Visiting Washington, D.C.

Posted inFood, Tennis, Travel

My wife and I have had a tradition of traveling for our wedding anniversary. We have had some really great trips, but fell off the wagon the past few years. Since our 15th anniversary is this October, I wanted to resume the fun.

Luckily, we have had a very flexible definition of when an anniversary trip can take place. We headed up to New York in 2007, the last time we took one of these trips, to see a couple days of U.S. Open tennis action. Maria loves tennis, and we had a great time. I thought about repeating that trip, but then we came up with another idea.

One of the tournaments preceding the Open takes place in Washington, D.C. We have never made it down for that event, the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, so we set our sights on making that our 2010 anniversary trip.

We got tickets for evening sessions on Friday and Saturday, booked a hotel room and planned for a little sightseeing. Since D.C. is just about a two-hour drive from our house, it made for a nice little getaway.

Details after the jump

Book Review: The Song Is You

Posted inBooks
You can pretty much always get me with a book about music. The way emotions and memories collide through song fascinates me. Almost every novel I have written or attempted…

Remembering Mayor Maggie

Posted inColumns, Hanover

I had enough to worry about on my wedding day. I had a family full of people who could embarrass me at the drop of a hat. My best man had an incriminating picture hidden in his tuxedo jacket that he kept threatening to show my wife. I didn’t need the celebrant losing track of things.

But that’s just what happened. After I did my vows – or Maria did hers, I forget who went first – things skipped ahead to the next part without allowing the other one of us to say the vows. I tried to get the celebrants attention, but it took a moment or two, so we had to backtrack and re-do the vows then get to the rings part.

That’s my favorite Maggie Hormel story. There are others, but the laughter she brought while celebrating my wedding will always top the list.

Book Review: The Enthusiast

Posted inBooks
When I develop an interest in something, I generally go overboard. I don't just listen to R.E.M.'s albums, I know detailed information about the bootlegs I own. I have only…

My Kind of Team

Posted inMovies
When Maria and I saw "Date Night" in the theater a few months ago, one trailer in particular stood out. Sure, I immediately wanted to see the movie being advertised,…

Knowing My Shelf Life

Posted inBeach, Columns

Most sports fans know that one of the saddest things you can ever witness is a great champion not knowing when it’s time to step aside.
Not many athletes step aside at the top of their game. The yearly intrigue of whether certain players will retire has almost become a punch line in some circles.
Yeah, I’m looking at you Brett Favre.
But these situations don’t always apply to the monied stars we see on television. Sometimes the guy who hangs around too long only lives in some niche universe where only a handful of fans understand the dilemma.
Then there are those who face this dilemma inside themselves. They only disappoint an audience of one when they can’t compete at the level they are accustomed to.
That’s how I felt one day last week on my family’s annual beach vacation. I realized that I might not have the chops to take on the kind of waves I used to in my younger days.

Pillow Talk

Posted inColumns, Sleeping

Ordinarily, I like change. I think fighting the inevitable flow of life simply makes people upset for no good reason.

Sometimes this means letting go of the things we hold near and dear to our hearts, but that’s the price we pay for living in this modern world. As with most things, however, there are exceptions.

Like my pillow.

Somehow over the past decade or so, my pillow has evolved from a source of comfort and rest to a floppy piece of fabric unfit for man or beast. The thing has lost any source of support.

I stuck by my old friend for a long time. I would fold him up to try and make a half-sized pillow that would meet my needs, but that never quite worked. More often than not, I ended up with an arm underneath the pillow for some support, which would kind of help me sleep, but always resulted in my arm falling asleep.

We have plans to buy a new bed because our current mattress has seen better days, but we started the process the other day by shopping for pillows.