(Love)birds on a wire

Sometimes I look up when Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and I are walking the blocks surrounding A Bitty Better in the Liverpool neighborhood of Galeville. And I’m rewarded greatly. This day I spotted two birds enjoying the blue sky and bright sun side-by-side. I was only able to snap one shot with my iPhone…

The Big Sick makes me feel good about romantic comedy

Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani really lived The Big Sick. And the writer and stand-up comic/actor had enough smarts – and guts – to take their how’d-we-meet story to paper together and allow producer Judd Apatow and director Michael Showalter put the touches on it for the big screen. Lucky us. This is an…

The Stubbs sauce on the ribs was perfect

I knew it was a great gift from my wonderful daughter Elisabeth. The ribs on the grill proved it. I chose the Stubbs sauce from the array of bottles given to me by she and George Three, and my dear wife Karen soaked them up good before I got them on the new Weber grill…

The best fireworks (shots) ever

The fireworks display after the Syracuse Chiefs game on the Fourth this year were awesome. My iPhone 6s was in fine form. Maybe it was the angle from our third-base side seats that came with our four-for-$60 deal. Maybe it was my timing. Whatever the reason, I’m glad to share this year. My dear wife…

A beautiful night for a Chiefs game

It took a while to get back to the stadium this season. No Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle with my dear wife Karen and I this time around at NBT Bank Stadium for the Syracuse Chiefs. My bowling league team buddy Steve thought it would be a great idea for us to go with our…

It doesn’t quite fit, but it sure fits in

I at last took the drive 35 miles or so east from A Bitty Better to a very cool shop in Oneida. It was time to claim the piece my dear wife Karen and I had commissioned from an artisan at the Liverpool Craft Extravaganza. Kym’s Art Pallet was all set up for business on…

Get ready to revisit the bombast of Mike and the Mad Dog

Will they or won’t they? That was the question that made Mike and the Mad Dog tick on talk radio (and TV simulcast) for nearly 20 years. Go off on each other? Surely, Christopher Russo, the Mad Dog, would scream and shout about one sports item of the afternoon or another and most likely at…

Now that’s an arrangement

And so I thought walking into Nichols in the pretty Village of Liverpool for my morning coffee before reporting to work at the library: Where’s Jack? Yes, the folks at Ballantyne Gardens who set up the supermarket’s front display went all out with this flower arrangement. It’s quite the stalk. OK, I may have manipulated…

My purpose today is praise this doggone movie

One in-theater viewing of the trailer for A Dog’s Purpose was enough for me to cross it off my first-run list. Devoted dog man that I am, the tears came through the second sit-through of the preview for this adaptation of the novel by W. Bruce Cameron about the spirit of a pooch that keeps…

Long-day sunrise, sunset at A Bitty Better

The angles to catch the long-day sunrises and sunsets from A Bitter Better aren’t that great. I got up early and wandered out late to catch the hello and goodbye. The arrival, before 5:30 a.m., comes at an extreme angle to the left from our back door. The departure, after 8:30 p.m., takes it down…