Why I Oughta...

While we were up in Michigan today for our annual NYE/NYDay trip, we stopped at the Great Lakes Antique Mall to try to snap up a few vintage Christmas pieces.  Last year, we bought a few little Christmas treats, but this year, we happened upon this display of what must be 100+ little porcelain Christmas figures.   This person clearly is focusing on carolers and angels, but there was one little spaghetti trim Santa (that's him on the very far left, second shelf from the top). Unfortunately (for us), the prices were on these were a bit too high, but we did come across a few other Christmas pieces that we snatched up at 50% off their list prices.

One of the rafts up in Michigan is marked thusly.  Guess that rules out taking the girls to the pool by myself, eh?

I picked up these eggs at the Wesco Gas station.  Cute package, eh?  And, another local Michigan product we've added to our usage up in Michigan along with Pioneer Sugar and Koegel's Hot Dogs . Yes...I bought my family breakfast from the gas station.  Along with a half-dozen doughnuts, too!

We captured these two guys with a bucket right at the edge of our beach on Paw Paw Lake.  The Babe is into fishies so she got a kick out of seeing these guys on our countertop.  They stayed there for about 20 minutes and somehow "escaped" back into the lake when the Babe was getting ready for bed.

The turn of the page on the new calendar year didn't slow down the Christmas insanity in my world.  While we were up in Michigan, we went to the Great Lakes Antique Mall - in Coloma - and came away with a few treasures.  We go the Mall often - almost everytime we go up to Michigan - but have never come away with any Christmas stuff.  Seems like we must not be up there in the weeks/month leading up to Christmas, so I've never seen the booths stocked with vintage holiday stuff. Sure...there's a lot of junk and because of the setup (vendors in their own booths), the prices are often a tad high, but as we usually do, I came across a few gems including this darling little Christmas girl.  She's wearing a pink dress (you can barely see it in the photo) and carrying a few packages.  It has a great "Made in Japan" sticker on the bottom that you find on these 50's and 60's items. She'll go great in our display next year when she's sitting next to o

This week, when we were up in Coloma, we stopped by the newest store on Main Street:  DW Hammond Chocolates and Fudge.  They just moved from Benton Harbor into this cute old building. The place isn't quite that cute inside just yet, but they're going to rip up the gross old carpet and refinish the floors.  They have a lot of space, so hopefully someone with a bit of experience can help them gussy the place up a bit. According to the owner (who told us the story ), these guys are the oldest/original chocolate makers in Southwest Michigan - dating back to the 1800's.   With the  Chocolate Garden already in business across town (Wow...they were just named "Chocolatier of the Year"!), and DW Hammond relocating their business here, maybe Coloma Michigan can become a chocolate hotbed of sorts.  Two chocolate stores make a coincidence.  But...when the third opens up, we'll have ourselves a trend. We bought some coffee and a small box of assorted chocolate

Seems like just about every time we get up to Coloma, we find a new local product that we can try to substitute for something in our normal grocery store shopping/dining routine.  This time it was in the frozen section with Hudsonville Ice Cream.  They have a cute 'turn' on the normal "Moosetracks" ice cream that is fitting with the region:  Michigan DeerTraxx (Which...looking at the packaging...they've apparently trademarked!) Turns out, they're based in Holland Michigan and have been around for 85 years. We don't buy a ton of ice cream at the grocery store, but Hudsonville Ice Cream will now join the  ranks of Pioneer Sugar  - which is made from Michigan beets - as a local product we'll give preference to in our shopping.

All along the bluff are a series of Memorials to various wars from WW1 through Vietnam.  The most stirring one - and (in my opinion) well done - is this WW1 Doughboy that sits atop this mound with boulders scattered around. I've walked around on the bluff many times, but it wasn't until this morning that I noticed them all in a line.

Nat spotted this little quirk on the menu at The Idler in South Haven earlier this summer.  I guess the rest of the coleslaw is just meh.  

When we were up in Michigan we stopped by a restaurant that we've long been eying - The Board of Trade .   It is on the other side of the lake from us, but right in this little pocket of homes that we call "Summer Rental" because it has a distinct feel that is different than the rest of the lake.  Small, cozy cottages that are really close together. The Board of Trade restaurant itself was fine - nothing crazy, but at least as good as the Friendly - so it gives us another option.  But the food isn't the reason that I'd go back.  It's the Keno.  Yes....Keno at your table. I had never played Keno, but I plunked down eight bucks and had fun for 16 minutes.  There's a draw every 4 minutes so you can really spend some dough.  I'm not a gambling fiend, so it was just enough to wet my whistle.  Now....I won't go into this at length, but I suppose there is some issue with this being available.  I *get* that the state is trying to generate some revenu

I don't know why, but I found this endlessly fascinating:  there was a group of three women prisoners from the Michigan Department of Corrections cleaning up/shoveling up the sand in the parking lots/roads on Silver Beach in St. Joe's Michigan yesterday.  I wanted to go ask them "what they were in for", but I couldn't quite get up the courage.  They'd likely be packing a shiv at the very least, right?  Sticking it to loudmouths like me would be fun, I'm sure. 

