urbanfabric

One Day One Trial

2008-09-23T12:42:00.003-04:00

Last week I spent an interesting three days in the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia. That's right, jury duty! After a long day of two jury selection processes, I was chosen for a criminal trial at 4:59pm. We met again at 9:30 the next morning, never mind that we never entered the jury box until nearly 11am. We were an interesting group... more than a few masters degrees, a phd in biology, a retired psychiatrist who did some work in prisons (we made him foreman in a matter of seconds). Generally, an over-educated jury... mostly due to the fact that many in the jury pool admitted that they believed that a police officer would never lie and jeopardize their job. None of them made it to the actual jury. All of the witnesses were law enforcement... two beat cops, a CSU cop, and a detective.

To make a long, two-day trial short, the defendant was guilty on three charges having to do with gun possession. And, as no criminal trial is without life lessons, here are the ones I picked up on:

If you are a cop who shot the defendant because you say he had a gun, but no one else was there, AND, you've also discharged your weapon three additional times in a year and a half... wear your uniform to court. Don't show up in a silk-screened button up shirt, unbuttoned to your chest with a gold chain around your neck.
If you are an ADA and this is your second jury trial, try not to take minutes long pauses that even make the judge stare at you and wonder where your head is. Not helping the cause.
If you are a defendant in a gun possession trial and you have a prior conviction for armed robbery, don't take the stand. Just don't do it. Because when you take the stand, your prior record will be told to the jury and you will be charged with an additional gun possession charge.
If you do decide, against everyone's best advice, to take the stand as a defendant with a prior armed robbery charge, at least make your story more credible. Seriously. You've had at least a day to hear what the other witnesses have said, so maybe you shouldn't make up additional details about the scene that can't be backed up by anyone.
If you live in North Philly or Northeast Philly and your girlfriend lives in Southwest Philly, and you have to take the bus a great distance to see her, and you're not sure if she's your girlfriend or your fiance, so instead you stop in Strawberry Mansion to buy drugs, she's probably not really your girlfriend or your fiance... or at the very least, she won't be there when you get out of jail. She wasn't even in the courtroom during your two-day trial.
If you have jury duty in Philadelphia and they ask you if you want lunch from Chili's or that other place, go with that other place. 'Cause your never going to eat lunch when the judge says you will and you'll be forced to smell your fries from the other room knowing they'll be cold and soggy by the time closing arguments finish.

Roadshow Recap

2008-08-12T20:42:00.004-04:00

I'm back from Grand Rapids and the Antiques Roadshow... everyone is so curious to hear what it was like and I find I am spending a lot time explaining because it really was so interesting to see how it works! The picture above is from The Grand Rapids Press, front page from Sunday's paper. That's me in the striped shirt, holding a box, and my mom to the left, holding a canvas bag. We were waiting in line for the silver appraiser... but I'll get to that in a minute.

We left my mom's house in Goshen just before 5:30 on Saturday morning, both working on less than four hours sleep. I did the driving, hoping it would wake me up. It took us under 2 hours to get to the DeVos Place in Grand Rapids or Gd Rapids as the signs said (which made for some delusional giggling as my mom recalled her mother using GD in place of god damn, and we proceeded to repeat GD Rapids! and GD Haven! all weekend) and found a parking spot at the parking "ramp" across the street. Apparently, and Kelly thinks I'm making this up, GD Rapids has parking lots and parking ramps. Parking ramps, I figured out ahead of time, meant parking garages.

At 7:15AM there was already a line of people and stuff outside of the convention-type center. Just as we got to the end of the line, it started to move! We hustled inside to the first large room that was mostly empty but all roped off, (like an amusement park that just opened, rollercoaster lines empty, but anticipating hundreds) fully prepared to snake people through the room throughout the day. Since we had 8AM tickets, we were able to go all the way through to the end of the room. This is about the point that we, and everyone else, realized that they were so excited to get here that they hadn't used the restroom after driving for hours. Or eaten breakfast. We were all adrenaline and caffeine fueled. I had talked to Kelly in the parking ramp, they were still on there way down from the northern burbs, but there was no sense throwing away the opportunity to be closer to the front of the line.

