Rufus is in the kitchen cooking up some pot stickers. My chop sticks are at the ready, because it smells great.

He's not in there dicing veggies and folding wonton wrappers, because tonight's dinner is courtesy of the freezer section. We don't know if they contain the special ingredient...<< MORE >>

I don't remember most of the Spanish I learned in school, but there is one word I'll never forget. I choose not to repeat it. I learned it from my own studies, not in the classroom. It represents the best lesson I learned in college.

The class was Spanish 2-0-Something. Each of us had to give an oral presentation to our peers. My assignment was: Guatemala.

Okay... Guatemala... Guatemala...

This took place in 1992 BG (before Google). I went to the library and checked out two books. One in English. One in Spanish. They were the first two on my presentation subject I came across... << MORE >>

The weather is warming up here in Vegas, and the birds are starting to sing about it. I spent some time this morning on the patio with my coffee just listening. It made me think of the time the Bluebird of Happiness visited us at Washington's Mount Rainier National Park.

It wasn't really the Bluebird of Happiness, of course — The birdwatchers among you might tell me it wasn't even a bluebird. I don't know what this blue-colored feathered friend is called by ornithologists. All I know is that it chose my car door as a perch.

"Well, zippity do da, Mr. Blue Bird on my car door!"...
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Photo: Nolly

The first day I woke up as a New Orleans resident, I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven. Cotton-brained from days on the road, I heard the music before I opened my eyes. A choir was somewhere in the distance. Muffled, as if it were calling to me from the other side of a pine box.

"What have I done?" I thought as what sounded like the undertaker's theme swirled around my head. I lifted one lid, then the other, and blinked at the pastel wall until I figured out where I was...<< MORE >>

Photo: Madeline Fox

Before I moved to New Orleans, I had visited for Mardi Gras once. I thought I knew what it was all about: Expensive beers, raucous crowds and frat boys offering beads for bad behaviors. My college trip to the French Quarter for on Fat Tuesday was all I thought I needed to know. I arrived as a new resident of New Orleans with the idea that I'd checked that square.

I was wrong.

As a tourist, I hadn't experienced Mardi Gras at all. It's not a weekend of hedonism for the sake of all things pleasurable. It's a season between twelfth night and lent where everyone eats and drinks, and drinks and eats, and is generally merry, all in the name of the baby Jesus.... << MORE >>

This Wanderlust Sunday is dedicated to romance — after all, it's Valentine's Day. I mentioned earlier in the week that Rufus and I had gone to the ostrich races on our sweethearts getaway last year, but we've been lucky to see lots of other swoon-worthy places together — here's my list of the eight, for infinity, I consider most romantic.

What about you? Feel free to comment on the romantic places you most love. Happy Heart Day...<< MORE >>

Photo: Harbus for News

It might have been a little old lady who saved the Former President's life this week. She may or may not wear dark glasses. She wouldn't know she saved a President's life, but that doesn't matter — her motivation is completely democratic. Besides, it could have been any one of her peers in this special Secret Service who saved the Former President instead.

It might have even been you... << MORE >>

I'm anxiously awaiting today's start of the Winter Olympics for the inspiring show of human strength. I'm as excited for the television coverage to show the backdrop the athletes will compete against. Oh, Beautiful British Colombia — It's long been on my to-see list. Canada's celebrated Olympic host city, Vancouver, will be central to my someday visit.

The closest I've gotten so far in my life was a magical trip to Washington's North Cascades. It's a US National Park in an area known as "The American Alps." Nature knows no borders, of course, but the guardians of these lands do — the park boundary goes to the Canadian border, where British Colombia's EC Manning and Cathedral Provincial Parks protect parts of what's directly north... << MORE >>

Photo: LDBaker

This time last year, my Valentine took me to the races. We weren't exactly like Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle at The Ascot, though I did think the occasion called for a fabulous hat. See, there weren't horses or greyhounds on the racetrack. It was ostriches that made me want to yell the famous My Fair Lady quote: "Come on [Big Bird]! Move yer bloomin' arse!"

Uh-huh.

We went to the ostrich races... << MORE >>

Photo: purpleslog

For a few years when I was in college, I taught tap and jazz classes to little girls. I wasn't particularly good at the dancing — sure, I could clap on beat and do a mean twirl. But I knew how to count music like an expert — and more importantly — was a really excellent role model for the kids.

"And a kick... and a turn... and a shake, shake, shake!"

I would stand in the front and call out the moves — a figure of authority in the studio mirror making sure the steps were right... << MORE >>