Why I Oughta...

For the better part of the past 18 months (starting a few months before the Babe was born), I've pretty much had a beard.  And I've liked the beard.  But I woke up a few days ago and figured it was time to go.  To mark the occasion, we went to Barnaby's.  (yummers!)  Actually, we don't need a reason to go to Barnaby's to eat the delicious cornmeal-laden pizza pie.  For those of you keeping track of my looks at home and for Parrillo Family archives record keeping purposes, here's an updated photo for the end of March 2011.   For a long time there, I figured that I'd just become a "beard guy".  In fact, I would tell anyone that listens that I'm a "beard guy".   Not this week.  Anymore.  The good news is that stubble is back already.  And, I have a feeling that I'll grow it completely back because I already miss it.  Spring and Summer temperatures may convince me otherwise, though.

Move over vegetable garden and garage pavillion, there's potentially a new entrant into the currently crowded backyard at the Parrillo household.  Behold:  this beauty.  The Cedar Summit Panorama Playset from Costco.   Comes with 3 swings and a tube slide.  Nat spotted this behemoth at Costco and after doing a bit of comparison shopping at a place like Menards (more expensive, I think) and Wannemaker's (don't sell these type of things any more), it appears to be a fair deal. It is a kit - so I'd be putting it together myself, but I'm up for that challenge.  The real issue is getting it home.  I'm going to head back to Costco to take a look to see if it will fit in Nat's car with the back seats folded down.  If not, it seems like I'll be renting a truck from Home Depot.  Yes, the Babe is likely too small for a lot of this, but certainly NOT the swings.  We take her to the park on a regular basis and she gets a kick out of the swings.  The whole fort t

Pardon the smudgy fingerprints, but look what landed on my desk yesterday.  Site looks pretty good - and blogger knows that I don't want the mobile template and serves up the full site on the Motorola Xoom. 

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!