Why I Oughta...

I am back this week from a week long visit to Canada at some internal meetings.  And, although this was the first time I'd flown into Canada, I came away liking everything about the experience.  I have been a couple of times including a few road trips to Windsor in my college days (with some Fraternity brothers) and right after (with the Pawlak brothers) and my parents took us to see the Niagara Falls back when I was a kid.  But, this time was different:  it was for work and I was on my own.   We stayed in the Yorkville neighborhood and had a bunch of great meals and walked everywhere during the full week.  I did, even, eat poutine and drank a Labatt's Blue, in addition to a few other Canadian treats.  I'll post about the poutine and candy and such later this week once I dig through my email inbox and have some time!

Last week, I posted a little update to the new restaurant coming to the Elmhurst City Centre right across the street from the York Theatre .  At that time, I didn't know the name, but today we do: One Fifty One Kitchen and Bar.  There's that new sign you can see above hanging on the fence if you walk by the site and you can check out their site here .  The url is 151 Elmhurst, so maybe that's how people will type it when they search for the location instead of [one fifty one Elmhurst]?? The sign proclaims:  An exciting new restaurant concept celebrating the bounty of the Midwest.

Edelman's office in Chicago are in the Aon Center, which started it's life as the Standard Oil Building or " Big Stan " as the locals say and as their brand evolved to Amoco, so did the name of the building. Today, it is now named the Aon Center , but if you go to the United States Post Office on the lower level, you'll be taken right back to the 80's and 90's when Amoco was 'a thing'.  They print it on the top of their receipts like the one I got when I bought some stamps there last month.

I had a few of these Virtue Ciders that are listed here on the menu above at Cindy's inside of the CAA a few weeks back and it struck me funny that they listed the location as "Chicago, IL".  If you go to the Virtue site, it says they're right in the middle of Fennville, Michigan - which we're familiar with being right by Crane's Orchard.  Weird, right? But, if you poke around, you'll see that Virtue sold out to Goose Island last fall .  Which...means, Virtue is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.  Which makes it 'big cider', right?  Doesn't make it bad, but might explain the 'Chicago' address instead of Fennville, Michigan? Also, for the record, I did also have one of the Butterfly Flash Mobs from the fellas at Solemn Oath.  Rootin' for the home team, and all, right?

Found this little blurb in the August issue of This Old House Magazine and now I'm thinking all about how we add a farm bell to our house.  And...if it should go in the front or the back? Oh yeah....I said 'our house'!??!

Going to document this here on the blog, so I can track the changes with this succulent that is perched on top of the hvac unit in my office on the 64th floor.  This didn't start as *my* succulent.  Nope.  Someone on my team had one of these plants at her desk, but it wasn't getting much light.  So...she moved it to my ledge.  Having a bit of history with cultivating succulents from cut ends, I gave it a shot.  Cut off four little guys and planted them in their own pot. I paid attention to keeping them wet and after a bit, they took off.  Now the four main plants are huge and gangly.  They're laying over the sides of the little pot and even throwing off their own little buds near the base that are, just PRIME for cutting and replanting.  I spy four of five that I could cleve off and transplant to keep the succulent mojo going.  Off to Menards I go for a few little pots and some dirt.

If you head down York Street through the City Center, you'll see this construction site that is just north of BW3 on the east side.  Directly across from the York Theatre. There's an interior gut going on as they transform the former Cocomera into the Elmhurst Craft Kitchen and Bar (or some other name!) as well as an exterior facelift. I posted about this place here on the blog back in February and I heard that they were planning a big out front on the sidewalk outdoor seating section, so the facade work is likely to make it a bit more inviting?  Based on the looks of things, they're a ways away from opening, so I'm thinking that this will be a fall opening at best?  Should be a nice addition to the City Centre and we'll be sure to give it a proper shot with the kids once it opens.

I went wandering in the electrical department at Menards recently and came across this 400 watt wind generator that was among a few different alternative energy supplies like small solar panels.  You can see on the box that it has a few applications like power failures, remote and backup power.  And, that had me wondering if you could fire this thing up and have it provide backup power for our house. After reading the reviews , people *are* using this type of product for power, but it is mostly off-the-grid folks who are using this to charge a battery, which then powers various portions of their home/shack/what-have-you.  So, if I have a battery backup system for say, my sump pump, I *think* I could use this to charge *that* battery?  Not as cool as it seemed in my mind when I was in the store.

Last week, I showed off a few of the recently acquired Disney Lego Minifigs including Ursula, Mr. Incredible and the alien from Toy Story  and talked about how the girls have been tearing through blind bags.  Well...an update.  Still no Ariel.  But, above is the one and only Peter Pan. And...I kinda love him.  He's carrying some weird double-sword-like object?  But...his hair and hat combo is perfect (and removable) and while he doesn't have any 'back paint' (which...I've learned is important to Lego nerds???), he does a pretty good job of reppin' Pete, doesn't he? For those of you guys keeping track of such things (which...I know you *all* are?!?!), this is the second post in the [Peter Pan] tag category.   First one was about the Reddit Disney Gift Exchange we did last year .

Another weekend, another stop at a few garage sales.  And...another vintage book added to the collection here on the blog .  This one is a Golden Book titled "Walt Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh and the Honey Patch".  It has a 1980 date printed on the inside and with Pooh Bear being The Bird's favorite (or all time!) and him being generally a big deal in our house, I couldn't pass this one up.  This will make for some good bedtime reading together!