At this point there are signs, "turn off cell phones" "remove your items from their packaging" etc. A couple of volunteers are taking tickets. People in front of us start to awkwardly talk to us. Luckily my mom is really good at talking to random people. I try to learn from her. We make it to the front of the line and are directed to a "triage" table. A volunteer looks at our stuff and together we figure out, 3 silver, 1 porcelain. We are given four tickets to correspond to our stuff and proceed to the pink tape line on the floor. My mom and I are greeted there by an army of overzealous volunteers that look like they are about to explode forward over the pink line to assist us. One lucky lady takes us to the filming area.

The filming area. This is the part you see on TV. You'd think it filled an entire room, but really it was a small circle within a much larger and emptier room. It's a set, really, more than the flea market look that you get on TV. The camera sits in the middle, with four blue carpets on the floor around it. On each carpet is a place to film an appraisal segment. Surrounding the carpets are volunteers that are supposed to keep you off the blue carpets. Beyond those folks are the lines and tables with the appraisers. The lines go from the tables, off camera behind the circle.

Our first stop is the Silver table where we meet Sebastian. He came off with a bit of an attitude, but warmed up after a minute or two. I don't know if he's naturally that snarky and sarcastic or if it was the British accent or, as he said, it was "too early for appraisers" but he was clearly settling in for a long day of looking at people's crap. He told us about three of the four pieces we brought that day. One was a silver serving dish and platter that can be traced to my great-grandfather's late-in-life ladyfriend, Dorothy Crockett. The piece is unmarked and Sebastian said it was probably part of a larger set of hotel silver (plated), but was a lovely piece. Probably 1920s, and if he saw it in an antiques store it would probably be marked $250-$300. The second was a sugar-creamer set, also silver plated, marked. He also said 1920s, which is what we thought from the design, but I wondered if it wasn't midcentury or later designed to look older, he said no, the company had changed their name by then. This pair came from Connecticut, like much of the silver and watches from the late 19th and early 20th century. Only $30 for the pair. But, you know, lovely. The third item was a few pieces from a set of silverware of unknown origin. We call them the "devil forks." He said that between the "satan masks" and the grapes (I thought they were thistles), it was likely a baccanalia (sp?) themed set of china made by a small, independent silversmith and that they are actually made of coin silver. So, late 19th century, coin silver, $15-$20 a piece. We don't have a complete set, probably 20 pieces.

After the silver table we moved on to the porcelain table. My mom had a pair of birds that came from her other grandfather's house. Although, she didn't know how he acquired them. At first, the appraiser couldn't identify the mark, then, you know, she just rotated the piece and saw it right side up. She was slightly embarrased by this d'oh moment. Ah, she said, Goebel. Goebel is the German company that makes Hummel figurines. These, she said, were earlier and more... and she stopped. "More interesting than Hummels," I said. "You said it, not me!!" she replied. "Yeah," I said, "have fun spending the day appraising Hummel figurines!!" Even with the damaged tails, $200-300 for the pair. They got a resounding "beautiful" from the other porcelain appraisers.

That was it, we were done. It was 8:15am and we'd already made it through the whole process and made our way to the door. On the way out (in addition to finally making it to the ladies room), we stopped at the "feedback tent" to record our bit about having fun at the roadshow. They give you a lot of advice. It's "AntiqueS Roadshow" not "Antique Roadshow." You have two minutes to talk about your experience. Etc. I asked the camera guy, what do most people do, like 45 seconds? He said, yeah. So, my mom and I rehearsed our bit and I played up the fact that it was my birthday and the camera guy was impressed. Maybe we'll get a five second spot at the end of one of the episodes. Just enough camera time for me!

On the road.... show.

