Category Archives: General

Last summer I took my first break from daily blogging in over a dozen years.

It was heaven, even it wasn’t for forever.

I’m doing the same thing this year, extending it from June 20 (or so) into September. That means we’re less than a month away from our big summer break! I don’t use exclamation points lightly around here, so you know this is exciting for me.

It is my intention to do a few sporadic update posts this summer, particularly when whispers of a new Madonna song carry on the wind. I also like the random surprise nature of such a thing, when there’s the likelihood that only a few people will happen upon these unplanned posts. There’s a pleasant aspect of whimsy in the unexpected.

When we return in September, there will hopefully be a reenergized vibe, as there often is upon getting back into the groove after time away. I’m also working on a new project that should be ready for unveiling by late fall (and simultaneously eyeing the project after that, which is how I work best). All in all, this is a time of anticipation – the greatest time of all.

There are a few summer highlights to which I’m looking forward: the world premiere of the ‘Moulin Rouge’ musical in Boston, and my annual BroSox adventure with Skip, also in Boston. In addition, Andy and I celebrate our 18^thanniversary in July, and I’ll have yet another birthday in August (already lost track of which one…)

The rest is happily unplanned and unplotted, as befits the season of lounging.

Sometimes accessorizing is the only thing that gets one though the day.

This little bauble was a keychain I found on clearance at Neiman Marcus while visiting Chicago last year. I attached it to a navy Ted Baker messenger bag because it brought out the aquamarine accents.

Plus it sparkled.

Everything is better with a bit of sparkle.

I am not someone who is afflicted with road rage. Thus far, I’ve managed to avoid it as successfully as I’ve avoided poison ivy. Mostly due to circumstances and safety (Andy is usually driving me in Albany, and when I go to Boston I tend to zen out at the wheel or channel my inner Broadway diva.) But sometimes, like on Wolf Road when someone is trying to make a left out of Trader Joe’s, or when someone is texting, I find myself veering into rageful territory.

Such was the case when I was following this car the other day. It was going somewhat slow, but, not being in a rush, I stayed behind it. (It’s such a chore to change lanes sometimes.) Anyway, we reached a stop light and came to a halt. When it turned green all the other lanes were moving except ours. Now, I’m honestly not someone who beeps the moment the light turns green. I know people like that. I am not one of them, I promise you. But this was excessive, and after the slow driving I was starting to think the person had fallen asleep. So I beeped. He didn’t jump. He merely looked up from his phone and started driving again, slowly, and going back to, you guessed it, texting.

Some of us pride ourselves on being rebels. God knows I try to be. But there are certain things, laws mostly, that I don’t rebel against. When it comes to safety and driving, I’ve reached the age where it’s not funny. I’ve had my share of speeding tickets, but that’s it, and I haven’t had one of those in about ten years, knock on wood. When it comes to texting while driving, I am adamantly opposed. It’s as dangerous as drunk driving, and just as stupid. So when I see someone doing it (there are tons on the Mass Pike) it truly bothers me. When I see someone do it on Wolf Road, when a car can sneak into your lane without a moment’s notice, I get really irked. When I see someone do it who is driving a Lyft car, well, you get a blog post like this which I’ll tweet out while tagging the Lyft twitter account.

PS – Is that a Fraternity in Christ license frame?

You cannot see it from the crappy phone grab, but this is a crescent moon in the sky at dusk, along with a single star in the lower right of the frame. It floated above me while I floated in the pool for the first time this year. How many chances do we each get to swim below a crescent moon? I’m taking each and every one I can get.

Who knew the world needed a royal wedding to remind us of all the happiness that’s still out there? I suppose when you think about the happiness and love between a Prince of Wales and a biracial American woman, that’s more powerful and unifying than anything either of the leaders of our respective nations can currently muster. Love will conquer all, even the darkest news we’ve had of late. Besides, we could always use another reason to don a fascinator… on with the recap. 

The larch that weeps brings beauty that laughs. 

Narcissus in the sun.

Fern love. 

Lilac love. 

Cherry love. 

Mother’s Day weekend with Mom kicked off with a train ride to New York City. 

Our first show was ‘The Boys in the Band’, and then our first full day was spent shopping and dining before a gorgeous production of ‘Once On This Island.’

A matinee of ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ and some evening cocktails at the Taj Pierre concluded the long weekend, with a breakfast coda that found us looking forward to next year. 

A Broadway performer was our sole Hunk of the Day: Isaac Powell. 

Happy flower faces. 

It feels like spring hasn’t even been here, and yet the first steps of its departure are already being taken. This past weekend, with the rain and wind and decidedly dreary weather, we saw the magnificent showing of the Kwanzan cherry blooms come to a gorgeously dramatic end. After a soaking rain all of Saturday, weighting the blooms with wetness, Sunday’s strong breezes brought them all down – mostly into the pool. Andy did his best to stay on top of them, but as this was the most floriferous our cherry has ever been, it proved a daunting task. 