We went out plum picking at Jollay's in Michigan this weekend and came across these things: They're called Donut Peaches or Saturn Peaches.  They (apparently) came from China more than 100 years ago and gained some popularity in the 1990's.  I don't remember ever hearing about them, but seeing them on the tree, they're kind of a novelty.   Seems like it would be a fun tree to grow in the yard - especially because they're described as 'frost hardy' .

They were selling this stuff in an old-time candy shop in South Haven Michigan when we wandered in.  Of course, I couldn't help myself and asked the shop owner if she had a "good" Sarsaparill a?

Continuing on the trend of attempting to eat local while we are up in Michigan ( last year, we started to  use local Michigan Pioneer Sugar ), this year, we decided to "Serve the Curve" with Koegel's Michigan All Beef Frankfurters . The company has been making hot dogs and sausages in Flint Michigan since 1916 and their slogan appears to be " Serve the Curve " - because their all beef skinless dogs curve up when cooked.  Although they're not Chicago dogs, I believe these have become a part of my regular rotation up at the Lake from here on out. Here's a video about Koegel's .  Be warned.  There's a tiny view of the Lips and the Assholes.

I was in Ann Arbor this week doing some press outreach with the leader of our office and our landlord about our local office's effort to green-up the office and our building.  This is a pretty unique effort in that we have a VERY supportive and forward-looking landlord/partner in McKinley Properties and their CEO Albert Berriz.  Here's a photo I took of Albert and Fulter - a Googler - as they talk with the Detroit Free Press reporter AND photog (very meta, eh?) in front of the new solar panel installation at the Google office.  It is the largest private solar installation in the state of Michigan (I believe...) The neat part is that *this* project (which includes these panels plus other things like a "live" roof/green roof on another portion of our building, a greenhouse, and a new compost program IS consistent with Google's global approach to these things.  Pretty great to see the implementation at the local level in our regional offices instead of just at HQ in

During my time on the Frankfort Village Board, we often spent time in committees talking about the type of amenities that the government should undertake/build to make our downtown a bit more appealing.  Benches, water fountains, public restrooms all came up.  Those are easy.  They're all things that the local government can build that help bring shoppers down to your downtown.  That's always the goal:  improving the experience, which leads to more sales tax dollars. You know what we didn't think about?  An outdoor fireplace.  Too often, I think, we focused on the warmer months, but shoppers are out and about in the winter.  I saw this one (above) in Holland Michigan.  Theirs is gas powered and just about always on.  While I was standing there waiting for Nat to finish up at Tip Toes , I saw a few different groups of shoppers stop by for a brief warm-up.  The fireplace was working!

When we were up in Holland a last week, I made it clear that we had but one option for dinner that night: Fricano's, Too . We'd walked past it over the summer and I posted a shot of their sign which boasted that they were home to "The Original and Most Famous Pizza in Michigan".  At some point, someone chimed in with a comment on that original post shaming me for not going.  You should've made room for a Fricano's pizza that day! None of this American-ized, three-inch-thick, beef stew on a dough disc nonsense here! Fricano's are paper thin, 12" only, a little burnt around the edge of the home made crust, and is the best pizza you'll ever eat. I challenge you to NOT eat a whole one yourself! So...we went.  And, guess what?  It kind of sucked.  Maybe "sucked" is too harsh a word, but I have NO NEED to ever go back. It seems that this place has grown over the years and is clearly very popular with the locals.  We were there on a Tu

When we were in Holland Michigan last week, we were pretty bummed to find out that their big bookstore closed.  Seems they're part of a national trend of bookstores closing - succumbing to the digital revolution.  Sad.

There's a really nice story in Today's Detroit Free Press about how the Pure Michigan ads are moving online as a result of state budget cuts .  You all know the Pure Michigan Ads, right?  The Tim Allen ones? Well...the State of Michigan - like most other states - is totally out of money.  They've decided to look at the ways they can cut spending and one of the options was to "go dark" on these ads.  But...they only decided to "go dark" on broadcast. They're alive and well not only on YouTube, but more importantly on search advertising.  Head to Google and search "apple picking" or "fall color tour" or "cider mill" or "pumpkin farm".  They're savvy marketers and know that they can run their ads against those terms and have a huge amount of impact on tourists.  Sure...search ads aren't as evocative as the Tim Allen ones. But...when you need to "do more with less", the search ads are a p

As promised , here's the rest of the photos from our visit to the Treemendous Tree Farm outside of Coloma Michigan from over the weekend.  That's a bit of a stretch - as these aren't really the 'rest' of photots, but a few that I pulled from my phone. It isn't just Apples/Peaches at Treemendous.  They have a hayride and a little petting zoo.  With Billy Goats! Here's a view of part of the orchard with my niece in the foreground.  Pretty spectacular day in Michigan. Nat pulled the Babe on board and kept her entertained.  I'm claiming this was the Babe's 2nd visit, but Nat insists we count this as visit #1.  With my family being traditionalists, this won't be her last. My usual pose from the orchard with a Golden Delicious crammed in my piehole.  This time with my nephew joining me in the hi-jinx. In other news, according to Google's Insights for Search tool, [Apple Picking] seems to be the top fall activity for us folks in Illinois