These Are A Few Of Our Favorite Things Mai Tai Tracy’s (and Tom’s) Favorite Things December 2024 If you are in need of some ideas for gifts or stocking stuffers, for whatever it is worth, here is a list of some of our favorite things … in the kitchen or […]

Celebrating The Red, White And … Green Amerigo Vespucci Tour – San Pedro, CA July 2024 Thanks to a heads-up from my friend Denny who lives in Canada, on America’s 248th birthday, Tracy and I took a tour of a famed Italian sailing vessel bearing the moniker of the Florentine […]

Down The Rabbit Hole & Back:  MaiTaiTom’s True Near-Death Saga Many of my friends who subscribe to this website know my 2010 Hospital Journey To Hell & Back all too well (they lived this story through emails, phone calls and visits).  I was admitted to the Huntington Hospital in Pasadena on […]

Getting Tracy Off The TSA Watch List Annoyed by Secondary Screening? You May Need a Redress Number (Report by Tracy … March 2023) – I have had a Known Traveler Number through Global Entry for years, yet I was pulled out for additional screening on seven straight flights out of […]

Remi’s Ojai Outdoor Outing Ojai Deer Lodge & Ojai Olive Oil Company – Ojai Since losing Frankie to cancer in October, we try to do something exciting with Remi every weekend (at least more interesting than walking around the block).  In mid-June 2010, Tracy and I brought these two corgis […]

A Cavalcade of Colors Lightscape – Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanical Garden Visited: November 2021 Whenever I hear there’s going to be an event that includes more than one million lights (a few more than we put on our house during the holidays), it piques my curiosity. So, when […]

To Boldly Go …Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds (Skirball Cultural Center) – Los Angeles Visited: October 2021 When Tracy asked me if I wanted to visit the Skirball Cultural Center to see its temporary exhibition entitled “Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds,” just like a fully vaccinated Vulcan, I immediately knew […]

A Shot In The Arm My First Covid Vaccination Being a gentleman (bit of a stretch) of a certain age, the big question for me the past month or so has been, “When will I get my Covid vaccination?” Luckily for me, I received my first shot this week (January […]

Loves Of Our Lives! The Tale of Frankie & Remi (from the Tracy Files) I thought I would share a little backstory on how our beloved corgis Frankie and Remi came to become part of our family … In 2008, while we were on a four-week vacation, our cat that […]

Passport To Disaster! Get Your Travel Affairs In Order “Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale A tale of a fateful trip …”   Ok, now that you have that TV theme song firmly planted in your head for the rest of the day, let’s get to the […]

‘Tis The Season For Lights Grand Park’s Winter Glow & Music Center’s Illuminated Tree Forest – Los Angeles, CA Since I am still technically still on the Injured List this holiday season and unable to drive due to recovering from knee replacement surgery, Tracy is my pulse on what’s going […]

The Birds and The Bees and The Caterpillars … Celebrating National Pollinator Month June is National Pollinator Month (June 17-23 is Pollinator Week 2019), so I thought I would share some photos from our garden, as well as a little background on why I love to garden.       […]

Night Lights Moonlight Forest/Magic Lantern Art Festival – Arcadia, CA Tracy and I have seen the light.  Actually, we have seen the lights.  On a smokey (thanks to Southern California’s massive wildfires) evening, we traveled to the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia to walk through the Moonlight Forest/Magic Lantern […]

“He Gave His Life For Tourism” King Tut: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh – Los Angeles (EXHIBITION CLOSED) Visited: April 2018: Although no “condo made of stone-a” could be found, Tracy and I recently had the opportunity to witness more than 150 ancient Egyptian artifacts from the tomb of the […]

I Can Hear Music! Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) – Phoenix, AZ Visited: March 2018 On my recent Spring Training outing to the Phoenix area, I asked my friend Jeff if there was a museum he could recommend while I visited. Without hesitation and knowing my passion for music, he replied, […]

Failure Is A Success! Museum of Failure – Los Angeles, California (EXHIBITION CLOSED) The Edsel? Swedish Fish Oreos? Betamax? Colgate Beef Lasagna?  There are failures…and then there are FAILURES, and you can see more than 100 of them at a pop-up museum aptly titled The Museum of Failure located in […]