Why I Oughta...

I have a soft spot for Lady and the Tramp.  With all the much newer, flashier Disney films/releases, I think this one moves to the back of most people's minds.  But, a movie with a Spaniel and a Schnauzer as the main characters?  Couldn't hit me more on the nose in terms of casting.  Well...I think that Lady is technically a Cocker Spaniel, but she's close enough to a King Charles that I consider her my own.  And growing up we had two dogs when I was a small kind.  Skipper and Max.  Both Schnauzers.  And both were barkers!  Max was a good dog.  Skipper, on the other hand, I don't remember much.  He was gone when I was a little kid, so I don't remember the end of his life.  Max was Vic's dog and he lived until she was a Freshman in college, so I have much fresher memories of him.  Max was a gentle dog. So, when we encountered a Disney Cast member with a Lady and the Tramp pin on their lanyard, I naturally steered one of the girls in that direction.  Now, we&

Here's another fun little thing that the King of the Ball Tossers (KotBT) picked up when we were down last time at Walt Disney World.  Earlier this week, I posted a photo of a new Transportation Card we picked up on the Friendship IV .  We were in one of the parks and stopped somewhere eating popcorn out of one of those buckets that they sell you for $10 and give you $1.50 refills (best deal at WDW, amirite?!?!) and we must have dropped something like a paper cup.  The boy got out of the stroller and went over and picked it up and carried it to the garbage can and put it right in.  A Disney Cast Member in custodial must have been watching him and after he came back to the stroller, she came over and said "Hey!  Thanks for the help Little Buddy!"  And peeled off this sticker and handed it out.  The KotBT smiled big at her and took the sticker.  He shyly - as he usually does - buried his head into the side of the stroller.  I thanked her and we moved on.  A minute later,

All the way back in May, I shared a photo of two young Greenspire Linden Trees that I had begun to prune to be two-dimensional with the hopes of - once we moved into our #newoldfarmhouse - that I could try my hand at espalier or pleaching of the trees to train them into a specific habit.  Back in July, in a post on the blog about our new fence , I pointed out the final placement of these Lindens right next to the southern lot line butted up against the 6' portion of our cedar fence.  I got these in right after the fence was installed and then began to plan out the framing/system that I was planning on using to create the espalier. Over the past week or so, I have made some additional progress on the setup that you can see above:  the three posts have been installed in the ground.  I ended up shopping around and ultimately buying these 10' green 12 gauge steel sign posts from Grainger .  Grainger has a location on Ogden Avenue in Downers Grove and like a lot of places, the

Back in February of 2016, I posted a photo of the in-room coasters from the Walt Disney World Resort and the Disneyland Hotel .  The coasters from WDW are found in the resort hotel rooms usually on the little bar/kitchen setup where the glasses/mugs are located near the coffee makers.  The coasters had been the same ones for as long as we have been traveling there until a recent trip when I came across these new ones you see above.  It is a much cleaner look - both in terms of design but also material.  The old one had a soft, brushed texture.  This one is thinner, more flexible and has a more slick - but not glossy finish to it.  Gone is the castle imagery and the clouds.  In is the word 'Resort'. The thinner material and less printing make me think that this is a simple cost-cutting measure.  Sure, the new design feels a bit more 'fresh', but if they're putting four of these in 10k hotel rooms, a penny here and a penny there can start to add up, right? I

For the last ten or so years, I've been relying on your typical pan gripper when it comes to trying to extract my pizzas out of their pans.   It looks like this one .  But, at some point, I was turned on to the one you see above:  a heavy-duty version.  And it ended up on my Christmas list to Natalie.   It is $5.75 and can be bought from Northern Pizza Equipment .  Nat's brother was looking for ideas for Christmas gifts this year and she sent him along the link and he ended up gifting it to me.  Because of the move, it ended up in a box with some other pizza gear - awaiting the day when it can be used to help with my pizza making. A few weekends back, this thing made it's debut.  And I don't know how I lived without it.  It is super strong and has a very wide lip on the mouth of the gripper that allows me to - with one hand - grab a cutter pan from Lloyd Pans directly out of the oven and put it on the stovetop.  No more need for even an oven mitt - which is pretty

Thanks to the out-going nature of one of the Friendship boat skippers, we're now the proud owners of a Friendship Boat-specific Transportation card.  This one is #15 of 27 total cards and we got it on the boat going from the Yacht Club to Disney's Hollywood Studios.   I posted other Transportation cards here on the blog before.   Here's a post showing a few other ones including the Monorail and Motor Launch versions .   Below is the back of the Friendship Boat card that features Merida.   This goes in the file with a few other of our Disney World 'free things' that we've amassed over the years.   This Friendship Boat Transportation card Star Wars Trials of the Temple Training Badge Official Tomorrowland Speedway Drivers License Happy Birthday Mickey pin from Mickey the Mouse's birthday The above-mentioned WDW Transportation Cards  including the Monorail and Motor Launch The Mayor of Mainstreet USA's business card

Back at the end of July, I posted a photo of a Walt Disney quote that they've hung on some construction walls at WDW in Orlando .  Here's another one that caught my eye.  Again, kudos to Stanley for the sponsorship that seems apt for the place/time/space in terms of sponsoring some of the construction work going on and to the imagineers for turning what would normally be an eyesore into something worth taking a minute to take in while walking towards the International Gateway behind Epcot. As for the quote itself, I'm drawn to it because of that word 'curious'.  Something that when I hear someone say, I always perk up and tune in to what they're talking about.  I've done hundreds of interviews for hiring folks (doing some these days to hire people for our team) and when describing themselves, if I hear 'curious' as part of the description, that always makes me sit up in my chair.