Why I Oughta...

A week or so ago, I was contacted by someone from the Friends School - a small Quaker School in St. Paul, Minnesota.  They run a plant sale on Mother's Day each year that is the biggest plant sale in Minnesota and perhaps even the Midwest.  They offer 2,300 varieties of plants.  Woah.   Their site is pretty neat.  Because of the breath of the offerings, the site allows you to research what you like and build a list of those plants you want to buy, thus making the day of sale easier for everyone. They have more than 4 dozen different varieties of tomatos including quite a few heirlooms.   The one problem they had was that they didn't have a photo for all of them with one holdout:  the Mr. Stripey.  They asked if they could use a photo I took of the Mr. Stripey a few years back.  Of course they could, I said!   They posted the photo here .  Unfortunately, they don't ship plants, so unless you're planning on being up in the Twin Cities, the sale is likely not go

Nat found these "meat shredders" at Crate & Barrel recently.  They're certainly going to make pulling pork shoulder a bit easier on the hands and I'll end up with less burns.

I heard a while back that the Sun-Times had contracted with the Chicago Tribune company to print their daily paper, but I didn't put the pieces together until earlier this week when Phil Rosenthal was on the Steve Dahl Podcast and pointed out that the two papers - when laid on top of each other - are identical in size.  Just printed in a different direction, but the exact same size paper.

Last night, I received an email from the "Follow Your World" application of Google Maps that alerted me that there was new imagery for a "point of interest" of mine.  Sure enough, I had entered our home address in the tool back when it launched in October of last year and forgot all about it.  The new satellite images are pretty recent - as there's a new house being constructed on our block and the image has the roof shingles installed and the driveway in; which are both pretty recent events (within the last month or so). The Follow Your World tool is a neat little app that gives you a heads up when Google updates their imagery of your house.  We're still not on StreetView (our block) so I'm hoping that one day soon, a note like the one above will arrive that will include the details of how our house is now included in the StreetView collection. If you haven't signed up for a Follow Your World update, you should do so here .

That's my nephew in the Marlins uniform (and my dad in the Blogger hoodie!) right before he took the field for the first game of his little league season in Elmhurst.  They live down the block from us and while he plays hoops, football and soccer, he told me over the weekend that baseball was - by far - his favorite sport.  He's pretty good at it, too! He was the opening day starter on the mound and (from what I heard) while he didn't get a decision (left after giving up 2 runs mostly on walks), he did get two K's.  Pree-tay, pree-tay, pree-tay great.

This morning I was greeted by this nice gentleman who was BUFFING our windows up 8 floors with what looks like a Bosch power tool with a buffing attachment.  Now that's deep cleaning.  This particular crew has been here on our building for the better part of a few weeks doing power washing and scrubbing and such.  In fact, I think they've done the window in my little office at least three times with various implements.  Those implements are the most fascinating part to me:  seeing how they're all strapped down (see the thin cable on the end of the buffer next to the power cord?) and everything is secured to ensure it doesn't plummet to the ground.  These guys are such pros that even with their tools restrained in that way, they're able to work.  Let alone the conditions and the height.  My god...the height.

My sister Vic gave us this cute welcome sign a week back and it immediately found it's way into the grass right next to our front porch stairs.  Neither Nat nor myself are big on yard chotchkies in general, but this sign is different and we both like it. Aside from the pain that yanking it out every time I cut the grass, I think it makes for a very cute addition to our yard.  Welcome, indeed.