Why I Oughta...

As found on Instagram: this pie from the Doughroom in LA.  Pepperoni, something called 'calabrese chili' (which I think are these ), ricotta and some Mike's Hot Honey. I've been putting Mike's Hot Honey on my sausage/pepperoni pies lately and it is soooo good.  Have to believe this is one tasty pie. Last month, I posted about the St. Louie and I'm thinking I might have to try this combination, too.

For the second year in a row, we (well...I, actually) decided to add some 'extra magic' to our trip and get some shirts made up for our family.  Yeah...we're one of those families with matching shirts.  Just for one day of the trip, though.   Last year, our shirts had a Mary Poppins theme , but this year, since we were going in March, I thought we'd do a hoops tie-in.   For both orders, we worked with the team at Celebration Shirts .   You can find our more about them here at their site .   If you are going to Disney and want custom-printed family t-shirts, I can't recommend Celebration Shirts enough.   When you go to the CelebrationShirts site, you'll see that they have quite a few customizable designs to choose from to tailor for your family trip.  Lots of really cool designs that can have your family's last name/first names/year to the shirts.  They really make it easy to add some of this 'extra magic' to your trip. But, b

Using the 'way-back machine' here on the blog (aka the Archives link on the right rail), I find that exactly eight years ago today, I was posting (from....the FeedBurner offices, I think!) about how I was prepping for our annual trip out on Montrose Harbor for smelt fishing . Those trips - which were soooo much fun - just don't take place any longer.  First, The Cactus moved away, which meant that the Sunshine Lighting crew stopped showing up.  But...the Mayor picked up the lead.  And did he ever lead.  But, he's since moved away too. And either nobody has taken out the gill nets in recent years or they're not inviting me.  (Ahem...Balone!).   These photos from the 2010 trip tell the full story of living on the end of the pier and having lots of laughs. Anyone going out on the pier this April?  If so, you'll invite me, right?  Right?!?

This is the fifth edition of the 'faux chocolate' water putty Easter bunny produced in our house.  He has a basket on his back and is pretty tall.  Took almost a half can of Water Putty for each one. I can't seem to find the photo of last year's version (but I did, indeed, produce one).   Guessing it had something to my lack of posting in March and April of 2014.  I did, however post the mold from last year that you can see here .  We made the typical batch of four of these guys and with the help of the girls, we gave them away a week ago on Easter Sunday. Here's the original how-to post from back in 2011 . There have been five, but with 2014 missing, here's the rest: Here's the 2013 edition . Here's the 2012 edition . Here's the 2011 edition .

As I've mentioned before , I'm not ashamed to admit that not only am I DisneyDad, I'm also into pin trading at the parks.  (Hell - I even went so far as to review and recommend a specific pin back !) Well...the girls are the ones who actually pin trade, but I'm the one pushing them to trade and acquire pins.  Here's two pins that speak to this year's trip:  the Beach Club and Flower and Garden show.  I don't buy a lot of pins while we're there, but I always try to buy one or two from each trip that allow me to remember when/where we went. These two things:  Beach Club (where we stayed) and F&G show (what we did) are distinctly 2015 to me. We traded quite a few pins and now facing the dilemma of how to deal with them.  Do we display them on a board?  Keep them in a book/binder?  We have a split collection right now.  Between what the Babe collects, what the Bird collects, what I collect.  Do we have 3 distinct collections?  Or just one?  Have

Growing up, my dad always wore a very specific watch: an Omega Speedmaster.  As he told it, that watch is/was the best watch on the market.  At least for him.   So, imagine my joy when I stumbled across a knock-off face on the XDA forums for the very same watch.  I wore it on Easter and my Dad got a kick out of it.   It doesn't quite look perfect, but it isn't that far off.   Right away, I (of course) went right back to my Mickey Mouse face as fast as I could.  Back in my comfort zone.

My childhood favorite (and Mike's favorite!) is back in stores.  Go out and stock up.  I just did.  I put 20 of them in my cart at Jewel over the weekend. What's the big deal?   Here's the details via CBS Sports : In the pantheon of sports drink flavors, not many things top Gatorade's Citrus Cooler. So hell yes you should be excited the sports scientists are bringing it back in March of 2015.   Gatorade's celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2015 and as such they're producing a bunch of commercials related to the milestone. But this is next level stuff. Citrus Cooler was/is Michael Jordan's favorite flavor and if it's good enough for the G.O.A.T. it's good enough for the rest of us. And they also brought back the "Be Like Mike" commercials with a slight tweak.  I can't stop humming the song.

Nat's favorite bulb is allium.  Over the years, I've picked up little ones and big ones and planted them in different parts of the beds.  In back, we have a set of the larger ones that create a pathway to our vegetable garden.  They've just started to break through the mulch this week. Last year, I couldn't figure out what these were until they fully sprouted .  But...now that I've been through a season with them, I'm all that much wiser. We also have some smaller/more delicate allium bulbs in the front by the porch.   I took photos of those back in 2012 .  And before that in 2011 . In fact, over the years, I've populated the 'bulbs' tag on the blog with various bulb-related photos.   Check 'em out here .

Easter may have come and gone, but I find time to get around to posting about this year's bunny mold.  The Babe and I produced a few of these just like we've done in year's past. This year's mold was pretty big and used A LOT of water putty.   This marks the 5th year of doing the bunnies and they're all different.  I'll post some photos of the in-progress bunnies and the fully-finished ones that are all glossy with polycrylic. Here's the mold we used in 2014 . Here's the mold we used in 2013 . Here's the mold we used in 2012 . Here's the mold we used in 2011 .

( If you're reading this in your email, the election is actually *today*! )  I was walking by City Hall over the weekend and was surprised by the volume of campaign signs that were posted in the parkway.  There has been early voting at City Hall and my assumption is that these campaigns wanted to make sure they had a presence in front of those early voters. But, it makes me wonder:  do these signs actually work?  Is there a voter out there who is engaged enough in the electoral process that wants to actually early vote who doesn't know who they're going to vote for?  And glancing at one of these yard signs is going to sway them? I suppose, there is some notion of 'confirmation' that can be achieved with these signs.  And...it really doesn't cost anything to put one up.  That minimal cost/effort is likely the reason why these things are even here.  When you're running a local campaign, the margins are often so small that you want to make sure that you&