Adorable Ellie B

Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle knows how to win me over every time. If she’s being a pain about wanting to go out too much or then asking to come in too much or forever begging for far too much of my food … All she has to do is give me the look. And…

A suite night with the Chiefs

The department in which my dear wife Karen works at SMG came up on the big wheel at work. It was our night to join her co-workers in the company suite at NBT Bank Stadium following her shift and my hours at the Liverpool Public Library on Tuesday, I was informed sometime last week. And…

A new routine: Friday lunch at the library

Day-by-day, I’m settling into the routines of working as a communications specialist at the Liverpool Public Library. Yes, I’m again talking lunchtime here. Early on, I posted about the lovely two-block walk to eat on the bench by the Onondaga Lake Park marina. Not on Fridays, though. Not anymore. On the final work day of…

Happy 30th, Jeff

My dear wife Karen and I were honored to attend one of the best birthday parties ever Saturday afternoon. The sun was shining. The breeze made the warm air tolerable. Kristin had set up the backyard beautifully for the surprise party she so painstakingly planned for her significant Jeff. He loved it. His family and…

Watch that branch, will you?

I was standing outside the library with colleague and friend Martina, waiting for walkers to show up. She spotted a piece of the new garden, at the middle of the corner of Tulip and Second streets. The blue spruce, with its center branch extending high into the air. Martina thought that tree carried a message.…

I Want to Be Unhappy

It’s Sunday in August, and we’ve got a guest column from Paul Curran from you. Even with a title like ‘I Want to Be Unhappy,’ I’ll go out on a limb and say that my life is perhaps tolerable in these moments when I’m reading the words from our friend from Canada. You’ll get what…

Here come the butterfly bush blossoms

It’s August. The butterfly bush blossoms are pushing out in the triangle garden in the backyard of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwoood. In the two of the four, anyway. The tall one has purple flowers showing. And the white one has the biggest cone-shaped blossoms out for the world to…

A good place for Daryl

My dear wife Karen and I met with her terrific son Daryl and his beautiful family for dinner the other night. We hadn’t seen girlfriend Vicky and daughter Alexis and my stepson in too long. But at last he and she both were able to get the same Sunday off at Turning Stone Resort and…