DISQUS

So jealous about Minks to Sinks. I adore estate sales. Treasure hunting combined with amazing deals that haven't been marked up by the antique dealer!

Some of us are able to struggle through daily life without affirmation for everything down to our *grocery lists,* My Child!

Oh, don't flatter yourself! I do the "arrange by food, with list of meals" lists whenever I'm doing a major grocery shop instead of just running into Trader Joe's for milk and eggs.

The male mind, indeed. Pshaw.

I took approximately a trillion photos yesterday, which I will link you to once I upload. I know that's not the same, or even helpful, since you have about 12 cameras from what I saw. But I will send them anyway.

I have no idea about Wilton, but Ben and I stopped and ate sandwiches on the bridge at the entrance to the town forest before stopping by yesterday, and it was lovely. What a great spot!

HURRAY!!!

The funny thing is that when I was there last weekend we were talking about plans for the living room and just as I was going to say to Greta, "There's this extra-deep couch at Restoration Hardware that would be perfect!" she said "we're in love with one at Restoration Hardware..." It's perfect and you'll have it forever.

-DO NOT DISTURB sign
-Post-its with "Seriously, do not knock unless there is a fire"
-Talk to the manager
Come on, Herbert, show some action!

Nah, you're such an exhibitionist; it would be a wifebeater and boxer shorts.

But didn't you see the Times Dining In section today? It's recession times--dollar stores are hip:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/dining/26nine...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/dining/26nsid...

www.Donorschoose.org

It's an amazing education charity where teachers write in with a "grant proposal" detailing a specific classroom project or need, and you can search for one you like (by topic, geography, or both) and fund it directly. Depending on your donation you get an email from the teacher or a handwritten set of notes from the kids thanking you personally. It's a really, really great charity; my favorite by far. You can fund anything from copies of a Shakespeare play for 11th graders to microscopes for 8th graders who need to learn to use them for a standardized test!

This is too lightweight but seems to be the right level of casual/not too sporty?
http://tinyurl.com/2hu6yy

Looks slightly heavier; liner is a vest:
http://www.llbean.com/cd-15/53982/8878.shtml

I thought we settled this when you visited!!

I saw this and thought of you right away: http://www.delight.com/Bird-Turd-Emergency-Kit-...

Ooooh, how far have you gotten? We had ordered two but ended up only taking one because we knew I'd have finished by noon on Saturday. Now Ben is about halfway through. I am jealous that I don't still have more to read, but I can never hold off from reading it all at once. SO GOOD.

BROOKLYN. Ok, here's the deal. From Boerum Hill, where I lived, it wouldn't be that much longer to Stamford than it would be from most places downtown in Manhattan. And if you were slightly more north and west than I was, it might even be easier than most places in Soho and the W. Village. The Borough Hall stop on the 4/5 trains (1st stop in Brooklyn) is at Joralemon and Court St. A lot of the awesomeness of Boerum Hill/Cobble Hill is along Court and Smith just south of Atlantic, so you could live at the northern end of one of those neighborhoods (Joralemon is technically in the Heights, which is as spendy as Manhattan) and have just a 5 minute walk to the train.

One advantage to the area is how many other trains there are, too. Depending on where you're staffed in the city you're close to the 2/3, F and A/C, and the W isn't far either. I lived a block from the F at Bergen, and my commute to Rockefeller Center including walking on either end was 25 minutes door to door.

There are a few reasons I think Brooklyn will be better. With a kid, it's a much more friendly and walkable place. There are lots of families as well as lots of hip young people, so you won't be the only ones with the strollers but you won't be the only cool people in a Suburb of Lame. Greta won't feel isolated when she's home with the baby because there are tons of places to go right nearby without having to load into a car. The food and bar scene is AWESOME and much cheaper than Manhattan. The brunch options alone are endless! There are more trees, especially on the side streets, than most areas in Manhattan, so it always felt cooler and cleaner to me. And it feels like a neighborhood. The guys at the bodega on the corner would take packages for us, that sort of thing. And there are lots of cool preschools and stuff in the area, plus some great public elementary schools (there's a magnet arts school on Pacific between Hoyt and Smith) so you wouldn't need to move in two years unless you wanted to.

I did not want to move to Brooklyn; I ended up there by a fluke. But I loved my three years there and am glad that we moved to Cambridge, which is more like it than Boston would be!

Eek, just checking in to make sure you guys aren't anywhere near here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6896195.stm

xo

Heh, Ben was in Boston last night so it was just the family, and there was an awkward moment at dinner when suddenly I lashed out at Tom for being so judgemental of my Tuck friends. I resented that he never gave them the benefit of the doubt, and that at 22 he's so high and mighty and sure that all his choices are the right ones. We worked it out and I wasn't being entirely fair, but it's definitely a feeling that bugs me.

Of course, his two comments after everyone left on Sunday were "Chris is awesome" and, later, "Do you think Chris would mind if I killed him so I could marry Greta?" (That was a joke. I think.) Anyway, he loved you guys, which was the first time any Tuckies got that reaction! So at least you can feel special.

I think this weekend is coming at the perfect time--let's plan on drinking wine and thinking deep thoughts about the future, ok? I completely empathize on this; the "The Dream" vs. Real Life faceoff has always been a major struggle for me.

Boy, do I hear you on this--it's my Achilles heel, too. I always said I went into journalism so that I'd have permission to ask nosy questions and a career where procrastination was the norm and everything was deadline-driven.

I guess that's the key for me, and something to think about re. careers. Having multiple strong deadlines is the only thing that can get me started--I never get going on things until the last possible minute, and then have to work incredibly hard to get everything done. But I could never, ever have a job where I had 6 months to work on a big project, with some ambiguous status checks but nothing really forcing me to make progress. Consulting seems to me that it will be pretty good for you (and I'm actually considering it myself): You're working on a set project, there are clear goals and a limited timeframe, and I feel like there must be very strong deadlines in place.
I am jealous of people who plug away and never end up so stressed out, aren't you? They may be robots but they can be so calm! (I do see a strong correlation between creativity and procrastination, though. And there's also the clean desk/messy desk issue--did you read the articles a few months ago about how messy desk people are indeed the creative ones who tend to go further in life? HA!)