Why I Oughta...

It is as suprising to you as it is to me that I suddenly care about the playground equipment at my local parks, but I really do!  And, that's why this story about how Elmhurst is thinking about rehabbing some play areas in the Tribune  (and Trib Local) grabbed my interest - which is where, incidentally,  I grabbed this photo from Specifically, they're interested in getting feedback on the playground equipment at Wilder Park (and the park layout in general) - which is the most centrally-located park and the largest one that is close to our downtown.  They're thinking pretty big on some issues, but also working on some specific quality-of-life details like they are already considering a rubberized surface instead of the current wood chips (nice!).    Of special note to me is that they're using Google Docs as the host for their public presentation  and YouTube to host the ir videos of the Wilder Park site .  Nice use of the Cloud, Elmhurst Park District!  The full deck f

I think we might have spotted him on the South Side this afternoon.  He even is rocking a "PBA" license plate holder.

Always tough games when you go up against a Big Ten team. But the JAYS came out strong and now w e're 3-0 heading in an off week.  Big day for the kickers, too.  1 FB, 3-3 PATs. The Maroons have really great old-school uniforms and VERY prominantly display the Chicago Bears--esque "C" - which may be where the Bears logo came from!

Hi there Lazyweb, Anyone know what this is?  It is growing like crazy in our garden - and up our fence.  Unfortunately, I don't know what it is.  How is that, you ask?  Well....this thing sprung up from our compost. All of my research on the web says that it isn't a pure watermelon - they sprout in much rounder shapes.  We have a few different types of gords growing (jack be littles and such), but they're all identifiable.  I remember what we had last year at Halloween time and remember throwing them all in the compost bin.  But....we didn't have anything like this. Could we have created a super-beast?  A hybrid gourd out of our own compost?  I know that there are watermelon-colored gourds ( see here ) and that there are gourds that have half orange - half green.  This one is all green.  And...shaped like an eggplant ! The vine has about 8 of them growing, so perhaps I'll cut one open and see if the fruit is red?

This is what the Babe looks like when Nat tells her something wonderfully funny.  Scrunched nose.  Loud grunting laughs! Look, Ma!  No teeth!

Our garden is just beginning to throw off the majority of it's produce.  Zucchinis, tons of varieties of tomatoes, pumpkins, gords, peppers, squash and....lots and lots of eggplant!  Yep....Nat and I are going to be the Forest and Bubba Gump of eggplant.  We'll make eggplant parmesan,  grilled eggplant sandwiches, eggplant lasagna and more. Here's one of the black/purple beauties.  They're pretty big.  That tomato next to it is a HUGE heirloom variety called a Pineapple Tomato - like the size of a softball. And...the tomatoes?  We're going to try to make Nat's red gravy and can it for the winter in jars, but after that, we'll probably end up with a few dozen dozen (you read that right!) extra red beauties.  (We *may* have planted too many this year!)  We'll have to open up a stand out front on Indiana Street for all the passers-by.

As promised , here's the rest of the photos from our visit to the Treemendous Tree Farm outside of Coloma Michigan from over the weekend.  That's a bit of a stretch - as these aren't really the 'rest' of photots, but a few that I pulled from my phone. It isn't just Apples/Peaches at Treemendous.  They have a hayride and a little petting zoo.  With Billy Goats! Here's a view of part of the orchard with my niece in the foreground.  Pretty spectacular day in Michigan. Nat pulled the Babe on board and kept her entertained.  I'm claiming this was the Babe's 2nd visit, but Nat insists we count this as visit #1.  With my family being traditionalists, this won't be her last. My usual pose from the orchard with a Golden Delicious crammed in my piehole.  This time with my nephew joining me in the hi-jinx. In other news, according to Google's Insights for Search tool, [Apple Picking] seems to be the top fall activity for us folks in Illinois

This afternoon, we went on our annual pilgrimage to Treemendous Tree Farm right near my folks place at the Lake.  Dyers and my mom joined us three. I have a few more photos to share, but I took them all with my phone and I'm having difficulties getting a strong enough signal for them to upload to Picasa Web Albums.  Hopefully, they'll show up tomorrow!

Big win today for the Bluejays on the road up in Michigan.  A great 2-0 start with a game at home one week from today against the Maroons of University of Chicago.  Mixed bag with the kickers with a 38+ yard punting average, one touchback, and one field goal.  Had one blocked, but I'll insist that it was a snap issue.  A steady rain fell the ENTIRE game making it a hard one for everyone involved. We opened up 3-0 last year so I'm hoping we can match that start again.

After the devastating storm that destroyed our pear tree, I figured the tree would just die.  After all, it snapped in half .   I took a peek at the tree yesterday and was pretty surprised by the growth that had taken over - right where the trunk snapped. The bamboo pole in the middle of the shot is where the snap happened.  You can see the trunk (dark brown) right next to it.  Perhaps we'll have pears next year after all!