Why I Oughta...

I think we're going to have a LOT of radishes.  Time to thin these guys out.

Sometimes, just sometimes, technology is amazing.  Well...I guess A LOT of the time, technology is amazing, but on rare occasions, I find myself blown away by the computing power that we carry with us everyday. This story is a case in point.  I carry an Android device in my pocket and I have Google's FieldTrip App on it.  It works on both Android and iPhone, so if you don't have it on your phone, you should go grab it now.  I'll wait.  Seriously... Go here and click the link for your app store . Field Trip is this neat little pocket assistant that alerts you to interesting things in the world around you.  You can set your preferences (I lean heavily on movie scenes - like alerting me when I'm near a location that was used in a movie, architecture, history, and food.) and the app will buzz in your pocket to give you a little bit of knowledge that is contextually/geo-aware of your location.  It is pretty neat. If you walk through the Loop everyday, the notificati

Huh.  Guess I've been using it improperly my ENTIRE life?

Over the weekend, I found a screaming deal on these Dahlia tubers at Mendards.  There are three Manhattan Island Dahlia tubers and 3 Kiev Dahlia tubers.  Knowing my experience with these big Dahlias, I know that I have to put them in a container and make sure we bring that container inside for the winter - long before the frost comes - if I want it to survive until next year. I'm getting these in the planter box pretty late, but I've finally gotten around to setting up the three spare planter box frames that Nat picked up last summer.  I've attached them to the south fence line in the backyard.  They'll get a ton of sun and as long as I remember to water them regularly, they should be quite happy there up in the air. I'll try to grab a photo of the boxes hung on the fence, so I can track their progress.

Not all store closings in our downtown are created equal.   While I'm bummed about Jamba Juice , I actually couldn't be more pleased to see the Cash For Gold location at 122 N. York fold up shop.  Or...at least I *think* they've fold up shop. They emptied out the store.  You can't really tell from that photo above, but there is no furniture in the store any more. What can we get in here?  As you know, the places/types of businesses on my list include: Kitchen/cooking stuff store (think independent Williams Sonoma) Manly Craft store/hardware store minus the nuts/bolts) (think Kaufman Merchantile ) What else?  We don't need more yogurt shops or salons.  But...I'm a free-market-guy, so I guess until I'm ready to put my money where my mouth is, we'll just have to sit back and see. 

That's a sad sign up in the front window of our Jamba Juice in the Elmhurst City Centre.  Seems like the tweens who constantly hang out inside there couldn't quite keep the place open.  Or, the fact that three yogurt places have opened within a few hundred yards of this place? Losing an independent business in our downtown is bad, but losing a national chain?  Even worse. What are we doing to turn things around in the City Centre?  Besides put in yogurt places?

Time to thin out the seedlings!  Thanks to the seed tape, the job shouldn't be that tough.