Author Archives: JJD
Design Class: Bathroom
The first project for the semester in my interior design class is to create a full set of design materials for a bathroom. This entails a floorplan, elevations of the four walls, and selecting all of the hardware, finishes and accessories that would go into the room — everything that you’d need to give to a […]
The Ride: St. Mary’s Century
Remember how I signed up to ride a 100-mile bike race today? And do you also recall how I predicted it would be a complete train wreck because (a) I knew I would end up working so much that I wouldn’t have time to train, and (b) I had tickets to a 5-hour opera the night before the […]
Night at the opera
Last fall, the Washington National Opera announced that it would be opening its 2013-14 season with a production of Tristan und Isolde, with Deborah Voigt (a major opera star and one of the leading Wagnerian sopranoes) singing Isolde. I marked my calendar for the day that tickets went on sale, called all my opera-going friends, and figuratively camped […]
Theatre season begins!
I can’t believe it’s already that time of year again: the air is cooler, the days noticeably shorter, my weekend evenings suddenly full of theatre dates. While I don’t love everything about fall (why can’t it just be warm all the time?), that last bit makes up for a lot. This theatre season got off to a […]
Beach camping (Part II)
Waking up to a clear, late-summer morning on the beach is a glorious thing. Especially when your earplugs and sparkly Moroccan blanket made for a long and deliciously comfortable night of sleep. Amy kept laughing at all the jingling. It was a little like Christmastime… The metal grocery cart is another trapping of my “urban […]
Beach camping (Part I)
Okay, so, last weekend. I told you it was a fun one; now I finally have a minute to get it down in words and photos. It started with a long bike ride on Saturday. At that point, I was two weeks away from a 100-miler, and my training was woefully down. There were plenty of […]
Stories to tell . . . later
Had a fantastic weekend, and I’ve got lots of photos and stories to share (spoiler: there are beaches and sequins and pecan cheesecake, among other things). But it’s late and I’m tired — and, since I spent the weekend (mostly) playing instead of working (as much as I should have), I’m going to need to get an early start […]
Design class: Floor plan
Today lesson in interior design class: floor plans and elevations. We practiced basic drafting techniques with a simple living room floor plan and an elevation of the wall with the fireplace. Then we had studio time to work on the first draft floorplan for our projects. In my case, this entailed my taking the […]
In which I do not die of cancer (or, My beautiful toes!)
A few months ago I noticed a small dark dot on my left big toe. It was right before the trip to Vietnam and I didn’t think anything more of it, other than to wonder whether the Vietnamese would judge me for wearing sandals with an ugly toe. Before: ominous dark spot But last week, when I […]
Mudslides and peach cobbler
On Friday morning Mark and I drove up north to go hiking around Blue Lake and have lunch in McCall, Idaho. He didn’t have class or work, and the weather was perfect; I was looking forward to a fun day in Nature with my brother. Only we didn’t get there. Roughly half-way between Boise and […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 