| Kindred: No more excuses for a half-empty Redbird Arena
A bunch of non home-grown players who are here for the basketball more than the education. Why do I want to cheer for them? How about ripping people for not spending more time helpign their kids with homework, or volunteering at a nursing home- you know, things that actually are important in the scheme of things... " .
HEAVENLY HOMES: Old church priory becomes affordable apartments
For nearly a century, Dominican friars made their home in the former St. Anne's Church priory at 818 Middle St. Today, the historic granite and marble three-story residence is about to be reborn as St. Dominic's Apartments, an affordable housing complex for the over-62 set. St. Dominic's, named for the friars who lived there, will have 18 one-bedroom apartments for seniors who meet eligibility requirements outlined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Four units are handicapped accessible. Tenants will pay no more than 30 percent of their income in rent, and heat and hot water are included. "It's for singles and couples," said Ed Allard, project manager for Community Action for Better Housing, which is co-sponsoring the project with Catholic Social Services. Construction on the building began a year ago and has been substantial, costing $4.5 million.
Central Florida Winter Park owes its ambience to wealthy Midwesterners
The tour boat glides past lavish lakefront homes as the guide recites the names of notable past and present occupants: Walgreen as in drugstores, Sinclair as in oil, Horace Grant as in the Chicago Bulls and Orlando Magic. We might have been cruising past the genteel mansions of Lake Geneva, Wis., if it weren't for the Spanish moss hanging from the cypress trees and the alligators lurking in the reeds. The simple pontoon boat ride seemed typical of a Midwestern lake resort. If you think of Central Florida as all theme parks and tourist attractions with little history and culture, Winter Park will surprise you. Though only 30-40 minutes up I-4 from Walt Disney World, this city of 28,000 seems a world apart, a world with several Chicago connections. In the early 1900s wealthy Northerners came to Winter Park by train to escape the harsh winters back home, just as they escaped to Lake Geneva to flee the summer heat of Chicago.
New year, new look and attitude for the home
Rick Brightly's bedroom was stuffed with college dorm furniture and his love life was stalled when he got a makeover from HGTV's "Fun Shui." He traded his décor in South Brunswick, N.J., for a more sophisticated, minimal and uncluttered feel. Brightly says since then, even his love life has picked up — although he doesn't attribute it to any hocus-pocus. "If you're excited about the place where you spend a lot of time, you portray yourself differently, and people react differently to you when you're out in the world," Brightly says. The basic principles of feng shui include placing strategic representations of five natural elements around your room — earth, water, fire, metal and wood. Modern feng shui divides your room or home into a grid of nine equal areas, called a bagua map.
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