Why I Oughta...

More than 700 posts later, I've stuck to my 2010 New Year's resolution of posting *something* to this blog every day of the year.   Last year , I celebrated the first time in my life that I actually stuck to my resolution.  Sure, writing a crummy blog post about something silly isn't all that impressive, but it was what I picked and as you can see from the number of posts next to various years, writing 365 posts wasn't always easy. As far as stats go, the most popular post - by far - was this post on the Cedar Summit Playground from Costco . This year, I also made a new resolution - and just like last year - I stuck to this one too.   This one was just as silly - and something that I shouldn't have had to 'resolve' to do, but nevertheless, the process worked and now I'm happy to say that I kept that resolution, too. Here's to a great 2012.  A great wife.  Great daughter.  Amazing family.  A good job.  Even more surprises.  And...maybe even a

The Babe came out the big winner on our recent trip to the Antique Mall in Coloma.  She scored herself a vintage Wonder Walk-R-Ride Horse for all of $8.60.  Based on some searches on the web, these things go anywhere from $15 all the way up to more than $100 - based on the condition and age. I'm guessing that this thing is the exact same as the one touted here as "from the 1950's" and selling for $75.  Pretty good deal if that's the case. We didn't go home empty handed, though.  I picked up a few vintage Christmas smalls - that I love.

I crushed last year's total of a mere $19.60 in the change jar that I keep on my desk.  The biggest difference was that this year I stuck a bunch of cash in the jar from time-to-time.  I deposit all of the change into The Babe's savings account, so this year I stuck the few Double Sawbucks that she received for her birthday and Christmas in the jar along with the change.   With 3 data points, we can start to make some interesting assumptions on the data. 2011:  $181.15 2010:  $19.60 2009:  $53.51 The cash is the biggest differentiator this year, and looking at the deposit slip, it accounted for $130 of the $181.15 total - which leaves me with $51.15 of coins and puts me right in line with 2009's total.  The 2010 total seems low by comparison.

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.

This is the second year in a row that Christmas came and went and I didn't get this craft project done.  I've been sitting on two packages of rope lights for more than 700 days and things always get to crazy in December and I don't get this done. I'm writing this note to myself so I keep me honest and get this done in 2012.  "Joy" it will be.

This year, I had* Equation Boy/Man in our Christmas Grab-bag.  (By 'had', I mean that in my mind, I was to buy/build for him because I bought/built for my brother-in-law Shaun last year.  It appears that the guys-only Grab-bag may have fallen apart, but I'll soldier on, alternating between the two of them anyway.) Earlier this year, Equation Boy/Man had a really nice basketball hoop installed in his new driveway and I've spent many a late afternoon down at their place playing hoops with my nephew.  Everytime we play, the balls were scattered across the yard or garage.     Bingo!  I knew what I could build him - a rolling basketball rack/cart. I started with red cedar 4X4 beams for the corners.  The rest of the pieces are cedar 2X4s.  An adult basketball has a (just shy of) 10" diameter, so I made the rack 40" long to hold 4 balls.  3 levels means 12 adult balls. I'll have to grab a photo of the finished product (because I forgot to!) that shows th