Why I Oughta...

Last night the snow came in and piled up to the tune of almost 8 inches.  Half way through the storm, I went to let Maisy out the back door when we came across this snow-art on our back deck.  The snow was so fine and light that it was spilling through the cracks in the deck boards.

I spotted this cake at the local Jewel (when I was snooping around for one of those free day-old cookies that they often have out for you to take) and while the decorating is more than adequate, I'm going to rule that due to the HUGE Justin Bieber keychain of some sort this qualifies as a CakeWreck.  What happened to sugar flowers?  First came the kids getting cell phones.  Now they're skipping over the sugar flowers on their birthday cakes?  Get off of my lawn!  (Sorry...old man Parrillo came out there a bit.) Anyway....What's the tween going to do with that enormous keychain?  I guess an 11 year old doesn't really have that many keys, so perhaps this straps on one's backpack?

My sister and brother-in-law (Equation Boy/Man) installed a backyard rink this season and with the recent snow and temperature drop it is finally time to get out and enjoy it.  It is pretty impressive and their kids are having a great time almost every night.  My sister has been very generous in inviting just about the entire neighborhood down for a skate and lots of kids have enjoyed their hard work. Recently, I took the Babe down there to check it out and get up on the ice.   She's not quite skating, but with her new snow boots on, she had a lot of fun stomping around with her cousins.  And falling down. I, on the other hand, took to the ice (in my new skates - Thanks, Nat!)  to dominate with my stick handling, dekes, and one-timers.  It wasn't easy.  Just look at the competition!

Over the weekend, while I was out on a walk, I noticed that one of my favorite buildings in downtown Elmhurst - at 126 N. Addison Street - appeared to have some rehab work begun on it.  It is a gorgeous building with an interesting facade that is made of brick, has some neat iron elements and that great looking green tile roof.  It is on the west side of Addison Street directly across the street from where the huge new Addison Street Development is planned.  (If you don't remember what that massive structure is planned to look like, go read this old post again .)   The last tenant (based on the signage) appears to be a photography studio that offered framing services.  The age of the sign indicates that they were there quite some time ago!  Here's what it looks like from the sidewalk. There appears to be an apartment or two up stairs of this retail space on the street level.  You can see a good front-facing photo of the building here on Google Streetview . The sign in th

If you opened up that copy of the Chicago Tribune that landed on your driveway this morning you likely saw the big ad from the good folks at Google touting the new program called:   Good to Know .  Here's how it looks in print: You'll be seeing similar ads in the paper AND around town for the next few weeks that include tips that are consistent with Google's commitment to keep users safe online.   Keep an eye out for the ads at your bus stop and other outdoor places. Think of it as an education program for everyone on why things happen on the internet and what to watch out for in terms of bad guys. I'm proud of Google for going rolling this out.  Good for users.  Good for Google. *disclaimer:  You guys know that I work at Google, right?  I didn't work on this campaign, though.

Earlier this year, we bought these Aqua Globes for the ferns that we keep on our front porch.  We were going on a trip of some sort and I was afraid they were going to dry out totally, so this seemed like a short-term solution.  They worked, in that they kept the ferns from totally dying. After the ferns came down, these globes came inside.  I've since plugged them into the pots of our Asparagus Ferns to keep them alive during these dry winter months.  So far, so good.  They drip out water in very small quantities, so I'm not sure they're adequate as the sole watering mechanism, but as a supplemental technique, I'd recommend them.  You'll still have to water your plants every once in a while, but these globes will make that job less of a hard requirement.

Over the weekend, we had some folks over for a pizza party.  I wanted to refine and perfect my Grandma Pizza recipe so I needed a crowd in order to make more than one skin. Unfortunately, the first two didn't turn out as well as I'd have liked.  Not sure exactly what went wrong, but while the tops browned up, the bottom didn't get crisp enough.  Here's what the top looked like: Just about perfect.  But the bottom?  It was limp and soggy.  Not crisp.  Guess I'll have to go back to the drawing board and re-work the recipe.  Who's up for a pizza party this weekend?

We were trolling Craigslist for a new Maclaren stroller after ours broke today when we found this Creep in the 'baby & kid stuff' section.   In between a post selling a collection of legos and a post listing board games. Just a friendly reminder: Be careful out there on the internets, guys.

Recently, I was stuck at a grade-level crossing in Elmhurst when I this odd train passed: it was a commuter train, but was badged by the MTA - Metro North Railroad.   That's New York City ?!?! Strange seeing it on the Union Pacific West line in suburban Chicago, that's for sure.  I'm guessing that this *must* be a new train that is being driven across country to be put in service?

It was just back a few months in August that the construction fences went up and I expected the old bungalow that was on the lot to be torn down.  Fast forward to this week, and this big house is going up fast.  They have the framing done and the roofers arrived to get started. They've made (in my mind) a mistake by putting the garage up front, but I'm not the guy buying the place.  We have an alley on our street and there's a lot of ways that you can improve the curb appeal by getting rid of that garage that takes up more than 50% of the view from the street. The listing has it at $899,900 with 4 bedrooms, 5 baths and 3700 square feet.  Nice house.  But, not my style.