The Brown Knowser

Was it Confucius who cursed "may you live in interesting times"? Because we just might be experiencing that curse. The scenario: alternator shot on our van, with no parts or service until next week, and a weekend hurricane breathing down our necks. Interesting times, indeed! On Thursday afternoon, we spent the afternoon on a beach in Dennisport, on the southern shore of Cape Cod. The sun was shining, it was hot, but a strong wind was blowing in from the south and cooled us. Looking out to sea, with Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard beyond the horizon, we could see cloud cover obscuring the sky. Facing the warm water on the beach, the sand blasted our skin—sunglasses were mandatory for protecting our eyes. Sand got everywhere, but we didn't care. This was probably going to be our last day at the beach, so we were going to enjoy every minute of it. When we were hungry for dinner, we piled into the beach to head back to the cottage, where we would shower, change, ...

The other day, when we were in Provincetown, MA, my eyes couldn't help wandering towards the town's number-one landmark, the Pilgrim Monument. It's a 252-foot tower that was built from 1907 to 1910 as a dedication to the pilgrims that first landed in the area, in 1620. As I looked at the monument, I couldn't help think that I had seen this tower before. But where? It certainly looked Italian, and I wondered if it was reminding me of one of the towers that I had seen when I was in Italy in 2004 and 2009. At first, I thought it might be similar to the tower on the town hall building in Florence—just much taller. Perhaps. Maybe it was like one of the towers in San Gimignano. There certainly were enough of those. But no, this tower was too ornate for the residents of that medieval hilltown. And then it dawned on me: I had a bunch of photos from my last trip to Italy. They were stored on my iPhone. So I started looking. It didn't take long, and the results we...

Holy frickin' crap! A few years ago, we took the kids to St. Andrews, New Brunswick, to watch Minke whales frolicking in the Bay of Fundy. It was a great experience to see these majestic creatures crest the surface of the water, giving us brief glances of their backs. If we were lucky, we caught a glimpse of a tail So when we had an opportunity to go whale watching off Provincetown—at the tip of Cape Cod—I wasn't against it, but I thought: been there, done that. And the kids said an outright "no." We saw pictures in the ads for the whale-watching companies, glossy photos of humpback whales jumping out of the water— breaching , it's called. I thought, yeah, that probably happens once in a blue moon: you have to go out several times, watch for hours . I thought that we would go because Lori really wanted to see humpbacks. This was one of her bucket-list items. As I said at the beginning, holy frickin' crap! These guys didn't just show their backs;...

Greetings from beautiful Cape Cod. We've just started our vacation with a last-second getaway to the eastern shores of Massachusetts' great peninsula. And I do mean last second: we were sitting in our kitchen on Saturday morning, wondering if we were going to find a place to stay, when the phone rang. It was one of the places we had contacted on Friday night: they had a cancellation, and how soon could we be there? Apparently, we could be there that evening! So here we are, in a little cottage in Harwich. I'll be in touch...

I love hanging out downtown. There are so many things to do and so many things to see. One of my favourite areas of the downtown core is Sparks Street. Converted into a pedestrian mall in 1966—only a year after I was born—it's home to some great pubs and restaurants, book stores, shopping centres, government offices, and the CBC Ottawa broadcast studios. Stretching from Elgin Street to Bronson Avenue, it's a fairly long street. It's also a great street to simply stroll down, leisurely snapping photographs. Enjoy.

My kids love cooking shows. Whenever they visit Grandma and Grandpa, they both ask if they can watch the Food Network. At home, they like to tune into Hell's Kitchen or MasterChef . And one of their favourite food shows is Anna & Kristina's Grocery Bag . Or was. At least, as far as Lainey is concerned. The premise of A & K's show is simple: pick a cook book to review. Take a range of recipes from the book and try to replicate it exactly as it is intended. The test: a gourmet chef is invited to sample Anna and Kristina's work. The ladies, after all, are not professional chefs. Even I like this show. The mood is fun and both Anna and Kristina are very nice to look at. (Let's face it: they're hot!) So when my girls tuned in, I almost always join them. (In all honesty, I was also hooked by this season's MasterChef .) Lainey looked forward to watching this show. I usually snuggled up with her—when she wasn't tumbling all over the place (she...

