Why I Oughta...

One of the things that I failed to do as we crossed into the new year was to look back at the #everyday pledge of posting something here on my diary online.  For the past few years (starting in 2010), as one of my New Year's Resolutions, I worked to write something (as Neil Steinberg calls it) #everygoddamnday and flex my writing muscles while documenting the people, places and things in my orbit. I've hit 365 posts a few years:  2010, 2011 and 2015.  I was just short in 2012 and in 2014, I wrote a ton of posts elsewhere, but not here on the main blog. But last year?  I had 366 posts.  Yep.  Most posts ever.  And that's because it was a leap year.  I also wrote 80 posts on our family blog and countless links over at my link blog . But, one of my other resolutions sat there on the shelf:   my mobile app idea has kind of been on the backburner, but I'm doubling down on making it real this year again. So far, in 2017, I'm off to a go...

The 13th year here on the blog where we mark Thanksgiving day not with the parade or the Turkey Trot (although those are both usually present!), but with the boys from The Band and The Last Waltz. And, this is the 10th post (that I can locate), but the first one was back in 2004.  There are 3 years missing (2006, 2008, 2009). We're marking the occasion in Vic + Equation Boy/Man's house and this *should* be the last Thanksgiving we're here and the final one NOT in our own house. "Happy Thanksgiving."  And a condensed version of 'Don't do it'.  Which they play like it is their own. Here's my post from 2015 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2014 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2013 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2012 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2011 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2010 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from 2007 on The Last Waltz . Here's my post from ...

Recently, Nat endured a little trip up to Wheeling with the express purpose of trying the 2nd location of Superdawg .  We went to the original back a few years and after hearing about how the Wheeling location had a bigger dining room, I wanted to go.  And...it was delicious. We all had our own Superdawgs - lounging inside their boxes - 'cushioned in Superfries' and the kids always get a kick out of a meal in a box.  Of any kind.  Their own little special box of food. The Superdawg in Wheeling feels a bit different than the original location, but the food was the same.  Nat isn't a huge hot dog lover, so I'm grateful she went along on the journey. And who doesn't love the rooftop wieners that adorn both locations??

Next up in the parade of Lemax Christmas Village structures is this Lubbock's Bar-B-Que With An Attitude from the Harvest Crossing collection .  It came out in 2015, but I don't believe that Menards carried it last year.   Here's the official product page on Lemax's site . Menards is selling it for $39.99 (see photo below), but I don't think that the town of Mantleburg is quite ready for a rowdy Bar-B-Que joint.  I mean... they just got their first tavern in town back in 2012 , right? For those looking to keep up with all things Mantleburg, you can check out the tag page here .

On Thursday, I shared some photos of the gifts we received from the Reddit Disney Gift Exchange this year and above shows the gifts we 'gave' as part of the program this year. Here's the post showing what we 'gave' last year in 2015 . The person we matched with lived in Nevada and professed their love of Cinderella and a specific set of Disney pins - which made it easy.  We went with a Cinderella Mickey ears Christmas ornament and that set of five princess pins.   She seemed happy as the pins helped her complete a set. The girls had fun picking out the right items from the Disney store and I had fun teaching them about random acts of kindness.

A few days ago, I posted a couple of photos from our visit to the Legacy Lounge in the Northwest corner terrace of Memorial Stadium down in Champaign that included finding one of the team photos that I was in from my days on the Fighting Illini squad in the late 90's.  But, this was our first trip down that we were able to enjoy the *kinda* new Grange Grove. The Athletic Department christened the Grange Grove for last year's season and it has been a big hit.   From FightingIllini.com : Grange Grove has transformed what was previously Lot 36, the parking lot directly west of Memorial Stadium, into a free, high-energy tailgating area, which Fighting Illini fans of all ages can enjoy. When we arrived a few hours before kickoff, the place was jumping!  There was a band playing on one side and the beer garden was loaded with alums and students.  It was Dad's day, so it appeared that a few Fraternities had their "Football Block" on site in the Grange Grove and...

Compare those stands of trees to the west (to the right in this photo) of the Pritzker Pavillion in all their red glory to what they looked like just 3ish weeks ago in this post . It won't be long before they're barren and covered in ice.

