Happy 2025, fellow readers! I hope you all had a great holiday season. I know I did. The flurry and busy schedules of the holidays are now over, and we’ve been slowly taking down the Christmas decorations (the worst job in the world) and returning the house to its “normal” state (which always looks so empty for the first few days). Anyway, this post is about January. Now, I don’t want to know about your soon-to-be-failed resolutions. I can lie…
It’s finally here! As of this coming Friday, I’m hanging up my cleats on the working world. I’ve spent the last forty years working (and saving) in some form or fashion, and it’s time to step away and spend my remaining active years doing what I want, not what some boss tells me to do. I’m getting out at the young age of 57, thanks in most part to disciplined investing and saving my pennies in my early years (take…
As I’m sure you’ve noticed at this time of year, it certainly does get dark early in the evenings. Now I’m about to throw some science at you, so if you’re one of those “flat-earthers” or someone who believes that the Apollo moon missions were faked, you may want to click on to something else this week. Are they gone yet? Good – bunch of dirt-eaters. Anyway, as I was saying, due to the tilt of the earth, we’re leaning…
Thanksgiving Day is behind us, I’ve had countless leftover turkey sandwiches, and now the focus is on decorating the house for the Christmas holidays. My house is a 1927 craftsman beauty, with lots of wide wood trim, a staircase, a bow front window, and a corner fireplace. It just screams “decorate me!” during the holiday season. It also begs to be adorned in a particular style. No pinks or blues, no modern art pieces or crazy digital displays. No sir,…
It’s a busy week at my house. We’re moving my daughter into her DC apartment, I’m trying to tie up what seems like a thousand loose ends at work before I officially retire at the end of the year, there’s a Thanksgiving meal to plan and prep for, and then there’s the ominous spectre of holiday shopping and decorating just beyond this week’s horizon. In other words – I’ve got a lot going on. I’m sure you do as well….
Even with all of the holiday hub-bub ramping up, we have another special event that is happening in our household this fall season. My oldest is moving into her first apartment. Yes, my eldest has finally landed her first “real” job in Washington, D.C., and we have been busy these last few weeks searching for places to live and getting ready for this next step in her professional and personal life. We spent all day on the Veteran’s Day holiday…
OK, so you’ve (reluctantly) agreed to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the family this year, or maybe it’s your first time tackling what is arguably the most difficult meal of the season to plan and prepare. It will be a formidable task. So much planning, the endless prep, the fight for oven space – the list goes on and on. There’s a whole gaggle of close family (and that weird cousin you only see once a year) in the other room,…
Well, Halloween has just ended, and as the time changes and the weather becomes colder, the calendar shows that there are only a few weeks remaining until the end of another year. However, before we ring in that “Auld Lang Syne” and say “hello” to 2025, we still have some pretty big holidays to prepare for, and they will be here before you know it. Thanksgiving is next on the calendar (although retailers will make you believe there is nothing…
Last weekend, my wife and I joined some friends for a weekend adventure to the Great White North, visiting our neighbors in Canada for a few days of winery visits and good company. We left Maryland last Thursday, and the drive north was full of fall color and beautiful weather. The trip to Canada is only about six hours from our neck of the woods, so it was the perfect time of year for a fall drive. We stopped in…
I’m not sure how many of you out there follow science and space news, but if you’re not watching the news coming from SpaceX, you’re really missing out. Now, I’m not a big fan of their imperious leader (Elon Musk), but his pocketbook is bankrolling this whole operation, so for that (at least), I give him props. He throws money at these far-flung space projects like he’s trying to win a bet with someone (maybe Mark Zuckerburg). For those of…