Why I Oughta...

Welp...we did it.  365 days.  365 posts.   As Neil Steinberg says:  everygoddamnday .   Here's last year's NYE post . And frankly, it felt nice to flex those blogging muscles again here on my own personal property.  So, what's my 2016 resolution?  I'm going to keep at it here on 'Why I Oughta', but I'm also going to pledge to undertake another project: the Should I get the Project.     2015 was a fine year.  If we find our house and get in it and end our nomadic period, 2016 will be even better.   Here's the post I wrote exactly a year ago today .

You know the feeling.  You just wrassl'd the alligator that is putting your kid into the shopping cart only to find out that the strap to keep them in there is broken.  The fine folks at Meijer have solved that problem with this crazy smart design.  See the red clip on the right?  It is a retractable belt that plugs into the left.   There's no way these can get caught in the seat itself and snap/break. Smart thinking, Meijer.  Oh...this isn't the first smart thing they're doing:   they have 'open out doors' on their bathrooms .

Big Rob and his guys were at it over the weekend down in Frankfort as they once again helped my family move.   We had Big Rob over at our place in Elmhurst back in early August  and here they are down in Frankfort.   More on this move - and that house - in a different post. If you need someone to move you and not charge you crazy prices, give Big Rob a call at (773) 858-3965. Tell him Jake in Elmhurst sent 'ya!

While we're not quite at the end of the calendar year, I think I can safely say that 2015 is looking to turn out to be a 365 posts in 365 days kinda year.  I have had a few of those in the past - both in 2010 and 2011.  In 2012, I came awfully close with 354 posts.  Last year?  A paltry 94 posts. I also believe that I can safely say that not all of the posts written this year (or any year) were total gems.  There were plenty of turds mixed in there.  But....but...but...there were *some* that worked better than others in terms of attention/engagement.  And no good blogger these days isn't writing list-icles, so I figure I need to include one of those in my posts for the year. Without further delay, here's the Top Ten posts on this blog that were written in 2015. 10.   A post showing off the new Melrose Park Menards store (with fancy cart escalator ramp!) 9   A post documenting the gateway drug know as Shopkins 8.   A post showin...

Here's the first Ted's coaster that I posted as part of the collection back in March of this year .  This one (above) is courtesy of John Wayne and was taken as part of the Babe's birthday celebration before Christmas.  I also happened to have the best burger of my life ( The George's Cadillac ).  

Those dummies at Target had their arms all out of proportion.    The Christmas season will do that to ya, I guess.

Same tradition - different house.  Here's a photo of the Elmhurst front yard Christmas tree that we put up at Equation Boy/Man's house where we've been living since August.  (Equation Boy/Man took that photo above, btw.) I've posted about these trees before here on the blog, but this is a really nice Elmhurst holiday tradition.  Each fall, the Elmhurst School District runs a fundraiser where you can buy a tree for $19.  It is organized by a block captain who puts out the order forms and collects all the money.  They then 'host' a little get-together on the Saturday after Thanksgiving where all the trees get dropped off for the neighborhood. Our street does a really good job of participating - maybe the best around town?  Anyone else want to stake the claim as best front-yard-tree-street in Elmhurst? Here's the post from last year's tree out front of our old house (sad face). Here's my post from our 2013 tree . Don't seem to have posted...

Back in 2011, I posted a (pretty terrible) photo of a house in Elmhurst that celebrated Festivus with a sign and an aluminum pole in their front yard .  With today being the big day to celebrate with the Airing of the Grievances and Feats of Strength, I figured it was a good time to thank all of you who have been keeping up with the blog over the course of the year.  "I have a lot of problems with you people!" Happy Festivus everyone!  See you at Mitch's? And...if you are reading this in your email...Happy Christmas Eve.  The most wonderful day of the year in my book!

These photos are about the best we're going to do in terms of documenting our Christmas Tree this year.  Nat picked out a Douglas Fir for the first time after having gone with Fraser Firs for our entire time we've been buying live tress together. And...for the first time, we put that tree up NOT in our house.  But in Vic and Equation Boy/Man's house down the street in Elmhurst where we've been living.  The reason why these are the best photos I'll get is because we took our ornaments down from the tree and packed them up so the Swiss Family(!!) could come home and decorate their own tree.  We left the tree behind for them to enjoy.  We'll be opening our presents under the tree(s) out in Naperville which will be a really nice memory for Nat and I and (hopefully) the girls. It was a beautiful tree, if it was a little small.  Here's a photo of me picking up the Babe so she can put the angel on top of the tree.  I'm just a bit over six feet tall an...

Once again this year, I participated in the Reddit Secret Santa.  My giftee in this year's version posted the gift I sent in the gallery with a 'feel good' post title of "BEST GIFT EVER" .  When I went to retrieve my match, he gave me some good stuff to work with:  he enjoys trying different kind of beers and he just starting building his own bar in his basement. So...after a bit of searching, I landed on this wood wall-hanging map of the country that hold bottle caps .  Seems like a good conversation-starter in the bar, right?  Collect different caps from different craft breweries around the country and place them in their regions. Here's all the posts on the blog about the different gift exchanges I've participated in (including Christmas for multiple years and a Disney one) on Reddit over the years.

Nat popped off her Snapple cap over the weekend and discovered this gem.  Seems like forever ago that the Bears invaded Memorial Stadium down in Champaign.  From the read of the 2002 Season Wikipedia entry, it sounds like a terrible year. The connections between the Bears and the Fighting Illini are deep.  This year, as the Illini played the Northwestern Wildcats at Soldier Field, the University published this article documenting all the connections starting with the blue and orange and running all the way through Ron Turner.