Walking down State Street this week, you'll see that they've gone 'dark' with their windows in preparation for the release of their annual windows featuring Christmas scenes. I covered the same 'coming soon' situation back in 2014 and the day they opened last year here on the blog .  We still take our kids down to the Walnut Room every year just as I did when I was a kid with my mom and sister(s).  (I actually only remember going with Vic, but I'm guessing that Sharon and Linda were there, too??  I dunno.)  Thus, I have a really soft spot in my heart for Marshall Field's at Christmastime and specifically for peering into these windows. Let's hope that the fine folks at Macy's have learned their lesson and won't give us New York City's "hand me downs" like they did last year .  Shame on them for that one.

That's the "Alien pig Queen" on the top courtesy of the Bird. A scribbled-on two-eye and a heart (drawn by his sister) guy faithfully sawn based on some of the drawings of the King of the Ball Tossers. And....a masked guy as created by the oldest one - The Babe. Unlike in past years, these have stayed inside our front porch, not on the outside porch.   Here's a post from back in 2014 showing the ways I have kept them free of squirrel bites .

For the King of the Ball Tosser's 2nd birthday, I gave him a collection of three different vehicles including this Police Cruiser from Candylab Toys .  I came across these guys on Kickstarter and have backed them with their latest project featuring some mid-century cars like a stationwagon and a few race cars. But, they also had earlier projects that were backed featuring cars that they billed as "heirloom" toys that included this cruiser you see in the box above . The latest cars are set to come sometime before Christmas and they had more than 1K backers and raised more than $120K to launch the new line .  So, we'll soon have six of them knocking around our house. After opening up the cars including the cruiser, the kids all tooled around the floor with them (briefly!) and then quickly moved on to other stuff.  Isn't it always that way when there's a pile of presents on the floor awaiting to be opened? These are, seemingly, pretty special toys and ...

Late in September, I posted a few photos of a special Lionel/Disney Dumbo boxcar that I picked up for one of the kids this year and just this week I received another Disney pre-ordered boxcar.  This time it is the 50th Anniversary of Winnie the Pooh in O-Gauge boxcar form. And just like with the Dumbo car, this Pooh Bear car comes in a pretty nice "Disney Railroad" box.  Took pics of the front, a close-up of the photo of the car on the back of the box and the product listing on the side label that you can see below. As I mentioned in the Dumbo car post, I wasn't quite sure who that one was destined for (amongst my kids and nephews), but this one?  The Pooh Bear one?  That's for the one and only Pooh Bear lover in our family:  The Bird.  She sleeps with a Pooh Bear every night!  He's her favorite.   Well...Ariel might be her true favorite, but Pooh Bear has been there through it all! Have to say that I'm a sucker for Disney/Lionel crossov...

I know I'm about a week late on this, but I just had to post it here on the blog.  Last week, after the Packers beat the Bears, Aaron Rodgers ( Hey!!!! Roddd-gers! ) broke out his Lebowski sweater for the postgame interview.  And that's when I discovered that this sweater is a real thing.  Like...you can buy it.  And not off ebay or from some Estate Sale. A quick search on teh Googles turns up a company named Pendleton who sells the sweater.   Originally from 1972, they're still selling it today, but for a pretty steep price: $239.00.  Doesn't matter.  I've now added it to my Christmas list.  Yeah...that's right.  I keep a running list of 'wants' that Nat will check out near Christmas or birthday time.  But, if I'm honest: Will someone buy this for me?  Nope.  Not a chance. Still goes on the list.  Still goes on the list. And if you have a minute, go check out the reviews at the bottom of the product listing . ...

Another day, another Lemax Christmas village building.  This time it is the Corner Barber Shop, which just like the piano bar from yesterday is new this year . Mantleburg could totally use a barber shop.  Alas, it isn't in the cards. Both the barber shop and the piano bar are part of the Caddington Village collection that also features quite a few 'new in 2016' structures .

Our Menards in Melrose Park is in full Christmas mode these days.  They've set up the entire Enchanted Forest and now have their Lemax Christmas Village set up.   It *is* the most wonderful time of the year , isn't it? There's a bunch of new structures up this year and we'll start with this one above: CJ's Piano Bar.   From the product listing on the Lemax site , this is a new building for 2016.  It has a nice 'inside scene' and would be a nice addition to anyone's mainstreet.  But, what about Mantleburg, you're probably asking yourself?  Welp, the Mayor has decided to keep the moratorium on new buildings and annexations until the entire town of Mantleburg gets settled into their new home, which is currently slated for Christmas of 2017.   The last addition was made official in January of 2016, but I'm pretty sure that the saw mill was sitting in my trunk for an entire year , so it was likely annexed in the fall of 2014 - two years ago. I...

