Milestones on big events tickle me. I love to share the love with milestones that end in zero. You know, birthdays, anniversaries, and living in one house or one place for decades. Thirty years ago this week, Bill and I moved our young family from Cleveland, Ohio, to the Washington D.C. area, settling in Crofton, Maryland. Bill had an opportunity of a lifetime to work in sports (he loves sports!) on a larger scale than working at Cleveland State’s University Convocation Cente

The alarm went off early this morning to get to The Putaway, our indoor pickleball club in Millersville, Maryland. We love this place, especially the people from all walks of life who want to have fun like us. Exercising in the physical “chess matches” as we smash and dink the highlight yellow/green pickleball for hours is an elixir. It’s all truly intoxicating every time I step out on the Court. Our team name is the Spice Girls because it’s a play on teammate Beth’s last nam

We are lucky to live in the part of the country (USA) where there are interesting sites within a two hour drive of where we live, including the beaches of Delaware and Maryland. The sun was up and brilliant at 6:30 am, with the temperature just right for a beach day. We couldn’t believe our luck since going to the beach on this day was on the calendar for a few months now. It’s our yearly tradition of a one-day trip at the end of July to celebrate our son’s birthday (it’s in

My front and back yards are filled with birdsong, starting about 5:00 a.m. If there is a little slice of sunshine peeking out from the dark skies, there are birds willing and able to share their songs with you. Never mind that you may still be in a deep sleep and would prefer more “silence.” Around here, though, I’ve noticed these cute birds love to squat on our fence posts, and, lately, on our Adirondack chairs. The chairs are closer to the house, so those that sit on them a

Are you a fan of Carole King and her iconic music? I certainly am. I wore out two of her Tapestry vinyl albums between the 1970s and 1980s. But there is something magical when her music is shared through Beautiful, The Carole King Musical, especially under the stars at the Annapolis Summer Garden Theater. I was invited by my friend, Sharon Sands-Gregory, and we had a delightful evening enjoying the night and music that filtered throughout downtown Annapolis, Maryland. Carole

What. A. Game. There was a lot of fussiness over the 104 games of futbol (soccer) in this year’s World Cup held in the USA, Mexico, and Canada, over the past four weeks. Many of the calls on the field of play were questionable, including cards (their colors - yellow or red) or no cards, calls from a president of a country to the president of FIFA, calls from the fans in the seats in all the stadiums hosting games, and calls from the millions/billions watching from their homes

Some of the best matches are these quarterfinal games - Argentina v. Switzerland on now. It slow and fast, gripping with sweat and grit, good and bad referee calls (with cards or no cards), and young men stretching themselves to their limits as they try to bring home a win for their respective countries. Not only that, a win gets them into the semi-finals, on the road to the final game. The hot and humid weather in the USA and Mexico (maybe a few early games in Canada) have b

Pickleball is one of the fastest-growing sports in the USA, if not the world. I love to play this game. It has intrigue, skill, is fast-paced, and has a whole bunch of geometry. So, when my Pickleball club was having another 3v3 women’s “tournament,” I gathered my paddle princesses, Deb and Beth, and we went into this tourney as The Spice Girls (Beth's last name is Spicer- hence, the name used for our team). We had a blast! It was all very competitive, and my partners were aw

What a day to celebrate our country! Can you believe the USA has kept up the “experiment” for the past 250 years? It is the home of the free, because of the brave! Fifty years ago (I can’t believe it’s been that long), it was a big deal for the 200th anniversary of our nation’s birth—1776 to 1976! In commemoration, at the tender age of 14 years old and going into the 8th grade, I wanted to make a quilt, Betsy Ross style. I told my mom about my grand plan to create a quilt, th

France is famous for its flowers because of its rich royal history, its booming perfume industry in Grasse in Southern France, and its deep cultural love for nature. It’s like the French perfected the love of flowers, as they did with wine, and for centuries at that. Flowers are a major part of French art, fashion, and daily life, and it’s noticeable, or at least it is for me. Everywhere my eyes landed around Nîmes, Monoblet, Uzes, and little towns in Provence, they were met