Category Archives: Alcoholidays

The Pregnant Widow – A Review

The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis My rating: 4 of 5 stars I can seen why some reviewers had a problem with this book. It’s talky, and there doesn’t seem to be much going on. But that’s also kind of what I loved about it. It was just what the doctor ordered for the start

Travelogging: My Starbucks Problem, Part I

The woman who provides the voice for the GPS on my cellphone is named Noreen. I’m not sure how I know this, I just do. I also know she wears her hair in a beehive and wears eyeglasses with severe 1950s schoolteacher frames. But she’s not a schoolteacher. She used to sit at a steel

Attention Military Husbands and Home Brewers

I’m looking for home brewers (who are also military husbands or boyfriends) to interview for a piece in Military Spouse magazine. If I can get in touch with enough guys, I’d have enough material to do a feature on the topic, photo spread and all. I know a good number of military husbands are into

Summer Must Be Over

Yesterday, I had a beer-related epiphany: summer must be over. First, I was bringing a six-pack upstairs for the weekend, and I looked at my remaining bottles of Bell’s Oberon and thought, ‘I need to finish those up. It’s starting to feel like fall outside.’ Then, I picked Danielle up after work. She had gone

The Last Weekend

The last weekend of the Year of Bliss totally snuck up on me. This morning, John told me via Twitter to enjoy this weekend because next week is “gonna hit like a ton of bricks,” and I had no idea what he was talking about. I thought he was referring to a project we’re working

Reblock Yourself the Polly Frost Way – The Atlantic

Unfortunately, this is not a problem I have had, lately: Reblock Yourself the Polly Frost Way – The Atlantic January 7, 2009 I signed up for Twitter a while ago, but I haven’t really figured it out, yet. Maybe if I had one of those high-powered gee-whiz smart phones I would make more use of

Travelogging III: Holy Crap It’s 2009

Well. New Year’s Eve 2008 was quite a night! Let me tell you why: After a nice supper with my folks (mmmmm, hammmmm), we left for Lynne’s house in Ann Arbor. Sean was asleep and my parents were babysitting. We were hoping he would stay asleep at least until we got back. We wanted to

Travelogging II: Holy Crap It’s New Year’s Eve

I’ve officially reached that ever-so-elusive goal of vacation: relaxation. I define this feeling as the point at which you start thinking about going home while realizing, happily, that you still have several days of vacation left. You no longer feel the need to hurry up and enjoy yourself! Tonight we’re going to attend a low-key

Travelogging I: Into the Mouth of the Monster

Last Friday (the Friday before Christmas), we left Newport for Upstate New York. Even though we got an early start—seven o’clock: early for us—the first leg of our Journey to the Midwest took us right into the heart of the first serious winter storm of the year (it was two days before the season officially

Monday’s Breakfast, or, Refueling After the Weekend

Monday morning for breakfast, Danielle made French toast and bacon. The bread for the French toast was my mom’s homemade cinnamon bread, which had traveled many miles to reach us. The eggs were from a local farm. The milk was from a Providence-based dairy. The bacon was from the same farm as the eggs. My