Why I Oughta...

I've planted Elephant Ear bulbs in some of our patio containers over the years including in 2018 and 2019 with middling success.  I've been drawn to them for their large leaves and tropical feel - as well as their seemingly limited maintenance needs.  A little water and they figure it out on their own. So, when Nat brought home some hostas and purple astilbes from Costco in March, she also grabbed this bag of nine Esculenta Elephant Ear bulbs.   As I've found in the past, not all of the bulbs in the bag are viable.  I always find a few that have rotted out.  This year was not different.  But, I still ended up having more Elephant Ear bulbs that I really needed.   I started by planting one in the wooden patio planter box.  Here it is in the corner: And, I have a couple of wine barrel planters that are scattered in the landscape that I stuck a viable bulb and some of the rotten ones in.  Who knows, right?  Maybe they'll make ...

This is the third in a series of four posts based on the garden things that Nat brought home from Costco recently. The first one was a set of Frances Williams hosts for the backyard .  The second was two packs of Bressingham Blue hostas that are destined, too, for the backyard.   3rd post.  first two hostas.  Today is another shade-loving perennial that pairs well with hostas that we got started with last season.     And that would be astilbes.  Here's the bag of six Gloria Purpurea Astilbes (below): And, here's the back of the package showing a 20" spacing requirement and saying they get about 24" tall.   As I mentioned earlier, we started with Astilbes last year - buying 12 of them and planting them in June .  Timing was off and some of them suffered some transplant and drought stress, so I'm not certain how many made it, but it isn't all twelve. The area where we planted them - on the southside in front of some new Oak Lea...

I mentioned in yesterday's post about the new set of two-toned Frances Williams hostas that Nat also brought home some other shade-loving plants from her trip to Costco.  The next set are also hostas, but this time there are two bags of them and they're blue.  Officially: 18 Bressingham Blue hostas. Here, below, is a look at the back of one of the bags that details 40" spacing and hardiness (down to Zone 3). It turns out, I've bought these before and have some of them in the yard.  But, I'm not sure, exactly.  In 2018, I bought a (then) 10 pack of them and stuck them in the ground somewhere and didn't document the locations.  Having good photos of mature Bressingham Blues now (thanks to this bag), I'll have a look around late Spring and see if I can pick any out.  I'm thinking that they went in on the north side of the house, but will effort to identify them. Back to what these are.... The Chicago Botanical Garden has a page up about Bressingham Blue ...

Last year, I added five Guacamole hostas to our backyard - three larger ones, two smaller ones.  In two different spots .  The plan that we're working from calls for Guacamole hostas in a couple of different spots including in what I've called "Priority Area #2" for 2021 - this woodland garden section .  Here's a look at part of that section that highlights the hostas.  Green = what I planted last year.  Yellow = what is remaining. In terms of cultivar, Guacamole Hostas have a lovely color that resembles...you guessed it...guacamole. It has margins on it and is a two-toned green.   And, 'tis the season for impulse buys, right?  Well, Nat was at Costco recently where they're selling packages of perennials like hostas and other-what-have-yous and, well, I couldn't help myself.  She sent some photos and I ended up pulling the trigger on a different variety that I think will complement the trio of Guacamole hostas.   Say hello to France...

Are you like Nat and I and get your mums from Costco?  You know the massive ones in the big plastic pot that is good enough to display on your front porch as-is?  Then, my friend, I have a tip for you:  Get ahead of things by tying up a piece of string or twine about 1/2 up the plant.  That way, they won't splay on you when the buds flower out and get top heavy.

Tears and tantrums were in full effect as we walked by, stopped and then moved on from this Princess fairytale castle at Costco.  Both of the girls were doing their best to make me bring this monstrosity come home with us.  It is meant to be used outside, but in our old house, we had a plastic version of a building like this in our basement, so I suppose you could easily bring this inside and use it your basement. At $429.99, it seems pricey to me, but your kids will love the styling and details.  It has a bunch (9!) of turrets and even a musical door knocker.  At 78" long and 95.5" tall, you need a pretty good size spot to keep this thing in or else you'll be squeezing past it whenever you go by it in your basement.   It comes in a pretty bib cube of a cardboard box that doesn't appear to be able to fit into most cars but would probably fit into most SUV trunks with the 3rd row down or our minivan with the 3rd row down.   Alas...this didn't work f...

