On Saturday morning, Pat and I allowed ourselves plenty of time to get to Seaside Park. There's nothing worse than feeling rushed when you're driving to an unfamiliar place. Before we left, we had some morning rolls from Patisserie Colson that I'd brought for Pat to try. If you know me a...

My longtime friend Ken, whom you may have read about here, here, here, or here, among other posts on this blog (but not here because those are different Kens), and his girlfriend, Karen, got married on Saturday down the shore. I'm very happy for them both and especially excited that Ken is going...

Two Fridays ago for pizza night, I took a magnum-size bottle of Santa Isabel Malbec that I'd picked up for 13 bucks at BIg Nose Full Body. I was so hoping it'd be really good. Or at least good enough to enjoy guzzling on a Friday night after a long week of putting in the hyphens and taking o...

I promise this is the last "A Weekend of Celebrating ..." post. :-) *** On the Tuesday night after my visit, Dad got what Granny had on Sunday, and he lay in bed all day Wednesday. And that Wednesday at work, in the late afternoon, I felt an occasional rumbling sensation in my belly that I...

Bob and Jen went to lunch at Al di Là and then to a movie last Sunday. Jen was genuinely surprised at the crowd of people there in the apartment to celebrate her birthday when they got back. Gina cooked up a delicious Mexican feast. By the time I got over to B&J's apartment, after unloading...

When I first got to Granny's house, Gran got annoyed with Rudy because he was sniffing at her crotch. I told her that Rudy is all about his nose and I said that by sniffing your crotch now, he could always find it later. And Dad said, Yeah, if you and your crotch ever get separated, he can find ...

Last Friday, I went to South Jersey to see Granny and Mom for their birthdays. Granny's was on Groundhog Day. And Mom's was yesterday, Feb. 11. Last Thursday night, I'd made Aunt Patty's Coffee Cake to take down with me. Mom doesn't like to eat chocolate as much as she used...

I had to try the Coffee Crisp Bars that Molly Wizenberg wrote about in her column in the February issue of Bon Appétit. She made them sound like they were so good that they might change my life forever. They didn't actually do that,* but I was very pleased with the final product. They're a ...

The Monday before Christmas, Rudy woke me up early, at 6:30, with his effing whimpering. He's done that before, and I've yelled at him to shut up. But this time, it seemed different, more sincere. What if he really had to go? I caved and took the pooches for a walk. It was terribly col...

On Sunday, Dan called to tell me he, Paul, and Pete had decided to spontaneously take the train from Trenton into the city and asked whether I'd like to hang out with them. They were on their way to the train station. I said I was all for spontaneity, but couldn't it wait until tomorrow? Hah...