One of the things I love about my job as a trainer at the computer store is I get to know people. Mine is the one position in the store that sees repeat customers because they have purchased a one-year membership that allows them to come in as often as they can make appointments....
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If you have followed this blog for any length of time, or if you have read Keeping the Feast: Metaphors for the Meal, you know about Thursday Night Dinner. We gather each week with friends around our table for no other reason than to be around the table together. OK, so it also gives...
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One of my favorite Pierce Pettis songs begins, “The presence of your absence follows me.” The song has played in the background of my week because tomorrow, December 18, will mark five years since my dear friend David Gentiles died. I could say many things about David, but maybe this will give you an...
Read more →My friend John moved to Okinawa for a year. He’s on an academic sabbatical. He is also a master meat smoker. When he left he gave me a whole frozen packer brisket, ready for me to try my hand at smoking it. My friend Roberto, who owns Old Havana Sandwich Shop along with his...
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the scallop shell was still swinging from the side of my backpack as I walked from home to our coffee shop to drop off cookies and write still a pilgrim I suppose this time in my own town broken sidewalks instead of trails sites made sacred by our stacks of stones and stories the...
Read more →We gathered around our table for Thursday Night Dinner, which is a weekly occurrence at our house. We have a fairly regular group around the table, along with others who come occasionally, to eat and talk and laugh and be friends. For me, it is a chance to go exploring the culinary landscape to...
Read more →Tonight marked the Second Annual Pi(e) Night here at our house. Last year 3.14 fell on a Thursday, so the inaugural event (please remember there is no such thing as a “first annual”) fell on our regular dinner night and we had a blast. Eleven of us gathered this evening — some veterans, some...
Read more →For Valentine’s Day, Ginger gave me a waffle iron. Actually, she gave me a replacement waffle iron. She gave me one several years ago that I wore out making waffles when I worked at the restaurant at Duke and I wanted to put chicken and waffles on the menu. One of our friends suggested...
Read more →I’ve spent another hour or two this evening sitting my writing spot in our house trying to find words to all that is swirling around inside. For a fair part of the time I have been listening to some of the songs that make up the soundtrack of my life. Similar to last night,...
Read more →The last couple of days have left me overwhelmed by and grateful for all of the affection and attention that has come my way. I am a fortunate man. Sitting tonight in the upstairs room that is my “office” and going through the pockets of my mind trying to find words to describe at...
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