Why I Oughta...

Early last Spring, we found a couple of super cheap trees at Wal-Mart.  Now...Wal-Mart isn't exactly the first place you'd think of when buying trees to plant in your yard.  In fact, we didn't go to Wal-Mart that day looking for trees.  But...somehow we ended up wandering into the nursery/outdoor part of the store and we stumbled on some trees. They were small, and a little scrawny but they were cheap.  They were $5.00 USD per tree.  Seriously.  We bought a few different kinds of trees - 4 in total.  We figured, we couldn't go wrong.  We only had our little Honda Accord, but we threw them in - and had them hanging out the trunk. We put one in our front yard - a Cleveland Pear Tree - and hoped for the best.  It was billed as "fast growing" and "flowering".  Last year it did very little.  In fact, I thought it "shrunk" a bit (I know it didn't....but due to it's small size, it felt like it did!). After the winter, we **hoped** t

On Saturday, we packed up the Babe and headed out to the Kane County Flea Market.  We were rushed a bit - we got there late - but had a good time.  We bought just one piece, but made plans to come back later in the summer when we had more time. On the way home, we had to utilize a McDonald's for the changing table - as the Babe needed a refresh.  I ran in to use the restroom while Nat took the Babe to the women's room.  As I was waiting for them to emerge with a clean diaper, I loitered around by the counter.  I haven't been in a McDonald's very often recently.  We do "go to" McDonald's but it usually the drive-thru for beverages. In this particular McDonald's (and maybe all of them?), they have a "self service" soda fountain.  Above the machine was this sign. The whole thing struck me as kind of odd and unnecessary.  I thought: "What kind of person would bring in a paper (probably disintegrating) cup to reuse at McDonald's.&quo

Google Voice informed me that Al Capone is on his way.  And he's involved in electricity, too! Could be curtains for us!

The Cake Girls Bakery burned down this past week.  Such a sad, sad story.  I do NOT want make light of the tragedy, so please don't hate me for saying what I am about to say. But...there is a lesson there for small businesses.  Use the "cloud".  From the article : Maher said that they are currently trying to retrieve order information from two water-logged laptops that they retrieved from the building. She said it would likely 'take months' before Cakegirls was up and running again. There's something every business owner can take from this:  move from whatever your record keeping/order taking process is to the web.  Put your stuff in the "cloud" and you won't have to fish out a water-logged laptop if disaster strikes you.  It isn't easy to make the move, but it is freeing when you do. I wish all the luck to the Cake Girls.  I don't know them personally - nor have I ever eaten one of their cakes, but from what I read, they'll not

Our local movie theatre - The York - has this sign out front along with their current movie offerings.  Apparently, on Sunday mornings, a group is using one of the theaters for church services.  Have I told you how much I love The York?  I haven't?!?   Well...I will soon!

For Christmas this year, we've decided to change gears and only give gifts to our family that we've "made" or crafted in some way.   I have 3 nephews that I've decided to make a board game for that was one of my favorites when I was growing up:  penny hockey.  I'm thinking of updating it a bit to make it more competitive with the Wii (who are we kidding!  These things will collect dust!).  I had a bit of help from Nat's dad and future-brother-in-law-law (my sister in law's future husband) in coming up with the prototype.  I think that some of their moms (my sisters!) read this here blog, so I will only show a little sneak peak of the board pre-sanding/staining/finishing.   I stained in this weekend and have put a coat of polyurethane on it to make it slick.  It isn't as slick of a surface as I remember, but the angles are just about right.   I'm going to have it around the house for a few months to figure out how we can make it better.  First u

The plans for the garage are moving forward fast.  The topographic surveys are done, the blueprints are in with the city, and the permits are applied for.  Hopefully, we'll hear from the city this week with the go-ahead.  We've come this/close to settling on a garage builder - and hope to sign a contract within the week.  Once the permits are approved, we'll break ground! In addition to the fence (from earlier this week), we're also going to put in some pavers for a patio, a new driveway, and a bunch of landscaping.  There's also this "pavilion" that I want built above the patio.  Pavilion you say?  Yep.  You got that right.  See the picture below for what we're looking for.   Nat HATES the idea, but I want shade.  We're facing straight west (in our backyard) and the sun makes the yard **almost** unusable on a hot day.  With this free-standing structure up against the garage, I think we'll have a really comfortable area to have a nice aftern

I get the fortunate task of hosting groups of all types at the office most every week.  Acting as tour guide, giving an overview of the company and helping spread the gospel is part of my job.  (have I told you that I have the best job in Chicago?)   Most of the time, the groups that come through aren't personally significant to me:  Ukranian Businessmen getting a week-long MBA from Kellogg,  journalists of all types, politicians.  But last week, we had a group that meant something to me:  LAS students from the University of Illinois.  I've been a bit active in the Speech Communications Alum group and have met a few folks from the school as a result.  They subsequently asked if we could host a group of 20 Liberal Arts students for a half-day learning session (with lunch, of course!). Hopefully, they enjoyed the day as much as I did!  

Earlier this week, I was standing at my desk minding my own business when these guys showed up.   Kind of odd having a face-to-face with a stranger 8 stories up in the air.  I'm sure these guys have some stories to tell! You can **kind of** see my view in the image - through all the soap.    If you look closely, you can spot the Hancock on the right hand side in the background.  Lots of open sky for the Air/Water Show practice runs.

We get print subscriptions to both the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times everyday.  Like most folks, the Sunday papers get the most attention in our house.  I buzz through the Trib everyday and read the S-T, but Sundays brings the circular ads.  For me, there's really only one ad that is a must-read every week:  Menard's. This week's ad brought a nice surprise on the back cover:  They now have gift registries!  Srsly.  Umm...too bad I'm married.  I would have fought tooth-n-nail to get a wedding registry at Menard's.  I would have - undoubtably lost that battle - but still would have waged it nonetheless. Who knows...maybe I can sneak a registry in for the babe's first birthday.  If that doesn't work, my birthday is coming up you know.