2008-08-05T14:40:00.003-04:00

This coming weekend I will be spending my birthday on the road. That is, I'll be traveling to Grand Rapids, Michigan (via the South Bend airport, and my mom's honda civic).
Destination: Antiques Roadshow.
Seriously. I couldn't make this stuff up.
This adventure was the brainchild of my good friend, Kelly, and will be paired with a soiree to celebrate her pending adventure into the world of motherhood.
My mom and I are plotting what to bring. I can tell that she, like me, is thinking only in terms of what would someone else other than our family find interesting. Not that I really want to be on camera. I think I'd be okay if I just ended up on that end segment where people say they had fun and learned that their grandmother's prized ceramic cat was from woolworths and worth about $1.75. I really kind of worry that I'll be stuck in line somewhere, half behind an armoir that they'll film for the show and everyone will wonder why I chose to wear *those* pants to go to the roadshow.

I think this relates to my serious fear of the "jumbotron." At any sporting event with said jumbotron, my goal is always to do absolutely nothing that would draw attention to myself and therefore attract the jumbotron cameras. Nothing. I get stressed when small children are dancing to the music between innings... Cool it kid, no one gets on the jumbotron and no one gets hurt. I even warned Josh early on, propose on the jumbotron and it's a definite, NO. It's not that I am some kind of wallflower, I don't know where this paranoia stems from. So, you say, maybe I'd actually be fine if I appeared on the jumbotron, I'd find out that it's not as bad as I think it is. Wrong. Greek Festival, Pittsburgh, 1998. That's right, a greek festival with a jumbotron. In between sets of Greek dancing, some camera operator thought it would be entertaining to put crowd shots on the screen over the stage. So I sat staring, uncomfortable, embarrassed, angry, with my back to the screens as my friends laughed and neighboring tables pointed. It was bad and the only thing that saved me was that the mayor of Pittsburgh walked in and distracted everyone, including the camera guy. Whew.

So, Antiques Roadshow. I'm hoping for that silver dish I love that belonged to my great-grandfather's late-in-life ladyfriend to reveal its story and be worth a bundle... but not so much that we start to attract attention to ourselves.

2008-07-14T13:09:00.002-04:00

Over the past week, we've been making our way through season one of The Wire. Okay, I get it now, it's a remarkable show. Two more episodes to go until we can swap season one for season two with a friend of ours. I suggested that J wrap the DVDs in a paper bag and drop them from our third story apartment for M to catch below. Overkill, perhaps. But, after watching 1, 2, or even 3 episodes in one sitting, it's hard to get it out of your brain.

This is making my bus ride all the more interesting. Or scary. Depending on how many episodes I watched the night before. I spend the trip through Camden carefully watching out the window... is that kid the lookout? I bet they're keeping the stash in that boarded up house.

But the worst was today when I was waiting for the elevator up to my office after lunch. Two cops walked out of the restaurant on the ground floor of our building. I nearly yelled, FIVE-OH!

Weekend Round-up

2008-07-14T13:03:00.003-04:00

It was a banner weekend all around.

My good friend Hil completed her first triathlon. She's amazing.

I made six gorgeous caramelized banana tartlets with an orange-hazelnut crust.

What can I say, we can't all be triathletes.

Analysis Paralysis

2008-06-24T09:42:00.003-04:00

I had nearly resigned myself to buying a car. Did hours of research, listened to hours of unsolicited advice from friends and friends of friends and my hairdresser, checked my credit report and FICO score (Suze Orman would be so proud of me), even walked into a dealership with the intention of a test drive (now I have a nice young man, Paul, who calls me every day to tell me that the car I'm interested in has arrived). Now I'm mentally fatigued from the whole process and still riding the bus.

Here are my bus issues:

1. Motion Sickness. I am a person who can even manage to make myself a little nauseated when I'm the one driving. Bus, subway, car, rollarcoaster, you name it, it will make me ill. I hoped it would be something I grew out of... but it seems to be getting worse. So, if I'm feeling particularly ill on the bus, my options are to either get out on some sketchy block of the South Waterfront in Camden or try to hold it together until I at least get close enough to work that I could call a co-worker for a ride.

