Why I Oughta...

We went down to see the Big Noon Kickoff show out in Grange Grove.  It was an interesting experience, but I'd be lying if I said that we were able to see much of anything.  Between the big crowd and all the signs up front, we mostly were watching the action on the video boards vs. seeing the crew on stage.  Still...was a a lot of fun to be a part of the energy down in Champaign in Grange Grove.  Never hurts to come away with the W, either. 

The annual tradition of the Christmas Train is back ahead of Christmas this December.  The KotBT was fumpferhing around with his Lionel O-Gauge train and his new (thanks to his Papa) ZW transformer.  This year might be the year of sorting - what we want to keep (and what works) and what we can get rid-of and likely re-sell via Facebook Marketplace and/or Craigslist.  As expected, he's not that drawn to boxcars, but is mostly interested in the operating cars and rolling stock.

We grabbed a small, quart-sized hosta from Lowes that was on a close-out sale on a total whim. Do we need more hostas? I'm not sure. Can we find a place for an interesting one? Certainly. And, that's what this one is: interesting. Named the Ben Vernooy Hosta, it just stood out on the rack of mostly plain green companions. I had never come across a Ben Vernooy sport before, but I know there are *a lot* of hostas out there. So, not being familiar with this one isn't a surprise. Thus, I did what I always do: whipped out my phone to read about it.  This listing was the one that had me put it in our cart . Here's how it was described: Ben Vernooy boasts an eye-catching colour of blue with broad bands of yellow along each leaf edge. Over time, the margins may change to creamy white, the leaves are still quite colourfast and you'll enjoy their amazing hues throughout the long growing season. Ben Vernooy presents some of the thickest, sturdiest leaves you can find on a host...

It seems like Menards Halloween has come back this year.  After a down year (at least it appeared to me to be 'down' and likely due to COVID + Supply Chain issues), it appeared that - on our visit this month - they had TONS of new stuff.  This post is going up in late August, but our visit was on Saturday, August 13th, so they had all of their stuff up mid-August.  I've covered this in the past - here's last year .  Below is a look at their Halloween village.  Of note, they've TOTALLY phased out all Lemax Village buildings and are now showing their own house brand of Pumpkin Hollow Halloween buildings and structures.  Menards always has a good set of holiday inflatables and this year they're showing a new (to me) Disney licensed Halloween inflatable featuring the three Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus (and soon... Hocus Pocus 2 ).  It is just five feet wide, but costs more than $100.  Dang that Disney license.   Menards is also selling...

I was in the KotBT's room recently and saw that Nat had a stack of vintage felt pennants on his dresser that she was dealing with/sorting in an attempt to put some up on the walls of his room.  They ALL were pretty neat, but there are a couple from the collection that I think are worth documenting on this here blog. The first one is this one you see above - Fighting Illini Football Rose Bowl 1984.  This pennant is one of MINE - from when I was a kid.  I remember it well.  It came - along with a whole host of boxes from my childhood - from my parents when they moved out of my childhood home.  It was one of a few pennants that they (somehow??) saved. This one is of particular interest to me - and I love that it is going in our boy's room.  I had a sister that was a number of years older than me.  And one of my earliest memories is of visiting her down at the Six Pack in Champaign during her freshman year.  I would have been four or five years o...

Back in the Fall, the KotBT had a birthday and one of the gifts that we gave him was a window bird feeder.  The kind that use suction cups to attach to the window.  The one we have is this one from Amazon that they say is their #1 best seller in the category .  We have a variety feeders already - including a fly-through , a couple of suet cages , one of the smaller Squirrel Busters  and a squirrel 'big ole' cob' bungee feeder .  But, those are all set out in the yard a bit.  In a spot where we can see them and observe the critters/birds, but also far enough to have any critters not want to make a home close to our house/patio. These window feeders have been around forever and I've been skeptical of them.  I mean...birds get spooked by people.  And...from what I know, they don't love windows and the reflections off of them.  So, mounting a feeder on the window seems like a long shot in terms of getting any action on it. We talked about ...

My parents moved out of my childhood home a few years back.  I posted about it here on the blog in January of 2016 .  Right before they left, they had an Estate Sale that featured a bunch of their stuff, but mostly my Dad's collections.  Oil cans, automobilia, pottery, toasters, radios and plenty of junk.  There were also a few boxes that he had brought home from his office at Governor's State decades before that I didn't ever see or come across in digging through his stuff like up in Michigan and what-have-you.   In those boxes were a bunch of Chicago Bears memorabilia - pennants, glasses and this photo featuring my favorite player Dan Hampton and (in the background) Coach Mike Ditka (in a great pear of coaches shorts).   The writing on the matte say it is from August of 1986 in Platteville Wisconsin.   I've posted another Dan Hampton photo here on the blog from my childhood .   He was my favorite and I'm thin...

Google released this " appsperiment " called Storyboard  that takes your videos and makes these cute comic book-style images.  There isn't much more to do than that and sometimes you get something garbled and sometimes you get some cute stuff like this one with the Babe, the Bird and the King of the Ball Tossers with the Big Guy.   It is Android only, so all you iphone suckers are out of luck.