We rarely stay directly in the city we are visiting and our trip to Chicago is no different.  You can usually save a couple hundred and get reasonable accommodations by staying in a nearby town.  We picked a...

Every year, like clockwork, I end up battling beetles.  They are the literal scourge of my weeping pussy willow and cherry trees as well as my beautiful roses.  I tend to blame the former occupants of our home...

Hastur is also known as the King In Yellow and was first introduced by Ambrose Bierce in ‘Haita the Shepherd’ and is noted in that piece as a god of shepherds.  The character was then co-opted by...

As many readers of this blog already know, A.D. and I are big fans of roadtripping and most of our vacations involve moving from point to point along our route. Prior to getting together around 12 years ago...

As promised from A.D.’s Birthday Dinner, here is the recipe for the Grilled Buttermilk Chicken.  As you can tell from the photo of the completed chicken, it went quick! This recipe was originally found...

This past year my last living grandparent moved on and it was the first time I took an active role in the sorting of a life.  I guess it is a rite of passage in some ways, as it makes you feel different...

This week’s featured artist on LAHL is Hannah Hoch.  I must admit, at first blush, I was not interested in doing anything with this as I wasn’t really feeling the work.  Respect to her and the...

Thoreau noted that, ‘the language of friendship is not words, but meanings’. This is a frustrating quote for me to think about, as I am not a great friend in many ways: I don’t remember...