Why I Oughta...

The electricians (finally!) showed up and brought power to our garage.  Pay no attention to the butt crack in the photo. They trenched 18" deep and ran rigid pipe in the ground.  I also had them put in some outlets in the yard for a future project!

I rented a car last week in Benton Harbor, Michigan from Enterprise and spotted this "house ad" in their office. They're promoting their sponsorship of NCAA sports.  Take a close look at the kicker in the bottom left. (click the photo to blow it up)  That's totally the Ilini.  They stripped off the logos on the helmets, but they can't fool me!  Can't tell the vintage, but maybe it is  Jason Reda ?

Up at the Harding's Market in Michigan, there's apparently a problem with both employees and customers taking magazines into the bathroom.  The problem was so bad that they had to post this notice on the door: You're probably wondering what I was doing in the bathroom of the grocery store.  No....it wasn't an emergency.  (Although, that has, indeed, happened to me in the past.)  Rather, Michigan is a state where you have to return your cans/bottles back to where you bought them for $0.10/a piece.  Unfortunately, most folks don't really "drain" their soda cans/beer cans/beer bottles before they put them in the bin.  They leave a little bit of liquid in the bottom, so when they end up in our bags to bring back to the store, the whole thing is a big mess.  After putting the cans into the machine, I use the bathroom to wash my hands.   As a side note...make sure you shake out your cans/bottles in the sink, please.  So those of us who have to return them don&

We took the Babe for her second trip to Michigan this past week and were able to spend a bit of time on Silver Beach in St. Joe's.  The weather wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't "beach weather".  That didn't stop Nat from insisting that we take a walk on the beach after supper @ Silver Beach Pizza. First time on sand for the Babe and she didn't mind it one bit.  This bodes well for the summer - as we have a few weeks booked up in Michigan for vacation.  She'll be swimming before I know it!

Right now on the Tribune's homepage , they've gussied up their logo with this Chicago Blackhawks Doodle.  It is the first time I have spotted them doing something like this.  Seems familiar... somehow . They did a pretty cute job with it - they should do it regularly based on news events around town.  Maybe a   "Please Come, LeBron" doodle?

We spent some time this weekend in Holland Michigan and walked past Fricano's Too.  We had pizza at Silver Beach Pizza the night before, so we didn't eat here, but they make some big claims. Original and most famous? We'll have to go back to Holland later this summer to find out what the story is all about.  Has anyone been up to Holland?  Any intel on Fricano's?

To celebrate our good friends' recent engagement, Nat and I wanted to take them out for dinner/drinks.  One way or the other, we settled on Hopleaf in Andersonville.  Being a suburban Dad, I rarely venture into the city at night, so I wasn't the one to pick the place, but I'm thrilled that whomever decided on the location picked Hopleaf. The place is known for their beer menu and long waits and they didn't disappoint.  Fortunately, we decided to avoid the Eisenhower and went up around O'Hare and took the Kennedy into the city.   By the time we arrived, our friends had already put our name in and grabbed a seat in the bar area - thus shortening the time we had to wait for a table.   I won't go into a huge review of the place, but I will say that I'm willing to go back - and for a place in the city that makes you wait for a table - that is rare. I had a beer from a Chicago brewery - Metropolitan called I-Beam Alt  and the ham and cheese sandwich (they hav

We don't go to Chipotle very often.  Maybe once every 2 months or so, but we found ourselves there last week with our niece. They've changed their soda cups, right? I see their new billboards and have witnessed a few branding changes in the stores (new signage?), but I can't wrap my head around what their message is all about.  Don't get me wrong - I really like the food every time I eat there, but it seems like they're struggling to create a cohesive message to consumers.

Menard's is running some pretty good sales on bulbs/seeds/tubers as they try to clear out their early spring inventory.  We have one planting bed that is staying put in our backyard, but the rest is up in the air.  That's making plant-buying decisions a bit hairy.  I've - for the most part - held off on buying much of anything this year because of all the uncertainty. That was, until this Menard's sale.  I bought a few different sets of bulbs - which turned out to be tubers.  Excuse me for saying this, but I'm a tuber virgin.  Either I never planted one, or I didn't know it was a tuber if I did.  Turns out, both Dahlias and Caladiums are tubers. My Mom told me that you have to "dig up tubers" each fall in Illinois.  I didn't believer her:  couldn't be that you'd have to take in your bulbs each fall just to plant them again.  Seems like a bit too much work. Turns out....my Mom was right:   Once these are planted, I'll have to dig &#

Last Friday, I spent some time at the Field School in Elmhurst as a "Special Person" of my nephew.  One day a year, every kid in the school gets to nominate a "special person" in their lives to come into class and see what they do at school. My nephew asked me to show up late in the day for his First Grade class.  He's really come a long way in just one year.  Last summer, he was living with us and really didn't have any reading skills.  His teacher was very proud as each of the kids in class stood up and read stories that we wrote together. My nephew and I had a great time writing our story.  It was supposed to be about a butterfly, but ours ended up being about his favorite "game" - Electric Hotdog Fighting.  I put game in quotes because it doesn't really exist, but he wants it to so badly.  He said that the packaging will say something like "Hotdogs not included, just like batteries not included!" I know I was his "spec