Why I Oughta...

My sister Vic sent me this photo of us at Walt Disney World from when we were very young.  It is my Mom (very stylish, right?), my second oldest sister Sharon, my sister Vic and - of course - myself.  I'm assuming my oldest sister is the one taking the photo, right?  We're all wearing Mickey Ears and my mom is holding a fourth pair in the photo.  But, where are we?  It seems like we are (obviously) in a hat shop, but looking at the cast member's uniform, I wonder if there's a way to figure out the location.  Is this inside The Chapeau in the Magic Kingdom - the big hat shop?  Or, are those lederhosen that the Cast Member is wearing?  Could this be inside the Germany Pavillion at Epcot?   I can't confirm this, but my parents tell me that they went to Walt Disney World during the opening year of Magic Kingdom - so sometime between October 1971 and September of 1972.  And, if that is, indeed, true, might my Mom have booked another trip...

Back a couple of weeks, I met my childhood friend Neil at the Chicago Athletic Association building for a few beverages and some what-have-yous.  We got the full tour of the place from the drawing room to the game room to the new rooftop place called Cindy's.  We didn't however, get into the Cherry Circle Room.  It didn't open until 5.   The Cherry Circle is a place that I've been before.  In fact, it was likely one of my few times when I was served in a bar before I was 21.  My oldest sister was married back in the 90's at the CAA and I remember spending time with her soon-to-be-husband and his wedding party in the Cherry Circle the morning of the wedding.  I really like what the new owners of the place have done with the place.  They've kept everything that was wonderful with the old CAA and breathed a lot of new life into the place.  It is funky and weird, but not so off-putting as a place like the Ace Hotel in DTLA is for me.  I'...

Menards has been doing a really great job of churning out some interesting O Gauge rolling stock over the past few years.  This car above is from the Canadian National and if you look closely has a little mark to the right of the door that says 'Built by Menards 2015'.  My oldest sister has been working in the railroad industry for a long while.  First for the Chicago and Northwestern.  Then the Union Pacific.  And now the Canadian National.   She keeps a few O Gauge cars in her office.  Have to think that this one would fit in well. And that might be the best use of these Menards cars, in my opinion.  Looks.  The couplers kinda suck.  They roll really nice and once you have them set up and connected, there's very few problems.  But, they're NOT high-quality couplers and NOT Lionel couplers.  They sell these cars pretty cheap.  Like $20 for each one and less if you buy 6 of them or something like that.  Can you im...