Blooms and buds to celebrate Earth Day

It’s gray. It’s cool, standing at 47º F at 9 a.m. Still, Mother Nature stirs me. Happy 45th Earth Day, from the front yard of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. Click on each photo for a description. Click on the right photo for an enlarged slide show. Is your yard…

A walk in the Lake park

Everybody, their cousin and whatever kid they could find was taking advantage of the sunny Sunday at Onondaga Lake Park. The Wegmans area set up with all the play equipment to keep children happy and their parents and grandparents busy watching them was chock full on the breezy, 60º F early afternoon. My dear wife…

Coming clean at my dentist’s office

I learned something new at the dentist today. Well, two things, actually. As my kind and gentle hygienist Joanne did her usual great twice-yearly job of picking my teeth clean of that bothersome plaque and tartar build-up, she casually mentioned to me that she also was removing gravel from the site — my mouth, that…

Son of a gun, satisfaction is all relative with the Chiefs

As Saturday’s morning sun kissed us in the living room of our Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, dancing through the two big windows to warm our weekend spirits, I offered the suggestion. Our first Syracuse Chiefs baseball game of the 2015 season, perhaps, my dear wife Karen? Great mind, yes, she’d…

When favorite actors turn in stinkers, I ___

Fill in the blank in the headline above, please and thank you. Oh, Kevin James. Why in the world would you do this to yourself? My Long Island guy, fellow Mets fan, dude who grew up down the same block from me in Suffolk County, funny fellow all those years on TV show “The King…

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire engines

My dear wife Karen looked out the living room window of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood early this Sunday evening and spotted thick, black smoke billowing over the end of our block. I heard her uh-oh and looked out past the empty lot, past the neighbor’s house, and saw the…

Green backyard grass, except for that one patch

The mower will be out of the shed soon in the yard of my dear wife Karen and I’s Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. A good portion of our backyard is looking lush, considering it’s the year-round playground for Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle. Playground-plus, actually, if you know what I’m…

Getting out on the green with lots of action

The weather was right Thursday to start the golf season in the Syracuse area. After a winter of waiting, I was more than pleased when the trip 25 or so miles east of Syracuse to Kanon Valley Country Club took me out of my car to find KP and Tater and sun and ever-warming temperatures.…

All the world’s a (Syracuse) Stage

Sometimes I get so caught up in my world of movie and music writing and love of live sports that I forget all about how thrilling a trip to see live drama is. Big mistake, that. And in Syracuse we have much. In October, I reviewed ‘Book of Mormon’ when Famous Artists brought that traveling…

D.C. in Photos: Finale (Odds and Ends)

The day has come to wrap up this D.C. in Photos series. My gosh, my dear wife Karen and I left for our Easter Weekend getaway to America’s capital two weeks ago today. The passionate picture-taking with my iPhone 6 graced me with 10 daily themes upon our return. I hope you’ve enjoyed the manner…