Category: 2001-2007

Boarding from Milan in two minutes. Please reserve: 1) One very big meal2) 14-15 hours in my own bed (activities to vary)3) Several hours of American television and movies (please note: CNN International does...

It’s just after 9pm here in Monte Carlo. This is my last night in this city for at least another year. I’ve seen a lot of interesting stuff since I’ve been here, the likes...

Taking time away from my duties isn’t necessarily verboten, but it ain’t really the kind of thing a worker bee should be doing on a regular basis. But, with one 17-hour day behind me...

The Europeans just don’t cotton to America’s Big Gulp mentality. I’ve written a great deal about my travel over the years, but I, either for fear of seeming much-too American or far-too-less worldly, have...

“Daddy, I go with you.” That was the last thing my son said to me as I hopped out of our family-mover and headed for the Delta gate. “I love you, buddy,” was all...

Li’l Otis enjoys the yearly $100,000 toy allowance made possible through a deal worked out by the grandparents, a couple of small foreign governments, and a sweatshop in Juarez. We’re having a hard time...

“Fucking tourist.” Some folks may not know it, but over the years, the word “tourist” has become derisive. It’s a way to differentiate between the people who “ain’t from ’round here” and people who...

My wife and I haven’t been sleeping together. For the past few nights, I’ve slept on the couch or in my office, curled up under an old blanket or with some random pillow that...

Two weeks ago, we hired a new yard services company to make Mt. Otis look nice, part of an ongoing effort to look less like we are doing our best to get full use...

“Don’t sleep too late,” my wife said. “It’s cave-sleeping weather.” She closed the bedroom door, leaving the brand new memory on an infant-fresh day. That was quite a moment, I thought, though no one...

Mt. Otis is technologically sound. Within the short time it would take to tour both floors of the home, you would find four operational computers, two iPods, various stereo equipment, speaker systems that allow...

Greenville, South Carolina is one of those places you’d never go on a whim. Ten years ago, if you’d asked me to find it on a map, I maybe could’ve pointed within 400 miles...

Of life’s two certainties, I faced one head-on this week. “You had a good year,” Billie said to me from across her desk. “I’m not going to complain,” I said. “Of course, this year...

I woke up to an e-mail this morning that made me nauseous. Two of my dearest friends woke up Monday to learn their father had suffered a small stroke. From there, it just got...