As sad as it was to see the petals go, it was also quite beautiful, which is often the way with nature. It’s a lesson that we need to learn and accept. We stood outside and watched the cherry blossoms leave their branches, fluttering down like a steady parade of pink snow, preparing the way for the end of spring.

The only good thing about the end of spring is the start of summer…

It’s my favorite time of the year, and my favorite month. That said, most of life is taking place off-screen and off-line. If you’ll excuse me, check out the last week and come back for the New York adventures with my Mom over Mother’s Day weekend…

It began with a look back at the Ilagan twins and their recent 8th birthday dinner. They are growing up way too fast, so it’s helpful to pause and freeze the frame. 

The rest of the week was mostly concerned with our wedding anniversary weekend in Boston. 

Andy’s favorite cocktail.

A solitary walk.

The traditional washing of the rings. 

Boston was beautiful and in bloom. 

Dinner and a show.

A happy finish to the weekend.

In case you want to do it all over again.

Missing hunks.

Our lone Hunk of the Day this week: Sam Morris. 

Make way for Skip.

If there’s anyone who should have his own blog/podcast/documentary/Lifetime-movie, it’s my friend Skip. He’s made a number of splashes in this space, notably in the first Straight Ally Profile and later in this epic Guest Blog post. For the past decade or so, he’s been my main movie man-date, and with some upcoming projects in the works, he’ll hopefully be returning to this site before we break for the summer. (Let this be a gentle nudge for that long-awaited post, in my gently demanding way.) There’s also our fourth annual BroSox adventure coming up, and we’ll be brainstorming ideas on how to harness that fun for this place… Stay tuned. 

We spent the weekend in Boston celebrating our anniversary, so today, the actual date of our wedding ceremony, will be rather quiet. I’ll be back at work, and Andy has a doctor’s appointment, so everything’s as if we never said good-bye. Some anniversary years are like that. We’re gearing up for our tenth in 2020, so this year and next can be on the quieter side. But not even I am ready to start planning that far ahead, so let’s take a look at the last week instead.

It began, as it ends, in Albany, NY. Whether we like it or not. 

As of yet, there are no suggestions for a local Hunk of the Day. Are there no local Hunks in the Capital Region?

Shorts for a BroSox adventure later this summer. 

Gearing up for this year’s Broadway crop.

It begins with a stay at the Warwick Hotel. 

The night I robbed a Wal-Mart and felt no remorse whatsoever. 

The screech of the azaleas. 

There were just a pair of Hunks this week: Mike Thalassitis and Diego Barros.

In case you need some home renovations of your own, here’s who we used for our kitchen: Skylands Services, Inc. 

Jonquils. 

There are too few supportive posts on the internet, and on this website, so in an effort to spark some joy and support local businesses I’m going to try to do better in highlighting what’s good in this world, and in particular what’s good in the Capital Region. To that end, there’s Skylands Services, Inc., the guys who did our kitchen remodel a few years ago. We were thrilled with what they did with the space, transforming our divided dining room and kitchen area into an open-space concept, and turning a terribly outdated kitchen into a usable and enjoyable place of function and fun. The proper set-up works wonders for those of us still learning how to cook. (Our granite peninsula is also the ideal meeting place for every type of party one can throw.) A look at the before and after of the rooms can be seen fully here, and ever since then I’ve been meaning to write a post extolling the virtues of Skylands Services. When I received an e-mail alerting me to their revamped website, it seemed the perfect time for this belated post. 

While attending Ithaca College in the late 1990s, two friends Gregg Pidgeon and John Walston, shared a passion for home improvements.  They both spent summers during high school and college working on separate construction crews and in customer’s homes performing home improvements.  Together, they had a vision that home improvements were about experiences and relationships instead of mere projects.  They were driven to offer a customer experience unique to the home improvement industry.  In 2004, they established Skylands Services, Inc.

Gregg and John believed that the industry was flooded with bad reputations and known for such things as poor communication, poor or inadequate craftsmanship and sloppy work spaces.  They created Skylands Services, Inc. to pursue their passion in a way that would buck the negative industry trends.  They believed that a home improvement project should be a pleasurable experience for customers and not a nightmare.  Over a decade later, their vision remains the same and they have a strong reputation built on delivering customer satisfaction. 

​​Our Philosophy

Skylands Services, Inc. focuses on putting the customer first.  We believe you should always feel at home in your home, even during a home improvement project.  This philosophy drives our company and allows us to provide high quality services with lasting customer relationships.  We understand that your project may be a disruption in your home and lifestyle, so we go out of our way to work efficiently without intruding on adjacent spaces. 

We employ a skilled and presentable labor force with years of experience in the construction trades.  All of our employees are trained on the principles and beliefs that have built the foundation for customer satisfaction for over fourteen years.  We would love the opportunity to provide you with your next home improvement experience.   

In our personal experience, the employees were all wonderful, and either Gregg or John was usually on-site – a refreshing change of pace when certain companies are out of contact or touch once a project begins. Estimates were accurate, time-frames were kept, and communication was always open. While renovations can be stressful, painful events, Skylands made it almost enjoyable. If you have any sort of renovation project in mind, check them out.

