Kampollyball I love volleyball. I haven't played for a long while, but I had occasion to play in Kampala again after a years-long break. Volleyball is my jam, despite the obvious hiccup that I am not very good at it. That fact is completely in character: I'm not good...
Mom had perfect fingernails. In the pic above we're comparing the paint job to the color of the marble in a Roman palace we visited when she was 72. Her nails were better. Always. No matter what was happening around her. What's more, she had the hands to go with them...
Let's start where the last post left off... That was June, I'd been to the U.S. and back -- twice in two months -- and I needed my zombie time. But we'll skip forward a bit, as zombie time is boring. Messy fun vacations, on the other hand, are NOT boring. And we got...
I keep leaving Tunis – work trips, trips to see family, fun trips... Yesterday I left at noon-ish, arriving eighteen hours later in Atlanta. I’m excited to check out Atlanta, and see the Coca Coca World gift shop, but after a wee side trip to see Dad and Ethelyn, I’ll...
This is a short blog post on the shortest period of expectant exuberance I've ever experienced. Y'all know I'm looking for a wider audience for my novel, Spy Act. I've sent it to various agents and contests and had some response but the Big Break, no, not yet. I've...
What a lovely ville is Oxford! Impossible not to like the people, particularly this crew who invited me to their team on Pub Quiz night at the The Old Bookbinder's Ale House : (Team, I did the best I could with the red-eye, but sometimes instead of filling in, they...
#MeToo indeed. Stuck with seeing this everywhere. A flower shop in Amman, Jordan? Nothing to do, Ramon would say: this flower shop indeed has nothing to do with the #MeToo movement, or Aziz Ansari, or sexual harassment among the rich and powerful celebrities. But...
Scenes around Rome in January. I walked 25,000 steps (says my lyin' iPhone - it was at least twice that). What is it about Rome? I think it's the cobblestones. Or maybe the promise of wine. Probably the animated discussions you hear in the street. Escenas de Roma en...
[Versión en español] Eating well in Amman can cost you a lot, or it can cost you a little. There are falafel shops everywhere, and even in the humblest of them, they take falafel seriously. No day-old oil, no stiff pita, no lily-livered veggies - everything's got...
[Click here for the version in English] Comer bien en Amman, Jordania, te puede costar mucho, o muy, pero que muy poco. Hay puestos de falafel por todos lados, e incluso en los puestos más sencillos, se toman muy en serio la labor de hacer el falafel. Nada de aceite...