Why I Oughta...

Same tradition - different house.  Here's a photo of the Elmhurst front yard Christmas tree that we put up at Equation Boy/Man's house where we've been living since August.  (Equation Boy/Man took that photo above, btw.) I've posted about these trees before here on the blog, but this is a really nice Elmhurst holiday tradition.  Each fall, the Elmhurst School District runs a fundraiser where you can buy a tree for $19.  It is organized by a block captain who puts out the order forms and collects all the money.  They then 'host' a little get-together on the Saturday after Thanksgiving where all the trees get dropped off for the neighborhood. Our street does a really good job of participating - maybe the best around town?  Anyone else want to stake the claim as best front-yard-tree-street in Elmhurst? Here's the post from last year's tree out front of our old house (sad face). Here's my post from our 2013 tree . Don't seem to have posted

Back in 2011, I posted a (pretty terrible) photo of a house in Elmhurst that celebrated Festivus with a sign and an aluminum pole in their front yard .  With today being the big day to celebrate with the Airing of the Grievances and Feats of Strength, I figured it was a good time to thank all of you who have been keeping up with the blog over the course of the year.  "I have a lot of problems with you people!" Happy Festivus everyone!  See you at Mitch's? And...if you are reading this in your email...Happy Christmas Eve.  The most wonderful day of the year in my book!

These photos are about the best we're going to do in terms of documenting our Christmas Tree this year.  Nat picked out a Douglas Fir for the first time after having gone with Fraser Firs for our entire time we've been buying live tress together. And...for the first time, we put that tree up NOT in our house.  But in Vic and Equation Boy/Man's house down the street in Elmhurst where we've been living.  The reason why these are the best photos I'll get is because we took our ornaments down from the tree and packed them up so the Swiss Family(!!) could come home and decorate their own tree.  We left the tree behind for them to enjoy.  We'll be opening our presents under the tree(s) out in Naperville which will be a really nice memory for Nat and I and (hopefully) the girls. It was a beautiful tree, if it was a little small.  Here's a photo of me picking up the Babe so she can put the angel on top of the tree.  I'm just a bit over six feet tall and

Once again this year, I participated in the Reddit Secret Santa.  My giftee in this year's version posted the gift I sent in the gallery with a 'feel good' post title of "BEST GIFT EVER" .  When I went to retrieve my match, he gave me some good stuff to work with:  he enjoys trying different kind of beers and he just starting building his own bar in his basement. So...after a bit of searching, I landed on this wood wall-hanging map of the country that hold bottle caps .  Seems like a good conversation-starter in the bar, right?  Collect different caps from different craft breweries around the country and place them in their regions. Here's all the posts on the blog about the different gift exchanges I've participated in (including Christmas for multiple years and a Disney one) on Reddit over the years.

Nat popped off her Snapple cap over the weekend and discovered this gem.  Seems like forever ago that the Bears invaded Memorial Stadium down in Champaign.  From the read of the 2002 Season Wikipedia entry, it sounds like a terrible year. The connections between the Bears and the Fighting Illini are deep.  This year, as the Illini played the Northwestern Wildcats at Soldier Field, the University published this article documenting all the connections starting with the blue and orange and running all the way through Ron Turner.

 I snapped this photo of the six-pack holder for this year's Christmas Ale from Anchor Brewing the folks who make Anchor Steam.  For 41 years, they've been making an annual Christmas Ale and packaging it up with a unique mix and a unique label featuring a different tree. I posted about the 2010 Ale here on the blog , but my brother-in-laws pick up the beer EVERY YEAR in both six packs but also - on occasion - one of those huge magnum bottles.   They keep one or two from each year and don't drink them so they can plan a 'vertical' session where they pass out little tasting portions of like five years of the beer to a group to note the differences from year-to-year.  If you look at that 2010 post, you'll note that the tree was a Ginko.  ( Here's a really well done catalog of all the trees they've used over the 41 years .)  I think one of Nat's brothers has a poster featuring all the labels.  Like I said...they're REALLY into this stuff - and f

All the way back in February, I posted some photos of Polay's moving out of the northwest corner of 1st and York right across the tracks in the Elmhurst City Centre.  Then last summer, the contractors at Meeder Industries moved up the block to be on the other side of the York Threatre.  And then that weird nail salon with the odd fountain setup closed up shop.  And nothing went in the stores. There's been rumors of a Rosebud Restaurant was going to go into all four locations (the old Polay's, the Just for Kids store, Meeder and the weird nail salon). But, then I spotted these plans on the windows of the stores.  It calls for some exterior changes to make the building have a more cohesive look - which is great.  And it looks like the landlord is taking it from four small spots into two larger ones. This is the second major construction project that is taking place on the west side of York in the City Center ( the other being the condo project going up at the old P