Why I Oughta...

Recently, I found myself in Southern California for some meetings and as one is wont to do, we ended up at a pizza place.  This place wasn't a local outlet, however.  It was one of the outposts of the Grimaldi's Coal-Fired Oven 'chain'.  I say 'chain', because I didn't know it was a chain. I've read and heard all about Grimaldi's and Patsy's (and presumed they were one and the same!) and have recently dug around to understand the current dynamics and who *exactly* is behind this current Grimaldi's.  Turns out Patsy Grimaldi founded Grimaldi's, but then sold that place to a dude back in 1998.  Patsy is still in the pizza biz, but under another name.   From GrubStreet : Christening a restaurant is never simple. But the question of what Patsy Grimaldi would call his new pizzeria was further complicated by the fact that he was legally barred from following the long-standing tradition of just naming it after himself. He couldn’t call it

That above is a cabinet of little vintage Christmas items that is located in a booth in the Great Lakes Antique Mall in Coloma, Michigan.  I've documented this very cabinet for the past few years.  I don't appear to have taken a photo of the cabinet in January of this year, so this one is about six months later than normal. Here's a post showing what the cabinet looked like in January of 2015 . Here's the photo from our 2014 trip . And... here's a photo of the case from 2013 trip . I've looked back and forth between today's image and the one from January of 2015 and I see VERY little difference.  Wonder if the stuff isn't moving?  The shelf in the middle looks a bit more crowded, but I can't confirm that there are indeed, more or less.  Can you?  

We've grown potatoes over the years, but I don't recall any of them blooming like the ones we are growing this year where they have big, white flowers.  I believe that these flowers are coming off just one of the two varieties - the purple ones called Magic Mollies - that we planted this year.   See this post to see them both . The girls are excited to see the tubers throw up their shoots and now flower and The Babe learned all about the structure of flowers in Kindergarten, so she was happily pointing out the stamen and such to me all last night.  

Yesterday morning, some wonderful people from Husqvarna pulled up to our home in Elmhurst in this massive and awesome truck and trailer.  Inside, was a delivery I've been anticipating for weeks:  our new Husqvarna Automower. I wrote about the #Automowerfirst program here on the blog a few weeks back where I mentioned that I was getting this robot lawn mower to use over the summer.  Disclosure here again:  Husqvarna has given me this Automower for free and if I post about my experience on the blog here and on social media, I am able to keep it.  Now...will I want to?  I'm not sure yet!  But, I'm sure hoping so.   Anyway, back to the installation.  These dudes arrived yesterday and got to work.  First thing they did was to cut my grass short which was awfully nice of them.  Then, they went ahead and began to lay down the boundary wire in the yard.  It is this green heavy gauge wire you see in the photo below.  They laid it all the way around the perimiter of the

I came across this wood rocking horse that was too cute to pass by at a garage sale recently in Elmhurst.  I took a photo of it and texted it to both Nat and her Mom - who is kinda *into* horse stuff.  Either way, I was going to buy this thing. Nat's mom raised her hand and this awfully cute red Wonder Horse has found a new home in Naperville for a whole generation of grandkids to ride on.  The price was too good to not put this into our van. In poking around on the web about what exactly this thing is, I came across this story about The Wonder Horse  and the history of the company who made/make it: Children of the 1950s remember the most popular horse from their childhood: the Wonder Horse. The all-wood painted horse was supported on a wooden frame by metal springs. The child rider could bounce up and down. The Wonder Horse was made by Wonder Products, now located in Bossier City, La. The company made its first horses in 1949. It continued making the same type until 195

For the past threeish years, whenever I missed my train in the city and had to wait around for a bit until the next UP-West Metra train, I usually 'poked' around in the French Market at Olgivie in the lower level.  I've bought and brought home various foodstuffs from the stands there, but recently I came across this place that was new to me:  Aloha Poke Co. Based on the line waiting for their Poke, it must be pretty great stuff.  I sent Nat this photo and she's already put her order in for takeout one night.  Have to time it *just right* to hit this place after the lunch crowd and before the rush hour crowd so there isn't a huge line.

I found myself in California recently and even though I've been there numerous times, I am always in awe when I look at the landscaping and see succulents just about everywhere.  These were in a corporate office park in Southern California.  Hens and Chicks or Chicks and Hens?