Why I Oughta...

When we arrived home with the babe from the hospital, we were greeted by this home-crafted sign on our dining room windows. Nat's mom and dad came over, shoveled our snow (so did Equation Boy/Man), brought over a "Birth Day" cake, left behind some presents and hung up this cute sign.  All very thoughtful gestures.  But the sign stands out for a few reasons.* First, it was hand-crafted.  I hate to use the term home-made; that makes things sound amateurish; and this thing is anything but amateur.  Dianne used some pretty cute fabric and strung up the sign in Nat's preferred lower-case letters.  But, the other really interesting aspect to the sign is that it is re-usable (as in not temporary).  Not as in....take off this girls name and slap up another one if/when we have another kid  (and I mean "slap up" in the most delicate of senses, by the way).  I doubt that will happen, rather, (I believe) we can move the sign up to the babe's room/nursery and hang

Going out to the curb with today's trash is our "second" real Christmas Tree.  The one in the house that we cut down after Thanksgiving went out last week, but we've had another one outside our house - in our front yard that was lit for the final time last night. Elmhurst has a nice tradition of putting "front yard trees" in for the holidays - and our street participates in an especially strong fashion - almost every house buys a tree and lights it up for the Christmas season. I'm (nor is my sister who lives also lives on the block) not sure where or when the tradition started, but in most parts of town, there's pockets of these real, fresh cut trees that spring up in late November.  The trees are a fundraiser (I think) for the grade school district.  They send around a flyer a few weeks early where you order them - they cost $17 a piece.  You have to go get a big stake (ours from Ace Hardware) and wrap the trunk to the stake so it won't tip

We started (re)construction of our house in September of 2008.  There's still! things that need to get done inside including the "finishing" of the fireplaces.  We put in 2 42" direct vent fireplaces - one in the family room and one in the front room (living room).  That's right....42"-ers.  Some folks brag on their plasma screens, I brag on my HUGE fireplaces - they type of which you have to go to Panera to see in person.  (Note...I think they might actually be too big/hot for a house our size!) Direct vent fireplaces (for those that don't know) have a piece of glass on the front of them and a 2 chamber flue/pipe that takes hot air out in one chamber and pulls cool air in.  It is a pretty slick technology. The downsides of direct vent are (obviously) it is NOT a wood-burning fireplace.  So, you don't get the smell or sound of those.  On the positive side, it **looks** like a real fireplace (they've gotten pretty good), it is clean (no dirty

I don't have to tell you guys this, but blogging tends to be habit forming.  You get in the habit of posting and guess what:  you post.  But as soon as you fall out of the habit of posting regularly (or at some interval), it is VEEEERRRRRRY easy to fall out the habit of posting to your blog. With the feedback loop on blogging very small (what with feeds, twitter and comments), it is that crucial feedback that might help keep a (this) blogger motivated. After posting every day this year, I thought I'd share some of the feedback I've received from friends (THESE ARE FRIENDS!!) 1 0: 59 AM  (NAME REDACTED) : what's with your blog?    why am I suddenly getting your emails again? 11:00 AM  (NAME REDACTED) :  and what's with some of these posts? 11:09 AM  (NAME REDACTED) :  are you writing for Oprah's magazine or something?  What's with this new writing style? How reassuring to know that my posts are connecting at such a high level intellectual

Last summer, Nat and I made the decision to start to compost as much material as we could (actually...I made the decision and Nat said:  "I think it is a fine idea, but it is going to be a lot of work FOR YOU.")  We had a moderately successful first year as backyard gardeners and we'd been "container gardeners" prior to that, but composting was going to be a big step up. It required a bin in the yard.  Sure, we could have just strung up some chicken wire and turned the pile occassionally, but I wanted something that was closed, sealed, and spun on an axle.   Maybe it was a rookie mistake, but we bought a relatively cheap one and began - late in the season to fill it. We weren't too knowledgeable about composting, but I understood the basics.  One of the issues I wasn't aware of is that composting - at its best - is a 'batch' process.  One should fill the bin with the right mix of 'browns' and 'greens' and then turn that sucker

A new term was coined in our family recently.  Everyone should update their files as we add this one to the Parrillo Family Lexicon:  The Lazy Lad. A few weeks back the entire family gathered at my folks house for Christmas festivities.  Having had the babe a week prior, we scouted out some space to scurry to when Nat needed to feed her.  We quickly spotted a nice chair up in my folks bedroom.  We set up camp. A few hours into the evening, after coming down from one of her numerous trips up there, Nat sat down on the counch and began to sang the praises of a the chair she was using.  As she described it, "it is really comfy but a really nice size.  Kinda like a small lazy-boy" the my brother-in-law Shaun (the part-time comedian) was listening and chimed in. He said slyly:  "Oh....you must mean the Lazy Lad?" Both Nat and I responded:  "Is that what it's called?" Shaun:  "Heh.  I don't think so...but it would be a heckuva name for one

Whilst in the throws of our first winter in our house, I'm taking time to notice some of the small design touches that Nat help make when we put the place together. The construction process was soooo long and frankly....frustrating, that I forgot how many decisions needed to be made. Cabin fever can make you introspective, I suppose. One of those decisions (or many of those decisions) were light fixtures. I had focused mostly on the 'bones' of the construction - all the rough plumbing, electric, insulation, location of walls, windows, doors, etc. And, Nat was able to focus on some of the other finishing touches like the color/type of the sinks, cabinets, and most notably fixtures. One of the nicer ones she picked out is below (I actually like ALL of the lights she picked and she HATES every one of the ones I picked). You hardly notice it, but when I take the time to pay attention, I can enjoy the details. It fits well with the rest of the house, fits well with