Why I Oughta...

Al's Hobby Shop, a mainstay in Downtown Elmhurst is shrinking a bit.  The store's awnings currently cover three store fronts.  121, 123 and 125 Addison Street.  They kept their model trains in the 125 store - separate from other things - but that space is now vacant.  When I walked by this morning, I couldn't tell if the trains had moved into the other stores, but I've been in there before and they were packed then, so it will be tight if they consolidate.  I have to believe that the Lionel and MTH stuff sells.  Maybe just at Christmastime, but there aren't many places where you can find it, so I'm assuming that Al's cleans up from those involved in the hobby.

Last night, along with my sister and Equation Boy/Man, we took our five kids to see Wilco at the Kane County Cougars Ballpark.  We started in the bleachers, but after a few hours, the kids grew pretty restless and we made our way down to the field for some frolicking and running about.  We all got pretty tired, and thanks to WXRT we were able to listen to the second encore from the car.  The first one, we listened to while we hustled to our cars to beat the mad crush of Volkswagons and Suburus out of the parking lot.  

When we got back from Michigan after being away for more than a week, I pulled this enormous zucchini from the garden.  The bananas - which I should note are pretty big themselves - should give you some idea of the size of this thing.  I've had mixed results with big vegetables.  Sometimes they taste good, other times the size works against the vegetable and loses some of it's flavor. Too bad the Bird isn't eating quite yet.  Back a few years, the Babe was getting into soft foods like pureed vegetables right around the time we were pulling these things from the garden.  She ate home-grown for a while.  We'll have to wait until next summer for her younger sister.

Just these two little guys that came from a volunteer plant.  Last year, I had a huge over-grown mess of a plant that carried these little yellow fruits.  I (apparently) didn't clean up too well in the fall because I have two or three plants that sprung up from seeds that are fruiting already.

After (what her site says is) 29 years in the Day Spa business, Deborah Davis has hung up her tools.  The storefront at 131 N. Addison is empty and the sign in the window says that she retired on June 30th, 2012.  This storefront is right next to the proposed Addison Street Development which looks to be a massive structure that will bring a lot of life to Addison Street.  Wonder if that had anything to do with her retirement?  Either way, there's at least one new empty storefront on Addison Street.  With Rouse opening across the street, maybe there's hope that this new space can help lead the way to bring action to this quiet street?

One of the rafts up in Michigan is marked thusly.  Guess that rules out taking the girls to the pool by myself, eh?

Momma and her first born who LOVED the St. Joe's fireworks.

I picked up these eggs at the Wesco Gas station.  Cute package, eh?  And, another local Michigan product we've added to our usage up in Michigan along with Pioneer Sugar and Koegel's Hot Dogs . Yes...I bought my family breakfast from the gas station.  Along with a half-dozen doughnuts, too!

She looks to be a goner.  So, so, so sad.    The front of our house/curb appeal is forever changed.

We captured these two guys with a bucket right at the edge of our beach on Paw Paw Lake.  The Babe is into fishies so she got a kick out of seeing these guys on our countertop.  They stayed there for about 20 minutes and somehow "escaped" back into the lake when the Babe was getting ready for bed.