House and Home
Getting Ready For The Holidays
Ask most people about their gift-giving woes and they’ll tell you: It’s the men in their lives. They just can’t shop for a father with no hobbies, a boyfriend who only likes expensive gadgets or a 14-year-old boy who speaks in monosyllabic grunts and doesn’t admit to liking anything. But in my life? It’s quite the opposite. [...] Read More
Social Media
NAME: Z
STATUS: Chatty
GOAL: Keeping an eye on Troy
PEEVE: Facebook updates that say nothing
GLEE: Connecting with old friends
Troy is in sixth grade this year and wants to get on Facebook. Many of his friends are social media masters already but Troy hadn’t shown much interest until now.
He will set up his Facebook page this weekend and I will be in his first round of friend requests. That’s the House of Z rule. In a few years, after he turns 18, if Troy wants to “unfriend” me and post stupid stuff on Facebook that could jeopardize his career or college scholarships or [...] Read More
Home Repairs
NAME: Z
STATUS: Watchful
GOAL: No ER visits this year
PEEVE: Proscrastination
GLEE: A good contractor
We pay a handyman to clean out our gutters. We’ve done this for a year or two, ever since a friend fell off a ladder and dislocated his right knee and made his wife miserable complaining about it for the next two months.
Our friend was on this ladder trying to replace a wood soffit. The soffit had rotted because debris piled up in the gutters, trapped water and kept the wood wet because the gutters had not been routinely cleaned.
For them, it was a painful lesson [...] Read More
Home Repair Q&A with Wendell Harmer from the Wills Company
Wendell Harmer is Vice President and Co-owner of The Wills Company, an award-winning, design/build remodeling and handyman firm located in West Nashville. He has been with The Wills Company since 1993 and has over 20 years of experience in the construction industry. Wendell is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Organizational Development. Wendell has been instrumental in formulating policies, procedures, and training that allow the company to hire and keep the best craftspeople in the renovation business. Wendell and his wife, Elizabeth, have two boys. They spend as much time as possible [...] Read More
Time Management: Simplify
NAME: Z
STATUS: Overheated and cranky
GOAL: Time to cool off
PEEVE: Disappearing days
GLEE: Watching clouds on a breezy day
The summer is more than half over and I don’t know what happened to it.
The big bag of dog food I thought we bought last weekend is nearly empty. Baxter, our beagle mix, loves to eat but even he can’t finish a 20-pound bag in one week. I can’t seem to keep food in the fridge or laundry in order or bills paid on time. I need more hours in the day or less sleep, or both.
I always feel off my game in the [...] Read More
Free and Cheap Hobbies with Ms Cheap, Mary Hance
Mary Hance, aka Ms. Cheap, learned her thrift from her frugal parents – her bargain savvy mother and her father who was an Episcopal priest and bishop. She grew up in Mississippi and in Memphis. She graduated with honors from the University of the South at Sewanee, with a degree in English. In 1976, she started with the Nashville Banner as a copy clerk and worked her way up to cover the local and state and federal courts, the police beat, Metro government, and worked as an editorial writer, a business writer and assistant business editor. When the Banner closed [...] Read More
Cheap Crafting
NAME: Z
STATUS: Crafty
GOAL: Starting on holiday craft gifts
PEEVE: Adhesive failure
GLEE: Making cool stuff with little coin
One of our closets is piled with bins of unfinished craft projects, fabric, notions, buttons, cookie tins, beads, old vintage jewelry, broken pieces of jewelry and broken plates, cups and other ceramic pieces for when I finally make those mosaic garden decorations I’ve been planning.
When it comes to crafting, I’ve got no shortage of ideas. The problem is always time.
But I’ll make the time to find or create a good deal. Simply going to the craft store for supplies is boring. Where’s [...] Read More
Fire Safety with Deputy Chief Kim Lawson
Deputy Chief Kim Lawson is a 32-year veteran of the Nashville Fire Department. She currently heads the Community Services Bureau and serves as the Chief Public Information Officer and is the primary point of contact for all media inquiries and public relations/marketing for the department. Lawson’s responsibilities include public fire safety education and prevention. In May 2003, Lawson was promoted to Deputy Chief making her the first female in the history of the Nashville Fire Department to hold this rank. Lawson holds a B.S. degree in Public Safety Administration and has completed the Fire Service Executive Management Program at Owen [...] Read More
Fire Safety
NAME: Lily
STATUS: Sweating in the sun
GOAL: Acquire a tall cold one
PEEVE: Rude waiters
GLEE: Nice boys who buy you drinks
The great thing about being under-employed is having lots more playtime in summer, laying around a friend’s posh condo pool with waiters and adult beverages. Or wake-boarding and jet skiing at a friend’s parents’ lake house. Or just chilling with another unemployed pal, like my friend M.
Poor M. has had a string of terrible luck lately – boyfriend dumped [she was the dumper, but there was no joy in dumping a cheater], laid off from work, apartment fire. It was that [...] Read More
Weather Preparedness
NAME: Z
STATUS: Pensive
GOAL: Batteries for the flashlights and radio
PEEVE: Flashlights with dead batteries
GLEE: Gnawing on pepperoni from the emergency kit after storm season
I have a friend who lived in New Orleans and worked at the newspaper during Hurricane Katrina. Her evacuation bag included a flashlight, a coin purse stuffed with quarters, a small first aid kit, a bottle of red wine and a corkscrew. Once the crew was evacuated from the newsroom to Baton Rouge with only the clothes on their backs, she was immensely popular. The first aid kit got a workout, the wine didn’t last long, and [...] Read More
