A broken elbow, snow days, and a $30,000 price tag: Behind the scenes of AHS’ Hello, Dolly!
It’s two days before opening night, and the Albemarle High School Players are taking a rare breather. Larry Johnson, a retired math teacher who’s been building sets at AHS since the current cast of Hello, Dolly! was in elementary school, is seated in a chair near the edge of the stage. Clad in an orange [...]
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C-VILLE Kids! Book deal: Must-reads for 6- to 9-year-olds
(File photo) I spent most of the summer between fourth and fifth grades in the Long Lake public library. It was hot in Minnesota that year, and the library was one of the few air-conditioned buildings I got to visit. The librarian, who played bridge with my mother, was quite good at suggesting books I’d [...]
C-VILLE Kids: Behind the wheel with a new driver and her nervous mother
“You allowed her to drive home from the DMV?” my shocked friend asked me outside the high school that our daughters both attend. “They all want to, but nobody actually lets them. Are you crazy?” That’s precisely what I asked myself on a sunny March afternoon when, spanking new driver’s permit tucked into the glovebox, [...]
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Graduates head to colleges thanks to the I Have A Dream Foundation
National Honor Society member Joey Wright will study electrical engineering at Old Dominion University in the fall. (Photo by Nick Strocchia) If you saw Joey Wright on the Downtown Mall, you probably wouldn’t give him a second look. Just shy of 6′-tall, brown-haired, and wearing the ubiquitous teenage uniform of jeans and a North Face [...]
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Safe Schools initiative assesses bullying problem in local schools; hot button issue sparks national debate
(Illustration by Dongyun Lee) Thirteen-year-old Alexis is a talented singer who reads at an 11th grade level. She says she wants to go to college and then law school, so she can become a lawyer and “defend people who can’t defend themselves.” Her mother, Samantha, makes sure she frequently tells her daughter that she is [...]
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C-VILLE Kids! Book ‘em: Five favorite for 2- to 5-year-olds
The two toddlers I used to read to have grown into a middle- and a high-schooler. They read quite well now, and frequently, but on their own—and often from a screen. So when they recently noticed me studying the shelves that hold their childhood books, I was thrilled they agreed to assist in my search [...]
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For three decades, the Lorenzoni family has kept Charlottesville runners on the right track
If a picture is worth a thousand words, the walls of the Ragged Mountain Running Shop are Charlottesville running’s Library of Congress. It’s impossible to take more than a few steps into the store without examining a photo—or six. Even the ceiling, from which poster-sized images of victorious high school running teams dangle, is part [...]
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Greg Thomas wins hearts, trophies at Albemarle High School
From where he stands on the Albemarle High School football stadium bleachers, band director Greg Thomas has a good view of about 80 teenage musicians. Gathered in a haphazard semicircle on the track below, the Marching Patriots have just completed their final run-through of “Pursuing Red,” a show they first clumsily attempted at the beginning [...]
November 2010: Inside out
Blame it on the empty room. That’s what designer Kelly Witt does when she recalls the momentary panic she felt the day she hung “a wire and crystal atom-shaped chandelier, lit from within by large holiday lights” in the furniture-less dining room of the brick colonial she and her artist husband, Clay, have spent the [...]
An offer they can’t refuse
You’re no dummy. You peruse the local newspapers and pore over real estate websites. Then there’s the TV news, always rife with reports about a bleak real estate market. And it’s hard to miss the plethora of For Sale signs—very few of which have the words “Under Contract” tacked onto the front. So you figured [...]
How You Can Succeed in the Housing Market
For the past couple of months, Gini Carl’s mornings have consisted of seemingly endless rounds of bed-making, dishwashing, vacuuming and trailing after her 11-year-old daughter “to pick up everything she drops.” No, Carl’s not some Type A, neat freak Martha Stewart wannabe. She has, however, been playing one since early April. That’s when she and [...]
Book ’em
I like to get stuff done. Most mornings, before my feet even hit the floor, I’ve composed a mental to-do list for that day. Mail the taxes, buy some milk, write a book review, bathe our dog, read to my daughter’s first-grade class, pick up a fifth of vodka. You get the picture. Some days [...]
How you can succeed in the housing market
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Sign on for an adjustable rate mortgage and get more house for less of a monthly payment. Heck, you weren’t planning on staying in the place for long anyway. By the time the initial 4.25 percent loan hit 6.25 percent, you’d be history. Seems you forgot [...]
Back Porch: Call of the wild
Nobody’s ever accused me of being a nature girl. It’s not that I have anything against the great outdoors, but my idea of a killer hike consists of trekking from book store to coffee shop to shoe sale. I can identify almost no varieties of plant, tree or bird. And gardening is a pastime I’ve [...]
Get Real: How You Can Succeed in the Housing Market
Buyer’s market. Buyer’s market. Buyer’s market. Seems to be the real estate mantra these days. So buy already, why don’t you. But maybe if you hold off for another month or two, housing prices will drop some more and you’ll get a better deal. Or will you? “I certainly wouldn’t recommend that someone sign a [...]
Back Porch: Color me nervous
My friend Erin has a real knack for color. Whenever I’m at her place, I marvel over the fact that not only did she paint the walls in a high-traffic downstairs room deep pink, but that they don’t look completely ridiculous. And then there’s a green room, which flows seamlessly into a yellow space. Once [...]
Get Real: Rising tide
If you’re looking to put a positive spin on the recent hike in property values, try this one out: What’s arguably your largest asset—your home—is a lot more valuable today than it was last year. According to County and City assessors, properties are worth almost 16 percent more in Albemarle than they were in 2005, [...]
Get Real: Breathing easier
The place is perfect. Right size, great neighborhood, fair price. It’s spotless. The walls are freshly painted and the carpet’s brand new. Close your eyes and you can imagine the entire family gathered ‘round the spectacular fireplace on cold winter evenings. Where do we sign? you ask the real estate agent. Slow down there, partner. [...]
Back Porch: Cleanliness is next to craziness
The largest and most elaborately wrapped box under this year’s Christmas tree had my name on it. It was from my husband. And on December 25, I opened it with as much gusto as our 6-year-old. I turned positively giddy when I glimpsed what was inside: a vacuum cleaner. Not any old vacuum cleaner. It [...]
What about next year?
Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up on Black Friday and know you have more than $2.78 to spend on each person on your holiday gift list? Barring an unexpected inheritance, a decent weekend in Atlantic City or a call from “Deal or No Deal,” odds are good that this year isn’t that year. But [...]
Present danger
‘Tis the season to buy. And buy and buy and buy. Who cares if nobody on your gift list needs anything? And never mind that you don’t have the means to pay for all those overpriced goods anyway. But hey, we’re not here to talk you out of giving. We like presents.
Take charge
Spend some time in Tom Henzey’s dojo, and you’ll quickly realize that the message he imparts to women in his self-defense classes at 7 Tigers Tae Kwon Do is a simple one: Protecting yourself should be instinctive, reflexive and as natural as breathing. “Your instincts will keep you alive,” says the straight-talking black belt. “Unfortunately, [...]