Why I Oughta...

Over the years, we grew into some food 'habits' during our repeated trips to Southwest Michigan and Coloma.  These were places we went , food stuffs that we picked up and fell in love with over time.  Now that we're spending more and more time up in Wisconsin, that same pattern is falling into place.  It seems like we're already coalescing around some favorite spots and foodstuffs like the King of Club cheese spread .  On a Saturday this month,  I packed the kids into the minivan and headed up to the Lake Geneva area to pick up some fishing supplies at Walmart.  After we left, I wandered around the the various big box stores and strip malls near the highway and came across the Lake Geneva Pie Company .   It was open early and there was a crew in there baking. Having never picked up a pie from this place, I pleaded my ignorance and asked for help.  She lead me to the Lakeshore pie.   From their site : Lakeshore Berry Crumb.  A customer favorite is our tantalizin

This past weekend was Oath Day Five out at Solemn Oath Brewery in Naperville.  We weren't able to make it because the Bird's birthday was the same day and we were, ummm, tied up with cake and presents and rainbows.  Yeah...rainbows.  Lots of them.  That's what she wanted, so Nat delivered!  Anyway, I've posted about Oath Day in the past.   Here's a post from 2015 showing off a cool van sticker I scored from the festivities .   If you're wondering what happens at Oath Day, check out this post from Solemn Oath  that details everything or tune into their Instagram feed for a post-event roundup showing some of the sights from the weekend.  It covers all the what-have-yous that go on including how they created a new deck of cards for the event .  But, just because we didn't get to go to Oath Day this year, doesn't mean we aren't fans.  And, we even showed off a little bit of our own craft beer nerd chops by introducing Dr. Jeff - our resident c

Recently, we had another craft beer education and tasting with Dr. Jeff at our place.  I've covered previous sessions with Dr. Jeff here on the blog .  As usual, Dr. Jeff brought over a batch of beers to share and they tended to be around a theme.  We started with the beer at the top called Galaxy Bowl from Hop Butcher for the World - which he told us was a Chicago beer.  It has an 88 on BeerAdvocate , so it is a strong beer in the craft beer nerd world.   It is the top right corner of the little collage above.   After that, we moved on to this beer from Off Color - another Chicago brew maker.  Called I'm Sorry, it isn't rated on BA just yet .   And the final beer of the evening (well...at least for me...because I went to bed!) was Humulus Terreux With Motueka Hops from Bruery Terreux.  Dr. Jeff brought a different beer from this brewery about a year ago.   Here's that post .

Pay no attention to the various bag chairs and blankets and strollers and softball gear in the trunk of the minivan in the photo above.  There are two things in this photo that I'd like you to focus on.  First, the big, box from Da-Lite that includes a Slide and Movie Screen on a tripod.  Second, the angel topiary frame laying on it's back below the box.  Both of these items were scored at an Elmhurst Estate Sale recently when I was out with the kids on a Saturday morning.  The screen was just $2 and is in perfect shape.  You pull it out of the box, flip down the tripod and yank up the screen.  It isn't HUGE, but I think measures 48" tall by 48" wide.  And it is a silver screen - which, evidently is 'made for color'.  Kinda love that. This thing was made for home use and was probably meant for people to show off a slideshows of their vacation when that was a thing.  For us?  It will probably replace the bedsheet and become our outdoor screen in the ne

I scored another vintage Marshall Field's Christmas mug at a Garage Sale a week or so ago - this time from 1983.   If you recall, I posted a few years ago about the two Walnut Room/Marshall Field's Christmas mugs that I picked up at the Elmhurst Goodwill .  They were 1980 and 1981 years.  There were four total mugs (two from each year) and my sister Vic has a Marshall Field's collection of sorts, so a pair of them were destined for her collection. If you go back and look at the other post showing the 1980 and 1981 mugs , you'll see that the 1980 version is one of these 'hot toddy' mugs while the 1981 one is a normal mug shape.  The '83 version went back to the taller, 'hot toddy' version.  But, the character is just as interesting. 1980:  A teddy bear, Christmas tree and presents under the tree. 1981:  Contortionist Santa. But, in 1983, they used Uncle Mistletoe.   Don't know who he is?  C heck out this piece about Field's from the

If you get a chance, take a walk by the Elmhurst Police Station on First Street and get a view of a newly installed/created 'demonstration rain garden' that they've recently built out front.  As of the past few days, the construction fence was still up around the project, but it appears that all of the work is complete and now they're just wrapping up the project.  The City of Elmhurst is - kind of - putting their money where their mouth is on this.  I say 'kind of' because they, ummm, didn't use their own money I don't think; they got a grant.  Details on the garden can be found here on the Elmhurst Storm Water Plan site  where they describe the project: The Project Involves the construction and maintenance of a rain garden, sized between 800 and 1,200 square feet, to include an engineered soil mix to promote infiltration, as well as a variety of native shrubs, grasses, and forbs, immediately south of the Police Station. The goal is to reduce

When we first moved to town, t here was an Anderson's bookstore right in the Elmhurst City Centre .  For real.  Then they closed down, scurried back to Downtown Naperville and a weird hookah place opened up in the same location just north of Francesca's on York.  Today?  That tobacco/hookah place is now closed and gone with the windows paper'd over and a 'for lease' sign up in front.  We lose another retailer and the associated sales tax, but we get a brand-new opportunity for something great.  I would think that parking is one of the tough parts with this location, but with the new apartment buildings gaining occupancy just north of this, there should be some demand for the space, right? But then again, right across the street from this is that other newly renovated set of storefronts ( where the old Salt Creek Pottery was located on the east side of York, just south of City Hall) that are all totally vacant, too.  Perhaps, retail isn't in the Elmhurst Ci