Alaska never disappoints

Alaska never disappoints

If it did, I’m sure it would have a different name, like “Jersey City” or “Canton”. But no, this is Alaska, and it sounds majestic because it is. Or maybe it’s because I hear my brother’s booming bass saying it:...
Trees and cicadas. Tree-cadas.

Trees and cicadas. Tree-cadas.

Washington is genuinely sultry these days, but as recently as a week ago we had lovely sunny non-humid days where riding around on a bike didn’t feel like being trapped inside a Snuffleupagous. (For those of you unfamiliar with the beast in question, think...
Fifteen minutes for full potency

Fifteen minutes for full potency

Carol Kane, in The Princess Bride: “You’ve gotta wait, what, fifteen minutes for full potency.” This immortal clip has been running through my head for Five. Full. Weeks. From my first shot, 36 hours after arriving in DC, to the second shot precisely...
Flying

Flying

My flight to DC was the first time I’d been Up In The Air in over a year. I’m no stranger to the inside of a steel tube, racing across the skies. I started flying at 13, in 1981, child of divorce, with my mom. It was Frontier Airlines, with cowboy wallpaper and...
A bitters experiment

A bitters experiment

Making bitters has been a funny enterprise from the start. I don’t really do cocktails. But the idea of something that would take weeks to mature appealed. There was certainly no rush about it. I was reading recipes and looking for ingredients for months before...
Planting seeds

Planting seeds

Ridiculously, I’m planting seeds in dirt today. It’s a bizarre enterprise – there is no way these little tiny flecks – some smaller than a sesame seed – are going to turn into anything. Our balcony gets beaucoup sunlight in summer (we...