A TV home can say a lot about the character who lives in it. Or it can really miss the boat. I love when a protagonist’s home is a perfect reflection of the character — Meg Ryan’s cozy, shabby-chic Upper West Side apartment in You’ve Got Mail, comes to mind. But I’ve always been disappointed […]
Author: The Next Dinner Party
Sifnos: The Greek Island of My Dreams
Some months ago, our Dutch friends came to dinner and brought us a jar of capers from the Greek island of Sifnos. I had never heard of this island, but those capers, wow. They were the plumpest, funkiest, lemoniest, absolute best capers I’d ever had. So I don’t want to say we went to Sifnos […]
Naxos: A Hike a Day on Vacay
We planned our Greek island trip as we went, so when we were in fancy Santorini, it was time to think about the next stop. Perhaps the obvious choice was Mykonos, mostly because I had heard of it. But an island with a reputation for where the super rich land their private jets for a […]
Chic, Romantic Santorini
When you picture the Greek islands, Santorini — a honeymooner’s and Instagrammer’s paradise — might be what comes to mind with its whitewashed hotels, villas, and restaurants perched on a cliff face overlooking the sea. It also has the reputation of being the most touristy of the Greek islands, so we figured that now, in […]
Escaping Lockdown in Crete
Hello from day six of a two-week quarantine in our Algiers home. While sitting around our house and not being able to leave isn’t ideal, it was TOTALLY WORTH IT as a condition the nearly three-week Greek islands trip Adam and I just took. I know I said there were no flights out of Algiers, […]
Numbers Mistakes in a Foreign Language
Quarantine update: We’ve been locked down here in Algiers now for four months. The situation isn’t terrible here: Stores have reopened; I go in to work one day a week (and work from home the rest of the week); we play tennis often; we order Indian food often from our favorite restaurant; we’ve drank through […]
One Year in Algiers
One year ago today — on July 1, 2019 — we landed in Algiers to start our three-year tour. Back then, we thought we’d be here for two years, but we quickly extended for an additional year. I’m glad we did, because otherwise we’d be trying to figure out where to go next right now, […]
Beachy Textured Master Bedroom
Whew, what a month. In the midst of the continued coronavirus lockdown here in Algiers, back home there’s yet another police killing of a black person, and now protests all over the country in response. It feels like the start of a major public reckoning on racism in the U.S. and it’s a wild time […]
Who Had It Better: Diplomats of the Present or the Past?
I drove to the garden store in Algiers the other day, and it was the first time in months I’ve driven more than a few kilometers. (Seriously, I last filled the tank in our car about 60 days ago and it’s still at least half full!) On the drive back, I was trying to figure […]
The Handsome Dark Green Study
It’s been a home decor fantasy for of mine for a number of years to have a handsome dark green study. A room dark and cozy, worn yet sophisticated, a room that beckons one to select a book from the towering bookshelf and sit down and read. Or, that encourages one to sit and write, […]