Why I Oughta...

If you look closely at the Marshall Field's Macy's State Street windows you'll notice a little bit of corporate synergy showing.  Or corporate strategy at least.  In one of the window scenes you that you can see above, you'll see Santa in the midst of his North Pole glory with what I think is an Elf and a bunch of presents.  Right next to the center 'tube' is a little dog.   Zoom in and you'll see his collar.  Says "F. A. O. Schwarz".  Struck me as odd. So, off I went into the Web to find out why.  Does Macy's own F.A.O Schwarz?  The answer?  Nope.  But they're working together.  This NYTimes story from 10 years ago points to the partnership .  Apparently, I haven't been paying any attention. Two of New York’s most venerable retail brands, Macy’s and F. A. O. Schwarz, are teaming up for a risky experiment: bringing toys back to the department store.  F. A. O. Schwarz will open shops inside 685 Macy’s stores over th

I just noticed these two plaques on the Fairview Avenue Metra Station in Downers Grove.  The bottom one says 2016, so it has been there for some time.  But, perhaps the top one is newish?  At least, I've never really noticed it despite walking by it a few times a week. They both mark the same thing:  the station as a 'landmark'. I found t his set of minutes from the Village of Downers Grove Village Board that recommended a resolution making the station a "Landmark Designation" . Here below is a closer look at the story in the bottom plaque: If you read closely, you'll see that this isn't the original station, but was built in 1916. I'm a little bit 'get off my lawn' on this landmark status.  Have you seen the Fairview Station?  Go look at it here in all of it's stucco glory . I love me some old, vintage buildings.  But it isn't the original station.  And now we've effectively handcuff our government into NOT changi

Another of the new items that Menards is showing in their O Gauge train section in stores this year is a series of gondola cars like this Santa Fe one you see above.  I've written before about how my Dad runs a vintage (Post War) Santa Fe F3 locomotive and over the years I've gifted him a few Santa Fe cars from Lionel .  I've never given him one from Menards, but I've bought a few on my own and while I LOVE the prices (see above..$20), I don't like two things: 1.  the boxes that Menards sells these in.  The packaging is NOT very re-usable.  2.  the couplers.  They're not great. #1 in the list above is really the biggest thing for me.  We're Christmas train people.  That means that we pack away our train for 10 months a year and then bring it out for the holidays.  The boxes that Lionel ships their cars in are a big part of that storage process and the orange boxes have meaning to me whenever we get them out.  These Menards clamshells don't reall

In addition to all the Christmas Village buildings from Lemax that I posted last week, Menards has also introduced their holiday toy section including a lot of HO and O Gauge train items.  They have a bunch of cars (I've posted about some of them before ) and buildings .  But this year, one item caught my eye:  this Lighted Billboard .  You can see it in the photo above.  But also here on the Menards site . It comes with 26 different signs that you can put in the billboard ranging from vintage scenes to modern, current logos like Pepsi and Mountain Dew.  Menards describes it thusly : Pre-lit and prebuilt, this O-scale billboard features 26 interchangeable decals. Decorate your billboard front and back with an assortment of colorful decals, including popular brand names and railroad advertisements. This backlit billboard also houses over 25 LED lights, ensuring your chosen decal will come to life with beautifully saturated light! Constructed of wood and metal for maximum

Over the years, I've honed by at-home pizza game.  First it was the discovery and use of Chellino Scamorza Cheese out of Joliet .  Won't make a pie without it now.  Then it was the acquisition of new cutter pans , serving pans and stands .  And now it is buying cup and char pepperoni on the internet. PennMac sells Ezzo 38MM Pepperoni in 1 lb bags and I took the plunge recently.    The bag you see above is one of two that I bought online - but I also bought an Ezzo stick that I haven't sliced.  If you follow the instagram account /ronicups (which I don't know why you wouldn't be, right??), or visited a hip, new pizza place that is making Detroit or bar pies, you've undoubtedly come across Ezzo cup and char pepperoni. View this post on Instagram Roni Cups on a square pizza by @danwongishungry at @psp_nyc #squarepie #squarepizza A post shared by Pepperoni - Roni Cups 🍕 (@ronicups) on Oct 8, 2018

Back on Earth Day 2017, we planted a small Dawn Redwood tree in our backyard .  This was in the middle of construction of our house and we weren't even living there.  I figured, we'd get the tree in and give it a little bit of a head start.  The only problem...since I didn't tend to it for the first few months, it didn't do well. By October of last year, I was questioning if the tree was going to make it.  Take a look at the photo here to see how bare it was by mid-October . And ultimately died.   So, we replaced it this year .  Same spot, but more care in terms of water. And by October of *this* year, the tree wasn't bare.  But instead was sprouting some new growth . And now?  See the photo at the top of this post?  The entire tree has turned a bronze color and appears poised to drop all of it's needles very soon.  Which, based on what I've seen on other deciduous conifers is appropriate behavior. The tree also appears to have set some buds for

Columnar Norway Spruce photo via The Tree Center With Halloween in our rearview mirror and Christmas season in full swing, my time in the yard has mostly become leaf collection, branch pickup and walnut removal.  There's no planting going on right now, but that isn't keeping me from dreaming about next Spring and what we could add to Hornbeam Hill.  I've been painfully aware that I'm behind on planting conifers and have only planted three small ones.  The Fraser Fir was planted and lost this Summer .  Same with a small Canadian Hemlock.  Planted and lost this Summer . But I also posted in late Summer of 2017 about a 'dream' tree.  It was a Weeping Cedar .  I came across it and fell in love.  After finding a small one at Home Depot, I splurged and bought it.  Brought it home and planted it in the backyard .  This post is about another 'dream tree'.  I've dreamed/thought about a bunch of trees that I'd like to add over the previous year or