</ br>

What has happened to us? Lori and I are great travellers. In our 22-plus years together, we've covered a lot of ground together. Just a month or so after first dating, we took off for a long weekend in New York City. We've been out east a couple of times, to England, Wales, France... not to mention all of the places we visited in East Asia when we lived in South Korea. With the kids in tow, we've been to Italy with great success. Yeah, Lori and I do the travel thing really well. So why can't we get our shit together this year? Today, had we stuck to our travel plans, I would be publishing this blog post from Paris. We would be on the start of our trip to France. Instead, I'm writing this post from Ottawa; as you read it, I'm at work, grumbling about the fact that we couldn't put our trip together. Annoyed that Lori, who still booked this week off, isn't enjoying the sights of Paris with Sarah and Lainey. And I'm cheesed at the realization th...

On Wednesday, we had a lot of storm clouds roll through the Ottawa area. Many of them threatened to pour rain on us; some of them actually made good on that threat. Because I always carry my iPhone on me, I was able to capture the ever-changing sky, starting at work. On Wednesday evenings, Sarah plays soccer. Rain or shine, her team plays. The only exception to this rule is lightning. As the team was practicing before the game, ominous clouds rolled in. In the distance, thunder rumbled. About 10 minutes before the start of the game, we saw a couple of flashes of lightning and the referee called all the girls off the pitch. We would wait until the official start of the game to see if there was more to come; if so, the game would have to be called off. We kept our fingers crossed. This was our last pre-tournament game of the season, and our team was undefeated. If we won this game, we would be the top-ranking team in our league. We didn't want to miss out on this game beca...

Of all the notes that Sarah has on her bedroom door, this is one of my favourites: I feel the love when I read the message. It warms my heart. And then there are times like last night, when, as I was watching TV, I heard Sarah screaming at the top of her lungs. "Lainey! Get out of my room! What part of that don't you understand? Get out! GET OUT!!" Ah, happy family. Feel the love.

A couple of weeks ago, I gave you the tale of alien abductions . Where I was the alien, being a foreigner in South Korea. But I didn't tell you the whole story, what happened after I returned to my apartment. What happened next. Here we go... So it was about 2:30 in the morning and I was outside my apartment in Chŏnju, South Korea. I had been abducted from a night club, beaten , and robbed. I was also somewhat inebriated, and all I wanted to do was go to bed and get some rest. But, dear readers, my evening was not over yet. Lori and a buddy, Russ, convinced me that I should report this incident to the police. I was skeptical because I doubted that the police could or would want to help. So we went to the local police centre&#151a box, really—and we found three officers on duty: fast asleep. I walked into the centre of the reception area, where two officers are snoring on sofas and the desk sergent was in front of me, and I said in my loudest voice, "AANNYONG HASEYO...

Let's face it: Starbucks was not going to lose me as a customer. I love their coffee too much—I'm addicted to the stuff—and I'm a sucker for their snacks and Frappuccinos. And while their sandwiches are not the greatest (for me, no coffee shop makes a better sandwich than Bridgehead ), there are a couple that I like. I like the Thai tuna wrap: it has a nice zest and I always feel full after eating one. But my first choice for sandwich at Starbucks is the ham and cheese panini. It's like comfort food for me. And when it's heated up, the cheese nicely melted and the tomato softened, it's great. Especially when it's washed down with a green tea Frappuccino (no whip). So imagine my disappointment when I had a bad experience with the last ham and cheese panini, last Tuesday. Tuesday nights are my nights to either go to my Toastmasters meeting (which I haven't done a lot of, lately) or to find a place to write—either on my blog or my book. I like to wor...