Why I Oughta...

Just like last year , we had our lawn aerated this year.   And, based on the photos alone (go back and check out the shape of our lawn last year ), it seems that it is helping.  Our lawn is thicker, fuller, and a bit more lush.  (I'm also now using the Menards brand of the 4-step fertilizer process -which is bound to help.) This year, I had both the front and back yards 'plugged' and have stepped up my entire lawncare treatment process.  I have a lot of bare spots in the backyard from the various construction jobs last summer and I'm attempting to seed them, but I waited until after the aeration to maximize the effect. 

This year, I picked two early Perennials for the planter box on our front porch.  The two varieties are a Pincushion Flower Scabiosa and an Erysimum Apricot Twist. I put them in the planter box that we converted from an old "beverage" case that we picked up at the Kane County Flea Market.  Nat has a particular taste in flowers, but as you can tell by the orange choice, she didn't have much to say in this decision.  Fortunately, she's ok with them because (I think) they're kind of on the wild sign. I am documenting them here because I did the same thing last year - planting two varieties of perennials in the same box, but when late summer arrived and the flowers drooped, Nat yanked them out of the box and stuck them in the ground on the south side of our front porch and we mostly forgot about them.  Fast forward to this spring and one variety (the yellow one) has gone and gotten HUGE.  As a side note, you can *barely* see our Anemone plant just to the right of th

The Babe is clearly an "outside-the-lines" thinker, right?  She colored it all by herself. Here's to the most wonderful woman in the world.  Hope it is a good day, Nat!

When I was running errands this morning, I spotted on Twitter a few folks talking about today being Free Comic Book Day - which turns out to be the first Saturday in May every year.  Fortunately for me, there's a place called GEM Comics in Elmhurst which is located just a few doors down from our dry cleaners.  Nat had asked me to stop at the cleaners to pick something up, so I figured I would stop by GEM Comics and pick up the free comic book. First thing I did when I walked in was ask "Today is Free Comic Book Day, right?"  The older lady at the counter said, "Well...it isn't free for me, so I decided to pass on it."  Hmmm....out the door I went.  Bummer.  This is the local comic book store in Downtown Elmhurst.  I want a reason to shop there.   I am after a birthday present for my nephew and figured I would find something cool at the store, but when she rained on my parade, I couldn't muster up the attitude to dig through their store.  I under

Much like last year , I was (apparently unnecessarily) concerned that our peonies would not return this spring.  No need to worry as last week they began to punch through the mulch and have come on very strong. We're up to five peony plants around the yard - which is one more than my records show.  I can't figure out where the fifth one came from - but perhaps it is a dahlia?  I suppose we'll find out soon!

I was in Ann Arbor this week doing some press outreach with the leader of our office and our landlord about our local office's effort to green-up the office and our building.  This is a pretty unique effort in that we have a VERY supportive and forward-looking landlord/partner in McKinley Properties and their CEO Albert Berriz.  Here's a photo I took of Albert and Fulter - a Googler - as they talk with the Detroit Free Press reporter AND photog (very meta, eh?) in front of the new solar panel installation at the Google office.  It is the largest private solar installation in the state of Michigan (I believe...) The neat part is that *this* project (which includes these panels plus other things like a "live" roof/green roof on another portion of our building, a greenhouse, and a new compost program IS consistent with Google's global approach to these things.  Pretty great to see the implementation at the local level in our regional offices instead of just at HQ in

This past weekend, I spent Saturday evening out on Montrose Harbor in our annual tradition of smelt fishing.   This was the 8th year of smelt fishing, but I've only gone 7 times.  I remember writing posts about the outing back in 2005 and 2006, but I can't track them down.  Damn you, Wordpress migration!  Anyway...here's a post from our 2010 outing and one from our 2007 outing . Organized by my good friends Matt and Jason, a group of us gathered for some sodas, plenty of laughs, peanuts in the shell and (hopefully) a smelt or two.  Like in years past, unfortunately, the smelt weren't running (sure....that's the reason we didn't catch any, right?), but that's not the point of smelt fishing, right?  I got to spend some time with guys like Eric and Rob - which was great to catch up.  And...the peanuts?  I think I've found a permanent addition to the Chicago Smelt tradition.  Peanuts in the shell.  I arrived late, but it was still not quite dark.  The c

Guess who's getting her Chromercise in this morning?  Who knew they'd make such great baby wristbands?!?

Taking a look at the list of archives on this blog, it seems that we've arrived at the 1/3rd point in the calendar year.  (well...technically, we're just a hair past 1/3rd, but for round numbers, this is as close it we can get, right?) Has gone fast, hasn't it?  I've done so much this year, but still have so much to get done - especially outside in the backyard.  On my to-do list: 1.  Stain the fence 2.  Stain the deck 3.  Seed the lawn 4.  Powerwash/re-sand/seal the pavers 5.  Build/assemble playground 6.  Re-establish vegetable garden 7.  Stain/seal raised beds in vegetable garden 8.  Stain the pavilion wood

Now that's how you follow through on an April Fool's Day joke .  These finger bands arrive via first class mail yesterday.