Why I Oughta...

Sure, you can go out to Naper Settlement for the Christkindl market and get some searing hot chocolate and pick up a cuckoo clock and ornament from some booths.  And that'd be just fine.  In fact, that's what we did a few weekends ago.  It was a great time.  But, do yourself a favor and ask for the main building where the bathrooms are located.  (skip the porta-potties!) Inside that building, you'll see a setup of a 1950's home all trimmed out for Christmas morning.  Along with some display cases of decorations and toys from the period.  Above and below you can see one of the cases with little vintage Christmas figures (we have the lady on top!  And some "NOEL" angels that are similar but not exactly the same .) and some toys that kids in the 1950's were getting under the tree. In another corner, they have this little vignette set up that shows toys like Tiddly winks and a riding horse that are typical from the period. They also h...

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...

Last weekend, we went out to Naper Settlement to attend the Midwest Soaring Foundation's 21st Annual Harvest Pow Wow with the kids and Nat's folks.  We arrived just in time for the Pow Wow and watched as they honored various veterans and then did a series of dances.  Pretty neat costumes and pretty interesting to watch.  Everyone sat in chairs around this big circle where the Native Americans presented various parts of the event.   With the three kids getting restless, we set out to discover the rest of the Pow Wow which included a kids craft table (we made bead necklaces!) and a little pen where they had some birds set up.   They had owls - which were really neat to see - but they also had this:  a bald eagle on an ankle chain. He was AWESOME to admire, but you have to *kinda* feel a bit for this guy.   He's stuck at this place with people preening over him, tethered to an anchor.  Not exactly 'soaring', eh?   Makes me wonder...

People shop at local independent bookstores because there's some emotion involved.  There's a sense of loyalty that comes along with shopping at a place that is less convenient and (often times) more expensive than the faceless behemoth online.  One of the most successful indie bookstores around is Anderson's Bookshop in Downtown Naperville. I worked on a project today called the "Google eBooks Petting Zoo" that was aiming to educate Anderson's customers that they didn't need to *just* buy their physical books at Anderson's and their digital books from folks like Amazon or iTunes.  In fact, you could buy directly from Andersonbookshop.com via Google books.  Pretty neat stuff.  You buy on their site and consume the books on devices you already own.  Have an iPad?  Install the Google eBooks app , go to Anderson's site and start buying books.  Viola!  They'll show up on your ipad. Disclaimer:  I work at Google. You knew that, right? ...