2. Smells. Another issue that seems to be getting worse. If there's something rotting within five blocks, I can smell it. I really wish I could parlay this into some cool job like sommelier or other smell-dependent career, but instead it seems to mean that I end up in awkward situations like how do you tell the director of HR that her perfume is overwhelming and headache inducing from five cubicles away. On the bus it becomes a problem when someone who chain smokes cheap cigarettes, then tosses that last one right before getting on the bus, and then sits right behind me, may result in me gagging uncontrollably, trying to breathe through my shirt fabric until the smell dissapates.

3. Other. I could make a long list of issues, but really numbers 1 and 2 are the big ones. The others are things like TIME, it takes three times as long to take the bus versus driving; PEOPLE talking to me, asking for change, asking to use my cell phone; and, SCHEDULE, as in why have one if you're not going to follow it at the critical moment that I need to get back into the city.

There are some pros... it's certainly cheaper to take the bus and I don't have to worry about parking in my neighborhood. And, uh... I'm an authority on public transit to my South Jersey clients. That's all I got.

Really old, you know, 1984

2008-06-19T09:46:00.004-04:00

Riding the bus: June 19, 2008

Female Camden Creative Arts HS Student to a classmate: "We watched this old movie, from like 1984, it was called Breakin' 2... you know like Mr. [So and So] told us about Break Dancing? It was called Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo AND Ice-T was in it! He was rapping in it. He was so skinny! It was crazy."

I fought the urge to blurt out, "I love that movie! And, then when they save the community center..." Because the end of this story didn't need the anecdote about the crazy white woman who rides the bus with them adding to their conversation. But, really? REALLY? They learn about break dancing in school now?

Tablecloth

2008-05-29T13:10:00.002-04:00

We are a tablecloth away from extrodinary dinner parties.

Finally accepting that we will never fit another piece of furniture in our house (that can't fold up Jetsons-style), but not giving up our hope that we could invite our friends over for dinner and not make them awkwardly eat off the coffee table, we compromised on a folding table and chairs. The Target circular in the paper two Sundays ago called to us. Think of a slightly classed-up version of a six-foot chuch basement folding table with metal legs and that's what we got. We went with the budget table since all that needs to sit on that is the food, and splurged on better-than-your-average folding chairs.

The chairs only required two trips to Ikea... on the first trip, we found the perfect chair and then found them to be out of stock, likely permanently. They had them in white, but only two of them, and I was so in love with the Arvinn chair in "antique" that I couldn't see the worth in white. However, Ikea dude did mention that more were arriving the next day in white. Wouldn't you know that two days later (after an exhaustive online search for something equivalent) we were backing up the car share prius to that very same Ikea. Four white chairs later, we're oh-so-close to a meal.

As a result of the wedding loot, we have fabulous white china, two kinds of real fabric napkins, great flatware, and fancy stemware. So, really, we just need a tablecloth. Shouldn't be that hard, right? J says, "can't you sew one?" Well, not if we want one this year. The ones at Ikea were crap. The ones at Williams Sonoma are freaking expensive for something that we're inevitably going to spill food and wine on.

I know, I've already spent too much time obsessing... but I'm sure the right tablecloth is out there. I will find it.

Oh, and if you know our apartment, you're probably wondering where we're going to keep a six-foot folding table and four folding chairs. Yeah, we are too.

ISO: Zero-calorie mid to late-day snack that gives me pep

2008-05-06T14:02:00.002-04:00

Two days, well, a day and a half, into Diet Coke-free living and I'm migraine free. I know it's not really a large enough sample to know if there's a correlation there, but I'm letting myself believe it if it keeps me off the stuff.

It's not even the caffeine that's the problem. I believe it to the aspartame. I discovered this after giving up caffeine about 8 years ago (that lasted about 3 years) when I realized that the caffeine-free Diet Coke (I know, I know, what's the point?) was still causing headaches.

