Back at the desk

Suzi’s upstairs, reading.

Having just gotten her 10 p.m. feeding — I also have a notice to take nighttime medication set for that time, so when she hears it go off, she knows it’s time to eat — Sasha is sitting in her chair in the living room a few feet away.

As the wind gusts outside the window, I open my iPad and sit at my desk to type.

Scratching my Montreal itch

Originally published June 19, 2017. What happens when you go back to someplace you loved the first time, but it doesn’t quite click?

In 2001, my then-fiancée (now my wife) and I drove to Montreal for a long weekend.

We only had about one full day in the city, and it rained that day, so I had always felt a little cheated and wanted to go back.

Now, I’m back, and have been for the past few days. And while I’ve enjoyed it, something hasn’t quite felt right.

The week gone by — Feb. 23

How, exactly, do you hide a boat?

Apparently, there’s a dude in Brooklyn who has been managing to do it, but now that  his marina is closing, it might be just a little bit harder.

Bread: the ultimate challenge

Suzi opened the oven door, sliding the tray inside.

Everything —the Bolognese, the chicken parm with homemade sauce, the red velvet cupcakes for Valentine’s Day, the chicken tarragon in the cast iron pot — was all the prelude to this.

If all went well, approximately 35 minutes later, she’d be pulling out two tasty loaves of honey whole-wheat bread.

Suns and Hornets weren’t much, unless you were there

Originally posted Feb. 1, 2012.

I read an article by Jeremy Gordon titled “I love mediocre sports teams” about going to a game early this season between the Brooklyn Nets and the Charlotte Hornets. If he loved that one, he would have loved the game Suzi and I saw between the Phoenix Suns (who ended the year 33-33) and the then-New Orleans Hornets (who finished 21-45).

In all likelihood, you probably won’t even notice the Suns-Hornets game when you’re checking out the scores in the newspaper, or there will be a short recap on SportsCenter that you have to sit through while you wait for the news you really care about.

Me, in five television shows

Suzi learned about “The Big Bang Theory” before I did.

She had gone to her parents’ house without me one weekend right after the reruns had come out on syndication, and her mother had gotten hooked, which got Suzi hooked.

And then, Suzi got me hooked.

Thirty questions

I recently took part in an exercise where we broke up into small groups and asked each other questions off a list of 30.

The point was to practice coming up with answers to questions that appear out of the blue during an interview, but I thought it would be fun to share.

Because I’ve had a chance to think about some of these questions, as opposed to something spur-of-the-moment, a few of the answers have changed, but not too many.

The week gone by — Feb. 16

There’s a question that has been vexing me for a while.

When I do laundry, I do whites first. It’s usually a small load, and I do it in warm water. Then, before I get to the bulk of the dark clothes, I do a small load of specific darks in cold water.

And as soon as I switch from warm to cold water, the timer adds four minutes.

Why?

Saturday: Don’t say anything

It wasn’t particularly easy, but Liverpool won again.

Fans, pundits, announcers … everyone is talking about what Liverpool is about to do, as it’s all but a done deal.

As a Liverpool fan, I’ll be so excited when they wi …

… Nope, can’t do it.

Friday: It could always be worse

Valentine’s Day passed fairly quietly and uneventfully.

Suzi and I went to dinner and exchanged cards. It was cold, but that’s all it was.

Unlike five years ago.