As I've done in years past, I try to check out the annual cedar playset that Costco is rolling out in the Spring.  In fact, they're always some of the most popular posts here on the blog for folks coming via search.   Here's a post from 2012 showing that year's version with some plastic parts.  Then...right after that, they came out with a different version in 2012  that had less plastic parts.  And here's the one in Costco back in 2011 that we ended up buying .  I spent a bunch of weekends (along with my father-in-law) putting it together - which was a lot of fun. Since we sold the house, we left that playset behind.  It was a one-of-a-kind due to the location we placed it, we had to make a pretty major modification in terms of orienting the swings . This year's version has a nice little upgrade:  two slides.  One being a tube slide that winds around and the other being a open slide that has a few undulations in it.  Otherwise, i...

What doesn't say "I love you" more than a sweet discount on some tasty pizza?!?  I mean...what more could your Valentine want than $100 of Home Run Inn deliciousness for just $69.99. Head to your Costco (or...at least our Costco on North Avenue in Melrose Park) and amongst the other gift card deals for places like PF Changs and RedStone will be this deal of four $25 gift cards at just $69.99. I love taking my kids and my nephew to HRI (now that the one in Addison is closed, we usually go to the one in Hillside) and devour some tasty pizza and we can't leave without a Cookie Monster.   With $100 in your pocket, you can either hit the place up twice (if you're like us!) or really splurge for a big spread of loaded fries, multiple pies, and a couple of Cookie Monsters for your group. If you're a Costco shopper, you know that these things are hit-or-miss.  One day they're there.  Next they're gone.  So...Get these before they disappear.  

We haven't?  Well...I'm on a major jerky kick.  Nat hates the stuff.  Repulsed by it, actually. But this package of Golden Island Korean Barbecue Pork Jerky from Costco was awfully delicious.  I've been working it into my mix of snacks and don't know how I survived without jerky.  Guessing it was Doritos.

For a certain segment of our house (welp...it really is the entire household but me), this is a big deal:  These Crunchy Rice Rollers from Bamboo Lane are back at Costco.  I took the King of the Ball Tossers to the Melrose Park Costco over the weekend and we stocked up.  I think he ate three on the way home.

I've written about my experience with Google Express before here on the blog .  I really like it.  Especially for Costco purchases.  For example, we were having a first birthday party for The Beef over this past weekend at our* house and after doing a proper inventory, we discovered that we were covered with disposable plates and forks/knives/spoons, we didn't have any of those big party dinner napkins.  You know... this kind .  So...I added those to my cart and threw in a big party container of cashews and I hit the $15 minimum order for free delivery. 12 hours later....they arrived and we were ready for the party. But...to get started with buying on Costco via Google Express wasn't super easy.  It required a visit to our local Costco store and a request of a new Costco card.  That's because....Google Express requires that the name on your credit card that you are using to purchase stuff match EXACTLY the name on your Costco account. So...that...

If you have read anything (and I mean anything!  Heck... even People Magazine has covered it !), you likely know about the impending pumpkin-pocalypse.  For what seems like the second time in a few years, the agricultural experts are predicting an epic Thanksgiving pumpkin shortage. Brace yourself, people. And it is thanks to all the rain we had here in Illinois : If the beginning of fall means pumpkin is basically your only food group for the next few months, you better hurry to the supermarket.  According to crop experts, canned pumpkin yield could be off by as much as a third this year in Illinois. The Midwestern state — which is responsible for about 90 percent of the U.S.-grown pumpkins — experienced a record rainfall in June causing the shortage, say farmers.  “I would not wait until Nov. 20 [to buy canned pumpkin],” University of Illinois’s Department of Crop Sciences professor Mohammad Babadoost told the Associated Press. “I’d buy it whenever it ...

We picked up this bomber of Crispin Hard Apple Cider at Costco recently and Nat broke it out for our block party this past weekend.  It was mighty tasty and I wasn't ashamed to be drinking it out amongst the other folks drinking craft beer from all over the place.  (By the way...Costco has really stepped up their game of craft beer with dozens of bomber sizes of various types.  Kinda neat way to spend a few minutes while Nat looks through the book section.) It is interesting to me that ciders have moved from kind of fringe - almost feminine - beverages (I remember back in the 90's some folks drinking Mike's Hard Cider back in college and me looking down at them while I was shotgunning my Miller High Life Light!) to totally mainstream. For me, Nat has been leading the way for a few years as she's sought out ciders at bars and restaurants while I was sticking to the draft beer menu.  The first time I had a Crispin was a sip of one of Nat's at dinner one night p...