I came back to caffeine with coffee. The gateway, I suppose. And, before long was back on the DC. Sweet, but not too sweet, and carbonated. Sweet, sweet carbonation.

I've tried the Diet Coke with Splenda. But, it's just too artificially sweet. Plus Splenda creeps me out. Why are we letting big corporations mess with sugar? For the most part, I've put Splenda on my list, right there with McDonald's and Walmart. Evil, not to be patronized.

So, I'm open to suggestions. Carbonated, flavored, preferably not fruity, although I'd take lime, and zero to very few calories. Any thoughts?

Crazy Trumps Waiting for the Bus. Any Day.

2008-05-06T13:19:00.003-04:00

Waiting for the bus this morning, in Philadelphia, I noticed a woman standing in the street staring at the bus stop. Or staring at me sitting in the bus stop. Standing, in the bus lane, staring at me. That was my first clue. Then, as she unwrapped her egg sandwich (on a hoagie roll, like the kind from a truck), she began to talk, then yell, possibly at her sandwich.

Then I decided to get up and walk out of the bus shelter. But, I couldn't go far, as I was actually waiting for a bus. And, I knew that I probably didn't have time to make it to the next stop, without missing the bus while in between.

An NJ Transit bus came and sat for an unusually long time, so in an effort to see if my bus was coming up behind it, I got closer to the shelter. Too close.

"Get out of here, f-ing bitch!"

I honestly don't know if that was directed at me or the bus. Or any of the number of invisible people who were apparently giving her a rough time this morning. So, I hid, behind the advertisement on the far end of the shelter. She was eating a sandwich and the bus stop bench was a far better place than standing in a lane of traffic, right?

A grown woman, hiding, waiting for the bus.

What was I supposed to do? She didn't seem homeless, just, unmedicated. I considered telling the Center City District folks that were cleaning the streets, but what do I say?

"Uh, excuse me, there's a mentally ill woman who's kicked me out of the bus shelter."

"And, she's not even waiting for the bus!"

Dollar Dog Hangover

2008-04-30T10:44:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted in a while and... so. many. things. to. say. So, I'm going to try to get going on shorter, more frequent posts.

1. Transit: I'm still riding the bus. I've figured out that the slightly later bus is less full which is better. It doesn't solve the motion sickness problem, but I haven't had to share a seat in months. I've also figured out that I can read the Metro (that small, short clips, free newspaper) during the times that the bus is stopped for more than a second and so I get my fill of Get Fuzzy everyday.

2. Food: It's tough to talk about food today because as the title says, I've got the dollar dog hangover. Phillies game last night. Good times. Too many hot dogs. I'm not even blaming the beer because we found Red Hook ESB on tap near our seats. Counting a Camden Riversharks game over the weekend, last night marks my third game of the season. I'm hoping eventually it will actually be warm at one of these games.

3. Places and Spaces: In a week and a half we leave for 4 days on Kiawah Island, SC to meet up with J's mom, stepdad, sister, bro-in-law, and their kids. I'm psyched to eat fresh seafood and see the kids. M is getting old enough to be fun and we are bringing cool gifts like a good aunt and uncle should. Because technically, we're all they've got for aunts and uncles. My only concern is that I'm not entirely sold on Kiawah Island because if you search for it on flickr you end up with 2300 pictures of people standing in front of a sign that says "Kiawah Island Inn." There have got to be other pictures to take.

I don't know how many baby mamas you have...

2008-03-06T10:42:00.004-05:00

... but if you've got one, you'll have another.

Ah, ShaSha, such wisdom you impart on us.
(How did I know her name? It was on her earrings, of course!)

Double Date + Duck = Fun!

