Why I Oughta...

On a Sunday morning recently, Nat packed us all up into the Swagger Wagon and took us out to Homer Glen for a trip to one of her friend's/acquaintance's barn where she was liquidating her inventory of vintage furniture and props and what-have-yous from a cool vintage rentals business.  There was plenty of stuff that Nat was drawn to (glasses, furniture, etc), but the barn and the workshop was what I was mostly drawn to.  Just look at that wood storage above.  Heavy duty racks.  And lots of different lumber types and sizes.  Cool, right?

Well, the shop just got better.  First, it was immaculate.  Not a speck of dust around.  And things were organized.  How organized?  Just peep at this clamp rack.  What a show!  Big clamps, little clamps.  A whole bin of clamps!


And then there's the *other* lumber storage system.  This one in the bottom floor of the barn.  What kind of man keeps this kind of inventory laying around?  I'll tell you:  a real man.



Look at the racking syst…

I found myself in New Haven Connecticut recently and had a little bit of time to take in some of the local flavors.  That meant two stops for specific foods.  The first of which is Louis Lunch - which the Library of Congress states is the place of the first hamburger in America.  The other is another New Haven spot, but I'll post about that on a different day.

I've seen this place on the Food Network and you probably have come across it too, if you watch food-related television.  This is the place with the upright, cast iron broilers.  Here's a clip from Man vs. Food that shows off all the details.


Alright...now that you're acquainted with the place, I'll tell you the story of our visit.  
We were staying at a hotel on the edge of the Yale campus and it was raining so we hopped in an Uber and pulled up to the front of this place about 1:30 pm.  After the lunch crowd.  I think both the rain and the time of day worked to our advantage because when we walked in there,…

A few weeks past, I posted a photo of a couple of soda pop bottles that I picked up for my Dad at a garage sale down the street.  In that post, I mentioned that I bought a desk chair, too.  This, is that desk chair.  It isn't destined for my desk, but rather for my office as a chair the kids can sit in while they're in there with me.  The chair was priced right and didn't require any haggling, so I snatched it up and put it in the back of my car.  It is well worn, but still rocks and spins and seems to be very solid. 

After I got it home, I noticed a few tags on the lower parts of the chair that tell the chair's story. 

Check out the tags below.  First one says:  U.S. Department of Agriculture.  F.S.A. Farm Security Administration.  It appears that the number for inventory control has been scratched out. 


On another leg, there's another Department of Agriculture FSA tag with the letters "U" and "S" on either side of the tag. 


Of course, I went o…

I guess I'm NOT as big of a Disney Dad as I thought I was.  Once again.

Why do I say that?  Because I was once again rejected for the Disney Parks Moms Panel.  They sent me this very nice form rejection letter:




Don't worry, I'm used to this.  I've been rejected before.  Every year since 2015 when I first applied.  2015 is also the only year that I seem to have posted about the rejection.

My pretty, pretty, pretty amazing partner in life Natalie redefined her limits once again this past weekend by completing the Chicago Marathon.  The Chicago Marathon is pretty neat as a participant as you get to not only see quite a few neighborhoods, but you also get encouraged by the spectators across all 26.2 miles of the course.  Well...I think that because they're now limiting access to the finish line, it's more like you get encouraged by spectators for like 25 miles, then you just have to gut out the last 1.2 miles or so - which is easy when the finish line is in sight. 

I've gone to watch the Marathon other years including when my sister Vic has run it by herself, but that time - if I recall correctly - I didn't run around but just sat in one spot and saw her from there.  With the advent of the Chicago Marathon mobile app and the ability to track runners by both split times AND an approximation with the map, it is pretty easy to find and connect with the runne…

Up top is the 'before' photo of one of the window wells on the southside of our house.  We had some work done to it and the landscaping required restoration.  This is technically the 'in the middle of' photo as the landscapers had already done some cleaning up.

Below is the after.  They laid some sod, straightened things out and put mulch down.  Now we just have to babysit the sod with a soaker hose while it gets established.