Eve is in Puerto Rico. We facetimed yesterday. She was standing on the beach in the ocean with some kind of colorful cocktail, me in over a foot of snow with a beer. My plans to go to Brooklyn and then to see a movie were snuffed out. I spent my day eating a lot, watching about ten episodes of Shameless and the snow pile towards the top of the s …
The Box is coming. It comes every year the same day, January 29th, Eve's birthday. It started about 15 years ago when a friend of hers got her a small birthday gift, like a box of cookies. When his birthday arrived in May, Eve put new gift wrap on the same box with the cookies and gave it back to him. The following January, he added a small presen …
I have very low tolerance for broken things. Mainly because I am not good at fixing them. Most of it is a matter of patience, and when it comes to things that don't work, I have very ittle. Like when I turn on the TV and all I see is fuzz. I look around at the five remote controls in the closet, slam the door closet door shut, and ask Eve to call …
We had a lovely evening last night and then came home. I poured two glasses of bourbon over ice and we sat on the couch for a nightcap. I picked up my book on The Rules of the Velominati, which I get excited about. Eve took our her iPad to seach for a fireplace vacuum, which she gets excited about. Trying to interest the other, this was our conver …
Having lived in Manhattan for nearly thirty years, I cannot say I knew too much about trees. In our new house in Connecticut, I am learing. Just ten yards out of our bedroon window is a very big and beautiful tree. When we moved here in February we would stare at the bare majestic branches. It is a work of art. Spring arrived and the leaves fill …
Rene Descartes developed a philosophy known as the Method of Cartesian Doubt. More or less that means do not accept anything as true if there is the slightest possibility that is isn't. This applies to calling a plumber, I learned yesterday. Before I showered yesterday, I heard the sound of rushing water in the wall of the bathroom. I did not t …
I just started David McCullogh's new book on the Wright Brothers. When I was in fifth grade I did a specialty report on them though I can't say I remember much about it. I do remember though my mother coming to class that day and sitting in the back while I nervously gave my presentation. The book is filled with a number of quotes from brother …
I proudly display all sorts of objects on my desk that my kids made when they were little. I have a ceramic pencil holder that Max made and a small little ceramic bowl that I use to hold paper clips. From Hilary I have a great paperweight with my initials on it in squiggly wormy letters. I have used it for many years. Josh made me something. …
From now on I am going to say less. I think that is best.
As mentioned last week, we are moving shortly. We have been very busy packing. We also have to paint two darker colored walls in our current townhouse with primer. There is a handyman we use for all sorts of things and we had asked him to do it. Then I thought why not do it myself and save a few hundred dollars. So I bought the primer and a …
We are moving in a few weeks. We are doing a little bit of work in our new house. Some cabinet work, a little bit in the kitchen, staining floors. And it needs a paint job. Not the whole house, just some of it. Of all the work, the painting came in the most expensive, by far. It was lots of thousands. I did not think I was hiring Van Go …
I was touched by a post in the In Memoriam section of the New York Times this week. I cannot comment on it. It speaks powerfully for itself and the grieving father who wrote it. Here it is: "Transcending, ever flowing, my love is with its essence...you. Your endless kindness and compassion still inspiring, your love for others bigger than yo …
I have written a few times about my office toys, which include a yo-yo, a baseball, a rubber ball, and a few other assorted diversions. My partner has a little putting green but he must not like it because he keeps it in a box. My favorite is the little beach ball. It is in the picture. An appellate printer sent it to me as a holiday gift a …
Over the years from time to time I have worked on my family tree. With familyecho.com, I have now mapped it out, and with a total of forty seven entries have taken it to the level of my great great great grandparents on my father's mother's father's parents' side, if you can follow that. My great great greats were Sarah Stein and Solomon Potak, a …
There are many things in my office that aggravate me. Mostly it is the piles of paper that never seem to go away -- like an annoying child. They just get moved around or replaced by another pile. Our carpeting has to be replaced, and there is a piece of metal that was sticking out on my desk that scratched my brand new chair. Working can be a b …
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