I Bought

Irene Sacilotto wears clothes which reflect her unusual life style and artistic flair. She has a busy schedule managing two careers. For 40 hours a week, she's the branch chief of a chemistry lab with the U. S. Army Environmental Hygiene Agency,where she manages a team testing environmental contaminants. Her second career is professional nature photography. She conducts photo workshops and tours worldwide. How would you describe your taste in clothing?My clothes are as varied as my life style: fashionable business suits for the executive; wild and crazy outfits for the artist; khaki and camouflage for the naturalist and world traveler.

WASHINGTON - Memo to Los Angeles Lakers Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant: My wife suggested I sleep on this. Which is why the salutation doesn't read, "Memo to Two Festering Boils on the Buttocks of My Patience." I hear you two are feuding again. California burning down around you, Kobe being tried for rape, and you find time to snipe at each other. Shaq, you said Kobe was a ball hog. You declared that henceforth, it was your team. Kobe, you said Shaq was a fat malingerer. If it's his team, you said, let him show some leadership.

After a hard day at the office, the last thing Harvey E. Kettering II wants to look at is clothes.Who can blame him? After all, he spends most of his waking hours surrounded by some 200,000 garments. That's life for the president and chief executive officer of Baltimore Goodwill Industries Inc. He says there's nothing he enjoys more than watching the profits from donated clothing help train the disabled.Mr. Kettering stands by his merchandise, too. The 62-year-old has been known to jog around his Phoenix home in a warm-up suit he bought at Goodwill for $4.99.

For new mom Nadia Leather, the Internet has become as essential as disposable diapers. When she was pregnant, the thought of schlepping through malls to purchase baby paraphernalia when she could barely squeeze behind the steering wheel was hardly appealing, so she turned to Web sites that peddled products to expectant mothers. "I bought the crib. I bought the toys. I bought the stroller. I bought everything I needed on the Internet," said the Manhattan resident, whose daughter was born last November.

Brenda Chavis is a secretary for the Maryland Division of Corrections, but she has an active lifestyle outside of her daily work schedule. Her weekends are busy with four-wheeling, body building, dancing and fishing when she does not have part-time modeling assignments. But her real love is writing. Shewon a writing contest sponsored by station WWIN promoting the Patti Austin song "Givin' in to Love," with a prize of an appearance on the Joan Rivers Show. "It was a great moment for me," Ms. Chavis says, "we had 10 minutes of air time talkingabout love and Joan Rivers told me I could be Miss America."

RECENTLY I spent a suburbanite's Saturday morning at a flea market -- the usual, beginning with breakfast by Vo-Tech parents topped off with coffee that could have scoured clean all the bronze statues on the battlefield at Gettysburg.I would have continued my suburban bliss had I not managed to find a parking place at the far end of the Vo-Tech parking lot. A teen-ager directing cars to what turned out to be a vintage automobile exhibition over that way asked if I wanted to enter my Ford.

Roz Healy, assistant director for the Baltimore Office of Promotion, has had a busy week. Besides her job promoting Baltimore, she has been working as the volunteer vice chair of events for the Festival of Trees at Festival Hall through Dec. 15. When Roz has free time, she loves mountain biking.How would you describe your taste in clothing?I really don't classify myself in terms of one particular taste. I dress according to my mood and the event. I enjoy wearing a variety of outfits from classic/tailored to fun casual wear in vibrant colors.

If there's a hall of fame for bargain hunters, Tracy Amon belongs in it. The 24-year-old secretary never met an outlet store, flea market or consignment shop she didn't like. Every other Saturday, she and her mother comb the Baltimore area in search of the ultimate buy.She's cultivated such a sharp eye for discounts that she now occasionally boasts to colleagues at the Department of Defense about her cheap but tasteful finds."It's gotten so that when I go into work and say, 'See my new pants,' people automatically ask, 'How much you pay for them?

As an advertising executive, Randi Schindler Buergenthal knows the importance of images -- including her own. That's why whether she's drumming up new business or working with established clients, Ms. Buergenthal, director of account services for Maleson Naylor Advertising, places a premium on looking good.For her, details make all the difference. She routinely spends 30 minutes getting dressed in the morning -- often rummaging through her 30 pins and 100 pairs of earrings until she finds the right mix.But that doesn't keep her from fine-tuning after she leaves her Pikesville home.

Cathy K. Weiss is a senior account executive at Philip Willen Associates, a public relations firm specializing in health care. Weiss is in charge of putting together a new television show, "SilverTone," an exercise program for senior citizens that will debut next month on Baltimore County Cable.How would you describe your taste in clothing?I think avant-garde, with bold colors and good lines. I used to model in college, so I'm not afraid to try new looks. I like clothes that suit my personal style, and I will go anywhere to find them.

