CLICK HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES »

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

So Proud of My Sister!!!


Hi All, Caitlin is back from NYC. She went down to the opening of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum where her sister Maura is curator. It was a big to do... We are very proud of Maura(had to post her bio from the museum site.)
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/about/staff.php

Maura is an art historian and has worked on this exhibition for three years. She literally put her heart and soul into this event and words can't express how proud we are of her. All of Cait's immediate family attended the event. Unfortunately, I have not accrued enough vacation time with my new company and wasn't able to go. Cait got back from Brooklyn a little after 10pm on Saturday. They had a fabulous time. They were initially extremely upset for Maura because the NY Times panned her exhibition and Maura and the rest of us were devastated. The thing is the writer isn't a feminist and she apparently has a vendetta against the museum, so they were not expecting a great review. Anyway, there has since been a good review in Time Magazine (see link below) and a few other positive reviews.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1601840,00.html

(Cait now!)I guess you could say her exhibit is somewhat controversial. Some people just have an issue with feminism and some people just can't handle some of the violent art that is displayed. I think Maura said something like less than 10% of the art has any type of violent tone to it but for some reason people seem to be really harping on the violent pieces. The thing about this exhibit is that it looks at feminism from a GLOBAL perspective. We as women have come far, but we still have a LOT further to go and that is even more the case in some of the countries that the artists come from such as Japan, Pakistan, Turkey, etc. Here is the us we still struggle with issues like "glass ceilings" just to mention one example, but in some countries women can't even own property or leave the house with out a burka (sp?) on. Women are still extremely oppressed and many of the pieces in my sister's show reflect this. I am just so incredibly proud of my sister for her hard work and dedication and for broaching a subject that many people won't dare to touch! She has created a dialogue and that is the first step. In Social Work we say "planting seeds."

On a final silly note about my trip, most of you know that I'm kind of celebrity obsessed. Well, I have to tell you that Jane Fonda was right behind me in line while going through one of the exhibits. This is actually my second time seeing her in person! We also saw Gloria Steinem-even cooler considering I was a women studies Minor in college! Remember those classes Tami? Wish I could of double majored in it but it would have delayed my graduation.

Check out the link below which is a direct link to the show:
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/global_feminisms/

OK, onto the rest of our BUSY weekend! We haven't posted in a few weeks so there is so much to say! On Saturday Kyle went down to his sister's and went to a home improvement show in the Providence, RI convention center. Kyle enjoyed the show and found it interesting to see some of the new products coming out for home improvement. He stayed there until about 4pm. Then he went back to his sister's house and went out to dinner.

(Kyle Writing) On Sunday Caitlin and I went over my sister's again. We went out to a place in Fall River, MA to look at front loader washers and dryers. Caitlin would really like a new washer so she can wash the laundry too! :)

Other notes... Our watching less TV has had good times and bad times. Kyle thinks we have cut back some times, but we have been more lax during the past month... mainly he has been tired because of working the weekends on the Condo... We basically usually watch TV Tuesday(Dirty jobs), Wednesday(Friday night lights and Mythbusters) and on the Weekends usually movies from Netflix. We are almost finished with the Holiday, which I'd say is a B. Keep in mind that we are movie snobs, so you may give it a higher grade. Ok, enough for now! Hope all is well!

Monday, March 12, 2007

Getting back to Normal...

Well the first phase of fix up the condo is nearing completion. We are very happy how the bathrooms came out. I am still doing some work to finish up the kitchen. Now we have to start planning for replacement of our rugs in our dinning/living room & halls. We were thinking of hardwoods for this area and using area rugs. This would define the space better. We would then eventually replace just the carpet in the bedrooms with new carpet. This is the plan anyway...

On another note I read this an article about a year ago about a couple in NY that basically stop spending money. They were only trying to buy really what they needed in order to pay off credit card debt. I find this very interesting... seeing how consumer debt, credit, mortgage, and every other type of debt, is greater than it ever has been in the past. The real question to ask is could each of us actually stop spending? The thing this basically accomplishes is that it defines wants from necessities. Yes there are things you need to buy... just you need to be able define what that is and how much you really value them...

check out this challenge I found on MSN and let me know what you think??? I am really curious.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/FindDealsOnline/CouldYouStopSpendingForAMonth.aspx

Friday, March 2, 2007

Home Improvement....

Well, last weekend we ripped up most of the lineoum in the Condo. We ripped up the kitchen and Cait's bathroom. It went terribly slow getting the Lineoum up in the kitchen. After a couple of runs to Home depot for tools and supplies we were finally able to get something that did a good job on the ripping. On Sunday we were able to lay down tile in Cait's bathroom. Her bathroom still needs the grout to complete it. Last night, Thursday March 1, I ripped up the Lineoum in the guest bathroom. On Saturday we plan to lay the tile in the kitchen and the guest bathroom and hopefully grout Cait's to finish her bathroom up. Then hopefully we can finish up on Sunday. Pictures will follow
On Saturday we tiled the kitchen and finished grouting Cait's bathroom. Cait's bathroom came out fabulous. On Sunday we tiled the guest bathroom and grouted the kitchen. We are still removing the grout off of the tiles in the kitchen. We also have to fix a couple of spots where the thinset shows through on the grout. We have to chisel the spots and regrout. Oh well. It is going a lot slower than we originally planned. I guess the end result will be worth it. We do not have full access to our kitchen as a result- no stove, washer, dryer, they are spread through the living rm and office. The refrig is connected to an outlet in the dinning area so we still have that. We have to microwave our foods for a few days. Luckily Cait is going to Albany so she will be away on Tuesday & Wednesday nights. Hopefully we will finish everything up this weekend and get back to normal...

Before



















Stripped Floor





















Cait's completed bathroom


Kitchen Before



















Kitchen almost done