First, a bit of background: I had just put up our backyard canopy and helped Andy uncover the pool. I was in sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt tattered with holes. In the midst of our endeavors, I noticed that the soaker house, on its last lack-of-legs for the past two years, was finally beyond repair or use. I jumped in the car to get the 250 feet of black rubber, dusting off the detritus of leaves and dead branches that clung to my outfit. I figured I’d run in and out of Wal-Mart without anyone being the wiser.

As I pulled into the parking lot and jumped out of the car, I immediately fell into walking behind a co-worker from my office. I hung back a bit, but I was ready to say, “I won’t tell what you’re wearing if you won’t tell what I’m wearing,” because this woman, normally not the savviest dresser anyway, was in an enormous hoodie that went down to her knees. Being in my own glass house, I kept the stones to myself and for the good fortune of both of us she never turned around.

I found the five soaker hoses (50 feet each) with relative ease. Cagey like a ninja, I piled them up and brought them to the line at the register without being seen by anyone I knew. Of course, there were no ‘10 items or less’ lines open, so I waited in what looked like the shortest line, with just two people in front of me. Then I saw her. I saw her hair first, then noticed the lethargic manner she was scanning the items and remembered her from the last time I was in Wal-Mart. I also felt the familiar impatience/rage creep up on me in what was supposed to be a quick and stealthy mission. It took a good ten minutes before she rang out the two people in front of me. And they didn’t have that much. But as a wise woman once said, you end it quicker when you’re nice.  I mustered a smile from the deepest and darkest depths of my soul. I said hello. And silently I prayed that it would go smoothly.

It didn’t.

The hoses – there were, as I mentioned, just five of them – were about eight dollars a piece. I had figured somewhere over $40 was where the bill should land, and I inserted my credit card. The total came to about $45 and I thought we were good.

“Now wait,” she said. “How many did you want?”

“Just the five,” I said, my forced smile quickly beginning to fade.

She scanned another hose for no reason and the total changed.

“How many did you have?” she asked again.

I spoke a little louder, “FIVE.”

Now, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that this person had the educational background that would encompass counting to five. Even if she hadn’t, there were five clearly discernible objects sitting right of her for guidance. And two functional hands with all their digits intact.

She tried another time and ended up with seven items somehow scanned in. She voided it out and scanned them yet again.

“Ok,” she said, “How many do we have?”

Me: “Still five.”

She counted them again. Scanned them in again. And somehow left one off. The total came down to about $34 now. She said that’s what I owed. I knew it was wrong, but I said nothing and paid it. All stringent morality aside, if you were in my shoes (sneakers, still stained with dirty winter pool water) you would have done the same thing, if only to get the hell out of the store where the growing line was up to seven or eight people wondering what on earth was going on with this rattily-dressed guy and all these hoses. 

I stuffed the receipt in my pocket and headed to the door, where I was met by a big cheery man who asked to see my receipt. Annoyed, and already forgetting that I hadn’t been charged for all the items I held, I awkwardly balanced the hoses in one hand while fishing the receipt out with the other. He looked (or didn’t look) at the receipt and told me to have a good night, smiling the entire time.

Perhaps they should eliminate all the difficulty and just install shoplifting guides in every aisle.

We have come too quickly to the end of April, a month that felt more winter-like than usual, which made for a bit of a downer for anyone looking forward to warmth and sun. To combat such dreariness, I did my best to distract with the return of the Madonna Timeline and a quick journey to New York City for the magic of the new Harry Potter plays.

It began with the official review of ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2’, which you can read for yourself to get my final verdict. 

Back home, I insisted on beginning the yard clean-up, spring weather delay be damned. 

The build-up to a new Madonna Timeline began slowly and quietly. (It had been seven months since our last entry!) Not only did that play a part in the hype, but the fact that the next song was such an iconic one added to the excitement. Even the Hunk of the Day got into the Madonna fever, with Salim ‘Slam’ Gauwloos adding his bit to the festivities. 

The Preamble to striking a pose.

And the arrival of the lady herself: the new Madonna Timeline for ‘Vogue’. 

The rest of our Harry Potter weekend got recapped beginning with out arrival at the Muse Hotel. It continued with the cherry-popping antics of Central Park. The conclusion was fun and beauty and elegance wound into one, not unlike this last week of posts. Or so I hope. 

Hunks of the Day included just Justin Baldwin and Josh Cuthbert, but they were more than enough to see us through the wilderness of April. May, we forge ahead.

A request from the fabulous Brianna, this is Hunk of the Day Justin Baldoni. With one sweet GIF, Mr. Baldoni immediately made a play for the coveted HOD and won it just as quickly. His triple threat status cemented the deal (he’s a successful actor, director and filmmaker). He’s also responsible for creating the most-watched digital digital documentary series in history, ‘My Last Days’. The third season of it is coming this year.