Category: ranting and raving
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The play area yesterday was crawling….with parents. The kids hardly had room to move, much less swing and jump. I remember French playgrounds where parents sat on the sidelines and had coffee and adult conversation while the kids sorted it out. I love you Vivi, but I find the playground incredibly boring, and I won’t…
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Here we are having a little rest tonight after working non-stop on the house for three days. Viv likes to play on the slide in the front yard while I check on my flowers and bird feeder. Each marathon weekend like this ends in sore muscles, empty bank accounts and a bit more affection for…
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I hate my house. But I shouldn't. I spent the last twenty years enamored with modern design and architecture. I ran a modern design shop, worked for a modern furniture store, grew a huge modern design library (and moved it multiple times), read every magazine (I miss Echoes), read every blog and haunted every real…
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The exterior of Kenmore has, from the beginning, nagged at me. Something is not right. When I first walked in, it was the general warmth of the front room and specific detail of the sunroom floor tile that made me say “Finally, a real house!”. But the exterior, especially the front, has never had that…
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” Friday’s shootings bring the total in the last week to 26. Eight people have been killed in those shootings.” That’s just one week. In my town. In Milwaukee. Not Syria, not Afghanistan. I’m so frustrated and sad and feel helpless to do anything about it. We are slaughtering our own, letting our neighbors and…
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I thought it was bad when the daycare sent home a list of instructions for “child week” last month—wear this color on that day, dress up as your favorite character, and more. I have enough to do —work, baby, home. Do I really need assignments for my six month old? But I thought, it’s only…
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A few tips for that week between when you packed up all your belongings and the day you actually move: Un-used diapers make handy pot holders. Coffee can be filtered with paper towel. One lightbulb can be moved from fixture to fixture. If the pizzas are ordered from a different place each time, that means…
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Why do people more frequently say a house is too small? I have yet to be advised that a house is too big, even when it’s a 2300 sq ft beast ( not counting basement and garage). That is twice what we need—twice the renovation cost, twice the heating and cooling, twice the maintenance, twice…
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House hunting in winter sucks. Our budget means a fixer upper, which we love, but come on! It has to be at least mostly structurally sound. Milwaukee has some ugly, ugly housing stock right now. According to the listings, the highlight of the Wisconsin home apparently is the basement bar. I am determined not to…
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Things that freaked out me during the tour of the "birthing center" at the hospital: -You can't walk down the hall with baby in your arms, it must be in the hamburger-warmer-cart-crib at all times in the hallways. -"No one really ever uses" the water tub so it's not a problem to only have one.…
girl at large 