Watch the NBC National News on Friday!

Pending hurricane or some awful disaster happening to pre-empt it…My mom and some women from her study will be featured on the NBC Nightly News this Friday evening (6:30-7:00 p.m., National News).

Her study is about the challenges executive and professional women face when they leave they leave work or a career to “take a break” or to have children and then try to re-enter the workforce after some time has passed and how difficult it can be to explain the gap on their resume or convince employers to take a chance on someone who has been out of the workforce for so long. The study offers ways that women can proactively plan for those breaks and also outlines ways that companies and even business school programs can support women in planning for, taking and coming back from those breaks so that all of the wonderful woman talent is not lost!

This study really made me think about if how I could “step out” to have children and the need to proactively plan for it before I do it so that getting back to work (in some form or fashion or even in a new career) wasn’t as much of a challenge 2,5,10 years down the road. It also underscores the need to continuously keep up with business relationships and business events (and technology) when you step out so that you aren’t seen as hopelessly out of date later when you try to re-enter the working world….all things I never even thought about.

In case you want to know more, here are some articles about her study:

• http://www.wihe.com/$spindb.query.showwhat2.wihe.45
• http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/aug2005/bs2005083_4817.htm
• http://www.careerjournal.com/jobhunting/strategies/20050805-gerencher.html
• The study itself http://www.fortefoundation.org/site/DocServer/Back_in_the_Game_Executive_Summary--Final.pdf?docID=1261

 

Obviously, I am so proud of her so I wanted to share the news. Hope you will watch and pass this study on to women who might be facing some questions about taking a hiatus or returning to work after a hiatus.

 

Halloween is more fun in South Philly!

I can’t believe how many trick-or-treaters we had. I bought like 60 bucks worth of candy and I still ran out and had to turn the lights off at 6:50! There were lots of little kids and lots of really great homemade costumes. Bella who is 2 and lives a few doors down was a very cute little Elmo. There was also an incredible King Friday with an amazing costume that his mom made. My mom came over and we sat on the stoop and handed out candy. It was really fun. One thing I love is how diverse and into holidays this neighborhood is. I missed that in Charlottesville

Spooky South Philly

Read this about Philly being the next great city....

The windows in our neighborhood have been filling up with scenes of spooky skeletons, flaming cauldrons and jack-o-lanterns, and I absolutely love how many of our neighbors have decorated their windows. Its really fun and on occasion I have heard the kids coming home from school, stopping at windows saying "Wow, look at that one!" and getting excited for trick or treating next week. It is good to live in a place where people get into the fun of the holidays. I know we are going to get a lot of trick or treaters this year, and I am so excited for it! I cant wait to see what people do to their windows for christmas!

It has been a somewhat expensive week here on South 13th Street. Last Monday we the chimney cleaned and lined. Then we replaced a sink and faucet set in the "hair salon bathroom" (which, I am pleased to report, no longer looks like a hair salon). Last Wednesday, our iron railing was hit by some kids wrestling out front, and it got bent enough that we had to remove it. Then this morning, I opened the door to find that my pretty, happy pots of mums had been adopted by someone else. They were obviously so appealing that someone else decided to decorate their home with them. Alas. I know I can afford to share the mums...but geez they looked so good on our steps! bummer!

On the food scene: Last week, we tried a neighborhood restaurant, Kristian's, on 11th street. It was a good (not great) meal and the atmosphere was "all frank sinatra, all the time". The company (some new friends) was terrific though. We're slowly getting around and slowly getting to be South Philly food experts but its taking us a while since we've got limited together-time with the DC/Philly commute. We're going to walk on the other side of South Philly, and hit the dive bar scene this week for a halloween party at the Dolphin Tavern on Thursday.

Click here to read about South Philly restaurants....

The Pixies Show, in Charlottesville, Va. Our first time back in Charlottesville since we moved. It was so much fun! We got to visit with lots of friends and the show was great - we got to hang out at the new outdoor concert Pavillion on a gorgeous and crisp autumn evening. After the concert we went to get drinks and who should we find there but the Pixies, all drinking and hanging out at the tabel behind us. Mike could not stop staring. (To Mike, the Pixies rank only second to Pavement for his all-time-favorite band). Here's a photo of (left to right) Kirt, Karin, Mike, Millie Ann and Nicky, just after the show. 

Our friends Brendan, Paul and Tiare joined us at our house for dinner on Friday night. Lucky us, Paul and Brendan did all the cooking. It was delicious! Lima Bean puree, Stuffed Pork Chops, Roasted Beet Salad, and Fresh Corn Polenta. For desert, vanilla ice cream and fresh plum compote. YUM!  

"Uncle Mike" with our favorite niece, Margaret (aka Maggie) at a recent Dunn family gathering. Isn't she just the cutest? 

sidewalk cleaning

Here is something that is so neat about our South Philadelphia neighborhood, and our group of neighbors. A sidewalk cleaning guy happens to live on our block, so when he goes on his tour of the neighborhood on his cleaning machine, he runs the machine down our sidewalks, so basically they get cleaned of debris every Monday and Thursday. On other days, neighbors are out sweeping. How cool is that? Such a change from Belmont (our Charlottesville Virginia neighborhood), where no one seemed to pick up trash, ever.

