Archive for May, 2011

Gorgeous Victorian home lovingly restored and pampered with all the room you’ll need for your family or your lifetime treasures. One of London’s grande dames in a prominent neighborhood, this spacious two-story has loads of updates since 2007 (kitchen remodel, bathroom remodel, new wetbar, siding and foam insulation, insulated windows, master bathroom remodel, ceiling fans throughout). Decorating scheme recalls the grandeur of a century ago blended with all the amenities expected by modern-day homeowners. Distinctive leaded glass windows, inviting front entrance with beveled glass and sidelights, four beautiful fireplaces, tons of woodwork, working pocket doors, window seat in huge bay window, second bay window in dining room, beautiful burrelled oak built-in china cabinet in dining room, butler’s pantry, wine cellar, and great “man cave,” mother-in-law suite or college student room. You’ll love all the closet space, expansive front porch, loads of storage in full attic and basement, fenced yard and detached two-car garage. Unparalleled curb appeal, beautifully landscaped lot and super neighbors! AND THE PRICE HAS BEEN REDUCED AGAIN!!!

For your personal showing of this beautiful home, call Lisa Jackman at (614) 619-9295 or (740) 852-6446.
www.BuckeyeRealtyGroup.com

THE FACTS: Two-story Victorian, built in 1895, 3,384 square feet, central heat & A/C, lot size: 66 x 165, 4-5 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, 3 living areas, formal dining room, dining in kitchen, large inviting foyer, 4 original fireplaces, working pocket doors, window coverings, chandeliers

For more photos of this wonderful home, click on this link: Read the rest of this entry »

When Mother’s Day rolls around every year, I remember my mom’s often-said favorite lines that my sister and I called the 7 Deadly Sayings. And how much we hated hearing them. I suppose my own kids are saying the same thing about me, since I unwittingly carried them forward with the next generation.

Maggie van Ostrand

I expect most moms have their own 7 Deadly Sayings but, just in case you want to compare notes with mine, here they are.

1.  On a slovenly room: How many times are you going to step over those dirty jeans before you pick them up?

2. On whining, such as “OMG, the prom’s tonight and I’ve got this huge pimple … ” That should be the worst thing that ever happens to you.

3. On abject misery: Give up your pain for the poor souls in purgatory. They’ll get out sooner.

4. On a way to make me shape up: Do you want me to tell your father about this?

5. On a mini skirt: Are you really going out like that?

6. On bad behavior: Just wait until you have kids of your own.

7. On how she apprehends a transgression: I’ve got eyes in the back of my head.

Along with my dad, she would sometimes spout off with:

If a job is once begun,
never leave it till it’s done.
Be the labor great or small,
do it well or not at all.

I especially loathed that poem, partly because it took so long to hear. I never wanted to hear it again in my entire life. I hadn’t realized back then how much and how subtly it influenced me. I learned that lesson in the most embarrassing way: when my own daughter was encouraging me to stop procastinating, she said the hated poem and she said it imitating me, as I used to imitate my mom. Nonetheless, hearing it once more, I was forced to complete my tax returns.

The worst thing about mom’s sayings, and that dreaded poem, is that they were usually right, and they always worked.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Newspapers are in the unique situation of often being loved while at the same time being despised. There are occasions where school boards use strong-arm tactics to bully spineless corporate newspaper administration into backing off of doing exactly what a newspaper is supposed to do: Serve as a watchdog for the community, not just a cheerleader. Laurie Ezzell Brown has done a masterful job of depicting the fine line community newspapers must walk — whether in Texas or Ohio or anywhere else – while doing their job.

When school officials have sought an ally in the battle over school finance legislation, or in local efforts to stir up support for a multimillion-dollar bond issue for capital improvements, this newspaper has always been there. When public school students have excelled in any number of sports and academic competitions over the last few decades, when school nurses have wanted to announce vaccination requirements, when school administrators have wanted to promote parent/teacher open houses, when local merchants have wanted to congratulate students on their many successes, when Rotary Clubs have wanted to acknowledge their school’s student leaders … The Record and other weekly newspapers like it in other towns like this one have always been there.

Laurie Ezzell Brown

That is why it is even more puzzling that the Texas Association of School Boards would be on the leading edge of a movement among tax-supported entities to circumvent the state’s public notice laws. Or maybe it’s not so puzzling.

You see, there are things most school boards really want the public to know about their students and their schools. They are the stories and images that fill the pages of most community newspapers from Labor Day through Memorial Day each year, and which most publishers welcome as the vital news and information they know their readers count on finding inside the pages of each week’s edition.

We could stack up a long line of witnesses — including parents, students and most notably, our school trustees and administrators — who welcome the newspaper’s ability to shine the light on their educational efforts and would willingly testify to how essential it is to the business of raising the next generation of leaders.

There are other things, though, that some school boards would prefer the local newspaper not report, like low TAKS scores or high dropout rates, errant teachers or contentious school board meetings or principle-less principals or — heaven forbid — school trustees who flout open meetings laws and violate the public’s trust. But even most of them would admit — however grudgingly — that there’s no better way to stir up a hornet’s nest than to land on the wrong side of the local newspaper editor.

That is because this country’s community newspapers are the only media that report the important news of their hometowns — day in and day out, win, lose or draw, and even when hell occasionally freezes over. Read the rest of this entry »