Shootin' Spuds

Once again, for those of you who haven't heard this a million times, I am from the corn. And in the corn, we find ridiculous ways to spend our time. Throughout high school and college many of my peers made potato guns. Not for the faint of heart, this canon-like apparatus can chuck a tuber from one goal post to the other.

And, so my husband, brother-in-law and I were delighted when my father-in-law called and asked us to build one to share with the inner-city kids that were staying with the family as part of the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program this Memorial Day weekend.

For those of you who are inexperienced, here's the basic recipe: PVC pipe + gas grill igniter + hair spray. I prefer Aqua Net myself, but feel free to use the aerosol of your choice.

By the end of the evening we even had Grandma shootin' spuds. Most exciting, for the first time, someone offered to try to catch the potatoes. Those inner-city baseball players have some guts. (As well as potato-shaped bruises on their forearms.)

I image their welcome home conversation will go something like this:
Mother of inner-city youth: Did you have something to keep you from getting too bored in Central Illinois?
Inner-city youth: Yeah. They shot potatoes at our heads.


What's your favorite home-town tradition?

A blast from the.... current?!

After a serious hiatus, I'm back. I was kindly scolded by many of my favorite people for not keeping up my blog. So here we go....



My husband and I were recently invited to an 80's party to celebrate the birthday of a college friend. Though we had originally planned our exciting Friday tradition of watching a movie and eating too much pizza, we made a last minute decision to go for it!

Much to my husband's disappointment, this meant we needed to find 80's gear... and fast. It was 2 p.m. and the Madonna would be blaring from a jambox by 10. But, where to start? I was in the loop and, as one might imagine, there are not many vintage shops in the central business district of Chicago. To top it off, I had other things in mind... like enjoying my afternoon with a friend I see very little of and finding a pair of jeans that don't show my crack. (Can I get an "amen?")

Because good jeans always take priority, I resigned myself to some blue eyeshadow, and we headed off to the Magnificent Mile.

It's important at this point to say that both my friend and I found great jeans!

I learned a valuable lesson walking from one trendy store to the next... people are not learning valuable lessons. Hello, America! Wearing baby chew toys as earrings was never good. Leggings make the tiniest of us chunky. An off the shoulder sweater? Ok... maybe... but only because Flash Dance was kickin'!

And so my hubby and I donned the most fabulous collection of "new" clothes. We partied on to Duran Duran, Michael Jackson and Depeche Mode in true (2008) style.

But my point. The 80's are back. And still bad!


What do you think of the new/old trends? What's your favorite 80's memory? Come on... dish!