I was at a conference in Seattle last week.  It was held on Lake Washington.  The weather was nice and the lake beautiful.  The hotel was right on the water and there was a walking trail that followed the shoreline for quite a ways. A park stood next to the hotel, which I wandered through […]

Charlotte is my home.  I love it here and don’t want to live anywhere else, but I still feel out of sorts on the Charlotte writing scene.  It’s not the other writers I meet here, it’s me.  My writing roots lie in a small town to the east. I started writing in 1993, the same […]

My wife received this White Amaryllis as a gift from Belks two years ago for buying her favorite perfume.  Well actually, I bought her the perfume for Christmas and got this flower as a gift.  It did well the first year, but didn’t bloom last year.  I guess the third year is the charm.  It […]

Spring is in the air, and I love it.  We all have our reasons for loving spring:  Some are happy to see the end of winter, some like the flowers, and some like to get outside and go for walks.  This last one is my wife’s favorite.  She drags encourages me to walk with her […]

On our anniversary this year, my wife and I decided to visit Lake Lure, North Carolina.  It is a nice little lake town in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains.  We’ve stayed there before, but this time we decided to stay at the Lake Lure Inn. It appears that the Lake Lure Inn is mostly […]

Do you like bagpipes, kilts, Celtic dancing, and brawny men throwing heavy objects?  If so, you need to attend the Highland games.  You can find highland games worldwide, but one of the largest clan gatherings takes place just a hop, skip, and a jump from my home. The Highland games are held at Grandfather Mountain […]

It seems like I’ve been away from this blog forever.  I could blame my time away on the grammar class I recently finished, but it would be a lie.  To be truthful, I’ve been distracted by more than just trying to remember the proper use of a colon: to amplify what comes before it.  Well, […]

My favorite garden season is spring.  I like working in the dirt and planting the veggies and flowers for the new season.  Of course it’s even easier when I don’t have to plant.  Here is my garden, pre-planting: You can see the onions and carrots that overwintered.  I need to thin the onions and let […]

Really, I love food, but you can never go wrong with a sandwich. It’s one of the few foods that I’ll eat anytime—breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Whenever I go to visit my parents, my mother makes sure to have cold cuts in the fridge, because she knows I’ll get up in the morning and make […]

I’ve always liked playing computer games.  Okay, I’ll be more precise:  I’ve always liked playing computer games since the home PC became popular.  I know I’m dating myself, but before that I used to frequent the arcades.  They’re still out there, but arcades were much more popular back in the day before PC’s and game […]