Why I Oughta...

If you find yourself down by the Seven Seas Lagoon on New Year's Eve, go down to the beach at the Polynesian and plant yourself.  On December 31st, they do a show early at 7 pm, then another show at Midnight.  If you're staying Club Level at the Polynesian, they set up a little seating area with wooden chairs that give you a really great view. These photos don't do the show justice, because they launch what they call 'perimeter fireworks'  so the view isn't just straight ahead, but feels like the entire horizon between the Grand Floridian and the Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary.  And during the Midnight show, they also launch fireworks from this middle island in the middle of Seven Seas Lagoon.  Yeah...that one that the ferry boat goes by every time?  That one. The kids didn't make it until Midnight, but Nat and I did.  Here's a look at what we saw from our balcony in the Hawaii building.  We snapped a few photos, but there was no substitute fo

In a bit of a bummer, the MOD Pizza place on St. Charles near Route 83 is closed up and gone.  This place was right next door to the big hockey store on the south side of the road.   I covered the opening of the store back in September of 2015 and I really liked the place .  I guess that the people of Elmhurst voted with their wallets and decided to support other places. The sign in the window claims that they 'moved', but we know better, right?

Disney has added a few new 'princesses' (although...I'm not sure who, exactly *is* a princess these days because my Mother-in-law just informed me that Elsa from Frozen isn't a Princess.  She's a Queen, so maybe that's why?) recently including this one above named Elena of Avalor who lives in the world of Sophia the First.  The girls love Sophia, so it was a great treat to meet this one at the backdoor of Epcot Center down at Walt Disney World.  She was hanging out right past the bridge between the France and United Kingdom Pavilions and had basically no line. And this princess?  She.was.really.great!  Had it all down. Nat and I both think that because she was in such a low-profile location with very little traffic (she had NO LINE!), that maybe this was a Princess-in-Training?  If she was, she'll graduate VERY FAST because she handled the girls quite well. Not sure how long she's destined to be around, but if you can catch her, it's wort

Right at the turn of 2017, I posted a photo of a couple of salvaged windows we're going to use in our new old house and mentioned that we also bought a transom window that came from the same place. Here, above, is a look at the transom window right next to one of the square windows that are destined for our library room.  The transom is 74" wide by 18" tall (that's the glass part) and the frame adds a few inches each way.  We really love it and it was in our budget to buy this one.  There was another one that just was priced a bit too high, but was pretty awesome. We're going to use this transom in the 'interior' side of the vestibule that we're building right by our front door and I'm hoping we can work to incorporate the design in other places - maybe another transom?  We can't get too nuts, though...right?

Well, well, well.  Now...*this* is a film worth talking about as part of the Art @ York Series at the York Theatre in the Elmhurst City Centre.  'The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years' is the choice from Classic Cinemas for the February 2017 Art @ York Feature.  You can see more here on their site , but it is being shown on Wednesday February 8th at 1 pm and 7 pm. And it was done by Ron Howard?  Yep ! The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years is based on the first part of The Beatles' career (1962-1966) - the period in which they toured and captured the world's acclaim. Ron Howard's film will explore how John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr came together to become this phenomenon, "The Beatles." It will delve into their inner workings - how they made decisions, created music and built their collective career together - all the while, highlighting The Beatles' extraordinary musical gifts and their r

All the way back in November, I shared a photo that showed off square tiles, set in a pattern that was from the queue of a ride that I thought might serve as good inspiration for the tile in our vestibule .  Just a week or so ago, I came across another tile pattern that stopped me in my tracks.  That's it above.   This is the ordering section of the new PizzaRizzo restaurant and as you can see above, is a mix of a main pattern and a few borders.  This uses both hexagons and squares.  Check out the close-up below to see how the hex's and the squares work together.   I'm out of the tile-selecting business (that's Nat's territory), but knowing she's a reader, here's hoping that this will influence her a bit in one of these directions.  She's already ruled out my first choice:  which was to put our last name in tile.  Then I wanted the house number.   Kinda like this .  Or even this with it smaller in one corner of the vestibule .   But I th

This was a real Festivus miracle!  I met up with all of these Frankfort Tigers for Festivus late last year and had loads of fun hearing their stories and laughing it up.  Wonderful crew and so lucky to see them all.  I didn't stay for the feats of strength, but I'd guess I could take at least one of these guys and pin them.  At least one.