Cape Cod relaxes me to the max

Cape Cod. Ahhhhhhhhhh. That’s me, at ease. My dear wife Karen and I went to Cape Cod last week, our yearly trip renting out the Happy Cottage for a relaxing stay. We packed Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle into the Mazda and left A Bitty Better in the Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville shortly after 6…

Year By the Sea fills us one day by the sea

Something wasn’t sitting right in Joan’s life for some time. So when her realtor friend let slip at their son’s wedding reception that husband Robin had put their suburban New York home on the market, she reaches her tipping point. No, she decided, she was not moving with him to Kansas. Much to his dismay,…

Do your work, sun

The pool guy took a long look at the heater that’s attached to our inground pool at A Bitty Better in the Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville and gave us his opinion about why it is not working in this first season of our ownership. It could be the heating coil. It could be that the…

A different route, a cool new sight

I overcame a main-street fear on a recent stroll through our Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville with Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle. I decided to shorten my grip on the leash and take our beloved rescue mutt for a short stretch along Old Liverpool Road. Just between the next-block-over and our street. There’s a cool and…

Opening up a new canopy

The first time we looked at this house, there was a fabric canopy over the structure covering the back patio. We thought it would be left for us with the rest of the furniture, per agreement. Not to be found. So my dear wife Karen ordered one online, opting for a pretty beige. We put…

Grill me

The previous owner left us a three-burner Char-Broil when we moved into A Bitty Better in the Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville in October, but … It didn’t light when I tried it back then. Not with the electronic ignition, and not with the long-tipped lighter I always keep for backup, either. Plus, it looked as…

A trio to fill in the gaps

Here are the three plants my dear wife Karen decided we’d take home from the Regional Market to help complete the first-growing-season stocking of our gardens of A Bitty Better in the Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville. One is a perennial, the other two annuals. I’m a stay-with-us guy. Karen says we can always get more…

Shopping the Regional Market for flowers

We haven’t yet taken our spring trip to the Regional Market, my dear wife Karen reminded me. I agreed. And I knew what she wanted to spend our Saturday morning doing. Up and down the sheds we walked, searching for just the right ones. Hover over a gallery photo for a description. Click on an…

Why Him? You can say that again

The rich get richer, they say. And all the good looking significant others, too, right? No matter what they seem like when you get a good look at what they’re really like. So it seems in in Why Him? a comedy written by Ian Helfer and directed by John Hamburg and stocked by some pretty…

I’ve met this artist

Strolling through the Liverpool Craft Extravaganza in Washington Park last month with my dear wife Karen, I spotted a familiar face among the booths. Diane Sokolowski was sitting on the side, in the sun. Painting. Her works were hanging insider her tent. Months prior, she was the featured artist on the walls of the lobby…