Why I Oughta...

I've been thinking that we should add a raised bed for herbs that can be moved around.  This is an interesting design idea.  Add some casters and we'd have something?

Look who came by the Google Chicago office on Illinois Primary Day?!?  He hosted a Google+ Hangout from the office then took a short tour of the 8th floor (along with his press pool!).

The past few years I've documented the growth of our little Cleveland Pear Tree. Here's how it looked in 2011 .   Here's my post from 2010 that features the pink buds.   With this crazy early Spring, I missed the buds and we moved straight to these bright white flowers.  As you can see from the photo above, the tree went crazy last year/this spring and has shot up like a rocket.  From a little tree that was barely above my head as it heads into it's third season of growth.  (the leap year of the sleep-creep-leap cycle!)

See that guy in there on the bottom left?  And those other spots on the mesh bag?  That's after just 12 hours of being turned on for the first time.  The instructions clearly state that the bag won't fill up with dozens of mosquitos overnight.  This is a long-term play that takes time.  The summer is long and there's plenty of opportunity for the Mosquito Magnet to fail me, but so far, I'm pleased with the performance.

That's her there behind the cake.  Right next to the Babe.  Who'da thunk she'd be wearing a bikini to her own birthday party outside in March?!?

Last year, we found ourselves coming inside after dusk due to the bugs going crazy with the biting.  That fact, coupled with this crazy warm spring and the dire warnings around the planned mosquito population boom convinced me to take the plunge with the Mosquito Magnet.  Since it is so early in the season, I had to have the guy at Home Depot come by with his forklift to pull the box down from deep storage, but I brought it home this afternoon.  We'll have it set up today and with some luck, we'll have a solution to our problem, and more importantly: our backyard back. I read the reviews and while they're mixed, it seems that if you utilize the Magnet in the right way (it needs to run constantly, not just something you flick on when you are sitting outside), it can effectively disrupt the lifecycle of the mosquitos.  As the box says, there will be some results in just one week, but the larger impact happens 4 weeks (and beyond) after installation.  It runs on a mixture

A few weeks back we went to the Happiest Place on Earth down in Orlando and the Babe met Mickey the Mouse and all of her favorites.  Including the Princesses.  All of the Princesses!