It has been almost a full year since the Elmhurst Olive Oil Company closed it's doors in the spot just north of the York Threatre in the Elmhurst City Centre.  But, if you walk past the store today, you'll see these new signs hanging up in the window that herald a new beginning:  The Gaming Goat store is coming to the City Centre. Going back in the archives, I have this post from January of 2011 when this location hosted a recently-closed business called "Let's Have a Party" .  Remember that? But, what *is* the Gaming Goat?  I can't get to their site for some reason, but the Oak Park Store has a Facebook page and from the looks of things this isn't a video game store.  It is more of a Settlers of Catan-type of store.  Or Magic The Gathering-type of store.  Board and dice games.  The Geeks shall inherit the City Centre, it seems. I am assuming that they're going to hustle to get the store open before the holiday shopping season and I'm g...

No, I'm not talking about New York City.  I'm talking about "Big Apple".  As in..."big pharma" or "big tobacco" or even the recently-coined "Big Uni" by the guys at Uni-Watch . That's the best way to describe Apple Holler in Sturtevant, Wisconsin. We've been to a bunch of these apple orchards and pumpkin patches.  Apple Holler is a combination of those two experiences and it is - based on how crowded it was when we went - quite popular. So, why is it, exactly, "Big Apple"? Well, let's start with the parking.  It costs you $5 to park your car. Then, if you want to go pick apples, they charge each person $20 to go in the orchard.  Yep....$20.  Sure, they give you a little tiny bag that can hold like a dozen apples.  But, every person that goes in, it is $20.  Kids, too!  That means, for us it was going to be $80 just to pick some apples.  No thanks. We went up there with some friends, so it was great to ...

My office door not only includes a 'Flat Ronnie' ( see the post from the archives about #FlatRonnie here ), but now a "Hit 'em With The Hein!".  I'm still awaiting the day when a secret Superfan at Edelman walks by and strikes up a conversation. I love how quickly this whole "Hit 'em with the Hein!" thing has taken off including Jason Sudeikis shouting one out on Son of Zorn this week .

It was back in May that we lost our dear girl Maisy just shy of her 11th birthday.  I still miss her dearly.  And we kinda tried to fill the void by bringing home a goldfish from RibFest .  BTW...that fish is still alive and well!  And the whole burden of cleaning the bowl has been pretty easy thus far.  Installed a filter, change out like 1/4 to 1/3rd of the water about once every ten days and the thing stays clean. Anyway...back to dogs.  Our dear Maisy was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.  And she was.the.best.dog.ever.  First dogs often are, aren't they?   I've talked with a few people and they all say the same thing:  that first dog that couples often get BEFORE they have kids has a special relationship and bond with the family.  They're just different.  Sure, second dogs are great and they're also special.  But just about everybody that I've talked to has said the same thing:  it just isn't the same. And ...

Early in 2015, I signed up for a Digit.co savings account , but it wasn't until last fall that I really paid it any attention.  It was then that I configured/turned back on/confirmed and linked all the right account pipes to actually make the thing work properly.  I'm 102 transactions in at this point and the app has saved over $800. If you're not familiar with Digit Savings , here's a bit more that explains how things work: I won't go into the minutia of how Nat and I work our banking/checking/savings accounts, but for the purpose of Digit, I isolated the app away from certain accounts and had it focus on a checking account that has just one debit card that I carry in my wallet.  Isn't always the card I use nor is it the account that has the most action in it.  So...just stating that because if you watched the video above, you now know that the Digit Savings App is *supposed* to be 'smart' and monitor your account and studies spending history....

After reading about how the folks at Metra - in between all of their non-stop fare increases and delays - were refurbishing some of their cars with updates like new seats and cupholders back in January , I had been wondering when I'd come across one of them. Welp, the wait is over.  Last week, on one of my morning commutes on the Union Pacific West line, I boarded and climbed upstairs like I always do.  Only to realize that I was in a refurbished car. Preetay, preetay, preetay nice.  Or at least it is more like what you expect a train car in 2016 to actually look like. Check out the sleek blue seats: There's more, including cupholders!  But, in the seats I was sitting, there weren't any cupholders.   From ABC7's story in January : Most of Metra's passenger cars are feeling the wear and tear of age. A select group of them are being refurbished with a new look and a most-definite new feel. New seats are being installed on 30 Metra passenger cars,...