“It’s Always Something.”

A common phrase around our house. Bill is regularly shaking his head and muttering that it’s always something.

He gets it from his dad. Who also often mutters about it always being something.

I’m telling you this because it really IS always something. Today? The something is that we leave the house at “unbearably early” (that’s the official time) tomorrow morning to go visit Bill’s father. And Bill and I are out of the house all day today, and well into the evening for a friend’s birthday.

So, of course, we started laundry last night. And, of course, the washer just stopped working while we slept, thus delaying our packing.

Always something. We’ll get packed up, but today’s planned post will go up Monday or Tuesday, because instead of shooting photos for it, I’m dealing with laundry and packing before I leave for the day.… Continue reading →

Visiting D.C. Jan 2014

Bill and I have been traveling again. 

Once a year, there’s a conference in Washington, D.C. that he always attends. We have friends in the area, particularly up in Baltimore, MD and so I usually accompany him. Typically, we land at BWI and he heads down to the con hotel and I head straight up to Baltimore for four days or so of putzing around with our friends up there before he joins me for about a week.

This year, it’s been different. A friend of mine has just moved to D.C. with her family. I have made numorous friends on Twitter, mostly (but not entirely) fellow beer bloggers. All of them wanted a chance to meet me, and I them. And staying in D.C., I had the chance to have a breakfast or dinner or two with Bill in those four days.… Continue reading →

Travel Kitchens and Cooking Withdrawal.

Every time I eat an apple, I’m reminded how much I enjoy apples and how rarely I eat them. It’s kind of bizarre, honestly.

It occurs to me that the same is often true, for me, of cooking. As I’ve mentioned before, I really hated cooking as a kid & refused to let my mother teach me how. I’m sure that’s the root of this oddball behavior of forgetting how much I enjoy cooking.

Well, let’s be honest, that and the fact that sometimes my house after a cooking binge looks like these photos. Or worse.

And, in further honesty, everything in that post about really tasty food “out.”

But, it turns out, I get antsy with not enough time in the kitchen. I hadn’t really realized that before the last couple of days.… Continue reading →

Struggling with Technology

As we’ve been traveling so much this year, I’ve been looking for new ways to lighten our load or pack strategically. I’m not sure what it says that “strategic packing” is a thing in my life. It certainly doesn’t say I’m organized. Or, if it does, it lies. Lightening the load, though, that just makes sense.

In Albuquerque, visiting friends and family, my arms and chest were still in a bad way from my mole removals. I couldn’t bend my arm most of the trip, which meant reading on the plane was a real challenge. Bill loaned me his iPad, so I could read that way. It worked really well and I ended up realizing this might be a good tool for me. I have one of my own now, and it’s great.… Continue reading →

Talk to Bill, Will You?

Man!

So, it’s been a bit since my awesome post about awesome lions. This is largely because I wasn’t sure what to say to you all for a bit, and then my lovely mother came for a visit.

Then, when she left, so did I. Bill had already left. My mom went home. Bill and I went to California. We spent some time in Los Angeles, California with Bill’s uncle (also Bill), before heading up to the Bay Area (San Jose and Santa Clara, mostly, but some San Franscisco, Oakland and Berkley in there).

And LA is what I want to talk to you guys about. Briefly! Very briefly.

And maybe “talk” isn’t the right answer. “Request”, really.

See, Bill left a day before my mother and I did.… Continue reading →