Why I Oughta...

There's been quite a bit of Disney chatter here on "Why I Oughta" including yesterday's post about the Reddit gift exchange. So much so, that it was about time to organize all the Disney posts into their own sub-page. You can now find that on the navigation at the top as well as by clicking here.     One thing that jumps out is the sheer velocity that my Disney fandom has taken on.  One post on Disney in 2012.  One in 2013.  Two last year.  And...this year?  More than 20.  And it isn't even June yet!   That photo above is one that Nat took at this year's Flower and Garden Show in Epcot.  We were able to get in before the place opened because we had an 8 am breakfast reservation at Akershaus.  The place was empty and more beautiful that it has ever been.  

And I just signed up to participate.  You can check out the details here on the Disney Gift Exchange page .  I've done the Secret Santa exchanges in the past around Christmastime, but none of the 'off season' exchanges have struck me enough to force me into participating. I know *some* of you guys are DisneyGeeks, so I come bearing good news:  There's still time to sign up.  They're going to close it down on June 1st (soon!), so you can head to the sign-up page and fill out their three easy questions (Favorite things about Disney, Favorite Disney Movies and Favorite Disney Characters) and you'll be on your way.

We made a stop at Redamak's in New Buffalo on the way home from the holiday weekend.   There are a few places we like to stop at on the way to Coloma including this place and Steve Dahl's recommendation of Stop 50 in Michiana Shores. I had a VERY tasty double cheeseburger.  I've tried the triple and it is just simply too much for me.  I also ordered my waffle fries 'well done' and they were pretty stinkin' good. Don't take it from me on the quality of Redamak's burgers, just look at A Hamburger Today when they say : "The cheeseburger at Redamak's is among the best on the planet."

Back in 2011, I went on a plum tomato binge.  I think I grew like six or seven varieties of plum tomatoes including a plant or two of these San Marzanos . Because of where they sit in the pizza universe, there's a draw to these that is unnatural for me, I think.  I actually don't eat a lot of tomatoes if I can avoid them.  I do, however, eat a lot of 'sauces and pureees'.  On pizzas. On sandwiches.  On noodles of all sorts.   I also haven't canned anything in a few years.  The effort just never yielded a lot of upside for me. But, after seeing these Bonnie Plants heirloom variety sitting on the shelf of Home Depot over the weekend, I just.simply.couldn't.resist.  Into the cart they went.  Along with some other things that will cause me agita all summer long.  But, that's for another day.

Call it what you want, but Cap America isn't fooling anyone, right?

I couldn't walk by this movie poster at the York Theatre in Downtown Elmhurst fast enough. Nope.  Nope. Nope.

We *so* tried to go the Memorial Day Parade.  In fact, we tried twice.  Both times, turned around for either the Bambino or the rain.  My god...the rain.  It came down light.  It came down heavy.  It came down when we were walking there, once again, so we just turned around. That didn't stop the Bird from stomping around in her rain boots, her pants hiked way up and her giant 'sumbrella'.  We ended up in a *new* place for breakfast that felt comfortable but a bit foreign.  We'll have to do something about that.

We saw this little 'nook' built into a model home last weekend and everyone who was down there with us coo'd over it and thought it was 'sooo cute' or 'soooo darling'. It is a really nice touch and one that just takes a little bit of drywall, framing and trim.  Have to think it could be replicated in anyone's house as they're thinking about a basement redesign or basement rehab/construction.

If you're going to Disney World, there are a couple of stressful planning moments.  After you've picked your travel days and your hotels, you get to move on to what Disney calls "Advance Dining Reservations" (ADRs) and your ride reservations (Fastpass+'s). If you're staying onsite at one of Disney's hotels, one of the benefits they give you is that you can make dining reservations (ADRs) at their restaurants 180 days out from your first night's stay.   Disney opens up the reservations at 6 am eastern on your 180 day mark and for a lot of us, that means a mad-dash scramble to try to scoop up as many of the prime reservations as possible.  For most folks, that means places like "Be Our Guest" at the Magic Kingdom and "Chef Mickey's" at the Contemporary Resort and Le Cellier at Epcot.   If you don't get on the Disney website at 5 am central, odds are, you're out of luck.  The reservations get tied up and everyth

Who knew there was a proper way to walk your lawn fertilizer spreader?  I suppose this is kind of common-sense, right?  If you have the spreader opened up all the way, you simply walk back and forth and make turns at the end of the lawn each time.  This is similar to how I cut the grass.  (I actually cut the grass like this about 50% of the time, the rest of the time I do the 'cut from the outside in and walk in a circle with each lap getting smaller' manner.) But, the 'half-rate settings' pattern is A LOT more complex.  You basically overlay a whole additional set of steps on top of the first.