It’s a whole other order of rain when you finally make your way home after taking the T–umbrella wrecked and soaked from being turned inside out multiple times– and the dry clothes you put on feel that good. And the straight joy of feeling like you’ve entered your own dry cave. With the wind and [...]
[Read part 2 of Elfa Closet Installation] So with the room prepped up, it was finally time to get to the actual installation. Funny how that goes– the majority of time going into getting everything ready, and then, almost a feeling of relief at being able to fall into the central project itself. Small stages [...]
What’s that idea? About the ‘third space’ that Starbucks capitalized on during their huge expansion (though much slowed now) over the past ten years or so? The idea that every person typically needs three such places with two of them already, in most cases, determined. Space 1: Home. Space 2: Workplace. Space 3? Variable… and [...]
Bonus craftmanship. Okay, so maybe that’s a little exaggerated. I’m just getting my feet wet with this home project stuff. But how fun to re-purpose some of the old closet material and figure out a way to design out the inlaid cut-out shelving/entertainment space in the living room? I had been meaning to get to [...]
[Read part 1 of Elfa Closet Installation] It’s one of those processes that are deeper than you expect, perhaps. How satisfying to go through that first phase of tearing down. But I guess after hauling down surprisingly heavy particle board pieces down a few flights of stairs for an hour and a half? You figure, [...]
I like those pictorial essays or tv shows that capture a person’s progress through whatever project he or she might be working on. Cooking shows, home renovation projects… or salon makeovers. All that Bravo, Food Network and HGTV stuff. (Geez, should I admit all that??) So in that fashion, here goes some documentation of my [...]
Two and a half years into that initial thought–You know, the first big home project is going to be about re-doing that bedroom closet–I’ve finally, with some gentle and patient prodding, gone the way of Elfa from The Container Store. So now, there’s a pile of materials in my place that will somehow transform into [...]
Lucky to be at the beginning of a February break week, that New England school-break tradition that my sister down in Philadelphia always ribs me about. Her own school students soldiering bravely through the winter without a similar vacation week. How in the world do you get to 180 school days??, she insists. Hey, I’ll [...]
Headed up north to New Hampshire this weekend for a XC skiing / yoga retreat with the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC). Enticing mix, no? Bretton Woods skiing and staying at the impressive Highland Center Lodge. Early morning yoga sessions. The loveliness of meeting, eating and sleeping with strangers (wait, that sounded a little odd…heh). Especially [...]
Askwith Forum with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
Thanks to the help of my former program director for the Teaching Ambassador Fellowship, I was able to get a reserved ticket yesterday afternoon for Education Secretary Duncan’s visit to the Harvard School of Education’s Askwith Forum. I made it through the doors of the main lecture hall in Longfellow just in time, the outer [...]