Why I Oughta...

Our local Target in Villa Park has a Chewbacca standup display set up right when you walk in the door, so when I was there with my Boy (The King of the Ball Tossers), I couldn't *NOT* go take a photo of him doing his 'Chewie roar', right?

Some friends came over for pizza this weekend and they brought some fruit including these Cotton Candy grapes.  And you know what?  They TOTALLY taste like cotton candy.  I had NEVER heard of these things before I ate a few and I was completely amazed. They're apparently ' taking the world by storm ' and with good reason they're a delight to eat.  They proudly have a 'non-gmo' label on them, but aren't they actually modified food stuffs?  They're grown by cross-cultivating two different grape varieties : They are made by plant breeding, meaning that farmers who cultivate these grapes cross different types of grapes together. David Cain, a horticulturist, and his team at the International Fruit Genetics in Bakersfield, California mixed two types of grapes — a Concord-like grape and seedless Vitis vineferia, which is a grape vine commonly found in the Mediterranean. Sounds modified to me?  And that's just fine thank you.  

These two cheeses were side-by-side at the Jewel this weekend.  Being after the 'sharpest' cheddar I could get my hands out, I was confused by which would be better.  There wasn't a key on the packages, so I had to guess.  I went with 'extra sharp' this time and it worked perfectly for what I was using it for this time. But, why offer both? If I took the time to go look on the Cabot site, turns out this is one of their frequently asked questions . What is the difference between Vermont Sharp, Extra Sharp, and Seriously Sharp Cheddar?   Good question. The main difference between the three products is the amount of time they are aged. Cabot Vermont Sharp has a flavor that is reliable and consistent from batch to batch and is a customer favorite. Cabot Extra Sharp Cheddar has a strong cheddar flavor that many cheddar fans specifically look for. Just like its younger sibling, Cabot Vermont Sharp Cheddar, it is consistent from batch to batch. You know what you

Photo from the Elmhurst History Museum's Facebook page Yesterday's post about the Elmhurst History Museum's archives being used for economic development purposes by the City of Elmhurst got me to poke around the Elmhurst History Museum's site and Facebook page.  I ended up coming across this piece in the Chicago Tribune by Steve Johnson that covers his Top 10 picks for Fall Museum Trips . Included in there at $6 was the Elmhurst History Museum and their new Beer exhibit.   From the story : 6. "Beer Chicago: The Refreshing History": Lots of institutions these days do beer-themed events. This is all well and very good. But the Elmhurst Historical Museum had the bright idea to make an actual exhibition based on the sudsy stuff. The show's menu includes a beer-making station and the history of the city's beers, beermakers and taverns. There's also a tie-in with the Sept. 19 Elmhurst Craft Beer Fest, on the grounds of the museum. Sept. 18 to F

Last week, I wrote about how there's a new rendering of a new construction building on the old Plass Appliance store in the Elmhurst City Centre that portends a new four-story terraced structure with retail and street-level and condos on the upper floors. But that isn't the only thing that has been plastered on the windows of the old Plass store.  This new "Picture Yourself In Elmhurst" three-panel photo went up and is pretty cute.  It is a bunch of laborers who are installing street lights for the first time in town.  It evokes the same feeling of the lunch on top of skyscraper iconic photo for me. Here's a closer look at the white box on the right side that shows the reason for the billboard: Some of the #hashtags are interesting at the bottom.  #walkable #downtown #citycentre. Based on the email addresses, it plainly looks like the city's Economic Development group had the idea, but if look closely, it appears to be a nice little bit of inter

Earlier this week, Google announced the expansion of Google Express to include delivery in the suburbs of Chicago via this blog post .  Being a 'root-for-the-home-team-kinda-guy', I *had* to give it a shot, right? Google Express allows for overnight delivery of goods from a network of retailers including Walgreens, Costco, Toys R Us and others.  Much like Amazon Prime, you can pay an annual subscription charge and receive free shipping. On this maiden order, I decided to skip the subscription and just pay the $4 it cost to get the stuff to my house.  To make things easy, I picked just one store:  Walgreens.  And after filling my cart with a few things, I got the hang of it.  I quickly realized that I had to hit $15 in stuff to get to the delivery threshold. So...I went around and plucked a few things from the various departments and nosed ahead of $15.  This was on Wednesday.  I also looked at the offerings from a few other stores.  Costco, in particular was of interest.

These two pins - that are sitting on my desk - are part of the 2013 Hidden Mickey Patriotic Characters Pin set and I think have been sorted by The Babe into the 'keepers' pile of sorts. Since we're out of our house, we haven't quite figured out what to do with the pins that the girls have come home with on trips.  I'm also sitting on a big bag of scrappers from our previous trip that we didn't circulate that we need to do something with soon. But...back to Jessica Rabbit here on the left.  She's the sultry human wife of Roger Rabbit.  If you do a search for [Jessica+Rabbit] on the PinPics site, y ou get 1040 different Jessica Rabbit pins .  More than 1000!  From a movie released in 1988?!? They've really squeezed a lot of juice from that fruit, eh?  There's just way too many nerdy, desperate dudes like me who gobble up the Jessica Rabbit pins to make Disney shut off the faucet?  Gasp!  Did I just write that I have more than one Jessica Rabb