2008-03-01T20:51:00.006-05:00

Friday night J and I went on a double date with a couple of our favorite people. We met up at Foster's Homewares first because we both had gift cards we'd been carrying around. Conveniently for me, NJ Transit drops me at 6th and Market, just two blocks from Foster's. I was actually first to arrive! While walking around near the door I found the Pick Your Nose Party Cups:

They are paper cups that let you choose your nose for the evening. I was in love. However, I didn't pick them up. Maybe I'm waiting for the right event. Maybe I am feeling guilty about expensive things that are not reusable. We perused and perused, I picked up a book as a gift and snagged the display (as it was the last one) of these:
A ceramic barrel tea light holder! As it was the last one, it came with the display LED tea light (which needed a new battery), which solves my issue of our parties often outlasting our tea lights in the bathroom. I loved the fact that this looks like a trash can fire, but done in the white ceramic, it went very modern. It's sitting in the window ledge in our bathroom and is amazing. I'd love a pair, so if anyone spots another one in town, let me know!

As were all starving from circling housewares, we walked through the cold to Sang Kee at 9th and Vine. This is a place I've been hearing about via chowhound and egullet for years and never quite made it. Now that I pass it every day on the bus, I've been looking for a reason to check it out. I was suprised that there was already a wait when we arrived around 7:15, but we noticed that they also deliver! Hmmm.... I'll definitely keep that in mind for the future...

I'd heard good things about the wonton soup and the peking duck, so the "Peking Duck Dinner for Four" was a perfect choice. I could have stopped after the first course of warm wonton soup and the second course of duck, scallions, pancakes, and hoisin sauce, but there was more! Honey walnut shrimp, fried rice, chicken with eggplant, and a duck and string bean dish... thankfully we had a bit of a walk home to get rid of the too-full feeling!

That Guy.

2008-02-28T09:51:00.004-05:00

Monday night we returned from a long weekend in Las Vegas. That sounds more "what happens in Vegas..." than it really was. My dad lives out there, at least for the moment, and this was a family gathering. Not to say that we didn't enjoy much of what Vegas has to offer... We even took some suggestions from a TV personality that I thought I'd never listen to!

Saturday night was dinner at an outstanding restaurant off of the Strip, Rosemary's. This was a repeat dinner location from our last visit and was better than I remembered. I allowed myself to have one of the same dishes that I had last year, since I'd literally been thinking about it since last March. The beef and blue cheese carpaccio: raw beef spread with blue cheese, rolled up and sliced so thin it melted in your mouth, served with an apple and baby greens salad, walnuts, and a port wine reduction around the plate. For an entree, I went with the Barramundi on a bed of spinach and baby shiitakes, with asian-inspired flavors and a rich buttery sauce. Amazing! Also tried a wine I hadn't tried before... I was in charge of ordering and so I asked about the Sancerre, a French white. It turned out to be exactly as described, similar to, but more complex than a Savignon Blanc, with more mineral-y flavors. I was impressed that our server knew so much about the wine list and didn't need to call out the sommelier. Overall, the service there is one of the most impressive parts of the meal. Plates are laid to the table simultaneously, even for our party of 8!

In addition to our fancy meal, we had a couple of really outstanding cheap meals too. They were thanks to Guy Fieri. Now, I'll admit, when he won the "Next Food Network Star," I hated that Guy. When he got that show where he made "dude food," I really hated that Guy. Then he started the Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and honestly, I started to soften. Who doesn't like the champion of small, family-owned, roadside eateries with awesome food? And, when this Guy led me to the best stromboli I've ever eaten, he earned my respect.

It started with my dad's suggestion that when we hit the Hoover Dam on Monday that we should stop by a place that he's been enjoying since seeing it on that Guy's show. Then over the weekend, my brother said that he'd also seen an episode where Guy returned to an old haunt/former employer in Vegas that he said had the best stromboli ever. So, thanks to "borrowing" some wireless internets from one of my dad's neighbors, we discovered that this fabulous stromboli was awaiting us at a sports bar called Four Kegs. Unfortunately for my brothers, we didn't have a chance to check it out until after they left (sorry dudes, this would have been worth changing your flight and drive for!).

