| Childproofing your home
Tisha Hughes remembered the "defining moment" when she knew it was time to step up childproofing her home to protect her 10-month-old son, Cameron. Cameron, a proficient crawler who's mastered the art of pulling himself up to stand while holding onto furniture, was puttering around the dining room one day when he decided to use a chair to help him stand. "When he pulled up on the chair, it fell backward and hit him on the forehead," she recalled. Fortunately, Cameron wasn't injured. But his mother was "pretty freaked out" by the incident. Soon after, the Hugheses had a big garage sale. Many of the decorative items in their Modesto home - including tablecloths, sconces, candles, floor lamps and a curio cabinet filled with commemorate shot glasses - were now seen as potential hazards for Cameron, so out they went.
High-style contemporary stands out on South Side
Pittsburgh's South Side is nothing if not eclectic, with everything from cool artists' lofts to modest 19th-century row houses to painstakingly restored Victorians. Even so, the high-tech custom home at the corner of South 16th and Roland streets, now on the market for $895,000 through Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, manages to surprise. Besides its unusual exterior, the house is one of the few in this Mon Valley neighborhood with a price tag approaching $1 million. Realtor Leesa Belt-Haglund says that shouldn't be a big surprise. As is often the case with neighborhoods in transition, house prices have started to creep up in the now trendy South Side. New developments such as Windom Hill Place, 15th Street Glassworks, Riverside Mews and Angel's Arms all feature units costing $500,000 or more, and even fixer-uppers can command prices in the mid hundreds.
Shopping center begins rejuvenation process
Imagine new street lamps on Pine Street, lush trees and landscaping at the Pine Watson Shopping Center, and a new coffee shop warmly welcoming people to Langhorne. That's what borough officials imagine. So do the owners of the shopping center. Others will get to watch that vision come to life when work on the center begins Monday, said Susan Asack. She is the property manager for the shopping center, owned by Sidney Hofing Management. The shopping center looks tired, Asack said. We heard that people were dissatisfied with the appearance and we were dissatisfied with the appearance, too. Pine Watson's rejuvenation process includes planting more than 100 shrubs and trees throughout the parking lot, replacing concrete bumpers with Belgian block curbing, and inlaying brick pavers on the sidewalk entrances.
2007 Toyota Camry XLE V6 Review
This new Toyota Camry is a nice car all around. The sixth generation of this front-wheel-drive, white-bread sedan, best-seller for most of the past decade at around 400,000 units/year, is keeping Toyota ahead of the curve when it comes to both content and design. In terms of style, I don't think "white-bread" quite applies any more. Styling of the Camry, until the current generation, has been almost painfully plain. But look at this one. The rear view hints at a Bangle-Butt BMW. The front swoops and sways with fresh shapes accentuating the large Toyota logo at the tip of its nose. Both headlights and taillights slope like eyebrows in a smile. I know styling is rather subjective, but in my considered view this is a vast improvement. The Toyota marketing department must be pleased in that the most important reason buyers turned away from the last generation Camry was uninspired styling.
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