people go when they don’t update their blogs for a few days, it might be Kansas. It might be to visit old friends. To stop and sit on a sofa, holding a fussy baby and wonder “Is this what is meant by vacation?” It might be that time you spend, stopping…

The 4x4s that Ate Connecticut

… Or, Why We Can’t Find Our Car in our “Green” State Connecticut is a “blue” state which means that it generally votes democrat. It’s full of “liberals” running around shopping at Trader Joes and farmer’s markets, buying organic and bringing that GREEN hue to every statement they make. Hence the theme for today’s eco-rant, brought…

Message from the Coffeehouse

Being friends with other writers is always an elaborate game of Telephone: I’ve got Dixie Cups attached to email and blog strings all over the world. Here’s one whisper from Jenn, today, a new writing friend in the Small State. She sends regards from Stephen King, a fellow Stratfordian (he grew up here anyway) from…

The Return of the Karmic Lawn Mower

 About five years ago, Silvia and Alex Torres gave me their lawn mower because they didn’t need it in their move back to Tampico. It was a good thing, too, because the lawn mower I had was stolen out of my garage that I never kept locked. It was a good thing too, because it…