Why I Oughta...

My sixth sports-related OGB Post went up about 20 minutes before the first pitch of the 2011 World Series and includes a bunch of baseball search-related trends.  The most interesting?  The rally squirrel. I couldn't be less interested in the series with the Rangers and the Cards.  At least I can root for the Cards because so many Cubs fans will be bummed out if they win. ------------------------------------------------------- Here are the live links to all twelve of my posts on the Official Google Blog: At the Republican National Convention: Politics in the Cloud and on the Ground  (9/9/08)  Searching for the Next Olympic Host City  (10/1/09)   Searching for the 2010 Stanley Cup  (6/2/10)   Celebrating 10 Years in Chicago ( 12/16/10)   Auto Industry off to a Fast Start in Motown  (1/14/11) It's Googler v. Googler this weekend as the Packer and Steelers face off  (2/3/11) Searching for a Cinderella Story  (3/31/11) If the Green Jacket Fits  (4/7/11) The Taxman

First reported back in July , one of Chicago's top indie bakeries - Bleeding Heart Bakery - is opening up an outpost right in Downtown Elmhurst.  It has been more than two months of build-out but by the look of things, they're close to opening shop. The coffee machine, counters and bakery cases are all in.  And the light fixtures?  So clever.  They're big industrial wisks from a huge electric mixer.  We'll be there as soon as they open for some cupcakes. I bet the other cupcake shop in town is loving the delay.

I yanked these pumpkins out of our garden early yesterday morning.  They aren't HUGE - about the diameter of  basketball, so I would have preferred to left them to grow a bit longer.  Unfortunately, the calendar dictates that if we're going to enjoy them out on our front porch, the time had come to cut them off the vine. The neat part of these is that last year, Nat bought one of these pumpkins from Trader Joe's and right before we chucked it in our compost bin, I scooped out some of the seeds, dried them out and saved them for the spring.  Not all of the plants worked out but with this outcome, the effort was worth it. Those other Jack-be-Littles on the right side of the picture are all compost orphans:  they just popped up based on the seeds we threw in the compost bin last fall.

The Babe really loved the turf but was spooked a bit by all the people and commotion at the Illini game this past weekend. She wasn't the only one who had a great time!

On Saturday Nat and I took my folks and the Babe to the Illini game.  At half-time, they shot this 'fancam' photo that is ultra-high-resolution and built an application on FightingIllini.com that allows you to 'tag' yourself.  Of course, i couldn't help myself and I tagged my face.  That's me with the "I" right over my face.  You can make Nat out behind the kid with his hand up.  My folks must have been sitting down with the Babe, I guess.

This afternoon, the University of Illinois Athletic Department hosted Varsity "I" weekend, where they invite back all the former-athletes to campus for a series of festivities.  They bring us down on the field before the game which is always fun, but this year they made our passes/lanyards a little bit more special by including a photo of everyone from their playing days.   My dad and the Babe both came down on the field with me and we snapped a bunch of photos.  I'll share those later. Yes!  That's me up there in the photo during (I think) my sophomore season posing for my personal photo right after the team photos.  Look at those uniforms - no stripes on the pants.  That was all the rage during the 90's.

Nothing says Christmas like 6 shatter-proof (read plastic) golden owl ornaments from my gal Martha Stewart, right?  I'm a bit ashamed that I actually like these a bit.  If they weren't plastic, they likely would have ended up in my cart at Home Depot last week.

Nat, the Babe and myself made our way to Gene & Jude's .  (Or...is it Gene's & Jude's?  See the photo below.)  Having "America's Best Hotdog" just 14 miles from our house and never eating one is a great point of embarrassment for me.  When we arrived, the parking lot was half-full and the line moved pretty fast.   They serve "Depression Dogs" that are dressed with just mustard, onions, relish, sport peppers and french fries.  I'll be honest?  The only thing I missed was the pickle spear (and maybe the Celery Salt), so not having the cukes or tomatoes didn't bother me one bit. It was a delicious dog.  And a neat place.  This seems to be a place that we can take out-of-towners and give them a feel for what a real stand is like.  Can't wait to go back.

Yesterday, I posted a close-up of the scarecrows . I had help this year from the Babe (see here there straightening out the legs) so we got ambitious and built a third scarecrow to represent our family.  She loved taking the zip ties and was modeling my behavior of attaching the scarecrows to the posts.  She couldn't quite manage the ties, but was mostly sticking them in little crevices that she could find.  Pretty cute. Here's a photo of what they looked like in 2010 .  Looks like the husband and wife scarecrow swapped places this year.

Here's a close-up of the new visitors to our front lawn.   Here's the same guys who were around last year . Looks like there's someone new, eh?