Sex Files: Put on your party hats

The wake-up call to use safer sex methods came in the 1980s. People realized that unprotected sex could give you HIV/AIDS and kill you. In a nutshell, safer sex means using techniques to prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Some of these methods, such as using condoms, can also prevent pregnancies, but the main goal is […]

Design, living and trends for home and garden

Chillin’ Custom flavors, on ice Design-your-own cone: If supermarket ice cream just doesn’t deliver what you need, try ordering custom flavors from a local kitchen. So your BFF has a birthday and you know her favorite treat is apple pie ice cream. You design her ice cream’s base and ingredients, name it and write a […]

News and ideas for sustainable living

And the winners are… Waldorf awards single out the good guys Plenty of businesses are capitalizing on the green-living trend—so many, in fact, that it’s helpful when a third party recognizes some of the leaders in that ever-more-crowded field. The Waldorf Foundation has done just that with its third annual Commonwealth Environmental Leadership Awards, handed […]

Fire it up!

You got questions? We got answers. If you’ve always lived with a heat pump and a knob on the wall that you twist to make things get hotter, using a fireplace might carry visions of primitive tools—splitting wedges and pokers—and a whole bunch of flaming, smoky, insurance-policy-canceling danger. Yes, managing a fire in your house […]

Ground Rules: Beautiful, but…

The beginning of winter marks the return of the sun. The winter solstice on December 21 is the shortest day of the year, with the angle of the sun at its lowest. Every day afterward is a little longer as the sun begins to climb back higher into the sky towards spring. The high point […]

Adjusting expectations

Frank Sinatra might have crooned the songs that make the world sing, and Steve Jobs may very well single-handedly create the toys that make the world shop, but nobody (but nobody) can set the price of real estate, not even your agent. That, my friend, is the market’s job. Buyers may well look suspiciously at […]

Old new urbanism

Charlottesville’s Rose Hill neighborhood has a lot to teach us about this town’s history—the good and the bad—and its present status—the good and the bad. Exhibit A: The 81-acre area northwest of downtown is home to one of the loveliest and most well-designed public spaces in Charlottesville—Booker T. Washington Park (designed by nationally-renowned landscape architect […]

Back Porch: Fireplace: the idea

"Fireplace"—few nouns are so melodious. A phrase such as "Come and sit by the fireplace" evokes the magical sense that one of barbaric earth’s elements can have a genteel, eminently approachable home. All right, so if the mere idea of a fireplace can make me swoon, why don’t I live in a house that has […]

Postcolumn report

Sadly, this is my last column for C-VILLE. (I will pause here, as some will need time to break down crying, some to pop the champagne and some to figure out what they are going to line their cat’s litter box with next week). Face the fact: Whether it be infuriating Virginia fans as I […]