Why I Oughta...

This week, ESPN posted a pre-tour-na-ment piece that detailed the fight song, colors, mascot and 'notable alumni' of all 64 teams that made it into March Madness this year.  My Fighting Illini were included in the piece and what ESPN listed there kicked off a text conversation that I had with Equation Boy/Man about the University of Illinois Mount Rushmore and who would be on it.   Here's what ESPN included: Four members of the author's "Notable Alumni" list.  Now, before we talk about the folks here - and not here, let me briefly show you what the list looks like for Yale University .  This is what I'd call the 'royal treatment'. Long list, right?  And, even a link to an even LONGER list on Wikipedia.  Wonder why Yale was given this treatment?  I'm sure...part of it is - of course - the fact that they HAVE a good list.  But, there's more, of course. Where is ESPN located?  That's right.  The World Wide Leader is, indeed based on ...

With Fall here and Winter coming, that usually means that I do *even more* pizza making than I do during the Summer.  The arrival of our Ooni earlier this year changed Summer pizza-making, but I've also been making a little bit of progress on my bar pies.  Here's a shot post-oven/pre-cut of fennel sausage across the whole thing and hot giardiniera on half.  Olive-free giardiniera, of course.    I was talking to Equation Boy/Man about this particular bar pie recently and he mentioned that (for some reason he can't quite explain) the little "orange spots of carrots peeking through make his mouth water".  Dare you to look at this and not have the same reaction.   Last time I posted about my bar pies was in August - when I showed a cross-section and a little bit of the undercarriage .  Back then, I was using a cheddar for the frico edge, but I've moved away from that (for now).  Feels like a Winter thing to bring back at Dorianell's , doesn'...

We lived on Indiana Street in Elmhurst for almost ten years.  In two houses.  One of our own .  And one of Equation Boy/Man and my Sister Vic's .  Our last few years there, we lived next to a couple named Wes and Susie (hmmm...maybe Suzy?  Or Suzie? Who knows...I never asked how to spell it) who were good neighbors.  They had a hot tub and some nice Japanese Maple trees.  Wes was an artist who loved dogs and liked our little puppy (at the time) Lizzie.   One of them spent time in the garden.  (see Japanese Maples) And they had a front parking spot (not quite a driveway because they used the alley behind the house and had a garage back there) that was lined with Bearded Irises.  They always put on a nice show.   Fast forward to this Spring and Wes and Susie have moved out and someone is tearing down the house to build something new.  My Sister Vic was able to grab some of those Bearded Irises from the front and save th...

All the way back in April, I was given a Chicago-Hardy Fig Tree for my birthday by my sister Vic and Equation Boy/Man.  I somehow, failed to post about the tree all the way until I did this recent patio planter/container round up earlier this month .  In that post, I showed the first look at the Chicago-hardy fig tree that is in a yellow container . Today, you can see in the photo above the first fig that is coming to fruit.  There are three or four of these figs that are starting to grow, so maybe come late Summer, we'll have a little fig harvest. As the name implies, this fig tree is cold hardy for our zone.  The full description is here .  With this being in a container, I'm thinking that I can move it to the garage or screened porch to provide it a little bit of winter cover with the hope that it comes back to life next Spring after living through the hard frost.  Since this is in a container, I'm not counting it in the list of trees planted at H...

I'm laying out my current fantasy football roster - the 2017 Little Lebowski Urban Achievers - for all to judge, mock and critique.  Our league - The Marini/Parrillo War League - is run with an iron fist by the Commissioner Equation Boy/Man and includes my nephews, my Dad, Equation Boy/Man's Dad and nephews on that side.   My team was totally auto-drafted as I've done in the past and it usually doesn't turn out amazing.  The league is pretty low stakes and because I put in *just* a little bit above the minimum effort in sorting out the buy weeks and inactives, I usually sneak into the playoffs and win maybe one round before being taken out by one of the boys who is all over his team with weekly tweaks and roster moves.   The team - lead by just one QB in Dak Prescott and WR Odell Beckham Jr (who was the first pick by the computer) has a bunch of guys I've never even heard of!  So, there's that, which is nice, right? 

This one feels different than the last time .  I posted a similar picture and post back in 2015 when we moved out of our first house.  Today, we're living in our #newoldfarmhouse after moving out of this sweet house that we've been fortunate to live in for two years.  I'm so grateful that Equation Boy/Man and Vic were so generous to host us while we were homeless in their house.  We were just down the block and our family felt normal - somewhat.  This home provided us shelter and a place to grow our family.  Most of all, it provided us peace of mind.  We were safe and sound and we had the time to make a new, new plan and execute that plan. I know we can't ever likely say 'thank you' enough to Vic and Equation Boy/Man, but I hope they know how grateful we are for their hospitality. So long, Indiana Street.  This certainly isn't a good bye.   Just a 'see you later'.