The latest "Before" and "After photos

Check out the Before and After Photos of the first floor of our South Philly homestead.

Before and After of Living Room

"BEFORE" (top photos) and "AFTER" (bottom photos) in the new Living Room. We took down the wallpaper and border, ripped up carpets and refinished the floors, moved the fireplace (its an electric, plug in) and replaced the vertical blind with a top down bottom up pleated shade. And of course, stuck our own furniture in there. Doesn't it look so different?

Living Room Furniture

So if I were to sum up our overall taste, I'd say it is based on a bunch of hand-me-down danish mid-century modern furniture that my parents gave me. I have always loved this teak modern furniture, and especially its low profile. Two years ago, we added to our "grown up" furniture the Modernica Case Study DayBed. I love the daybed - its very practical and streamlined, and it was great for our very small living room at our house in Charlottesville, although I now question as to why we chose an off-white fabric for it, because that's obviously totally impractical. Last year we added a danish, teak modern buffet to our growing bunch of "grown up" furniture, - I found that at a junk shop in Charlottesville and we both love it. This year, now that our living room feels cavernous, we decided that it was time for some chairs to go with the daybed...and so here they are...we bought these vintage chairs and one other similar one on Ebay a few weeks ago. So for now, this crazy set of chairs will be sitting in the living room. But we plan to recover them in a dark grey or chocolate wool as soon as we can afford it!

We painted our front door a very dark dark purple color, and painted the number placard to match. Our friends Molly and Rolando gave us this adorable doormat to go with the house. Its a contemporary image of a walrus kind of waiving. Its awesome and it totally finishes the entrance off. last week I added a small fir tree to the corner of the sidewalk that's next to our railing. Now it looks "loved" and as cute as the nieghbors' houses! 

"Before" and "After" photos of the foyer/ entry way. We peeled all the paper, and replaced the light fixture and switchplate. What a huge difference! It feels like a new room!! 

This is what a lot of the wood floors in the living room looked like. Old linoleum tar or something all over them. Couldn't wait to get them refinished!!! 

Our dining room "Before" and "After". We peeled the wallpaper borders, and painted. Yes - we like orange, and yes it is the same exact shade of orange from our last dining room wall in our house in Charlottesville... once we painted it, we felt like we were home again! We also replaced the light fixture with something a little more streamlined from Ikea.  

This is Mike and my mom helping to rip out the green carpet. We peeled all the wallpaper (finally) and were delighted to find the walls in very good shape. We gave the whole room a coat of paint, a very calm greyish color, called "Navaho Smoke" or something like that. Next on the list was to get the floors refinished, and that happened this week. Photos to come! 

"before" of the Living room. Note the wallpaper, and border which is also all throughout the second floor hallway. The wallpaper and green carpets and tinfoil vertical blinds made it very very dark in the room. The fireplace is one of those pug-in electric jobbies, so it is moveable! 

"before" photo of the foyer/entry - This is a close up of the foyer wallpaper and light fixture 

mmmmmm. cheesesteaks. 

Welcome to South Philadelphia. Home of the Cheesesteak. 

September 1 update

Okay so we have been busy and remiss in our blogging and photo updates. So sorry.

Here is a quick and dirty update (photos to follow as soon as we find the camera cord):

1. HOUSE: The new house is looking better. Furniture came (via mambo movers) and we pretty much finished the downstairs (or round 1 of the downstairs) renovations. The carpet is gone, wallpaper is gone and we are awaiting the floor refinishers (week of Sept 12) and new blinds and then the first floor will be pretty well complete. The second floor looks the same, still has wallpaper and everything. On third floor we took out carpets and painted the paneling in one of the rooms. Its quite a transformation. We painted our front door a dark purple and got a really cute doormat. Our neighborhood is terrific. One thing I particularly love is the trees on our block. I also love the proximity to things. We have Faragelli’s bakery on one corner, Ippalito’s fish market on the other corner, and a grocry store, pharmacy and all that jazz three blocks away. We are also located near the Italian Market, which is really an amazing place to discover. All these cheese shops and butcher shops and all this fresh produce and stuff. Pretty cool.
2. WORK: Mike started his job at the EPA last week. Mike got a teeny weeny studio in Capital hill/ Eastern Market area of Washington DC, and he started on the 22^nd of August. So far, the commute and the job have been a tough adjustment (Well who wouldn’t have a hard time adjusting to a desk job after 4 years of non-desk-job jobs and 2 years of school and 3 months of traveling footloose and fancy free?) but we are looking forward to a reunion in Philly this labor day weekend! As for my work (Karin) I am using this opportunity and move to shift my career and get out of the Instructional Design business for a while. I have realized over the last few years that I seriously miss working with others - I have felt rather isolated working on my own without co-workers, and frankly, Instructional Design has not been fun and creative enough for me lately and so, I can just tell that I am ready for a change. So the gist of it is that I have decided to embark on a search for “what’s next” -  I will continue to work, but for the next year, I will work only on a part-time basis so that I can have some time to explore some new directions by meeting with friends and community leaders about new possibilities and maybe even volunteering in the community.  
3. FAMILY: Our families are doing good. We have nothing much to report!