Why I Oughta...

In a major development on the construction site, we now have windows installed!  Windows!  Yeah, I know.  You're questioning the exclamation points.  But, listen....we've been at this a loooooooooong time.  And this is a real mark of progress towards having a home completed, so it is worth celebrating for our family. They're not all in - nor are the doors - so the house isn't quite 'buttoned up', but it is close.  And that marks an exciting time.  If you look closely on the right side of this photo you'll see some metal conduit that the electrician has put in.  That means that some of the mechanical work has been started, so once that's done and the insulation is installed, I think we get the drywall hung.  Then we'll *really* get a sense for how the place is turning out and what the true space is for each room. But for now, we're celebrating windows.

Over on eBay this weekend, I came across this beauty of a lamp .  It is listed at $85 and has no shade, so it isn't a steal, right? But it *is* awesome.  But right now, it isn't for me.  ( remember that whole Joe Rhode-thing about that says: " It is enough to enjoy the existence of things without possessing all of them" ???) Looking up the helmets in the Helmet Project site , it seems that this one with the blue facemask, the arched "Illini" that is outlined in blue is from a very specific few years:  1977 to 1979. As a child of the late 70's, I kinda love that.  We don't have a house yet, let alone a place for this lamp, but I bet it'd look pretty awesome in a rumpus room, right?  At $85, it might not go fast, right?  All it takes is one nutball like me to buy it, though!

Earlier this week, I posted some photos of the new Elf the Movie Lionel O-Gauge Boxcar that we pre-ordered for this past Christmas, but just arrived in February.  Welp, here's the other one:  A National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation "Merry Clarkmas" boxcar. Both of these Lionel cars are made in the USA and have that special American flag box.  I was going to give this to one of my nephews who really loves this movie last year, but I swapped in something else because this didn't arrive.  I'll pack this one up too, and take it off to our storage unit for a few months.  There's light at the end of the tunnel, though.  Just four more months until we'll be in our place.  At least that's what I'm hoping for right now. The boxcar features the Griswold's house and station wagon with the huge tree strapped to the top, Cousin Eddie's RV, the tree out in the wild and a bit more. Including Clark, the squirrel and the flying Santa and Re

This is the 17th coaster added to the 'coaster collection'.   You can see the whole archive here .  This is from The Betty where we went for a 'too cool for school' cocktail while we waited for a table at Duck Duck Goat. The Betty is a pretty big place so we found a spot to hang for a while and drink our craft cocktails like the cool kids.  We weren't out of place, thankfully, because Nat, her sister and her mom were there to class our group up.

Our middle child picked out this little early wooden horsecart at the Lake Geneva Antique Mall on a trip up there.  I'm not sure exactly how it went down, but I think Nat told the girls that they could pick out something small - a 'treasure' - to reward their patience while we wandered around the place.   Now that they're not in strollers, it is a lot harder to wrangle them at places like antique malls where they don't go crazy. The Bird picked this little wooden horse and cart.  The tag says "Early Japan" and the bottom is stamped directly on the piece, no sticker: Kind of a sweet little treasure, isn't it?  It is super brittle, so I know it won't last long. But, one of the horse legs was busted off already, so it wasn't perfect in the first place. Just like my Dad did to me, we're (I think) doing to our girls:  encouraging them to love old things. The trick, however, is something that I'm not quite *there* with that

On the left is Chief Smokey Miller and on the far right is Victoria Trumpetto - both of whom I've posted about already.  But, right next to me is a new one:  Beatrice Starr.  We met her on the same day earlier this year.  According to the DisneyParks Blog, she runs the theatre program around Main Street USA: Miss Beatrice Starr is better known as “Bea” (pronounced Be-uh), and is the Chairman of The Main Street Thespian Society. She signed one of the girl's books, too! So, that now makes Honorable Christopher George Weaver , Mayor of Main Street USA Scoop Sanderson , Main Street Gazette Reporter, Town Councilman and Pin-thusiast Chief Smokey Miller , Chief of the Main Street Volunteer Fire Department, Mayor George Weaver's “right-hand man” Ms. Hildegard Olivia Harding , socialite and suffragette, President of the Main Street Social Society, Women’s Auxiliary and Decorating Committee, and owner of the Emporium Victoria Trumpetto, the Main Street Choir Di

Recently a box arrived from TrainWorld that included a few little surprises.  Why were they surprises?  Because I had pre-ordered a few things from the 2016 Lionel Catalog that had late fall delivery before Christmas last year.  Unfortunately, Lionel didn't make their deadlines, so these despite these boxcars having Christmas themes (I'll post the other one on a different day), came in February. (in other news, the 2017 catalog is up at Trainworld and they're accepting pre-orders .  There are a bunch of stuff that I'm keen to buy...but I wonder if I should wait for the new house??) This first one is from Elf the Movie.  It features Buddy the Elf and a few phrases like "Son of a nutcracker".  I don't love boxcars, but I do love a good Christmas train and love Elf, so this one was hard to pass up. Here's the side panel of the box showing the boxcar description.  These will go over to my Dad's house until we get moved into our place.  Once t