There’s a move on to match dogs, good homes

My dear wife Karen and I brought Ellie B, aka Dogamous Pyle, to two big doggie-themed events this past holiday weekend. I marched her around the field as part of Bark in the Park at the Syracuse Chiefs’ NBT Bank Stadium, and we marched with the patrons of the Dog Gone Inn Doggie Day Car…

The day of the peony

Today three peonies opened wide. My dear wife Karen and I said aah! We know the blooming period is short for these beauties at the corner of the front garden of our home in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, so we always count down their arrival and admire their dramatic full effect. Most happily,…

Now this is a dog park

Big night at the big dog park Saturday night. The Syracuse Chiefs organization did it up right for Bark in the Park. There will be more to come tomorrow, here, and as my weekly community column for Syracuse Public Media site waer.org covers the escalation of dog awareness and celebrations in our part of the…

Never underestimate an imported pickle

My dear wife Karen appropriated the card of the smiling, baseball-holding pickle to the Bialczak refrigerator door hall of fame. Quite the Syracuse honor for the Dill from Toledo via Ann Arbor. Beth of I Didn’t Have My Glasses On sent over a glittering package of congratulations after our bonafide big baseball bloggers wager based…

Mulch to remember on Memorial Day Weekend

My dear wife Karen wielded her mighty little hand shovel to place the two Gerber daisies we’d purchased Friday night — the only color she’d found at the apparently picked-over big box — into the hourglass shaped front garden. I pulled out the bags of red mulch and poured liberally. Karen placed and patted, lovingly,…

The best day to tie the knot

The fall day had dawned gray when we jumped in the car and drove west from Syracuse. I wore my new suit pants but carefully arranged the jacket on a hanger in the back. She changed into her beautiful dress in the bathroom of a Kentucky Fried Chicken down the block from City Hall, earning…

The Polish in me

I look at my father’s face in this photo and I’m struck with two lightning bolts of memory. Frank is happy. Frank is happy because he’s once again brought his family to the tiny Polish resort in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. I’m fairly certain I’m the one taking the photo. I think…

Downtown living continues to bounce back

The resurgence of residential urban living has been on the minds of planners and developers for so long in Syracuse now that the annual Downtown Living Tour recently held its eighth edition. Builders are taking the old, forgotten, historic buildings and pumping new life into them with apartments and condos. The spots that used to…

A wheelie good time at the park

Sometimes when you take a lot of pictures, a really good one can get away. This image from my walk last week at Onondaga Lake Park was among my 100. It shows a woman and children enjoying a wheeled ride on a pleasant afternoon on the fitness trail, front, center and behind. I do believe…