Items of local interest to the four-state area (Western Md, Southern PA, Northern VA, and Eastern WV).
Summer is almost upon us, and if you’re out and about at a concert, festival, picnic, or looking for food options to take with you out into the wild, wild, wilderness, a great and trending option is a charcuterie board. Excuse me, a what? Charcuterie, a French tradition (of course), is the “art” of preparing and displaying cured meats and cheeses. In other words, its a fancy meat and cheese tray. Those crazy French. But it’s so much more. A…
As I am entering my mid-50’s this year, I have started to seriously look at my exit strategy from work – hopefully sooner than later. Yes, the pull of retirement is a strong one, and honestly, I’m tired of working. I’ve tried to do the “right thing” during my working career (now entering its 4th decade) – keeping my debt down, saving the maximum in my employer-sponsored retirement plans, putting aside an emergency fund, and saving for my kids’ college…
Attention procrastinators! Mother’s Day is just around the corner (Sunday, May 8th), and you may be scrambling to think of that perfect gift for Mom on her special day. Should you take her to lunch, brunch, or dinner? Well, restaurant statistics point out that Mother’s Day is the busiest restaurant day of the year (Sorry, Dads, you come in at a distant 3rd place). If you haven’t made a reservation somewhere by now, chances are you aren’t going to, and…
Warmer weather is fast approaching, and if you’re a parent of older kids (like me), the search is just beginning for them to land a summer job. Now, back in my day (we’re talking the 1980’s here), a job that paid more than $5 or $6 an hour was pretty hard to find. Sure, you could flip burgers, mow lawns, or find some other seasonal profession, but the pay wasn’t all that great (although to be fair, I can still…
It seems like the older I get, the more I am remembering my nightly dreams. Of course, I don’t think I’ve had a good night’s sleep since 2005, but that’s a different story. Dreams are a common – and necessary – part of everyone’s nightly sleep cycle. They happen during the REM (rapid-eye movement) portion of a nightly sleep cycle. Your body shifts from REM to non-REM sleep many times during the night, and – as it happens – you…
Always on the lookout for something new and local to try, my wife and I had heard that “The Plum”, a downtown Hagerstown daytime lunch staple for years, was now open for dinner. Now going by the name of District Provision & Supply Co., we headed towards the county seat on a recent Friday night to check them out. After parking in a downtown parking deck, we ambled down the alley that is Rochester Place, just off of West Washington…
Spring is in the air (although I will admit that the weather lately has hardly been spring like), and with the budding of the trees and the greening of the landscape, thoughts turn to the spring/summer/fall garden. With the ongoing rise in food prices, gasoline, and all things consumer-related, more and more people are contemplating ways to cut costs in their household budgets. The government is even warning the population about food shortages and ongoing supply problems, making trips to…
Spring is making its presence known here locally more and more each week, as my flowering cherry trees are in full bloom, the forsythia bushes are beaming bright yellow, and the red-bud trees and magnolias are coming into flower. Part of the seasonal cycle in my neck of the woods is the opportunity to go foraging for wild plants to add to the dinner table. Now, before you go saying “what in the world is he doing out there in…
Well, we just spent another weekend changing clocks and grumbling about lost sleep last week, but we’re once again on Daylight Savings Time for 2022. Collectively (and by law), we’ve all decided that what was once 6:00 PM just two weeks ago is now 7:00 PM. Woo. Hoo. Honestly, other than now traveling to work in the dark (instead of the rising sun blinding me as I drive eastward) and having some additional time to prep my raised garden beds…
So according to the USA Today, there’s a new, gigantic spider that’s slowly invading the southern United States and making its way up the East Coast. Known as the Joro spider, this fist-sized, yellow-bodied behemoth was first recorded in Georgia back in 2013 and has been making its presence known farther and wider in the U.S. every year. Well, that’s just great. As with any of these unwanted new residents, scientists theorize that the spider “hitched a ride on a…