When people buy a computer, they want to plug it in and start writing letters or surfing the Internet.Most buyers will find this won't happen.I spent the better part of a day buying, setting up and configuring a computer for my mother. It's a wonder more people don't hurl the things through the plate-glass windows of computer stores.By way of background, my mother is 73, and I decided to buy her a replacement for the 486DX she was using. If you're buying a new computer, you can take advantage of some of the things we learned - the hard way:Tip 1: Know what you will use the computer for.Mom needed a machine to do word processing for her duties as president of the residents' association of her retirement community and to access America Online.

THIS MOTHER'S Day, I could be in.Or I could be doomed, consigned to a cruel, unrelenting hell of silence and bruised feelings.It could go either way at this point.Here's the story: Like every other guy in America, I was feeling enormous pressure with Mother's Day approaching.What to get my wife? I always blow this. Whatever I get her, she returns.One year, I bought her a blazer. She returned it. The next year, I bought her a blouse. She returned it."What are you, stupid?" a buddy of mine said.

Correction: In last week's Candid Closet, Lucretia B. Whitten's age was incorrectly reported. In fact, Whitten did not reveal her age. The Sun regrets the error.By the time she was 7, Lucretia B. Whitten says, "I had a needle in my hand." Whitten, her mother and many of her seven sisters would gather around a quilt on a rainy afternoon and stitch away. By the time she was 10, it was Whitten's summer responsibility to sew three dresses by the start of school. She and two sisters were particularly dedicated seamstresses.

If there's a hall of fame for bargain hunters, Tracy Amon belongs in it. The 24-year-old secretary never met an outlet store, flea market or consignment shop she didn't like. Every other Saturday, she and her mother comb the Baltimore area in search of the ultimate buy.She's cultivated such a sharp eye for discounts that she now occasionally boasts to colleagues at the Department of Defense about her cheap but tasteful finds."It's gotten so that when I go into work and say, 'See my new pants,' people automatically ask, 'How much you pay for them?

As an advertising executive, Randi Schindler Buergenthal knows the importance of images -- including her own. That's why whether she's drumming up new business or working with established clients, Ms. Buergenthal, director of account services for Maleson Naylor Advertising, places a premium on looking good.For her, details make all the difference. She routinely spends 30 minutes getting dressed in the morning -- often rummaging through her 30 pins and 100 pairs of earrings until she finds the right mix.But that doesn't keep her from fine-tuning after she leaves her Pikesville home.

After a hard day at the office, the last thing Harvey E. Kettering II wants to look at is clothes.Who can blame him? After all, he spends most of his waking hours surrounded by some 200,000 garments. That's life for the president and chief executive officer of Baltimore Goodwill Industries Inc. He says there's nothing he enjoys more than watching the profits from donated clothing help train the disabled.Mr. Kettering stands by his merchandise, too. The 62-year-old has been known to jog around his Phoenix home in a warm-up suit he bought at Goodwill for $4.99.

Correction: In last week's Candid Closet, Lucretia B. Whitten's age was incorrectly reported. In fact, Whitten did not reveal her age. The Sun regrets the error.By the time she was 7, Lucretia B. Whitten says, "I had a needle in my hand." Whitten, her mother and many of her seven sisters would gather around a quilt on a rainy afternoon and stitch away. By the time she was 10, it was Whitten's summer responsibility to sew three dresses by the start of school. She and two sisters were particularly dedicated seamstresses.

Once again this spring I'm doing my part to help jump-start the economy by buying every raffle ticket thrust at me.L I bought a raffle ticket for a 1992 Cadillac Sedan de Ville.I bought a raffle ticket for a Mitsubishi big-screen TV.I bought a raffle ticket for a 22-foot speedboat, a CD player and a Cal Ripken Jr. autographed baseball bat.I even bought a raffle ticket for a camper that sleeps four -- and my idea of roughing it is a Holiday Inn without cable.Understand, there is absolutely no chance of me winning any of these prizes.

Once again this spring I'm doing my part to help jump-start the economy by buying every raffle ticket thrust at me.L I bought a raffle ticket for a 1992 Cadillac Sedan de Ville.I bought a raffle ticket for a Mitsubishi big-screen TV.I bought a raffle ticket for a 22-foot speedboat, a CD player and a Cal Ripken Jr. autographed baseball bat.I even bought a raffle ticket for a camper that sleeps four -- and my idea of roughing it is a Holiday Inn without cable.Understand, there is absolutely no chance of me winning any of these prizes.

Brenda Chavis is a secretary for the Maryland Division of Corrections, but she has an active lifestyle outside of her daily work schedule. Her weekends are busy with four-wheeling, body building, dancing and fishing when she does not have part-time modeling assignments. But her real love is writing. Shewon a writing contest sponsored by station WWIN promoting the Patti Austin song "Givin' in to Love," with a prize of an appearance on the Joan Rivers Show. "It was a great moment for me," Ms. Chavis says, "we had 10 minutes of air time talkingabout love and Joan Rivers told me I could be Miss America."