Why I Oughta...

This is the *next* in the series of posts showing the view out my airplane window on a trip back home after a week of work meetings.    The last time was this sunset on the way home from Newark .  Before that was seeing the Aurora Borealis over Alaska .    This time, I saw this rainbow somewhere between Tennessee and O'hare on my regional airplane that wasn't the SpaceJet 1 .  I was sitting in the row of 1 seat on the port side (do they call it port/starboard on airplanes??) of the aircraft - which felt like a nice little perk after being exhausted from the week of work. 1. [For disclosure - and for those who don't know - I work at Edelman Public Relations Worldwide. I work/workeded on the launch on the Mitsubishi Spacejet Family at the Paris Air Show this year. They are a client of Edelman's.] ↩

Exactly one year ago, I posted photos and details of our annual firewood delivery from Best Firewood and talked about how we went with Cherry and Birch as our early season woods.  When we built our house, Nat insisted on a wood-burning fireplace with a masonry chimney.  We have one in our family room and we use the one on our screened porch.  When we bought the lot, there was a little bit of wood that had been cut down that was laying around.  Our firewood journey began with that inherited lot and some chopping in November of 2017 .   That lasted us until about mid-December.  And got us going in terms of burning fires most days we're home during the Winter.  Since then, we've had wood delivered each season that we've lived in our new house in Downers Grove starting with a mixed Face Cord that we had delivered right around Christmas of 2017 .   From there, I've done check-ins on our consumption including: February 2018 consumption check Delivery in October

One of the kids bought this Duffy pin during our stay at Aulani from earlier this year, but I just found it amongst their toys randomly.  But, I should have known that there was a third pin because I only documented two Aulani-related pins from our trip:  the O'lu turtle pin and this "Happy Holidays" Aulani pin featuring both Duffy and Shellie Mae . This "Aloha Duffy" with his Hawaiian shirt and luau necklace is going right on our pin board ( here's the first one and here's the second one ) in the garage alongside the rest of the pins we've collected. With my travels to Tokyo Disney, I've been able to bring home a few other Duffy and Friends-related things for the kids and they seem to love him.  Despite being pulled out of the American parks in all things but for the "Good Night Show" that they play at the resorts.  Oh, you haven't had your kids watch it?  Mine love it and this version on YouTube means we can even watch i

Up at the Lake Geneva Walmart the KotBT found this Cheesehead and couldn't resist trying it on.  He said that they have one of these in the 'costume trunk' at his pre-school so he knew what it was immediately.   Are you surprised that they're $22?  I don't know why, but that struck me as being more than I figured they were going for around Wisconsin? This is the same Walmart - about 15 minutes away from Twin Lakes - that sells the cases of Spotted Cow , the Bucky Badger Club Cheese and where we both picked up our fishing license and spotted Chicago Alderman Ed Burke with his security detail looking over a kayak .  Of course, I didn't let the boy get the cheesehead.  Nevermind the price.  We are with Da Bears in our house.  Doesn't mean we don't love us some Wisconsin Cheese like the King of Clubs .  Just not the Cheeseheads. 

Next up in my entries documenting some of our front yard plants are these Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses.  Unlike the Little Henry that I posted a few days ago , these grasses *have* been documented in the garden diary.    I posted a photo last August showing all three of them here .    And here's what they look like earlier in the season - June 2018 - when they were just emerging.  You can tell that these have grown larger and more substantial.  They move with the breeze and provide a nice breaker in the little bed between our driveway and the front stairs towards the porch.  When I look at these, I see a little bit of what looks like Grass Rust on the blades, but it might be just seasonal aging?  I didn't treat these with any fungicide like I did in our front yard, but I'll keep an eye on them next season and maybe put a little preventive down before I mulch.  The feather reeds are beautiful this year and they provide quite a bit of "winter interest"

This pair of Hydrangeas are right outside the southside of our front wrap-around porch and I've chronicled them a few times here on the blog in the garden diary.  I have, however, mislabeled them in the past once calling them "Annabelles" .  They're not Annabelle Hydrangeas.  They're Limelights.  I looked back at our original landscape plan and confirmed that they are limelights - because the blooms earlier this year were VERY lime-colored.  They're doing great with giant blooms that put on that nice lime-colored show earlier this year.  This is the second in the series of posts about our front yard plants - which have been historically second-class citizens in the garden diary over the years.  The first was this post about our Little Henrys .  Going back, you can see them coming back their first Summer in June 2018 here .  Then, here's what they looked like in mid-Summer last year.   Compact, but big blooms.  These get good southern exposure an

Early October means....Christmas time!  At least, that's how the fine folks at Menards view it.  And, I'm happy to admit this:  My name is Jake.  And I'm ok with Christmas Creep!  I've covered Menards Enchanted Forest Christmas setup for a number of years now.  In 2018 (last year), I posted on September 24th showing off the Enchanted Forest .   In 2017, I posted on September 28th . In 2016, I posted on September 26th . In 2015, I posted on October 6th . And, back in 2011, I posted on September 17th . So, October 1st is *late* in terms of when I get around to posting things.  I was at the Bolingbrook store over the weekend, so I suppose this could have, technically, been a September post.  But, I didn't get around to posting the photos until this am.   I love walking through all the Christmas stuff - and the kids love it even more. Also, the one thing that I've learned about holiday decorations at Big Box Stores is that they don't restock stuff