In Which I Know Nothing About Belgium

When I’ve thought about visiting Belgium … well, I guess that’s the problem with this trip. Until this year I’ve never thought about visiting Belgium. Truthfully it’s not a country that has caught my imagination or even entered my consciousness much beyond its mere existence. Yes I knew it was its own country but wasn’t […]

A Look Back on Summer, 2023, and a New Beginning

A few weeks ago, my brother said it quite clearly: the sparkling surface of the lake had changed. That’s what happens in Michigan this time of year: as the seasons roll forward and the great orb of the sun begins its annual recession into the southern sky, the sunlight changes color and reflects off of […]

Jambo from Kenya

When I checked into the hotel they asked, seemingly as a matter of routine, when my next flight was. That’s what happens when you stay at the airport hotel – they assume you are going somewhere else (because no matter how nice it may be, there’s usually not any other good reason to stay at […]

Preparing for the Rains

I bought the ticket for this flight back in November, and only after completing the purchase did I wonder, “Is that a good time to go to Kenya?” As it turns out, this isn’t generally considered a great time to visit East Africa, because April and May are the season of long rains. To be […]

Something to Remember

Well, at last it has happened:I’m back! Butterblogger, my friends, has returned. When last you heard from me I was in Rome headed home. And frankly, I wasn’t doing well. The journey was fine, but my teeth hurt from the fall, I couldn’t properly eat, and I just generally felt terrible. The intervening months have […]

In Which I Try to Control the Things I Can’t

I refreshed the page on my phone incessantly, monitoring where Lisa’s flight was. I mean, I knew it was late, but now every minute counted, and I wanted to know every change and how late it would be. In fact, her flight wasn’t just late – it was extremely late – about 3 hours behind […]