Why I Oughta...

My oldest couldn't be more proud of her painting that is hanging up in the local coffee shop in town as part of a gallery/collection of kids art.  We made a special trip to the coffee shop just so she could show it to me.  I'm so impressed with her and her willingness to be an artist.  Something I could never quite do when I was younger.

They have much of the structures set up and are wrapping them with the white tarps this morning.   Here's where they were just a few days ago .

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at Nat's folks' house with the kids.  While we were there, my mother-in-law showed us this super weird tomato.  She put it on the ledge above her sink in her kitchen in the sun and mostly forgot about it.  At some point, some weird stuff started happening and the seeds *inside* the tomato started to sprout and grow INSIDE the tomato.   I thought it was pretty interesting, so I posted it to r/mildlyinteresting using a throw-away account .  If you're of of *those* folks, make sure you give it an upvote !

The box my shoes came in claims to be 'reversible'.  Interesting idea, isn't it?  Take a shoe box that you'd normally throw away and turn it into something that you'd want to reuse to store things? I'll put it through it's paces this week and see how the box turns out - inside-out.

The second pack ( after last week's Apollo Ring variety I posted about ) is this Mammoth sunflower.  This one will tower (12 feet tall!) over the rest of them and I'll plan on putting the seeds in the far back row against the fenceline.  I think a few more weeks need to pass and then we'll get them in the ground.

Just west of Buckingham Fountain you can start to see the tents going up for the NFL's DraftTown.  They've shut down the street and it appears they're just going to take the whole place over with a series of tents/structures.  Kinda neat. Here's the sketch they have on NFL.com of the final product :

After many a year of dreaming about building my own wood-fired pizza oven, we have come to a sort-of compromise.  Introducing...the KettlePizza.  It takes a 22.5" Weber grill and transforms it (with some slight modifications) into a wood-burning 800 degree beast. I put it through it's paces over the weekend and the results were less than stellar.  Lots to learn about this thing including the dough formulation, how to get them in the oven, how to top the pies and how to get them out of this beast without burning myself like crazy. Good thing Summer is almost here and we'll have plenty of time to experiment.

I picked up this hose nozzle as a gift earlier this year but have yet to put it through it's proper paces.  What...with the lack of 'hose weather', right? This thing is super simple but is highly endorsed and is labeled as being used by 'wildland firefighters'.   From the DuluthTrading listing  come some big boasts: BULLS-EYE NOZZLE NEVER LEAKS, NEVER BREAKS. Proven on firelines by U.S. and Canadian wildlife services, the small but powerful Bulls-eye Nozzle saves water and gives you more power, in an emergency or just around the yard. A simple twist adjusts the force from maximum to heavy spray to pinpoint stream. Sprays up to 600 psi! If there's a way to break something...trust me...our family will figure out how to do so.  Stay tuned for pressure-testing that claim...

I am now the proud (that's right....PROUD!) owner of six - count 'em - six pumpkin pedestals. What's a pumpkin pedestal?   From Gardener's Supply : Growing pumpkins is so much fun, but can be frustrating when the fruits are misshapen or rot before they ripen. These ingenious supports elevate pumpkins, squash and melons up off the ground, allowing air to circulate. This promotes even ripening and minimizes rot. Fruit stays cleaner and develops a more uniform shape. The smaller side of the pedestal supports a pumpkin up to 10" in diameter and weighing up to 20 pounds. Flip it over and the larger side holds a mature pumpkin up to 14" and 30 pounds. Makes me want to go all-in on pumpkins again this year.  But...I can't help but recall how they TOTALLY took over the entire place.  

Last weekend, we spent the night in the city so the girls could go swimming in a hotel pool.  (Well...that's not the *only* reason, but it was one of the driving forces anyway...) We spent Friday afternoon walking around with stops at my office, the new Maggie Daley Park (wowsa...pretty neat place!) and then hoofing it up Michigan Avenue to head to dinner.  On the way there, we stopped into Dylan's Candy Bar. Pretty neat place.  Lotsa candy (as you'd expect) and they even had 'nostalgia' area with old school candy.  Some of it from a long time ago, but plenty from the 80's and 90's that I remember from my childhood.  I was pretty impressed with the place.  That was...until...I checked out and was waiting around for Nat and the girls to finish filling up their bags of candy.  There, by the door laying on the counter was a book all about Dylan's Candy Bar and the founder Dylan Lauren. You can see the book here on Amazon . I went to back inside c