Take a good look, America.  That right there is Christmas 'stuff' showing up in Costco in Oak Brook, Illinois in August.  Yes....August. This isn't the first time Costco has gone out in August for Christmas.   Back in 2013, I posted some photos from August .   Same in 2012 . You'll hear lots of folks belly-ache about 'Christmas Creep', but I'm not one of them.  Bring it on. I LOVE Christmas.  I love everything about Christmas and having these retailers get ahead of Christmas by booking some revenue in Q3 of their year, than I'm totally ok with it. We didn't buy anything, but don't think I wasn't tempted.  Can't wait for Menards to toss out the Halloween stuff and bring in the Christmas stuff.  Let's go.

Yesterday, I posted what I thought was a funny video showing off the new 'zero calorie' Clif Kid Z bars that we got from Costco .  I went on Twitter and gave the fine folks at Clif Bar a little bit of grief and included the #ThanksObama hashtag for these new light bars.  This wasn't brand-shaming and I wasn't going crazy, just trying to get their attention of the problem we encountered using a channel of my choosing. Customer care via social isn't easy and the good folks at Clif Bar stepped up and responded and directed me to their other customer care channels.  Good for them.  Would have loved to see a little bit of brand personality come out in their reply, but we can't get everything, can we?!? Thanks for the conversation, Clif Bar team.  I went to the contact form and filled it out with details.  We'll see if they get back to me.  If they do?  I'm sure I'll post it here. @jakeparrillo Sorry about that. Please contact our CS team ...

Found this label for this plant " Dianthus Kahori " on a perennial at Costco recently.  That font! Had to snap a photo and then try to do some research to figure out if the plant had *any* connection to Disney and/or the parks.  Alas...it doesn't appear to be anything other than a lazy designer passing off the Disney font to the guys at the nursery who raised these plants.   I could actually see this becoming an extension for Disney products/consumer products some day, right?  Imagine having some sort of uniquely-bred set of perennials that they plant in the park and they highlight in some way.  Could be at the Flower and Garden show.  Could be throughout the year.   They could license their name to some nurseries to grow them that particular plant and get it to the market at scale through places like Home Depot.  I'd buy a 'piece of Disney World's' flowers for a small price.  I'd probably buy a few of them!  Wouldn't you?

I've spent a bit of time covering the Costco Cedar Summit playground sets and the Costco Suncast playground set in the past here on the blog.  They're chronically at the top of the 'most read posts' almost every week.  They rank well in search and because there's such limited information on the Costco site about the sets, it seems that parents and potential buyers go online and seek out some answers.  They end up here. But, this year, Costco has a new product.  Or...at least...new to me.  It is there pictured above right in front of this year's edition of the Cedar Summit playground set.  It is a "Lifetime 4X4 Bouncer Teeter Totter".  It is priced at $189.99 with a $40.00 instant rebate at our Costco in Oak Brook, Illinois.  On the Costco site, they list a different Lifetime bouncer - an airplane one.   That one has really strong reviews, so it seems these things are built well. This one is a two seater, so at least two kids could get ...

All that chatter about there being a Velveeta shortage during the critical 'dip season' surrounding the Super Bowl? We found the motherload at the Oak Brook Costco yesterday.  Go get yourself a brick before it is gone.

I saw these little gift boxes at Costco over the weekend and I couldn't help but think that the printer/designer forgot the word "Chocolate" in the product description.  Shouldn't it read "Milk **Chocolate** Peanut Butter Pretzel Nuggets"? Or is there such a thing as milk peanut butter?

We were at Costco over the weekend and what did we find?  Christmas stuff was already out! Last year, I documented Christmas Creep all the way to August 30th and in 2012, it wasn't until the first week of September that I spotted the Christmas decor making an appearance. This year it was August 19th - almost two weeks ahead of schedule. Like I've said in the past...I'm not a Scrooge, so I don't mind these things.  But....I *do* feel bad for Thanksgiving.  Halloween has hired the right PR firm the past few years and has started to keep up with Christmas in terms of 'stuff'.  Thanksgiving on the other hand?  Not so much.