My sister Vic sent me this photo above from Oli's in Triberg, Germany - the home of the Master Carvers Club who handcraft *real* cuckoo clocks .  She was in Triberg with my folks recently to show them the town (it is awfully cute) and to show them how you can see/tell the difference between clocks (hint:  look at the side and if you see plastic in the little circle, pass on it.).  My sister and Equation Boy/Man bought a clock from Oli's and while they were there, they sent the photo you see above.   The one in the middle is the clock that Nat and I picked up when we were there all the way back in last Summer.  It has 'balusters', which is kinda awesome if you have been keeping up with our house build . It's funny, though:  we shipped the clock to Elmhurst from Germany and when it arrived, it was so well packed that, since we didn't have a place to put it, we just left it in it's box and mostly forgot about it.  This photo, though, brought me righ...

Last year, I picked up a few plants at the Elmhurst Ladies' Garden Club annual sale including the Hosta Venusta miniature plant that we're fostering out in Naperville ( posted about it recently here ) and what was billed as a Cinnamon Fern.  I planted that here in Elmhurst at Equation Boy/Man and Vic's house  with some help from the Bird as a "Mother's Day" present to her God Mother.  (and a little, tiny token of gratitude for having us stay in their house!)   I put it along the south property line in one of their landscape beds that had some nice groundcover and a few other shade plants like hostas.  It looked great when I planted it ( see pic here ), but it didn't do that well after the transplant.  Must have had some serious shock, because it withered and just about looked dead a month or so after putting it in the ground.  I looked earlier this Spring and didn't see anything emerging, so I assumed that it wasn't coming back and had died, u...

Last year, I posted a very similar photo of these tulips popping up at Equation Boy/Man's place, but I posted it about two weeks later in the year.   Could these things have been prompted to emerge from the ground based on that week-long heat streak where temperatures were in the 60's everyday?    What happens if we get a frost?  Maybe they'll survive? Either way, this seems to mark an important moment:  Spring is right around the corner.  It also means that the countdown until we're in our new place is on!  It has been a few years since I've been able to putter around in the yard and add things and move things around because we haven't had a yard of our own.  I planted a few things in the yard in Elmhurst and over at my in-laws place that we'll likely try to transplant this summer if we can find a cool week.  Then it.is.on.  Gardening and bulb planting and tree planting to get us a good start on the lot this year, I'm thinking.....

Out on Ogden Road in Downers a few weeks back, I spotted this Honda Odysessy, which at first glance appears to be your standard, run-of-the-mill grocery wagon that we all drive out in the suburbs.  But, if you look closely, you'll see a "CH" oval sticker in the corner of the rear window. I saw it and then as safely as I could, whipped out my phone and tried to take this photo. Why?  Because that "CH" oval sticker is one that I saw a bunch when we were visiting my sister and Equation Boy/Man in Switzerland.  CH means Swiss, which came as a surprise to me.  But now, when I see it, I know! From Wikipedia : The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica (English: Helvetic Confederation). I gleefully emailed off this photo to Equation Boy/Man and I'm hoping that they'll come home with one of these stickers and stick it on the back of their own van when they're living back in Elmhurst this summer.   They'l...

This year, we went back to our normal variety of tree:  the Fraser Fir.  And we sized it a bit more appropriate for the space.   Here's last year's post showing the tree we brought home that was a Douglas Fir . And, once again, we put up our tree, not in our house, but in the house of Equation Boy/Man and my sister Vic, who are graciously putting us up for another holiday season. If you look at last year's post and scroll down you'll see a photo of the Babe putting our angel on top of the tree.  In the background, you can also see the trim casing that sits above the opening between the family room and dining room.  When you look there, you can clearly see that the angel is sitting *below* that casing - meaning the tree was short. Look at the photo above.  The angel - who is MIA - would be sitting well above that same casing.  Much better sized.  The angel?  I *think* I know where she is, but will have to wait until next weekend to k...

We now have this little robot assistant living on our countertop in the kitchen.  Thus far, we've built out a shopping list, asked it 'Do you want to build a snowman?', had it play some Disney music and even asked it to play some YouTube videos on our Chromecast.  Kinda nice.  It isn't sending things to our phones yet, but having it create a 'shopping list' on Google Keep is pretty nice. I ordered an orange base (or course, I went with orange!) and we'll be outfitting it this week. Oh, and not that I'm attached to Google Home yet or anything...but I *did* say "Hey Google...see you later." as I left the house this am.  And she replied "goodbye".

