Why I Oughta...

Last week, I posted about our trip to the MAGA Antique Mall up in Lake Geneva and how we came across those vintage "Made in Japan" Poinsettia candle holders that we passed on .  Before we were asked to leave by the MAGA guy who runs the place (because...gasp! the boy was playing with some vintage toys!), I spotted this Schlitz glass mug.  They were asking $6 and this thing was H - E - A - V - Y! I've posted a lot over the years about vintage Schlitz stuff , but this mug is a dead ringer for the big Schlitz pitcher that we bought at a flea market last summer .  Seriously... click here for just a second.  And look at the bottom of that pitcher and the bottom of this glass.  Then look at the logo with the thin maroon line around the box.  And the white "The Beer that made Milwaukee Famous" font/mark.   This was totally released at the same time as that pitcher, right?  Had to be part of a set?  Like a tavern would place that pitcher on your table and four of

I was packing up my train stuff for the year (btw....we finally got around to putting out our Christmas Train, yeah!) and I came across this Plasticville Pharmacy and Hardware Store that I picked up at the 2017 Christmas Train Show in Wheaton.  This is a piece that we bought for $1 and goes along with the other items that I've already posted here including the Plasticville Town Hall , the Schlitz beer billboard , the American Flyer Lackawanna girder bridge and Lionel flag pole .  According to the fine folks at Tandem Associates - who have chronicled Plasticville - this piece you see above is the 1853 Tan Version.  From their site, we find out when this was released : Bachmann introduced the No. 1853 in 1974 in a Bicentennial box, they had redesigned the front wall that was now TAN in color. As you can see in the version I bought, there are two big open windows up front.  Turns out, those are for little cardboard inserts.  Again....Tandem comes to the rescue : Via Ta

We took a drive one afternoon through the backroads to downtown Woodstock (or as Nat calls it ' Stars Hallow ') and on Route 47 there were a series of signs that said "historical marker X Miles ahead" until we finally saw a sign that pointed to a turn-off where about 20 yards away, in the snow was this sign you see above.  You can see the little path that has been worn out to the sign and even footprints in the fresh snow, so I wasn't the first person to get out of their car to check out this sign/historical marker on this day.  While Nat and the kids stayed in the car, I got out and walked closer. Until I came to this: The Historical Marker Database or HMDB (which is a pretty incredible site!), you can find all the details .  It was put up in 1982 but the sign calls out the fact that Nathaniel Pope fought for Illinois to have its northern border moved further north - which gave Illinois the City of Chicago and the 14 most northern counties (includi

Here's a situation that I'm faced with at least a few times a year:  Make the dough for thin pizzas at home.  Do a cold rise overnight, take them out in the am and spread the skins on the pans.  Then, later in the day... pack up my gear, get in the car and head to someone's house (my Mom's, Nat's Mom's, etc).  Where we dress and bake and serve the pies. With Detroit-style pizzas, that's a breeze.  There are a bunch of vendors who sell plastic lids that snap on to the blue steel pans that I use.  But, what about round cutter pans?  The ones I use are from Lloyd's Pans and have a 63-degree angle with just a shallow lip.  I press the dough into one of these and when it rises, it comes up to almost meet the edge of the dough.   At home, that's fine.  But what about transporting?  These things aren't the easiest to handle and there isn't a lid that I have on hand that works.  I've been recently using these black plastic dimpled serving t

Have a little acknowledgement to make:  I had never watched the movie 'White Christmas' until Nat and I were married and we were buying our own Christmas trees.  Was never on my radar.  But, in what has become a pretty strong holiday tradition, Nat puts this movie on our tv on 'Christmas tree Day' and we watch it as we bring the tree in the house, set it up in the stand and trim it together.  Welp...we usually don't trim it that much that first night - rather we prefer to let the branches fall/settle and then put most of the ornaments on the next night. So, that's where this dollie comes in.  You can see him above that Bing Crosby as "Bob Wallace".  Funny isn't it?  But this is what the Babe came home with from the Pre-Christmas train show .  She saw it on one of the tables, liked it, then looked around for another hour or so and decided that she wanted it.  So we went back. I always try to make the kids do their own haggling in situations

Yesterday, I posted the first of a few birding related Christmas presents that the kids gifted to me this Christmas and today comes the next in the line:  a Hot Pepper Suet.  Yeah!  Hot Pepper.  Turns out, birds don't have taste buds?  But squirrels do.  At least that's what this story on Sciencing.com has to say .  As I mentioned in the post about the Christmas bird bell yesterday , we have squirrels like everybody else.  And they go after everything they can, including our suet cage.   My hope here is to run a few squirrel-proof suets and hopefully *teach* the squirrels to buzz off?  They have short memories, I'm guessing, so who knows if it will work?!?

Right before New Year's, I mentioned that I got a new leaf blower for Christmas , but it wasn't all that I received.  Above, you see one of a few different birding-related gifts that the kids gave me.  This one is Mr. Bird's Fruit and Nut Christmas Bell.  From Duncraft's site , they can share with you all the little treats in this thing: Contains pecans, sunflower seed, safflower seed, sunflower chips, peanuts, cherries, cranberries, raisins, apple and papaya. It has proven popular with birds AND squirrels, but so far, the baffle has worked and most of this bell is still in place despite the squirrels having figured out it exists.   I'll post some of the other bird-related items (including some squirrel-proof ones!) in the next few days, but we've had some good luck this winter attracting some of our feathered friends to our feeders and bath that are stationed right outside of our kitchen windows.  The kids eat breakfast and get to take in the little visit