Four Kegs is really a sports bar, video poker in the bar in the front, and dining room in the back. Despite it being Oscar night, the TVs were set to bass fishing. That's some sports dedication. They have four beers on tap (four kegs, I suppose), and all kinds of wonderful fried food on the appetizer list. We indulged in some fried mac and cheese wedges (which appeared to be Kraft mac and cheese, battered and deep fried, hello heaven!), jalitos stuffed with chipotle chicken (stuffed jalepenos), and cajun onion rings. Then it was on to the stromboli course. I went with the meatball, my dad and his wife split the house (various meats), and J was a rebel and ordered the redneck burger. As promised, the stromboli was out of this world. The crust was a thick pizza dough, clearly stretched and baked to order, and the sauce tasted homemade. I ate the whole damn thing. The ill feeling did not even make me regret it.

The only regret I had was that I was still full when we arrived at the Coffee Cup in Boulder City (the next of the Guy recommended locales) the next morning, I could barely look at the huevos rancheros with pork chili verde sauce (I did have a bite and it was awesome) and instead went with an egg sandwich with swiss cheese and bacon on thick, toasted, yummy sourdough bread and hashbrowns.

Thankfully the seatbelt still fit around me when we got on the plane later that day. One of these visits we'll actually explore the dining scene on the strip (I'm going to leave out the description of the Bellagio's brunch buffet, because it was good, but a little hit or miss, and frankly, still a buffet)... but in the meantime, I'll be dreaming about that stromboli!

100K House

2008-02-18T13:15:00.003-05:00

I've been thinking about affordable housing a lot lately. Perhaps because New Jersey is caught in a debate about new yet-to-be-adopted COAH rules. Perhaps because I wonder how much longer I have before I'm priced out of buying anything within 2 miles of our current apartment.

In the US, "affordable housing" has become synonymous with "public housing," relegated to the poorest of the poor. However, these days when someone's talking about finding affordable housing they may mean just that. Housing that the average person can afford. How do the working poor, or even the middle class, afford to live in the communities where they work, where they grew up, or where the better schools are? Municipalities like to call it "workforce housing," hoping to avoid the stigma of subsidized housing.

Rather than create a burden for Muncipalities to figure out how to fund housing for the middle class, I think it's a great challenge for architects, developers, and builders to find a way to develop market-rate, affordable housing. Oh, and shouldn't it also be sustainble? Of course! Otherwise, it wouldn't really be a challenge.

Postgreen, a young developer in the East Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, is trying to build an infill house that's not only affordable, but also LEED certified and modern (no Colonial reproductions here!). The 100KHouse will be a 1,000 sf modern home with a $100,000 construction budget. I am certainly keeping a close eye on its development.

"If you've got a habit, you gotta have a job."

2008-02-18T12:40:00.002-05:00

I ride the bus with some really interesting people. And, by interesting, I mean people with addictions. Not much that I hear really surprises me anymore. In my first week of riding the bus to work, I learned that if you crush an extended-release Xanax before you take it, you'll get the full rush of the drug... no need to wait all day for the slow extended-release part. Now, if you were also lucky enough to have remembered a tall malt beverage for the bus ride, you are really in for a treat. By the time you get home, you won't have to worry about your wife asking you to mow the lawn.

These are things I never gave much thought to, being someone who's been on the straight and narrow for most of her life.

Today, I heard the headline quote: If you've got a habit, you gotta have a job. Which is an interesting perspective, because I always thought that being an addict meant that eventually you'd lose your job (and your home, loved ones, etc). This is probably a result of the anti-drug education that I was exposed to (the same education that gave me the stereotypical addict image - ie the people I ride the bus with who have visible signs of a long history of drugs and alcohol - and did not prepare me for the fact that an elderly nun could be an alcoholic) . However, there are a fair number of people who I ride the bus with to and from their jobs that seem to be holding down a full-time job to support their habits. I suppose it's a matter of balance. (From what I've seen, it's a delicate balance, that could come crashing down at any moment.)

And, really, if you think about it, aren't most of us holding down full time jobs to support our habits? Mine include good food, good wine, handbags, and living in the city. If I could give any one of those up, I probably wouldn't have to work as hard as I do.