Living

News, Trends & Alerts Affecting Your Life

Q. I want to insulate the ceiling in my garage. I was going to drywall and blow in cellulose. However, the ceiling joists are only 2x4's across a 22' span...not strong at all. What's the 1) most cost effective & 2) most realistic solution to this problem? My first thought was 4x8 foil-backed foam sheets, but that would to be a bit expensive, and the R-value is only 6.5. M.L. Mattawan.

Belle and I just finished reading the "Felicity: An American Girl" series, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. I truly didn't expect to like the books as much as I did; to me, the brand is tainted by the material mania surrounding the American Girl dolls. This review of the "Kit" movie aptly sums up the American Girl paradox:

The company's stated goal is "to create girls of strong character," a mission as unimpeachable as it is vague. And the American Girl cosmos can be, to an outsider, a fascinatingly contradictory place. Its starchy traditionalism is balanced by a savvy, up-to-the-minute multiculturalism. The commodity fetishism on display in the stores coexists with a fastidious concern for historical accuracy and, in the books, a clear educational intention.

... As the son and husband of feminists, I can't entirely suppress a tremor of unease. Is the brand reflecting tastes, or enforcing norms of behavior? Is it teaching girls to be independent spirits or devoted shoppers?

As if on cue, an American Girls catalogue arrived in the mail yesterday, just after I began writing this entry. Belle spotted it and, eyes wide, she began thumbing through it. "There's Felicity! And there's Penny!" she exclaimed. I gently took the catalogue and placed it on a high shelf, saying that we needed to get to her gymnastics class. Later, I squirrelled it away, and she hasn't asked for it yet. But she will. I know she will.

I'm just putting off the inevitable; she's going to want one of those dolls someday. And that's fine -- they are lovely dolls. But how do you get the doll and avoid all the craziness that goes with it? The $75 horse. The matching outfits. The $100 bed. The fabulous, $250 tree house... We can afford the doll, but not all that comes with it.

We will cross that bridge when we come to it, I suppose. But back to the books. I really appreciate that they are well-written. Some of the stuff we've read has been so bad it's painful, like the Rainbow Magic books. The plot is nearly the same in every book, and the two protagonists, Kirsty and Rachel, are two blobs, indistinguishable from one another except for their hair color. We have read probably a dozen of those books, and Belle still asks me constantly as I'm reading, "Which one's Kirsty? Which one's Rachel?" The other day I pointed that out to her, and explained that it was a sign of very poor writing.

The Felicity series, in contrast, is rich in detail both about the heroine and her surroundings. And it's historically accurate, for the most part, which has given me the opportunity to discuss some broad points about the founding of our country. She wasn't interested in that so much as the story lines, which all contained good moral lessons and plenty of excitement and drama. In the last Felicity book, one of the main characters dies, and as I read that part, she and I both cried, and then we went on to the happy ending, and she was OK with it. And that was such a special first experience for her with getting into a book and getting so attached to the characters, and I felt very fortunate to share it with her.

So, we'll be reading more American Girl books in the future. If it leads to a desire for one of the dolls, well, I guess that's a better reason than just wanting one because it seems everyone else has one.

Hilarious Fishing Cartoons & Hilarious Hunting Cartoons: Author: John Troy; Forward: Nick Lyons; Publisher: Skyhorse Publications; Price: $14.95 each

Pick your poison. You'll die laughing either way.

And you will have cartoonist John Troy to blame.

Troy's two new books, "Hilarious Hunting Cartoons" and "Hilarious Fishing Cartoons," are just that: delectable snippets from the field that are made laugh-out-loud funny.

Thousands of Michigan hunters went afield this week, the first days of the Michigan firearm deer season. By most accounts, the season has progressed well. But not everyone is happy, nor should they be.

Saugatuck hunter Don Bale was hoping for more. I suspect that others do, too.

Q. My kitchen has dark red hexagonal Italian-style tiles; one of my favorite parts of the house. The grout, however, is very dark and dirty. Some years ago I cleaned it with grout cleaner, which worked very well, but it took me a week to do it, and very soon it was dirty again, especially in high-traffic areas.

I've seen ads for commercial grout cleaning outfits. Are these companies likely to do a good job? If so, is there a sealer I can put on the grout so it doesn't get discolored again? I'd like the grout to stay light gray instead of getting dark. B.F. Kalamazoo.

Q. My kitchen has dark red hexagonal Italian-style tiles; one of my favorite parts of the house. The grout, however, is very dark and dirty. Some years ago I cleaned it with grout cleaner, which worked very well, but it took me a week to do it, and very soon it was dirty again, especially in high-traffic areas.

I've seen ads for commercial grout cleaning outfits. Are these companies likely to do a good job? If so, is there a sealer I can put on the grout so it doesn't get discolored again? I'd like the grout to stay light gray instead of getting dark. B.F. Kalamazoo.

Press Photo/Cory OlsenBen Lyke, 25, of Coats Grove, holds up his buck at the Barry County State Game Area headquarters. Listen to Lyke's story about his deer:

MIDDLEVILLE -- Ben Lyke, of Coats Grove, was sitting about 200 yards from his brother, Josh, when three does came running into the field, spooked by a man guy making noise along the road.

The 25-year-old hunter pulled up his scope to scan the field. It was opening morning and the odds were good. Then he saw what he was looking for.