Vacation by Chocolate

Vacation by Chocolate

My husband Dan has a particular knack when planning vacations.  I’m not talking about posh accommodations or exotic destinations or exclusive restaurants. When he was helping to plan our trip to Paris to celebrate my 40th birthday, he discovered that a major...
Getting Carded at 50

Getting Carded at 50

Over the course of Thanksgiving week I traveled about 600 miles.  From our house in Natick, Massachusetts to my parents’ house in Northern New Jersey, out to a college visit in Pennsylvania and then back to Natick again. At the end of this odyssey I arrived home to...
Will Zagat Fly or Fade?

Will Zagat Fly or Fade?

Before I started writing monthly newsletters four years ago, I wrote restaurant reviews.  Just one or two a year for Zagat’s Boston Restaurant Guide.  One contributed review was enough to score me a free copy of the next guide release and seemed well worth...
Car Talk

Car Talk

I grew up in a family that bought large used cars.  My dad was good at finding sturdy, reliable cars that owners no longer wanted once they had logged 40,000 miles.  He bought the ones that a local mechanic blessed and could fix for a couple hundred...