The Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance at the Trumansburg Fairground outside Ithaca is this weekend, Thursday through Sunday, and while I was really glad to get back there last July after two years of no festival (in 2020) and mini festival (in 2021), I'm taking a more restrained approach this year. I spent all of Thursday evening ( Read more... )

Having a federal holiday on a Tuesday does weird things. The Fourth of July isn’t one of those holidays you can move to a nearby Monday. Do you give people Monday off as a “bonus” paid holiday? Make them come in for one day before a holiday?

Officially, people mostly had Tuesday off and were working Monday, or could use a vacation day to make it a ( Read more... )

There are pretty much never fireworks in Ithaca on the 4th of July, but there are some not far away at the Inn at Taughannock Falls, and I've gotten to enjoy those from the lake a couple of times. The Ithaca Community Fireworks, a donation-funded rather than municipally-funded tradition dating back to at least 1948 that I know of, has long been ( Read more... )

This week was the first time I took advantage of Regal Cinema's Mystery Movie Monday, which lets you see a not-yet-released movie for $5. The catch? You don't know what the movie is until it starts. Nathan invited me to join his family, and though the guy at the counter wasn't sure it would work, my Regal Unlimited membership did entitle me to a ( Read more... )

Have you ever woken up from a dream in which you were shouting something, and wondered if you were actually saying it out loud? Thanks to the Sleep Cycle app, I know I was making noise, even if it wasn’t all that intelligible.

I’m not sure why I was trapped in the dream, but I was shouting “Jeff!” over and over, and trying to throw silverware in ( Read more... )

Early last month I posted "Just thirty shopping days until my birthday! Please get yourself (not me) something nice for the occasion!" on my personal profile.
One friend chose the best of both worlds, and ordered themselves a t-shirt from my Threadless shop! They got a sweet new shirt, and I got a little commission. Thanks, friend ( Read more... )

I’m pretty sure the first time I met Roger was when he stayed at my house for a weekend when visiting his daughter, a friend of mine in town whose studio apartment didn’t lend itself to guests.

He was a friendly houseguest and enjoyed hanging out with Penny, still an only dog at the time, if I recall correctly.

I’ve seen Roger several times since, ( Read more... )

"Thanks, I did! Y'know, kidney cancer ( Read more... )

There's been a lot of "Nothing lasts on that corner!" since I published an article about Viva Taqueria moving across the street in Downtown Ithaca yesterday morning.

Nonsense.

Madeline's did quite well there for most of its over twenty years, surviving despite construction above them, the excruciating rebuild of the Commons, the construction of ( Read more... )

I was driving to a friend's house south of town to give her doggos a midday visit since she was going to be out for a very long day, and decided I'd take advantage of the Dunkin' offer of 100 bonus points for Monday ordering ahead, and one of their other current offers, at the Elmira Road Dunkin' on my way there ( Read more... )