Why do I need that?

When one's budget is cut in half, it becomes quite easy to spot useless gadgets - like a $20 panini spatula. I spotted this gem while Daisy and I were paging through the Williams-Sonoma catalog for November.

It's a wide spatula with a slit down the middle where you can insert your knife - a $69.95 Wusthof Classic Panini Knife, no less - and you cut the sandwich in half, while holding the sandwich down with this specialized spatula. And, when you are done, you will (apparently) have a restaurant-perfect panini, all without having worried that your panini innards might start to ooze out while cutting the sandwich in half.

How did we ever get on with eating lunch before the invention of this spatula and knife pairing? I mean, how did we ever get the perfect panini when it was the wild west of a person holding the sandwich in place with one hand and cutting it with an ordinary knife in the other?

You know what else works great for cutting a sandwich? A bread knife. And, it's good for other things, too. Like slicing bread, bagels, lettuce, whatever.

Back from vacation

After a well-deserved vacation in Salem, MA, Daisy and I have returned to Pittsburgh and are looking ahead to returning to our regular routines this week. We really would have rathered to have stayed longer. I know, lots of people say that about their vacations - wish it was longer - but for Daisy and I, our trips to Salem are not the regular vacation, it is a return to our home away from home.

I love Pittsburgh. I was born here, I grew up here, and other than the two years Daisy and I didn't live here, I've basically lived here all of my life. Honestly, I thought it was a given that I would never want to live out our lives and raise a family anywhere but in Pittsburgh. Then, we went to Salem for our honeymoon, and suddenly, a whole new possibility was presented to us.

We fell in love with Salem immediately, and Salem similarly seemed to love us. Everywhere we went, people assumed we were local to Salem and somehow they just hadn't met us yet. They were taken aback when we told them we were actually from Pennsylvania. And then they'd give us the "locals" discount at their shops anyhow and said how glad they were to meet us. It was both unexpected and delightful.