on real estate

Hmmm … it is as though the author has documented the voices in my head …
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/business/yourmoney/31money.html?ei=5087&em=&en=b0e102f041d0a49f&ex=1212379200&adxnnlx=1212220837-9opWcG%20fOP65jolWPZg0ow&pagewanted=all

phd milestones 1 & 2

If you’ve been following along at home you may know that I’m in the process of completing a doctoral program. All coursework and comprehensive exams are finished. Now to research and dissertation.
They stage it out in specific milestones so it doesn’t seem too terribly daunting (well, theoretically). Today, I met with my adviser, got a firm commitment [...]

a grass skirt for your boudoir

What fun for a tropical bedroom … with the right accessories and high-thread-count duvet this could be lovely as opposed to kitschy. There’s that fine line between quirky and tacky. The price is quite precious but I’ll bet one could find/make virtually the same bedskirt at a fraction of the price.
http://www.softsurroundings.com/P/Island_Grass_Bedskirt/80/
http://www.softsurroundings.com/P/Island_Grass_Bedskirt/

 
 

height doesn’t matter

If you have cooks of dramatically different heights (like my 5′ girlfriend and her 6-5′ husband … oh that’s right, he doesn’t cook, ha ha), you may find that pendant lights above the counters are impractical. Here’s the solution, courtesy of Kelly at Kitchen Sync … pulleys that let you adjust the drop.
 http://kitchensync.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/05/pendant-lightin.html

tabula rasa

At long last, here’s the slate atop the walk and porch. I alternated 16s on the porch. On the walk, I alternated 16s with 4-8s.
What do you think?
 
 

a wii for mii????

I have so far resisted the lure of electronic games.
Yet I have been hearing over the past few months from friends who are absorbed by tennis and bowling in a virtual sportsworld in which they are embracing their inner athlete.
I’m intrigued by this new Wii Fit Board. Yoga in a virtual world? Perhaps I will [...]

the end is near …

I try to resist political commentary for many reasons.
But it does not matter what side of the current campaign you find yourself — blue, red, male, female, black, white, young, old, war or peace (Wow, we have a lot of dichotomies in this race, don’t we?)
Maureen Dowd, with her characteristic slaying wit, provides this hypothetical [...]

hope for children

Thomas Friedman is one of my favorite thinkers and writers. If you’ve not read “The World is Flat,” you might consider it. Your perspective of our future will be forever changed. (If the size of the book is daunting, the books on tape are excellent).
He’d been on sabbatical from the New York Times while working [...]

small victories

My new washer/dryer are installed at the new house (the LG steamwashers). With all the construction most everything I moved over there to stage the old house has a fine layer of dust (even the stuff in boxes looks pretty pitiful), so I look forward to breaking in these two little lovelies with a whole [...]

who is this craig, anyway?

I’ll post more this weekend about the house renovation but in the meantime, I’ve had some issues crop up that were not part of the original contract. Concrete restoration/stabilization, pool repairs, some installations, irrigation overhaul, deck surround, washer/dryer install, etc.
Having experienced subs hired by the GC who was supposed to babysit them (at a 15% premium), [...]