 I snapped this photo of the six-pack holder for this year's Christmas Ale from Anchor Brewing the folks who make Anchor Steam.  For 41 years, they've been making an annual Christmas Ale and packaging it up with a unique mix and a unique label featuring a different tree. I posted about the 2010 Ale here on the blog , but my brother-in-laws pick up the beer EVERY YEAR in both six packs but also - on occasion - one of those huge magnum bottles.   They keep one or two from each year and don't drink them so they can plan a 'vertical' session where they pass out little tasting portions of like five years of the beer to a group to note the differences from year-to-year.  If you look at that 2010 post, you'll note that the tree was a Ginko.  ( Here's a really well done catalog of all the trees they've used over the 41 years .)  I think one of Nat's brothers has a poster featuring all the labels.  Like I said...they're REALLY into this stuff - and f...

All the way back in February, I posted some photos of Polay's moving out of the northwest corner of 1st and York right across the tracks in the Elmhurst City Centre.  Then last summer, the contractors at Meeder Industries moved up the block to be on the other side of the York Threatre.  And then that weird nail salon with the odd fountain setup closed up shop.  And nothing went in the stores. There's been rumors of a Rosebud Restaurant was going to go into all four locations (the old Polay's, the Just for Kids store, Meeder and the weird nail salon). But, then I spotted these plans on the windows of the stores.  It calls for some exterior changes to make the building have a more cohesive look - which is great.  And it looks like the landlord is taking it from four small spots into two larger ones. This is the second major construction project that is taking place on the west side of York in the City Center ( the other being the condo project going up ...

How festive, right?  That's a look down Jefferson Street in Downtown Naperville recently.  We went to get Gringo tacos at Front Street Cantina and I was struck by how well done the Christmas decorations were in Downtown Naperville. Contrast it with the state of affairs in the Elmhurst City Centre.   I posted about the situation earlier this week and I've noticed that they've gotten a lot of the downtown now lit up - which is nice. Seems that the Elmhurst City Centre can learn a little from Naperville.  Both good and bad.  They don't seem to have totally solved the parking issues - and Elmhurst; with the new garage, seems to be trying to get in front of it - but the robust shopping district in Naperville is PACKED with retail.  Not salons. I know, I know....because of Oak Brook Mall, the Elmhurst City Centre will always be in a tough spot.  We're probably too close to attract major retail chains because they won't want to have two stores so clo...

*Rubs eyes* What?!  What is this??!? Well....that's a Sega Genesis on the bottom shelf at the Villa Park Target store. I immediately had flashbacks to playing NHLPA Hockey 93 - you know the one....where the Blackhawks were stacked with Roenick and Chelios and Larmer and Goulet and Steve Smith on offense and Vince Vaughn and the dudes in Swingers knock Gretzky out of the game . I spent countless hours playing that game.  We only had two tvs at the time and I usually found myself plugging the Sega Genesis into the tv in my parents bedroom and sitting on the floor where I honed my triple deke skills. Alas...in the 80 games that are included, there's not one sports title.  So this didn't end up in our cart. Still....for $39.99 , it seems like a fun gift for any guy who was in junior high school in the early 1990's.

 Over the weekend, I took the girls to see the  Lego Train Show out at Cantigny which is put on by the Northern Illinois Lego Train Club .    As you can see from the shots here, it was pretty awesome. Who knew that (first!) Lego trains and (second!) that a club for them even existed? The show took over the biggest room at the Cantigny Visitor's Center and had two big main loops set up.  There were a few guys behind the setup that were members of the club and had built this whole thing.  It was impressive in scope but also really neat with various details.  They had set up little towns/sections like Paris and Springfield. And I'd be lying if I told you that I haven't given a lot of thought about trying to figure out a way to incorporate these Lego Trains into our existing O-Gauge Lionel setup.  Thinking we need to give these a try, right?  Besides the trains, just the idea of the buildings/town structures via Legos seems to be a good g...

We were up visiting my sister and her family in Park Ridge recently and we just *had* to stop to see the much-ballyhoo'ed Christmas setup.  Ballyhoo'ed?  Yep.   Here's the story in the Tribune about the house . After getting directions from my brother-in-law (along with a warning that there will be tons of cars there), we found the place and parked around the corner.  The two girls and I got out of the van and walked up to the front.  Great Googley-Moogley.  Best Christmas set-up I've ever seen.  Better than the Puschak's back in the day in Frankfort.  Anyone remember that?!?

Just two days after I posted about the Elmhurst Olive Oil Company closing on York Street , comes this photo studio leaving York, too.  Same side of the street as the Olive Oil Co and just south of construction going on at the old Plass Appliance site. The one thing that sticks out about this place is the weird bunny stuff.  Around Easter-time, they always had bunny and baby/kid photos in the windows and kept bunnies in cages right in the front window.  It always struck me as a bit weird.  But, based on how many bunny photos they had up, lots of parents must have loved the idea. So long, MWD.  I hardly knew ya!

After a bunch of nagging, i t seems that the City of Elmhurst and the City Centre are going to sack up and decorate the downtown business district with more Christmas lights . I have to say...the one tree that they *did* light up by the train tracks looks awesome.  Here's a shot in the very early morning hours on my walk to the train late last week.

We lost another retail business on York Street in the Elmhurst City Centre. This time, Elmhurst Olive Oil Company has closed their doors and the landlord has a 'for lease' sign up. We covered this place back in 2011 here on the blog when they opened. They made it four years and couldn't make it through the holidays this year.  This place replaced "Let's Have a Party". I think we stopped in there once in the four years it was open.  Well...besides the times when we went to the City Centre for Trick-or-Treat'ing over the years.  And that, folks, is part of the problem.