Why I Oughta...

Same story as the Disneyland tray from the Wisconsin Antique Mall :  I passed.  But not before picking this thing up, admiring it and giving it quite a bit of thought before, ultimately, putting it down and letting someone else own this. Remember: It is enough to enjoy the existence of things without possessing all of them . But, now, back to this record.  Or ' piece of vinyl ' if you will.    It was released in 1979.  And charted as high as on the Billboard Pop Charts . Here's the track listing: The whole record can be found here on YouTube .  Not so great, if you ask me. Zip-a-dee-doo-dah seems to be the standout.  Here it is: Or Maybe Chim Chim Cher-ee:

Via "Discover Choice" and the MRJ In our work in the B2B Practice at Edelman , my team and I get the pleasure of working with clients who are doing amazing things around the globe.  One of them is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, who is bring to market the Mitsubishi Regional Jet.  We're fortunate to be able to partner with them to continue to introduce the jet to the pubic, including at this year's Farnborough Air Show . Ahead of the show, the MRJ crew in New York, Seattle and Chicago  published a new post on their "Progress" content hub chronicling all the pieces of the puzzle that are coming together in the United States with partners, stakeholders and supply chain members .    The map above shows some of the locations, but if you click here , you can go into a region-by-region breakdown.    And you can download the full infographic (as a .pdf) here .  Nice looking stuff from Edelman's Creative Team. Also recently released is this great video

There I was, minding my own business waiting for the light to turn green when - for some reason - I notice that there are a few cameras at the intersection of Maple and Fairview in Downers Grove. I then look closer and start counting.  There are six cameras at this one intersection.  This is just a four-way intersection and if I'm being honest, I don't normally look around at the number of cameras, but I have to believe that this seems like a significant number of cameras trained on just one intersection?  Now, Maple Avenue does run on a diagonal and this *is* just a block or so away from the BNSF line, but other than that, it seems to be an ordinary intersection.  Any ideas?  I've embedded the map below:

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

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 . 

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

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