Items of local interest to the four-state area (Western Md, Southern PA, Northern VA, and Eastern WV).
AUTHOR’S NOTE: For those of you just catching up, I’m documenting my recent trip to the Florida Keys from two weeks ago, so if you’ve missed the first installment, make sure to read “Part 1 – Islamorada” from last week! Picking up where we left off last week, we finished up our Tarpon-feeding antics at Robbie’s in Islamorada and continued our travels southward over the Seven Mile Bridge, passing by “Fred” the tree (a rogue tree growing up out of…
I’m celebrating another birthday this week. I’ve been blessed to live for quite a few revolutions around that big ‘ol yellow-orange ball that travels across the sky every day, but I am starting to see some reminders that I’m not as young as I used to be. My minds still thinks it’s a strapping lad in the prime of his mid-twenties; however, the real boss – my actual body – has to throw up a few roadblocks every now and…
I want to take a few moments to talk about the elephant in the room, or – more importantly, in the restaurant, café, or coffee shop. Yes, I’m talking about tipping. For some reason, the tipping culture in this country has seemingly run off of the rails, and I’m not quite sure why. Now, I’ll be the first person to admit that servers and bartenders deserve to be tipped for good service. Lord knows, a competent waiter/waitress/bartender is hard to…
Over the past few months, It has been a never-ending period of milestones for me. My youngest daughter turned twenty, I celebrated my twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, and early next month, I’ll turn fifty-six (although in my mind, I’m still just a stupid teenager, but my body would totally disagree with that sentiment). This week also marks a milestone for this blog. This is the 400th post of this writing endeavor, and for those of you keeping score, that’s around eight…
If there’s one thing I do not miss about living in Florida, it’s all the damn hurricanes. As we saw just last week, it doesn’t take long for these storms to come barreling out of the Caribbean to wreak havoc on the Florida peninsula (as well as other southern states). Hurricane season runs from June 1st to November 30 each year, and if you live in a coastal area down south (or literally anywhere in the Sunshine State), you pay…
Ahhhhh, youth. I remember those care-free days when I was in my early twenties. Days when I could eat whatever I wanted with seemingly no consequences. I’d get two quarter-pounders with cheese from ‘McDonald’s’, wash that down with three slices of pizza from ‘Papa John’s’, and still never move an inch in my waistline. You know, back in the days when – as a younger man – I had the metabolism of a blast furnace. Alas, those days are over. …
You can’t pick up a newspaper or magazine these days and NOT see some article about the economy, interest rates, or some other force that may impact your home finances. Many of us have learned about personal finance the hard way (me included) – through trial and error. I’m still amazed that we don’t teach the basic concepts of personal finance to high school students before we unleash them into the wide, wide world of credit cards, home and car…
With the summer heat reaching record-breaking temperatures, wouldn’t it be nice to step out of the back of the house and take a refreshing dip in your very own swimming pool? It’s the dream of a lot of homeowners, right? Be careful what you wish for. I know quite a few friends who happen to have swimming pools in their backyards (both “above ground” and “in ground”), and to a man (or woman), whenever I pose the comment “it must…
The heat of summer has me longing for the shade of my front porch, where I can leisurely sit in the evenings with a good book or just watch the world go by. There’s also nothing better than sipping on a summer cocktail whilst I enjoy a good parch sit, but what to drink? I’ve seen plenty of videos and tik-toks on summer drink hacks that look fun, refreshing, and tasty. Here’s a sample of a few that you might…
Ahhh, the family reunion. An annual rite of passage for most families, you’ll often find the summer months as the “high season” for this type of extended family gathering. Reunions are done in a number of ways, whether it be meeting up at a relative’s house for a picnic/barbeque or gathering everyone together for a big trip somewhere – say Disney World or getting a cabin together in the Great Smoky Mountains. There tend to be two camps when it…