Why I Oughta...

On Monday night, Nat and I attended the Opening Night Celebration at Mariano's in Elmhurst.  ( Disclosure:  Mariano's is an Edelman client.  I work at Edelman these days.  Got it? ) If my experience was like any one elses, they made quite the impression on the community. The team that Mariano's assembled went all out.  They had the front half of the store decked out in a pretty incredible display of color and style.  From the faux-Chihuly pieces hanging from the ceilings, a DJ and dancers and tons of food and drinks. The current Mayor Steve Morley was in attendance as were the past two Mayors along with a bunch of elected officials (City Council and School Board). The store itself, while we didn't get a total look at the place, is HUGE. We had a great time and can't wait to get back to do some shopping at the store.  While I certainly am hoping that Mariano's will succeed, I am very wary that our Jewel, which is in the City Centre will suffer as a resu

Looks like our Hydrangea tree that we planted in very late May is happy with where we put it.  It was billed as a "Pinky Winky" tree with the label, but the buds sure don't look pink to me!  Guessing this was mis-marked at some point?  The blooms are linear-shaped, so it isn't something that we have around here currently - which is nice.

We lost Glam! Nails and More and we ge Deja Vu Hair & Nail "Lounge" right across from City Hall on York Street.  I guess it is too much to hope for something else here based on the location and the set-up of the space, right?  I wish them a lot of luck and hope they do well here in Elmhurst!

I had my time-lapse camera focused on a set of bulbs here in one of our beds and I'm hoping the focus/capture area are set properly to see these little bits of green pop out of the ground and grow upward.  It is currently taking a photo every hour and these are - in theory - fast moving bulbs, so we should have a nice little video in 10 days or so.

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?