$12.95 for 24 hours of access to your wireless internet? NO MORE! I declare a full-out boycott on all you hotels still living in the past century! Charging for internet is like charging for cable TV. Internet is part and parcel of everyday life now. Get with the program! In the past month, I have ended up at Marriott hotels, ... Read More »
The debate rages on in our house: on one side, we have the purist, with scrambled eggs only seeing healthy amounts of salt and pepper; on the other side, a bottle of Heinz ketchup awaits. When the kids were young enough where I had any semblance of control could say “you can’t do that”, the ketchup stayed in the refrigerator ... Read More »
“No.” It’s a simple word, yet so hard to say. “I really cannot take that on right now.” “No, thank you.” I am not sure where the past week went, but I think it had something to do with being unable to say “no”. I just get caught up in the excitement of creative and new ideas. “Who wants to ... Read More »
This weekend I too happened upon an excellent red wine, well worth passing along. Bill found a great Rioja at a bargain price on a restaurant wine list in Sacramento. I found this wine at Empire Wine in Albany. Get out your pen and paper, or order this one online. It is a keeper! No need for breathing, or serving with ... Read More »
Pepe Le Pew – the dude that makes me like the French. Yeah, I had some tough intercultural episodes in France in college. Got a bit of a grudge still hanging on. Just being honest, you know. The French considered the Malbec grape a blending grape, not worthy of its own bottle. Short sighted. Stodgy. I prefer the young upstarts: Argentina, Spain, ... Read More »
Guess what? You can sometimes never get beyond high school! Last week I was at a conference in Minneapolis. At the same time, the hotel hosted a 50th class reunion of a local high school. As people arrived on Friday it was clear who belonged where, but the reunion folks seemed genuinely happy to be seeing old friends. Then at ... Read More »
Vino Volo opened the door. You have to give them credit for that. Before Vino Volo, your best option when traveling by air was to find an airport restaurant, and hope they had more than J Lohr on the wine list. Which wasn’t often. So maybe a Bloody Mary or a rum drink was a better option. Even worse was ... Read More »
Toenails? Traveling on US Airways this week, I ran across a great article about the few remaining Quintas in Portugal that still make their port wine in the traditional way, with the foot treading phase an integral and irreplaceable element to the resulting wine. Grape pickers are allowed the opportunity to earn some extra money in the evenings, by stepping into ... Read More »
Just about one year ago, and thanks to a sabbatical semester, I was able to spend one week on The Way of Saint James, the Camino de Santiago, in northern Spain. This is an ancient pilgrimage route that ends in Santiago de Compostela, where the casket of Saint James lies under the altar of the cathedral. Pilgrims have walked the ... Read More »
I am a gym-class-hater. In my 20s I tried many organized gym classes – aerobics, aerobic dance, step aerobics. I got to a point where I had to walk away. For good. Then comes yoga, which I originally scorned with equal pleasure as I did spinning and zumba. “Ah, those sheep, clamoring towards the latest thing! Why can’t they get their ... Read More »
Sauced In New York Sometimes the food is in the sauce, sometimes we are