on-again, off-again

“The Log Cabin Republicans asked the court Friday to deny the motion, saying "an on-again, off-again status of the District Court's injunction benefits no one and plays havoc with the constitutional rights of American service members.”

USA Today: Court: 'don't ask, don't tell' will stay in place

“By her side was Ethan Gray, her on-again, off-again boyfriend and the captain of the boys’ track team.”

Simon & Schuster: Choker

“Larry had his hands spread reverentially on the smooth, cool surface, smearily, his cheek and chest pressed to it, too, as if absorbing the on-again, off-again sunlight, as if listening for information carried in the wires in the glass, perhaps wishing not to break through but to squeeze into its transparency, to enter the flow.”

Simon & Schuster: Some Fun

“She also knew, of course, that even though Big Ed Baggett and a couple of the oldest boys had sort of on-again, off-again jobs, the off days seemed to happen a lot oftener than the on ones.”

Simon & Schuster: William S. And The Great Escape

“He got right up close to the sluggishly moving F-750, at almost-point-blank range, the muzzle three feet from the steel door, the guards looking lazily not around but up the road at the jammed-up lanes of cars and their blinking, on-again, off-again brake lights that yawned before them, and then Caleb fired.”

Simon & Schuster: A Bob Lee Swagger eBook Boxed Set

“In late July, after ten years of on-again, off-again cold war negotiations, a deal between Pan Am and Aeroflot would establish the first direct air service between the Soviet Union and the United States.”

1968 the Year that Rocked the World