Why I Oughta...

With the demise of Elmhurst's "My Favorite Toy Store" plenty of folks around town were pretty bummed both because everyone loved the store and tried to support it as a local merchant but also because it was leaving a gaping hole right in York Street. The good news is that it appears that we won't have that hole in our City Centre as there are now signs in the empty storefront for a place called Main Street Candy and Toys.     You can find them over her on Facebook .    They posted a 'we're expanding' note you can see here. Post by Main Street Candy and Toys . We're excited to see them come to town and hope they open up quick.  We'll be one of the first in line to support them!

We had a pretty incredible sunset earlier this year up in Michigan. Shot from Rocky Gap Park - which is technically - in Benton Harbor.  We hit up the park on the way to St. Joseph, so it is St. Joe's to us!

This stuff was for sale at Menards in the Christmas clearance sale.  It is little green flakes that look like grass that you can use to 'scene' your Christmas Village or Train set up. But...'known to cause cancer'?  I love me a good deal, but...even though it is 75% off....I think I'll pass.

She's growing up so fast.  And...man-o-man..does she have some personality.  Plenty of it.

Unfortunately, the dealer only had this guy.  Didn't have the other one ( see the set here ).  But, that is why the set is interesting to me.  Now I have a hunt. Will I ever come across the other one?  I'm going to try to refrain from pickup up the full set if I see it.  I'd like to try to just find the "Christmas" partner to this guy. The bottom is stamped the right way (below), so this one will find a nice home alongside his brethren.

This piece is marked Taiwan (see the mark below), so it normally isn't something that I would pick up.  I've passed a bunch of Taiwan-made Santas. But, this one had that Relpo sticker on the bottom.  And...it says "Chicago, ILL".  So, I couldn't pass it up!

Just like last year, the fine folk over at  +Fitbit  mailed me my 'year end summary' of activity. This year, I traveled 1926 miles.  And that's with a pretty sad December.  My device was on the fritz for the most of part of the month and I was just waiting until Christmas to get a new one.  (Which...thanks to my mother-in-law, I did!) To compare to last year:  I went 576 more miles this year over last . Some of the stats make a lot of sense.  For instance, Tuesday being my most active day sounds right.  I play Cardio Tennis every Tuesday morning.  I get in 3-4 miles every Tuesday before 7 am. The fact that April was my most active month is interesting to me.  I started a new job in April.  I went from working from home a lot to commuting on the train and walking from Olgivie to Aon almost every day. June 23rd is a puzzle, though.  It is a Sunday.  I think it might have been the day that we had the Bird's 1st Birthday party?  I must have been hustlin' ar

I make about 4 trips to Trader Joe's every year.  About once a quarter, I'll head there with Nat and the girls on one of their bi-weekly trips.  Sometime last year, I found this sauce on one of the end caps.  I grabbed a bottle and fell in love.  Now, my experience with Trader Joe's is that they don't keep products on their shelves very long if they don't sell well, so I was concerned that when we went back a week or two later, it would be gone. But, much to my surprise, we've been able to buy the stuff at regular intervals over the last six months.  I've been using it on a Detroit-style BBQ Chicken Pizza that I've been making and - for my money - the sauce is the boss.  I have 2 bottles sitting on the shelf in the pantry and I've just added it to the list for our next trip to TJs. I better stock up in case the fine folks at Trader Joe's change their mind and stop carrying the stuff.

Walking by the storefront of Gur Sweets on York in the Elmhurst City Centre, you'll see this sign.  They're closing their store but will continue to take orders. I first covered Gur Sweets back in October of 2012 .  They tried to ride the Cronut craze this past summer.  But, unfortunately for all of us in Elmhurst, it appears it wasn't enough. Add this to the other vacant storefronts on York Street:  Jamba Juice (gone), Plass Appliances ( gone ), My Favorite Toy Store (gone), Cash for Gold ( gone ..thankfully!). The City Council is talking about building a huge parking deck on Addison Street.  Some think that *might* help with the vacancies and it will make it easier to park and shop.  That's probably a good first step, but the government can only do so much.  These businesses operate in a free economy, so it is up to us - the residents of Elmhurst - to decided which businesses we want to support and keep in town.   We have a vote.  We cast that vote with our

Just like the KneeKnockers from earlier this week , this little Angel isn't ceramic, so it falls outside my normal vintage Christmas purchase criteria.  But, with her little "Made in Japan" mark on her back and her price tag, I couldn't pass her up.  She'll find a place next to the rest of our Angels on the piano next year, I'm thinking.