Why I Oughta...

Behind the main drag - York Street - there's this hidden parking lot that usually has parking.  On the rare occassion that we drive and park in downtown, I usually check there first.  Some of the older businesses that have been in town for years have signs that face this lot.  The newer ones do not.  When this was the only parking in Downtown, this must have been a good marketing expense. There aren't any Arcade Stores any longer, but their entrance is - apparently- still there.

Too bad , Cubs fans.  Nothing like a little bit of Blackhawks bandwagon-ing to point this out.

With the rain holding off so far this morning, the paver guys are hard at work trying to get the job done.  I don't think they'll get it done, but at least a portion of it is underway. I was nervous about the pattern, but after a bunch of them went in, it became more understandable.  Will they be ready for our party?  We'll see.

When we went with the LOW bidder (and I mean really, really low), I assumed that we'd have some difficulties with our patio installation, but I didn't think it would take *this* long. The good news, is that we're finally progressing on the installation.  After all the rains fell, they finally excavated and started to put down the paver base. They're putting down more base, then comes the sand and finally....the pavers.  Hopefully, we'll have something to walk on by Saturday.  We still don't have a pic-a-nic table (Nat hates that I call it that), so that is on the agenda this weekend.

This is what we had in mind when we decided to build the pavilion: This is where we are today.  Not too far off! Still have to wrap the bottom of the posts in cedar shingles to ground this thing, but we're getting pretty close to finishing.

The pavilion construction keeps churning along in the backyard.  We're in crunch-time.  A party is planned for 12 days from today.  EVERYTHING needs to be done.  The guys were at our house early to start roofing the structure.  We picked the same shingles as were selected for our garage. The pavilion extension blends right in with the garage.  I'm very pleased with that! And...a very special guest arrived today:  the firebox. It will have an eight foot chimney stacked on top of this when it is complete, but it should be installed enough for us to run a fire or two.  This is a wood-burning firebox with 2-channel chimney.  It burns normal wood, but doesn't have a masonry surround.  We're going to build one with stone veneer. The instructions require us to burn a few small fires - gradually growing the temperature inside the box up as we go.  Maybe this week - if the patio goes in - we'll have a smallish fire or two.

Over the weekend, while Nat was in NYC, I decided to get started on turning that totally-underused patch of real estate on the south side of our house into a world-class vegetable garden.  The area is about 30' by 15' and needed some attention.  I got busy by digging out a ton of Irises and then rototilled the whole place. In order to both make it useable while working and to keep the weeds down, I installed landscape fabric.  Good thing, too, because as soon as I was done with the fabric, the rain came down.  But I was able to come right back out and get busy working because the mud stayed away. Laying out the raised beds is on my list of jobs this week.  Since I don't have class anymore, my nights can be spent in the yard!

Up in Michigan, we have our choice of Big Box stores; we can shop at Wal-Mart or Meijer.  Aside from societal-political issues, both of these places are pretty simliar: wide selection at cheap prices.  However, Meijer sells fountain sodas at checkout for $0.49 and when you're leaving their restrooms, you are greeted with this sign: Another reason to shop at Meijer in Michigan.

My week has been too busy to get to the Jewel to see if Elmhurst has any of this stuff, but it sounds interesting:   Pizza-specific yeast .  It has dough relaxers and (this is nice!) there isn't any proof time.  If I don't get that sourdough culture that I wanted, this might be a good Plan B.  We don't make a lot of last minute pizzas around our house - but for this product to succeed - there must be plenty of folks who do just that.  Pizza at the Parrillo house tends to be an event - one that is planned well in advance. Anyone try this stuff yet?  Results?

Two days ago, I d ocumented the beginnings of the installation of the backyard pavilion .  Unfortunately, after some consideration and inspection by the engineer, we've decided to take it down and restart. It now has a ledger board against the garage, reinforced legs and is lower by 12 inches. That should take out much of the sway and make it stronger. Here's where we were after the installation of the ledger board.