At Home In The Wasteland Travel Blog

I’m back from our day trip to Joshua Tree and have a ton of photos that I will upload when I get a chance. Here’s a few from another hike we took yesterday morning. Heeeey, I can see my house from here! Don’t you hate it when you hike to the top only to discover [...]

“This is a very sad time for me. I never really wanted the job. And it was only in the last year or so that I realized I could do it. And the tragedy is that when I really wanted it, I lost it.” – Gerald Ford, shortly after his defeat in the 1976 Presidential [...]

Three wood. First time I’ve ever done that. Not quite sure what happened, but I saw the head fly off and looked down at the considerably lighter shaft that was still in my hands. “Ohhhh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!” Ryan risked life and limb to retrieve the head from the driving range. The nice folks down at Marc’s [...]

My mom woke me up at 6:15 in the morning to go hiking. The city of Palm Desert recently completed several trails in the mountains near my house, and my mom has subsequently become a hiking junkie (training for the Grand Canyon, she says). I was thoroughly perplexed by this newfound hiking craze, which I [...]

Looks a lot like this: 72 degrees and sunny. Cold weather is for suckers. (Yes, so says the person who voluntarily gave up California for DC. WTF was I thinking?) Merry Christmas to all my friends…and to those of you in Iraq, Armenia, Sri Lanka, Uganda, etc., drinks are on me next time you’re in [...]

Flight left DC at 6:50am. Got into Palm Springs a little after noon. Temperature was 75 degrees and I was roasting in my turtleneck. Couldn’t wait to change into a polo shirt and flip flops. First stop: In-N-Out. It’s a Fincher tradition, whether I’m coming back from DC, London, Moscow, or St. Pete, we have [...]

There we were, ready to knock France’s École Polytechnique off its pedestal and claim the title of “Tenth greatest university in the world,” when some fellow in the Social Psychology department decided it would be a great idea to admit Monica Lewinsky to the MSc program. The end result was a ton of jokes at [...]

Yes, it’s true…if the news reports are correct. His Excellency Saparmurat Niyazov Turkmenbashi, President of Turkmenistan and Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers (yes, that’s his official title), arguably one of the world’s most eccentric dictators, is dead at the age of 66. I’m still expecting him to randomly cut into an oh-so-exciting Turkmen TV [...]

According to the weather report, today’s high in Washington was an incredibly pleasant 73 degrees. IT WAS 73 DEGREES IN MID-DECEMBER. I’m used to winter temperatures in the 70s, considering I grew up in PALM SPRINGS, CA, but 73 degrees in mid-December in Washington-effin-DC? Global warming, FTW! There is a fun little flash tool on [...]

Finally got my DC license plates. If you’ve never seen our politically snarky DC license plates, here’s your chance: Obviously they aren’t blank…I ran them through Photoshop Our license plates say “Taxation without Representation” on them because, despite having a population larger than the state of Wyoming, we are not entitled to a voting member [...]