Why I Oughta...

I came across this Western Flyer bicycle outside of a restaurant in Schaffhausen Switzerland at the beginning of July and I just *had* to stop to take a few photos of it.  It has a very retro feel to it, but was in remarkable shape for a bike that appears to be that old. Poking around the web, I came across this listing for a Western Flyer Reproduction from the 1980's that looks awfully similar, so I'm thinking this one might be a reproduction, too? Frankly, I don't care that it's a reproduction, I'm still in love.  Too bad that eBay listing is 'pick-up only' in Virginia or else I'd be tooling around town on this beauty before the summer ends.

Hey kids, look!  Rhein Falls! The largest 'plain' (whatever that means) waterfall in all of Europe .  And it happens to be in (or very near as far as I can tell) the very town that my sister and Equation Boy/Man are living.  My sister took us out there for a bit and we had quite the time.  We went on the little, flat bottomed boat and it got a bit hairy (at least for me) as the captain turned the boat sideways right INTO the current.  I could have sworn we were going to capsize and I held on for dear life.  I was quickly doing the mental math of which child to grab and as I looked around figuring out where the kids where, I quickly realized that all the rest of the tourists were acting naturally, smiling, taking photos of the grand falls.  And it was, sadly, just me freaking out about...apparently....nothing.

Welp, we didn't see George and Amal, but we did see these sweet boats in Varenna and had a great meal in Bellaggio.  We stayed in Menaggio in a house that was called the White Villa, yet was a super bright orange color. Seems that Lake Como is a lot like Hawaii in one regard:  it is *everything* that everyone tells you it is.  Just a very special place on earth.

That right there is a foam-ish miniature soccer ball.  And it came out of a vending machine.  In Cortona, Italy.  Yeah...kinda neat.  No gumballs.  No chiclets.  But a soccer ball. This one is from SSC Napoli - which is a club out of Naples that plays in the top league in Italy, but we tried the machine a few times and got other teams like AC Milan and Roma. We have a ball-crazy boy in our house these days so this was a perfect fit for us during our visit. But, it has me wondering if this is a chicken-or-the-egg-thing?  Meaning...are they soccer ...errr....sorry football crazy as kids because they love it or is the culture make them football-crazy because it is pushed at them like with these vending machines? Either way, the Boy was happy!

Thanks to Nat and the girls and what might be the best Father's Day gifts ever, I'm now the proud owner of these new stands and pans.  The pans you see above are from here on Central Restaurant and are simply called "Plastic serving tray", but if you've been to a southside pizza joint where they serve tavern cut thin crust, you know these as the 'anti-sogginess' devices.  You don't cook the pies in here.  Nope.  After you pull them out of your cutter pans, you cut them on a board, then slide them into one of these to make sure you keep your crispy bottom.  My favorite place Aurelio's uses these and that's where I started to chase them down. The stands that the trays/pans are standing on are from Amazon here and cost about ten bucks.  The catch is that you have to buy these little plastic sleeves that kind of clip on to the stands.  They are here on Amazon and are just six bucks for a set of three.    Now, you're probably wonder

Earlier this week, I posted about the sweet vintage Fighting Illini sweater and Austrian Moose creamer that I picked up at an Elmhurst Estate Sale and I mentioned that there was another item I bought that morning. Well...here it is. Scroll back up there and count the stars. That's right.  There's just 48. Growing up, my Dad always flew a 48 star flag for some reason.  I think he just thought it was cool.  And...largely because of that, I think it is cool, too. This is the first one that I've come across in all my years of garage sale/estate sale-ing.  Turns out....they're probably not *that* rare.  The 48 star flag flew for 47 years (From 1912 to 1959) and up until then, was the longest 'serving' flag in our country's history . I have it proudly displayed at Equation Boy/Man's house for now, but once our new old farmhouse is built (gasp!  Yeah!  There is some news, there!!!  I'll post the details at some point), it'll go great on

I've been back at the office all this week, but for the two previous weeks, Nat and I took the kids over to visit their cousins (and my sister and brother-in-law who you know as Equation Boy/Man here on the blog).  I'll be posting some photos of the experiences we had over the next few weeks and I'll be putting up all the photos on the family blog, so if you know the url for that one, you can likely find a full recap over there soon. But, the reason for this post is to talk about my lawn.  Yeah...my lawn. I was in Europe for two weeks and I didn't once think about my lawn.  Why?  Because I had my Automower from Husqvarna at home just busily working away every night cutting the grass like a good robot should do! For full details on the #AutomowerFirst program , go over here to check out this post about getting it set up and the full details .   (Disclaimer again!  I was given this device by Husqvarna to review and if I post on social media every once in a while,

I was at Mariano's in Naperville over the weekend when I came across a huge Hi-C display on one of the end caps.   And...it took me a moment to figure out what was going on here.  The whole juicebox world has been shaken up and now Natalie brings home organic, healthy, what-have-you juice boxes for the kids that are mostly from Trader Joe's and she usually turns her nose up at things like Capri Sun and the like. But...Hi-C?  I think she'd call it sugar water.  But...but...but...she's a HUGE Ghostbusters fan.  In fact, her whole family is bonkers for Ghostbusters.  I'm talking DIY Halloween costumes in the 80's and 90's and holding on to vintage Ghostbusters toys for future grandkids-kinda bonkers.  Good bonkers, btw.  But...Ghostbusters bonkers. So, I put them in the cart and brought them hope.  Guess what?!?  She loved them!  Fired off a few photos to her brothers scattered around the country.  The kids drank them up.  Had no idea that nostalgia ruled

Neil Steinberg from the Chicago Sun-Times always does the best obituaries .

Yesterday, I posted about this sweet, vintage Fighting Illini sweater that I scored at a swanky Estate Sale in Elmhurst , and today comes another item that came out of that very same sale:  this moose creamer. I spotted this moose and did the same thing that I did with the sweater:  texted a photo to Nat and asked her if we should pick it up for her Mom - who is into the wilderness and other mountain-related-what-have-yous.  Just like the sweater, Nat said 'yes' to this one. I gleefully brought it home and we gave it to Nat's mom the following weekend.   Only to discover that she already has one of these!  Well...not *exactly* one of these, but something pretty similar.  So, now she has a pair. Check the thing out below:  the cream (or perhaps gravy?!?!?!)  comes pouring right out of the moose's mouth: One different between the one I bought and the one already on hand:  this one is stamped "Austria", so it has some international provenance - which