Cottonwood, Arizona, where I am temporarily making my home, has its fair share of dogs. Feral packs of vicious, growling, salivating dogs patrol every yard and its accompanying cinder-block-elevated trailer. They snarl and lunge at you from behind seemingly too-short fences as you walk by—this is of course to protect all those broken down cars, [...]

These days, I wake up at 6:15 AM and go hiking. This is what I saw today:

It’s the view out from Chicken Point on the Broken Arrow trail in Sedona. Dano and I perched here, ate our raspberry jam and almond butter sandwiches, and drank some water before heading back down the buttes and hitting [...]

Whole wheat french bread
Grilled zucchini with local Gage the Heat spice rub
Seared lobster mushrooms
Fresh mozzarella, tomato, and basil with EVO, salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar
Marinated olives with thyme and hot pepper flakes

Everything from the Flagstaff Community Market, except the olives (from Trader Joe’s), and the wine, which was a leftover from our night bartending for [...]

I’m not sure anyone cares about the renovations but me, Dan, and Dan’s parents. In any case, here’s a sneak peek at the blisteringly pink wall color we have selected for one of the office walls. As I type this, the painted floor is drying. It looks like a cartoon in there, or a Lichtenstein [...]

Last night, Dan’s parents hosted a sort of welcome-to-Arizona and meet-and-greet barbecue at the boarding school in Sedona where they live and work. They invited some of the school’s younger faculty and staff, a group of six or seven people scattered somewhere around the age of 30, perhaps in the hopes that Dan and I [...]

As most of you know, I’ve been doing renovations to our (well, Dan’s parents’) new place in Arizona. Nothing’s really done yet, but I’ve got at least one radical transformation to show for it: the bedroom.
Before:

After:

I’m settling into Arizona life nicely, particularly when it comes to the food, which, as you can see, comes spicy ’round these parts. The above shot was taken in a local grocery chain called Food City, which is rapidly becoming my new favorite place on earth. Food City boasts unheard-of prices that make a bargain-hunting [...]

I went to the Ikea in Tempe, outside of Phoenix, last Saturday to pick up some housewares for the new place I’m inhabiting in Cottonwood, Arizona. The temperature in Phoenix at 10:30 AM in August was about 97 degrees, and by midafternoon it was easily in the triple digits. On the way into Ikea I [...]

Simon and Kovick were born on my bed on July 4, 2001. Their mother was a stray named Audrey — she had a funny face, blotched with black and tan calico spots. It was a weird summer. I was living in a basement apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, a place with little light, with a [...]