Posts

Vintage Disneyland Tray - One That Got Away

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Up in Wisconsin, I came across this totally adorable 1 Disneyland "California" tray.  It is about one foot in diameter and super thin with a shallow lip.  Not the kind of lip you normally see on the beer trays like this Schlitzerland one . You can see the price tag on this one:  $18.  And I thought about this thing for a bit, but then I leaned hard on my collecting mantra .  I said it out loud to myself: "It is enough to enjoy the existence of things without possessing all of them."   And after snapping this photo, I put it back for some other collector to pick it up, love it and (hopefully) use it. I'm guessing it is from the 70's, right?  Like the late 70's?  It is in really great condition and *feels* vintage, but isn't *old*. You can click here to see the same photo on Google Photos where you can really zoom in to see all the details.  Go ahead... go over there . Ah, you're back.  Still have that Google Photos tab open?  Gre

Getting Smart About Plywood

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With my shop floor done, my attention is now turning to some shop fixtures. And that has lead me down a path of learning all about plywood.  Veneers, cores, grades, types.  All of it.  It is a surprisingly deep rabbit hole to go down . 

Marshall Field's Walnut Room - 1986 Santa Bear Mug

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Over the years, I've shared my family's experiences at the Walnut Room at Marshall Field's Macy's on State Street in Chicago .  We go every year and have gone since I was just a little guy.  It is something that my Mom organizes and I come to look forward to each season.  I've also chronicled the unfortunate fate of Uncle Mistletoe and Marshall Field's itself . I've also begun to build a document of the annual mugs that are released by the Walnut Room each year at Christmastime. This post has the full reference list that I've built so far.  But, the photo above includes a new one:  1986 featuring Santabear in red outline form 1 .  Or at least that I thought it was Santabear.  But, look at the band on his hat:  Mistletoe.  And if you look closely at the scrawl on the far right you'll see: "Greetings from Mistletoe Bear." What the what?!? Let's go back and look at the history so far on the blog as documented through the glass

Quick Look - July 2018 Patio Containers

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Right before we went out of town for a few days recently, I gathered all of our patio containers and put them together in order to assist the watering - which was being done by one of our neighborhood kids.  I snapped this photo of all of them in one spot to text to Nat to share with the girl's Mom so she knew what needed to be watered, but I figured I'd post it here to mark what our patio containers looked like in July of this year. In the far back, in the yellow pot 1 you can see the Chicago-hardy fig tree 2 that my Sister Vic and Equation Boy/Man gave me for my birthday this year.  Right in front of that is one of my wine barrel planters with a grapevine 3 growing on the trellis.  That's also the pot that has the Lemon Coral Sedum growing in it . In front of that wine barrel, but mostly obscured is my large basil plant.  It is sharing a pot with one of my Elephant Ears .  Then, buried under the foliage is the other wine barrel planter.  That's this one wi

5 Year Anniversary - Over by Dere Link Blog

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While I've been posting here on my blog "Why I Oughta..." (nee JoinCross.com/blog, joincrossblog.com, rhodesschool.com) since 2004, but I also have been (apparently) posting over on my link blog for five years.  I was just reminded by Tumblr (which is where my linkblog is run currently) that I crossed the five year mark over by dere .   And, yes, I wrote the phrase "Over by dere" - which happens to the name of my link blog.  Think of this as my 'favorites' feed from the old Google Reader days.  You can keep up with my posting over there at:  http://www.parrillo.info/ . I shared the details of Over by Dere here on my main blog a few years back where I mentioned the name . The name is straight-up Chicagoese , but for those of you who aren't aware, it roughly translates to : Over by dere. i.e. "over by there," a prolix way of emphasizing a site presumed familiar to the listener. As in, "I got the sassage at da Jewels down o

Our 48 Star Flag Flying For The Fourth

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We moved in right before 4th of July last year, but I don't think we had time (or the wherewithal) to put out a flag to mark our country's birthday.  This year, however, was a different story.  You can see that I put out our Old Glory, draped from the front porch top railing.  This is the same 48 Star Flag that I bought at an Elmhurst Estate Sale back a few Summers .  It came with weights on the bottom of it, so in it's past life, it was clearly hung in this vertical orientation.  But, turns out, there's a 'right way' to hang a vertical flag.  See here in this earlier post that I hung the flag with the field of 48 stars in the top right .  According to this post , the proper way is to have the Union to the flag's own right and to the observer's left.  Hence, why I posted it the way I did this year on the porch.  We have a really nice wraparound porch and I think it deserves a nice flag.  I have a pole, but the issue is that the location that we'

Lego Disney Cinderella Castle Build Kick-off

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Just posting this here to mark the beginning of our Lego Disney Cinderella Castle build for the Summer.  Or what is officially called "Disney Castle Playset - By Lego" .  This is page three and, while we actually got to this spot about a week ago, I'm just getting around to posting now.  So, once we complete it, let's add seven days to the tracking.  Also, Step 3 is where we already ran into trouble.  Why?  Because why wouldn't a seven year old who has this Castle set in her bedroom for seven months open up bag one and tinker around.  The only problem?  When we sat down to do it together, we had to scavenge together parts from bag one that were littered across the various bins.  In some cases, we swapped in wrong color bricks.  Or two smaller bricks to make up the composite of a larger, spec'd one.  We're getting it done and I figure since most of this is the substructure/undercarriage, the colors don't matter so much because they'll be buried