Why I Oughta...

We don't have a single square foot of installed carpet in our house.  Wood floors everywhere.  We do have a few area rugs in our family room and living room, but that all changed this morning.  After one last slip coming down the stairs, it was time to try to make them a bit more grip-tight.  Especially with the Babe being carried up/down multiple times a day.  The guys from Luna are here putting in a runner that will cover the stairs.  Nat picked the color and I think it turned out nice.  Suppose, we'll find out when she comes home, though!

I spent a part of past week up in Minneapolis where - in addition to reminiscing about my days of selling drywall screws in the Twin Cities - I also spent some time with reporters teaching a "Google 101 for Journalists" at the Minneapolis Star Tribune.  Like other papers (Hello, Chicago Sun-Times!), the Star Tribune started as two independent Newspapers called the Minneapolis Star and Minneapolis Tribune .  Interestingly enough, their building reflects those independent roots.  Notice the "and". Still not as cool as the Columbus Dispatch sign , though.

Thanks to Equation Boy/Man I was able to get into the "Second Round"* games of the Mens 2011 NCAA Basketball Tournament at the United Center.  We saw some great names/teams like Notre Dame, Purdue, Georgetown, Florida State and Texas A&M.  And some not so great games.  (Have to love the VCU upset, right?)  Grabbed a grilled cheese at the Billy Goat to top the night off.  (Yes....no Cheezeboorger for me.

A few days ago, we celebrated my dad's birthday (along with my beautiful niece's birthday!) and unlike last year, ALL of the grandkids were able to be there.  Nice hat, dad! Here's the 2010 version with photo .  The birthday girl (in pink) wasn't even born yet! 

After spotting (and documenting) the new Walgreens house brand of beer called Big Flats 1901 Lager and the Jewel brand Buck Range Light , I figured I should share a photo of another house-brand that I spotted:  Kirkland Signature Handcrafted Ales.  This is a 24 pack - of four different six packs including a Pale Ale, Amber Ale, India Pale Ale and a Belgian White all for $18.99.  The guy in front of us in line was raving about this stuff - and said that it is all he serves at parties and drinks at home.  If Nat doesn't like it when we serve Miller High Life at our get-togethers, I doubt she'll get behind a house-brand, right?  Anyone tried this stuff? 

In lieu of keeping a gardening journal on paper, you've probably noticed that I've been using this space as a running entry of what is working and what isn't with my seedling experiments.  With Nat's encouragement, I've mentioned that I've taken on some flower seed growing ( Amaranthus , Cosmos) including one of her favorites:  Zinnias. One of 3 varieties of Zinnias I've sown is called the Purple Prince.  I'll find time/space to show you the other two soon. After just a week and a half in the ground, the seeds have sprouted and seedling have begun to emerge.  None of those "Luminous Blooms" yet, but I'm now more hopeful and knowledgeable about how these things work.  Once again, I put too many seeds in each little compartment - not knowing that so many of them would emerge.  Will be such a shame to have to thin these guys out.

A week or so ago, my sister sent me an article ( like this one - but I don't think that was actually the one she sent) that had all these alarming stats about the air quality in our homes during the winter and how these things called VOCs get built up.  I had never even heard of VOCs, let alone knew that they were doing so much damage to our lungs.  VOCs are Volatile Organic Compounds that come from a wide range of things in our homes like paint and furniture and cleaning supplies.  Turns out, because of these VOCs, the air quality *in* our home may be worse than the quality *out* of our home. This note she sent me said that all is not lost; that there was something you could do to help clean the air in your home:  buy one of these five plants.  Armed with the list of the five plants, I went off to Home Depot to see what I could turn up in the garden center.  On the list was something called an Asparagus Fern and after some digging and Google Image searching (the plants at Hom

Allow me to let you in on a little secret:  After a life-long search for the tastiest, best cheese for pizza, I am happy to tell you that the journey is over.  Here it is:  Chellino Brand Scamorza Cheese. I've been using Chellino Scamorza for 2 or 3 years after first reading about it on PizzaMaking.com and then seeking it out and finally finding it at Zeppe's Italian Market in Naperville .  It is NOT cheap - a few more bucks per pound than your run-of-the-mill mozzarella, but that few dollar expense is more than worth it. This particular brand of Scamorza - which is, as I'm told by the guy who answers the phone at Chellino Cheese Co in Joliet, IL, is the only Scamorza made this way (the rest it sounds like are a bit more like fresh mozzarella).  It is the perfect blend of creamy and salty.  And the key part?  It looks, grates, and smells just like mozzarella.  But it tastes a bit different (better) and it must have a different (higher?) burning point because it browns

The second part of my Black & Decker Leafhog arrived this week via Amazon.   Billed as a Leaf Collection System, this is an 8' hose with a garbage can attachment that takes the sucked/chopped leaves and deposits them right in your garbage can.  I need a few moisture-free days to get everything to dry out before I can give it a shot, but as you can imagine, I'm chomping at the bit to get started this spring. 

Well....that didn't take long.  Just late last week, I shared the news that in addition to trying some vegetable plants from seeds, I was also trying my green thumb at sowing flower seeds.  One of them that Nat picked out (she's the flower expert) was heirloom Amaranthus that I showed last week.  Along with a bunch of other flower seeds, these have really taken off.  The Amaranthus are the light purple ones in the foreground.  Right behind them are a variety of Cosmos - but that is for another post.  As often happens (I'm learning), it is now time to thin all of them out to allow the healthiest and strongest seedlings to flourish, but I hate to just throw the extra seedlings in the trash.  I'm going to try to make it to Menards soon to pick up more non-peat pods and maybe grow some of these to give away.  Maybe they'll find a home in some yards on our block or in Frankfort or Naperville. I've never attended a seed swap, but after hearing about them, I was w