Why I Oughta...

Unfortunately for me, just in one size:  2.5".  They have plenty of "doll heads" which are wooden balls of various shapes and sizes with one side of them flattened out to allow for said ball to perch on a pair of shoulders, I suppose. I have a project that requires three different sizes of wooden balls and I was hoping that I'd be able to buy all of the in-person at Michael's.  I'll have to turn to some online shop to get the other sizes.  There's always Hobby Lobby, but being deeply religious folks , they might be out of the ball-business all together.  What...with the bad puns and all.

As part of the garage project, we put in a fireplace (I've talked about it at length before.)  All summer long, I tried to enjoy it, but everytime I put a fire on, it was just too stinkin' hot to really think that it was a great idea.  We had a few smaller fires - and enjoyed the looks but couldn't sit too close because the atmospheric temperatures were in the 90's, so the fires just made things worse. But...with last weeks temperatures in the 70's and 60's at night, the fireplace is getting put through it's proper paces.  I think we had fires 5 out of 7 nights last week.  My nephew and niece enjoyed the s'mores part of the night quite a bit.

My name is Jake and I am a Howard Stern fan.  Because of that, I am a Sirius Satellite Radio subscriber.  I admit that I use it **mostly** if not exclusively for Howard Stern.  (think what you will of me for being a fan. )  One of the other stations that I listen to is something called " Outlaw Country " - which is a station " devoted to Outlaw Country music, along with various related genres including classic honkey tonk, alternative country, and roots rock ."  Sounds about right. I have tagged a few songs on the station - where I get alerted when I'm in the car and the song is on.  One of them is  "Atlantic City" as performed by The Band.  I haven't heard the song played elsewhere on the dial (But...I rarely listen to the radio besides Howard 100 and this station!)   It is a song written by Bruce Springsteen that showed up on his solo record "Nebraska" back in 1982 .  It is a pretty dark song, but really well performed by the guys i

UW's Jake Locker with the early lead in the Heisman race?  Terrelle Pryor nipping at his heels.  At least that's what Google's Insights for Search tool thinks.  The college football season has ups and downs, so searches may or may not be able to predict the present.   I'm hoping that this will get a MUCH wider audience in the coming weeks/months as the Heisman race heats up.

But my mind already is starting to think Christmas.  This year, I'm going to attempt to go all hand-made for the holidays.  By that, I'm not talking about buying hand-made gifts, rather....I'm going to try to make them myself!  Of course....Nat's gifts are exempt from this because...well....just because. Here's the first object purchased for a set of gifts.  This is going to be come the prototype.  Can't share all the details - mostly because the folks who are reading this (hi guys!) are the ones who are going to get this very gift. Am I the only crazy person thinking Christmas already?

(Disclosure:  I'm a member of the Big Ten Fan Council and didn't have to pay for my ticket to the luncheon and other events.) A few weeks ago, I was able to attend the Big Ten Football Kickoff Luncheon.  A full post will show up about the day shortly.  While I was there, I grabbed a few photo-ops with the life-sized bobbleheads that are promoting the new show called Big Ten Icons .  The show doesn't air until September 18, but they're only airing on the Big Ten Network Icons #20-#1.  Starting next week, they'll begin put up #50-#21 on the web.  Illinois is well represented (based on the bobbleheads) by Kendall Gill in hoops and Red Grange in football.  If the Galloping Ghost isn't #1, the system is fixed.   Here's me with the guys from both of my schools - Kendall Gill from Illinois and Joe Girardi from NU.   I'm pretty sure this is Glen Robinson - the Big Dog!  I was over by the Purdue folks and he was standing around.  I sidled up and posed.   Ever