Why I Oughta...

We installed exactly two items on the walls of our #NewOldFarmhouse .  The first was a television.  I mounted it on the wall in the first few days after we moved in.  The other?  Our cuckoo clock that you see above.    I posted about the clock before when I posted a photo from my sister Vic and described how we bought our clock in the Black Forest and then after receiving it, how it went right into storage. Ours is an eight-day version, so the big weights you see in the photo have a long way to go to reach the floor, but I keep yanking them up after just a day or two so we've never had them dangle close to the reach of the kids. There are three kids on the clock with the middle one not glued down, so we have to place her over to one side or the other.  With it striking just the cuckoo at the bottom of the hour and playing a song at the top of the hour, I've grown to really like hearing it around the house.  It was running a bit fast, so I moved the flower circle up the

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 right back

Add this beauty of a mug to the collection from the Bavarian Lodge in Lisle.  But, before we talk more about the mug/glassware, can we say a word about this place?  We had never been there before.  But, we took the three savages with us and decided to try an early dinner one night.  And... I... Loved... It! Loved the place.  Loved the food. We ordered the pretzels and they might have been the highlight.  Also went with the schnitzel and a knockwurst along with a side of kraut.  All-in, German-style.  Loved the schnitzel, didn't have room to take on much of the knockwurst. And when we were there, Nat's brother's favorite brewery - Stone Brewing - was doing a takeover of the lodge's taps , so we both enjoyed a few of those, which was nice. Here's a few pics of the Stone takeover menu front and back: And here's my beautiful partner in life hoisting one of those tasty beers in the gorgeous mug that's part of the 'pinched collection'

This Rothaus coaster that we used in Triburg, Germany is the 12th coaster in the Coaster Collection here on the blog .  We enjoyed a Rothaus Pils ( which has a 91 on Beer Advocate ) in the Black Forest right before we went off and checked out the cuckoo clocks all around tow.  We actually came away with one (or...we'll eventually have one), but I'll share that in a separate post later this week. Full Coaster Collection here on the blog.