Why I Oughta...

Could there be a better Block I Card Stunt than this one at Homecoming this past weekend? Home is right. ( They did a cute Red Grange one , too.)

Yesterday, I renewed my Google Drive combined storage package (gmail, docs, photos) and the auto-response email that came to my gmail was jarring.  (check out the date - October 26th 2015 - for proof that this is recent.) Look at that old logo.  It felt a bit like I found an 'undiscovered' part of the corporate brand that didn't get upgraded to the new logo.  Those pesky auto-response emails are always forgotten, right?  When I was involved with a political campaign last year, the auto-response emails that got kicked off whenever someone took an action were always the last to get attention.  (Which is funny, right?  Because in that setting...those are probably some of the *most* important touch points...) I wasn't sold on the new look Google logo, but when this arrived...and looking at the old Google logo also makes me think that the new one is a big upgrade.

As the weather turns cooler and Fall arrives, my mind begins to turn towards pizza making at home.  For the past few years, I've been steadily improving and tweaking my Detroit-style pies, but it feels like I'm near the end of the line in terms of changes and modifications.  Between the well-seasoned pan, the tweaked dough formulation, and the cheese combo's, I've begun to deliver a consistent product that is repeat-able as long as I have the time to do a cold rise overnight. So, that means I can start to turn my pizza-attention to a different kind of pie.  And I'm thinking that is going to be to try to craft a true south-side tavern-style thin crust pie.  And my favorite pizza is one of those:  Aurelio's.  If you buy into the Pizza Cognition Theory , I'm into Aurelio's because...to me, it *is* pizza.  It is what I had in Frankfort growing up.  Win a baseball game?  Let's go to Aurelio's in Downtown Frankfort.  After the awkward 7th grade dan

The fine folks up in Wisconsin at Menards are out with another new set of O Gauge train cars that caught my eye this week.  They're calling them 'Flatcars with Panel Trucks' and the trucks are vintage-looking wagons.  They're pretty cute. They're promo'ing three of them:  Union Pacific, Soo Line and Santa Fe.  No Chicago and North Western, though. The Lionel set that my dad had from his childhood is a Santa Fe post-war set and I have to think that these Santa Fe cars would look preeettay preeettay preeettay great with his other Santa Fe stuff.

I've written about my experience with Google Express before here on the blog .  I really like it.  Especially for Costco purchases.  For example, we were having a first birthday party for The Beef over this past weekend at our* house and after doing a proper inventory, we discovered that we were covered with disposable plates and forks/knives/spoons, we didn't have any of those big party dinner napkins.  You know... this kind .  So...I added those to my cart and threw in a big party container of cashews and I hit the $15 minimum order for free delivery. 12 hours later....they arrived and we were ready for the party. But...to get started with buying on Costco via Google Express wasn't super easy.  It required a visit to our local Costco store and a request of a new Costco card.  That's because....Google Express requires that the name on your credit card that you are using to purchase stuff match EXACTLY the name on your Costco account. So...that top card is my *n

Over the weekend, we gathered friends and family and celebrated our little guy's first birthday.   There's more over on the family blog, but if you've been to a first birthday party, you know the best part of the entire thing is watching what the baby will do (or not do) with his own cake.  Some kids smash their face/fists in.  Some kids don't do a thing.  Some kids just wail and push it off their table.   Mine?  He picked up the whole thing and ate his cake like a boss.  

With just a little over a week until Halloween, it appears that some happy haunts have take over our place recently . Those photos - of The Babe and The Bird - were created as "Spirit Photographs" at Memento Mori outside of the Haunted Mansion in the Magic Kingdom .  They're lenticular images that they create on the spot.  We had the girls sit down for the photos early one morning (I think it was right at like 10 am when that part of the park opens) and within 10 minutes, the "Sprit Photos" appear at the register. They're now sitting on the ledge as you head down the stairs - right next to the photos of my nieces/nephew.

As drawn by The Babe. This was left for me on my desk at home one night last week.  She taped the little note on top of the drawing on the top left. That's me as a football player, she tells me.  She - on her own - picked out the #50 for my jersey. Not sure where she got that, but it must be in a book around the house.  Pretty great, right?   And that's a football sticker in my right hand next to (I think?) a cat sticker.  I'm (obviously) wearing a football helmet on my face.  And the pumpkins all over the place tell me it is Halloween.

This is the second (I think) season for this Maxine pop-up store that is housed in the Shaved Ice place on the west side of York Street right in the heart of the Elmhurst City Centre.  Seems like a pretty good use of the space for the winter as the shaved ice store closes down after Labor Day.   Maxine is only open October, November and December. Maybe they should be called "Purses, Purses, Purses"?  (Like, Closets, Closets, Closets?)

After that post over the weekend about the Mickey Mouse Club , I went along with Nat and the kids to Nordstrom's to shop for boots for everyone.  Apparently, these kids feet just.keep.growing. While we were there - waiting for the balloons - I noticed that the kids section uses a bunch of vintage lunchboxes as display stands for kids shoes.  There was a He-Man one and a Kitt from Knight Rider one, too. Once I set upon trying to discover all the boxes by taking the shoes off of them on the various tables, I discovered this one.  Seems pretty appropriate, right?   That's not the Brittney version, either, right ?