Why I Oughta...

It is a winter wonderland out there in Grant Park and Millennium Park and Maggie Daley Park these days. Here's a photo of the same view about a month back in early January .  The sunshine sure makes a difference. I also took this photo showing more of the lake.  Check out the jagged-ness of the ice on the water.  Pretty neat to see.

What doesn't say "I love you" more than a sweet discount on some tasty pizza?!?  I mean...what more could your Valentine want than $100 of Home Run Inn deliciousness for just $69.99. Head to your Costco (or...at least our Costco on North Avenue in Melrose Park) and amongst the other gift card deals for places like PF Changs and RedStone will be this deal of four $25 gift cards at just $69.99. I love taking my kids and my nephew to HRI (now that the one in Addison is closed, we usually go to the one in Hillside) and devour some tasty pizza and we can't leave without a Cookie Monster.   With $100 in your pocket, you can either hit the place up twice (if you're like us!) or really splurge for a big spread of loaded fries, multiple pies, and a couple of Cookie Monsters for your group. If you're a Costco shopper, you know that these things are hit-or-miss.  One day they're there.  Next they're gone.  So...Get these before they disappear.  

We found ourselves in Downtown Downers Grove today and scattered across Main Street were a bunch of ice sculptures.   Over on Chicago Parent Magazine, they have a listing for the event that spans both Saturday and Sunday.  It was cold this weekend and that was GREAT for this things. This 'snowflake' one was outside of Ballydoyle's on the south side of the tracks. Frankfort does this and I think it is a nice way to add some flair to the shopping district during the cold, dreary post-Christmas months.  We missed the demo, but I bet the kids would have loved seeing that in all of it's chainsaw-shaving-glory.

Sure... the phone and internet guide featuring Walt is cool, but you know what is REALLY cool about the Disneyland Hotel?  The headboards.  Yeah...the headboards. That photo above is what they look like when you've turned off all the lights in the room but keep the headboard light up.  When you push a button, there's a music box sound of the song 'When you wish upon a star' and the fireworks flicker a bit. Here's a video on YouTube of it happening on someone's visit . This was a total delight for not just my kids but also for Nat and I.  I can't tell you now many times I hit the button to make the song go on and have the board light up.  This is just another one of those little touches that make strong memories for me at Disney. But...it also speaks to the details they've put into the Disneyland Hotel rooms. We listen to Pete Werner and the gang on the Dis Unplugged and Pete just raved about the rooms at the Disneyland Hotel .  After that ep

If you get a chance, stay at the Disneyland Hotel at the Disneyland Resort.  They really drape themselves in Walt and the place is themed to Disney itself.  Not far-away polynesia or 1920's New Jersey Shore.  But Disney.  Walt and Mickey.  Mickey and Walt. I posted a photo from the Tangaroa Terrace restaurant featuring Walt and the Tiki Room Birds before, but here above is the telephone and internet information guide that they leave on the nightstands.  When you open it all the way up, you get this cool photo of the man himself sitting as his desk with a Donald Duck standing there while he yammers away on the phone.  Pretty clever way to bring some history from the archives back to everyday use.  The touches - including the headboard (which I'll get to!) are just spectacular.  Can you get a cheaper room at one of the "Good Neighbor" hotels right across the street from Disneyland?  Sure you can.  But you can't match the magic of being in the Disneyland Hotel i

I posted a few days ago about the a 5 unit retail plaza being marketed on North York Road , but during that same session in Roberto's where I was thumbing through the local rag, I also found this ad for "The York Building". Back last August, I posted about the new building that was being advertised in the windows of the old Plass Appliance building here on the blog .  And then just last month, I took a photo of the Plass building being torn down/apart .  Right now, it is just a big hole in the ground with rubble on the site. But, this ad sheds a lot of light on what is to come.  Namely...residential, office and retail. First, the residential:  They're only going to be building 4 units.  All of them are basically penthouses and will be 3000 square feet.  They'll all have 'large outdoor space', which from the look of the rendering will be terraces of some sort.  Those are some big condos, right?  3000 square feet? Luxury living! They're also pu

I got to login to The Facebook this morning and I'm greeted with this prompt in the middle of my newsfeed.  It is a dinosaur from Facebook welcoming me to do a 'Privacy Checkup'.  How nice of them. I have the majority of my settings in there set to "Just me".  Like...."Who can see your posts?"  "Just me." So, pardon my skepticism here.  But...are the fine folks at Facebook asking me to check my settings to see if I'll loosen them up?  Or...are they *really* being good guys here?  And providing all users an opportunity to review what they have set up.  If that's the case?  Then...good on you, Facebook.  Appreciate the nag to check the settings! *UPDATE at Noon* Turns out today is "Safer Internet Day 2016"?!?  And *that's* why The Facebook ran that security check.  Nice work. But...they were outdone by the smarties over at Google.   If you ran through a security check with Google, they not only gave you a little pa