Have been here for more than 15 months and never paid much attention to this doorknob before Halloween this year.  That's when I spent a bunch of time out on the front porch of Vic and Equation Boy/Man's house handing out candy.  In fact, I don't think I've sat in that front porch ever.   Their house is old - not sure exactly - but likely the early 1900's or 1910's or 1920's.  And the front door *has* to be original.  On it, is that knob.  And, it is a beauty and one of the relics that is remaining from the house when it was built originally.  Just look at that knob and think about how many hands have been laid on it.  Very pretty door plate, too, with that huge keyhole.

Posting this here for diary-keeping purposes.  That's Vic's/Equation Boy/Man's house all doll'd up with inflatables and pumpkins and what-have-yous on Halloween 2016. Look who is missing from last year . I love me some inflatables despite Nat not being all over them (I think she prefers them in the backyard!) and brought them out front for the big day last week. Here's a look at our home on Halloween back in 2013 .

At the very same Estate Sale that I picked up that hobnail milk glass pitcher and the big set of vintage ornaments, I picked up this book from 1982 about the Chicago White Sox.  It is written right at the point when Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn took over the club and installed the big new "Diamond Vision" scoreboard out in centerfield with the old Veeck-era exploding pinwheels on top.   I thumbed through the book and it talks about the new arrivals like Carlton Fisk, Greg Luzinski, Tom Paciorek, Rudy Law, Ron Kittle, and Greg Walker who were all - incredibly - in their first or second year on the South Side.   Reinsdorf took over the team from Bill Veeck in 1981 and if you read the opening of this book (which...in the fine print states that the White Sox themselves cooperated with in terms of photographs and such), it reads like a love letter to the new ownership's commitment to making the Sox a winner.  And...just in looking at that list of players that th...

Hey kids, look!  Rhein Falls! The largest 'plain' (whatever that means) waterfall in all of Europe .  And it happens to be in (or very near as far as I can tell) the very town that my sister and Equation Boy/Man are living.  My sister took us out there for a bit and we had quite the time.  We went on the little, flat bottomed boat and it got a bit hairy (at least for me) as the captain turned the boat sideways right INTO the current.  I could have sworn we were going to capsize and I held on for dear life.  I was quickly doing the mental math of which child to grab and as I looked around figuring out where the kids where, I quickly realized that all the rest of the tourists were acting naturally, smiling, taking photos of the grand falls.  And it was, sadly, just me freaking out about...apparently....nothing.

The girls and I planted these Phlox in a couple of pots that my sister had laying around her yard over the weekend.  We, of course, had to go out and add some 'thrill' and 'spill' to them, right?  So, we picked up the old standy-bys of a Spike in back and a Sweet Potato Vine dangling in front.  Not super creative, but we checked all three boxes of your typical planter setup.  They're perennials, but I'm not sure they'll over-winter in the pots?  Maybe if I pull them into the garage? These Creeping Phlox call for full sun, so we put them on the driveway right on either side of the big garage door.  The girls now both have watering cans, so I'm thinking they'll get well watered this summer.

The Cinnamon Fern that I mentioned in yesterday's post about our trip to the Crestview Ladies Garden Sale in Elmhurst has found a new home: on the southside of the yard of our current place. I put it right next to a few hostas that my sister has planted and just past their hammock setup. It is a pretty shady spot and based on what I *thought* I knew about Ostrich and Cinnamon Ferns (which....based on this being a Cinnamon Fern, I may know NOTHING!), I know they like to stay pretty wet and out of the sun. When I planted this after work, it was totally shaded and based on the trees overhead, I'm thinking this will be in the shade most of the day.  Look at those hostas behind it:  they don't seem to be drying out/burning out in the sun.  So, I'm thinking we're safe. In the past, these ferns have multiplied pretty rapidly.  I would have one set of shoots come up and by the end of the season, there'd be two or three more.  Planting this one in mid-May, I...

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...

As you can see from the photo above, we ended up with 346 individuals to our door on Halloween.  That includes 9 adults, 73 'kids we know' and 264 'kids we don't know'. That's up from last year's tally of 308  and sets the new record for Halloween. This year: 346 total. In 2014, we had 308 total . In 2013, we had 326 total . In 2012, we had 327 total. In 2011, we had 269 total . In 2010, we had 236 total . In 2009, we had 184 total . A few things to note: 1.  It rained a bit his year.  Wasn't as bad as last year when it rained the entire time we were out trick-or-treating.  But that still likely made it a bit harder to turn-out for trick-or-treating for some.   2.  However...this was a Saturday.  That's the first time trick-or-treating wasn't on a 'school night', so I'm thinking that accounted for the increased turnout. 3.  We were down the block from where we normally have been.  The '09-'14 totals we...