At the crossroads

They go by very fast when you’re driving and trying to find the right way, right?

That would be a Maryland crab

My dear wife Karen pointed out a car window sticker to me during Saturday’s Martinfest. Yes, that was a Maryland crab. And it wasn’t on my car! I wondered who else at the great party had connections to that state of my past.

Off by a few degrees

While enjoying Martinfest in the downtown Syracuse parking lot Saturday, of course I had to stroll a bit to take in the late-morning, late February mood. Time on the tower, check. Temp on the tower, off by half-year. I’d take the 94 instead of 34. How long would it take me to complain about how…

A Martinfest under sunshine is a very good thing

When the sun shines on Martinfest, everybody has a really good time. The gathering of great friends put together so wonderfully by the Martin family took over the corner parking lot for another fantastic Saturday. We marked the almost-passing of February in fine style for, maybe, a decade straight now. I could go back and…

Another year of Martinfest brings more innovation

I never know what my dear wife Karen and I will find at Martinfest. The family that brings the big party to the little parking lot in downtown Syracuse for a winter break of friends and fun never stops coming up with new wrinkles. This year’s newbie was a portable pizza oven. I did enjoy…

A sort-of-warm year for Martinfest

I had to attend Martinfest solo this year. Bah! My dear wife Karen had her Saturday shift at the library and couldn’t make it to the annual better-than-Winterfest Bash in the downtown Syracuse parking lot thrown by our great friend Michelle and many other Martin siblings and cousins. I took the early shift, leaving to…

Martinfest enjoys the short February thaw

A late February day in downtown Syracuse with the high temperature hitting 68º F? Martinfest really does see it all. This gathering of great friends started four years ago by the Martins, of course, has weathered deep snow blown around by gusting winds and bone-deep cold that made one wonder if the coffee would freeze…

Now I’ll teach myself to play, thanks to my dear wife

My dear wife Karen got me, but good, at Martinfest on Saturday. I’d pulled from a box a cool chocolate bar with this year’s party logo on the front and handed it to her to take home. A bit later she handed it back to me, asking if I’d noticed that “Winner” had been written…

Martinfest heats up this year

They can take the chili cook-off out of Hanover Square, but they can’t move Martinfest out of the parking lot across the street. That special gathering of friends put on by the Martin family, naturally, went on last weekend, thankfully, even though a bother about permits and such according to a story on Syracuse.com moved…

Martinfest generates another year of fun

Year three of Martinfest was not bigger in the numbers sense. The oh-so-cold and you-gotta-be-kidding-me snow just may have kept some folks away from the private get-together in the Syracuse city parking lot across the street from the official Winterfest. But the Martins — sister Michelle, brothers Scott and Kevin and cousin Jason — were…