Eat, Pray, Love, One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia.

The book club is reading this book currently. It provides some great discussion.
The idea that resonated with me (besides all the pasta, pizza and bread!) during the EAT/Italy portion of this book was the idea of each city having a WORD. According to a resident, Rome's word is SEX. Even with the Vatican right in the middle! (The Vatican's word is POWER). Liz says New York's word is ACHIEVE, while Los Angeles's word is ACHIEVE (both verbs - I guess we American's can't sit still). A friend from Stockholm says that city's word is CONFORM. I don't know the word fro my city (unless it's CONSTRUCTION!). Of course the logical next question is, "What word describes me?" Mary says that she can think of words that describe her at different times of her life, but not one word to define her at all times. I have yet to discover my word. I have a theory, though...

More Real Estate Ramblings

Well, it's been 29 days. I'm sorry I didn't give more details throughout the month. Sharing my knowledge of homebuying might have helped someone else. Not becasue I know so much, but because I understand so little, and can break it down for anyone as equally ignorant as myself.

Long story short; we bought a house! We will sign papers and get keys at 3 pm! I'd post a picture, but I don't have one (my sister "stole" my camera!).

Fave things: gorgeous YELLOW kitchen (no painting required with lotsa cabinets and a center island (for parties!), covered patio and back deck (needs to be cleaned and resealed, but that's a small price to pay for all the parties we'll have out there!)

There's normal stuff we like too: fireplace, 3 bedrooms, walk-in closets, 2-car garage, large master bedroom, the price$$!, owing a home, not living above Ed who likes to keep his bulldog on his balcony and only hose it off once a month, having room to put things where they belong, I could go on. I'll know more when we're actually in posession.

We're extremely excited and scared. It's too late to back out, but Cyrus comapred it to getting married. Our lives are totally changing, and we're happy about it, but it's a huge change and one can't help but have some reservations.

The Case for Working With Your Hands

One shop teacher suggested to me that “in schools, we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement. Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged.”

True, but how do we fix it?

Read whole article here.