Why I Oughta...

Some smart cookies down in Columbia, I tell you!

Everywhere you look, it is already Christmas.  And...it is only early November.  We hear folks lamenting this trend as the Holidays creep up earlier and earlier each year.  The stores are already carrying holiday merchandise, muncipialities are already hanging lights on the town square, and consumers are actively ticking off items on their buying lists. The question:  Are marketers "forcing" this holiday stuff on us early to garner more purchases or do we as consumers actually "want" an early Christmas?  I'm not sure, but one annecdote that lends some credence that we "want" Holiday creep is this chart around Starbucks Holiday Red Cups. Clearly there's a HUGE surge of consumers across the country who are clamoring for the red cups. "When are the red cups coming?" "What do the red cups look like?" Questions like that are being asked and - to me - that indicates people are passionate about the cups and are primed for

Jackstack is what I think most people would call bourgeois bbq.  This isn't a dirty hole-in-the-wall order-at-the-counter bbq joint.  This is upscale.  And, most importantly, it is dee-licious. Once again, I went with burnt ends.  Jackstack's were HUGE chunks of meat that weren't slathered in too much sauce.  The meat was good and plentiful, but the sides shine as much as the main course at Jackstack.  The cheesy corn bake was my favorite, while Nat went with the cheesy potato bake.  BBQ is at the heart of the city of Kansas City, but it is clear by the success of this place, even the folks way out in the suburbs want some of that sweet meat, too!

Anthony Bourdain has a list of 13 places everyone must try before they die that includes a place called Oklahoma Joe's BBQ in Kansas City.  The full list is here .    He describes it thusly: It's the best BBQ in Kansas City, which makes it the best BBQ in the world. Well...consider us one step closer to finishing the list!  We had lunch at Oklahoma Joe's and the wait was worth it.  I had the burnt ends and Nat had a smoked Turkey sandwich.  Both were unreal.   I've been to a few other places around KC including Masterpiece, Gates, Jackstack and others, but Oklahoma Joe's stands out.  One thing to note, though:  we had a few sides at Oklahoma Joe's and they were ALL lackluster.  You can clearly tell that old Joe focuses on the meat and doesn't give much thought to the beans and potato salad.

Frost has arrived in suburban Chicago, which has put an end to the harvest.  Unfortunately, we are going to end up with a number of green tomatoes and some tiny zucchini.  But....there is one bright spot.  The purple bell peppers finally emerged.  We had a lot of luck with green and a few yellow, but the purple plant never threw off any fruit until VERY late in the season.  At that point, there wasn't a heckuva lot of heat in the air and soil to pump up the peppers.   Has anyone else grown purple bell peppers?  Were they super late bloomers?  Maybe next year we'll have to start them early in a hothouse or something.  But, that opens up a whole HUGE can of worms.  Do I suddenly become one of those seed people?  Pouring over the seed catalogs for heirloom varieties.  Building homemade green house solutions for my seedlings?  Hey...if it was good enough for my main man TJ , I guess there's worse hobbies to get into, right? 

This piece (embedded below) was sent to my by my buddy Adam.  He's in a similar "place" in life - with a relatively new baby at home, a great wife, strong family around him, and he's in a pretty nice spot professionally.  He's a friend that I grew up with in Frankfort - along with his brother(s) and have shared plenty with along the way. Turns out, that's not all we have in common.  He has pretty good taste in music (so do his brothers.  Well...the oldest one *still* really loves AC/DC, so I'm not sure about him!).  And because of that great taste in music...I'm so happy he turned me onto this My Morning Jacket cover of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin" by the Velvet Underground. He tells me that this is a live recording from Bonnaroo a few years back.  There isn't any moving pictures, just a still, so do yourself a favor:  Click "play" on the video, then go open up another tab and go on with your business on the internets.  I bet you come

The Babe is 2-2 when it comes to voting as she turned up at the polling place yesterday with both Mom and Dad.   We took her when she was SO young to vote in the primary elections back in February .  She wasn't even 2 months old.  Can't believe how small she was in that post. This is her now - her second voting day.  She made such an impression that she was lucky enough to get a sticker from the poll watchers. Nat took her in the booth with her this time as I was able to bring her with me in the primary.  Forget Cubs or Sox, this is too important:  R's vs. D's!

I told you the Owl was getting lonely. The cat turned out the best, but I think that's because he has chompers.  I have yet to decide if these are worth keeping in storage for next year or if now, since it is November, these should get chucked.  Maybe they'll join our owl pumpkins in the compost bin?

Had a big crowd on our street - mostly during the early hours - and beat last year's numbers.  This year, we had 39 kids "we knew" from the neighborhood, 181 other kids, and 16 adults.   You're probably wondering how I know the numbers?  Well....that's easy:  I kept track!    Below is my tally sheet along with the prior year's numbers in brackets at the top of each section.  The numbers aren't perfect, because when they come in waves, I sometimes loose track.  We break down by neighbors, non-neighbors, and adults.  Yes....adults.  Neighbors get big candy bars, the other kids get the normal Halloween-sized candy. Last year, we had 37 kids "we knew" from the neighborhood, 147 other kids and I didn't track adults. 2009 Total = 184 2010 Total = 236 Avg Total = 210 Some will ask, so I'll put this out there up front:  I keep track of the candy numbers for inventory control and candy budgeting, of course! As for the night, I'm

That's it on the right.  My mom grew up right upstairs in the apartment while her Mom and Dad operated a bakery out of the first floor.  Later, after her folks moved out to a new, bigger house, my Mom and Dad moved in right after they were married.   It (obviously) looked a bit different back then!  It was named Dorianels after my mom and her two siblings.  DOrothy, floRIAN, and MitchEL.  Dorianels. The bakery was right on 51st Street a few blocks north of Sherman Park .  My sister Vic went with my folks to scout out my Mom's old neighborhood and see her old church before they dismantled it.  Quite the sad story, but that's for another post.  Vic supplied this photo (and a few others I'll use later) and was the driving force to getting my mom back to her old stomping grounds.  The closest thing I have to an "old neighborhood" is probably Champaign-Urbana.  I know how I feel when I'm back on campus, so I can guess how my mom was feeling as they wondered a