Why I Oughta...

Back in February, Nat and I went with some friends to a special screening on Back to the Future for the 25th Anniversary celebration in Naperville with a few stars of the movie.  All in all, it was a great night with great company and we even had a chance to spend some time with the original Jennifer Parker (Claudia Wells), Lorraine McFly Lea Thompson), Dr. Emmit Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and Principal Strickland (James Tolkan).  Thompson looked great.  Claudia Wells, on the other hand...well...I'll just say that I like Lea Thompson "better".     The theatre they screened the movie in was called the Hollywood Palms and is one of those places that serve a full menu of food while you watch the movie.  That was pretty nice having waiter service.  The only downside is that I sucked down a few beers and like 4 Diet Cokes so I had to get up anyway to head to the john 3 times! In the lobby of the theatre, they have a bar - which in this situation (we arrived early and had t

No sooner did I write a post wondering when/if Lou Malnati's was going to start selling their tomatoes retail do I get an email with the subject line: Famous Canned Tomato Sauce Now In Stores. 3 bucks for a 28 oz can.  About the same price as my Six-in-Ones .  Will have to give them a shot, I suppose.

This was the 7th Annual trip to Montrose Harbor for Smelt fishing.  I don't think I have been to all seven, but I bet I've been to six.  They're always a lot of fun and I have tried to chronicle the trips on my various blogs.  At least one post is here , but sadly, without any photos.  I started writing about smelt trips back when I was writing for Tom Cross at the JoinCross.com blog and for some reason it really got in the craw of some conservative readers of his blog.  They were out of their minds that we would waste time writing about our adventures on the shores of Lake Michigan.   Because of that nonsense, I had to carry on the tradition. This year, we convinced Equation Boy/Man to come down (and he drove - which is nice!) and enjoy the festivities.  Matt and his brother Jason put on quite the spread and had most of the equipment set up as we arrived.  Turns out, Matt has inherited the rig from our friend's father - who turned EVERYONE on to smelt fishing.  He

Right in the middle of our downtown is a HUGE piece of commercial real estate that appears to be poised to help further enhance our City Centre.  It is located at 109 W. Schiller Street - right south of the York Theatre and just north of Plass Appliances.  They're billing it for lease right now ( listing here ), but I think it was for sale for a while. It is the former Elks Club and I believe most of the space is on the second floor.  The developer has put quite a bit of cash into the redevelopment (and the listing reflects that investment).  They show this artist's rendering in the listing: I found this article on the web which chronicles the steps they've gone through to make the street look "real".  They're hoping to attract a sports bar or restaurant into the second floor space.  We have a few watering holes including the Bowling Alley ( Fitz's Spare Keys ), Fitz's, and Buffalo Wild Wings already in Downtown, so I think Nat and I would prefer a

Last Christmas, my brother-in-law Shaun gifted me a MLB Authentic Gordon Beckham White Sox jersey - a pretty great gift.  I haven't been to a game yet this season, so I haven't had a lot of reasons to break it out.  Until last Friday.  Nat came home from her morning activities and told me that we could go to the original Home Run Inn in Chicago on 31st Street and catch a live broadcast of Boers and Bernstein .  I came down from showering with a normal collared shirt on and she said, "shouldn't you wear something White Sox?"   Hmmm...I thought.  Perfect time to break out the jersey!  I quickly ran back up and grabbed the still-new-tagged jersey from my closet.   As I went to cut the tags off of the shirt, I was surprised by the number of tags.  None of them were price tags.   Wonder why so many?  Is it to make sure everyone involved (MLB, Players Association, etc) gets a piece of the action? What's that?  I "yada-yada'ed" over the Home Run Inn

Because of the garage construction, our backyard is pretty torn up.  Just this morning, I laid down some seed and began to water the portion of the yard that needs to return to grass.  It'll take a while and probably some additional seed, but I figured I should start now so the Rooster can get out there and not come back in totally filthy from the dirt/mud.   An additional piece of collateral damage of the new garage is the relocation of our Victory Garden.  ( yeah...I said " victory garden " !).  It was in the furthest south-west corner of our lot, but now it has to move.  I've preliminarily planned to move it to the south side of our house and expand it a bit, but that has to wait until after the fence and pavers go in.   I've been to Menard's 10 times in the past month and every time I walk by the seed aisle or the vegetable plants, my trigger finger gets really itchy.  But then I reassure myself that we're not ready and the beds aren't eve

I'm guessing that the City of Chicago department head that approved these banners to be made and hung outside of City Hall is breathing a bit easier now that the Blackhawks have tied up the series with Nashville, eh? I even caught myself watching a bit of the game.  And...I'm clearly not alone in being a "fair weather Hawks fan".  Here's how far the Blackhawks are "back" in people's minds:   they're surging in search .

I've always liked the tomatoes Lou Malnati's put on top of their pies.  They tended to have some chunk-age to them and provided nice bursts of flavor/juicy-ness when I bit into the slices.  In fact, as I started to experiment with my own deep-dish pizza recipes at home, Lou's was always the pie I aspired to ape. I ended up using a combination of 6-in-1's and whole peeled (de-seeded) hand torn tomatoes.  They came pretty close to the real thing. This past trip to Lou's, I spotted a note about their tomatoes on their menu.  ( and...no!  This is not turning into a all-Lou Malnati's blog. )   If you can't read it, it says: The Malnatis travel to California each year to hand select vine-riped tomatoes at their peak.  The tomatoes are chose based on their rich color, plumpness, and full flavor. From the photo in the menu, it seems like they can and label their tomatoes specifically for Lou's.  Wonder if they sell them like that?  Or...if they will?  

When we bought our house, a mean, unhappy woman was living there.  She lives in our neighborhood still and we see her driving by slowly from time-to-time.  I have a feeling that she doesn't really care much for what we "did" to her house.  After we had our house inspection, we were set to close the deal.  A few days before the closing, we drove by the house and saw the evil woman frantically digging up EVERY SINGLE PLANT that was in the ground.  She eviserated the flower beds and took every hosta, tulip bulb and anything green and growing, she ripped out.   She was probably smiling the whole time she was ripping out her plants thinking that us two young people who bought her house were NEVER going to get her flowers. Unfortunately for her, she was wrong!  Although we didn't see much action last year, I am pleased to report that we have a bunch of hostas that came up this Spring in some of the beds that were devastated when she tore the place up. And even better, w

Monday night I got home late (after class) so I wasn't able to fully inspect all the newly poured concrete, but I was able to give it a good soak with our garden hose.  They say that we're supposed to "keep it wet" for a few days to slow the curing process.   Tuesday morning I had to head into the office early, so I was relying on Nat and my dad to steer the process/answer the issues/questions.  The contractors showed up early to finish the garage and pour our new driveway. Here they were finishing up our "apron" that approaches the alley and they poured the slab to the north (on the right hand side) where we'll be doing some cool things with bricks! (can you say Pompeii-style brick pizza oven!) They quickly finished in back and moved to finish up the driveway in front.  We're getting a "California Finish" on the driveway - here they are cutting expansion joints. I'll soak it once again, then it is time to apply the concrete sealer.