Getting ahead of herself

Just a little proof that Little Nemo is growing at a healthy pace.

Three weeks to go!

Bathroom reno photo update

Just a quick photo update of progress on the bathroom. I've got the day off and am set to tile the tub/shower walls, but thought I'd get some "before" pictures posted.

This was a couple of weeks ago, a "before" shot of the floor. The tile is now down and the walls have been finished, as you'll see below!



Here's where I am today. The sink (and toilet) and light fixtures are in. Here you see the sink, wall light, and medicine cabinet.

Here's the wall opposite, a bit of the floor peeking out (I've got cardboard down to protect it while I am working on the wall tiles around the tub) and the wainscoting.

An attempt at a wide view through the door. The glass block window in the shower will get a tile sill and surround and fresh grout.

The Glass Box and the Commonplace Book

I began this blog over a year ago to serve as a space for random thoughts, musings, and a space for sharing interesting thoughts and musings of others that I find as I read and study and listen. I chose the title Commonplace to evoke the tradition of thoughtful people in times past who might keep books in which they would copy interesting or thought provoking passages from whatever they happened to be reading, often with a few notes of their own. The resulting remixes surely represented new works of their own- mashups, pre-digital style.

So when I read this piece by Steven Berlin Johnson entitled The Glass Box and the Commonplace Book, I was delighted to see that Mr. Johnson goes one step further, saying in effect that the future of text has two potential paths in our networked world- the model of the glass box or the model of the commonplace book. It is an interesting piece- with some equally interesting observations about the current limitations of the nascent iPad and its iBook application as indicative of the "glass box". Johnson's point is that it is the ability to snip, cut, paste, connect, remix, mashup text that is the beautiful value of writing and of text, digital or not.

The image above is from a digital exhibition at the Library of Congress, and shows Walt Whitman's commonplace book.

Breugems Brouwerij

Gesundheit!

This brewery, located just outside of Amsterdam in the Netherlands created a very simple papercraft of their historic delivery vehicle, a tasty pre-1967 barn door VW bus. Ken and I are planning a visit to the original to check the veracity. And taste test, of course.

Here is my version. Hey, a guy's got to have a hobby, right?

Next up: a miniature desktop town version of Rothenburg perhaps?

Birthday and Easter

With my birthday late last week and Easter this weekend, and with the fantastic spring weather we've been having, we kept busy over the last few days. And shamefully neglected the camera.

Highlights include:

• birthday dinner at Marotta's
• wonderful gifts from family and friends
• the rhubarb pie Kim baked from my mother's recipe. Absolutely fantastic!
• bike rides with the girls
• bowling and Indian food with friends on Saturday

We did manage one picture this morning, with the basket that the Easter Bunny left for us.

Happy Easter to one and all!