Why I Oughta...

Ever since we first saw the little pineapple plants growing in the gardens at Epcot's Flower and Garden show back in Spring of 2016 , I've had the notion in my mind that it would be fun/interesting to try to give a pineapple plant a try.  But, where would we ever come across one?  The answer, surprisingly, was Menards.  Yeah...my favorite store.  Menards.  For some reason, they carried a handful of pineapple plants - Ananas Comosus - earlier this Spring.  I was wandering out to the garden center and passed by the tropical section and they had four or five of these things on the end cap.  $11.99?  Can't pass it up, right?   I planted it in a clay pot that seemed size appropriately.  Here's a close-up of the fruit that is on the plant currently: Once the weather moderated and we seem to be having no more cold spells, I transitioned it outside to the back patio where it is living amongst our upside tomato plant (well...not ...

I've been a Merkt's guy for a while.  Sharp Cheddar.  Sure, I'll eat the Pub Cheese from Trader Joe's.  Or if a tub of Kaukauna shows up for a party or get together...I'll slather healthy amounts of it on crackers, pita chips, tortilla chips or what-have-yous.  But it was always Merkt's that I came back to. Until now. I've found my new love and it is the King of Clubs Sharp Cheddar Cold Pack Cheese Food .  Yeah...Cheese food.  From the folks at the Mars Cheese Castle comes their house brand of cheese spread .  They offer it in one pound size but also in five pound size .  I probably need to stay away from the five pounder, because the one pound version barely lasted the weekend.  (the 18 ounce crock is cute, though.  Might become my go-to party-going bring-along?  Keep a few of them on hand?  I have to think that this stuff - being 'cheese food' - will last quite a while, right??) They serve the King of Clubs in their ...

A few days ago, I posted a photo of a cheesesteak that I (sadly) ate at the Philadelphia airport and bemoaned by lack of time/availability to do anything while I was in town for the brief trip.  But, while I didn't get to enjoy a pretzel or a proper cheesesteak @ Steve's, I did get a chance during the delay before boarding my flight home to enjoy one of these:  Walt Wit from Philadelphia Brewing Company.   BeerAdvocate lists it in the 'okay' range with a score of 79 , so don't go out of your way to pick one of these up, but I do like the bottle (cute label, right?) and maybe it was the sour taste in my mouth of having my flight be delayed, but I enjoyed this. Looks like, if you can find it, the Philadelphia Brewing Company beer to get is their Schwarzinger.   Scores a 86 @ BA .

Back a few weekends ago, we packed the kids up in the van and headed up to Wisconsin.  The goal for the trip?  A visit to the Elkhorn Antique Flea Market .  Started more than 30 years ago, dealers, pickers, treasure hunters and lookie-loos descend on the Walworth County Fair four times a year (May 21, June 25, August 13, September 24 this year) to wander around and look for treasures.  We've been to the Kane County Flea Market , Shipshewana in Indiana and plenty of other one-off's or season ( Christmas ) vintage markets and antique malls . And, I have to say:  I think this was by far the most comprehensive and best of the bunch.  There is so much there that we didn't see it all.  And while there's *some* junk, there's LOTS of treasures.  Deals?  Fewer to find than you'd think.  But the 'merch' as they say was high quality stuff.  And, perhaps that's why the dealers were pricing their stuff the way they were.  I mean...I'm...

On my way to the office this week, I spotted the marquee at the Chicago Theater marking the passing of Gregg Allman.   You can't see the sky in the photo above, but yesterday morning, we had quite a blue sky.  How nice.  I have never been a big Allman Brothers guy, but.... Early morning sunshine tell me all I need to know.

A few weeks back, I stopped at an Estate Sale in south Elmhurst and came across a house that was basically frozen in the 60's and 70's.  They had a lot of interesting furnishings and built-ins, but nothing seemed like a fit for us until I wandered into an upstairs bedroom and saw this lamp.  It is a tall, floorstanding lamp that has a wood (teak, maybe?) base that is made up of three 'prongs' with a bronze/gold rod running up the middle.  The shade, as you can see, has a butterfly scene on it, but it is totally replaceable and appeared to be a standard-size shade that you could easily buy today.  I really liked the base and how the legs give that Mid-Century/Danish/rocket-age look to it.  I also love how the teak blows through the top of the shade. This was a deal, I think based on this one listing I found that shows a pair of companion table lamps that were listed for $625 for the pair.  They'd be a great grouping put together, right? Here's a scre...

I found myself in Philadelphia recently and unfortunately, I didn't have time for much outside of the scheduled events.  (sounds familiar, right?  Just like my recent trip to Denver where I didn't get to go to the Cherry Cricket !)  And that means my trip didn't include a visit to Pat's and Geno's for the typical tourist showdown.  Let alone Steve's - which I think the eaters have coalesced around as being tops in town, right?   I did, however, have time for a steak at the airport where Geno's has an outpost. I got my 'with wiz' and it wasn't awesome. But, shame on me for thinking it was going to be right?  Kinda like the equivalent of getting pie at the DiFara's in Vegas at the Ceasar's Food Court , right?  You know what you're doing when you enter into an agreement like this.  It always turns out the same.