little blog on the prairie

My mailbox must have some sticker with the word “sucker” on it. Otherwise, I can’t explain the plethora of catalogs that have filled it this holiday season. (Yes Bro, I know that mailing lists get sold. I’m not that dumb.)

The catalogs are coming out of my ears.

They are all over my house. I imagine they probably talk to each other at night, comparing notes as to what I like and what I don’t. Let’s see, there’s etoys, Constructive Playthings, Lilly’s Kids, Brookstone, Boden, Land’s End, Eddie Bauer, One Step Ahead, Plow and Hearth, Orvis, Hearthsong, Uncommon Goods, Sharper Image, Herrington, Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Company Kids, Personal Creations, American Stationery, Hanna Anderson, West Elm, Drs. Foster and Smith, Hershey, Harry and David, The Land of Nod, Red Envelope …..

I love to look at them. It’s entertainment. Since I’m not exactly getting out into the world like I did pre-Peanut, it’s what quells my shopping cravings these days.

Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to recycle them so I can enjoy my catalog shopping without guilt.

I’m an egg snob. (This is a sub-set of being a grocery store snob.) My mom hooked me on Eggland’s Best eggs and I’ve sworn off the conventional kind. I firmly believe they just taste better. During my pregnancy I consumed eggs like crazy. I even bought an egg cooker. I became, if this is possible, an egg connoisseur.

Why am I telling you this? Because today I went to the Champaign Schnuck’s and they were out of my eggs. Again. You see, Schnuck’s gets shipments of Eggland’s Best on Tuesdays and usually if you do your shopping on Monday — or even sometimes on a Sunday — you’re SOL.

So, that’s the sum of my day. If you’re honked off about something today, feel free to vent in today’s version of Speak Your Piece.

Illinipundit has come out of the blog closet. The funny thing is, that the guy behind Illinipundit has been blogging under his real name for some time now on that site, but only today revealed that it was he who initiated the site.

I’ve often wondered if anybody who reads this blog really cares that my name isn’t on it. Many of you (especially the regular commenters) know who I am and why I have chosen not to put my name out there in the public domain. And the only reason I haven’t shown up to the C-U blogger bashes is that really, I couldn’t make it.

Perhaps this is a nonissue to you. Or maybe it isn’t. If you have an opinion, let me know.

Otherwise, have a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving. The lbotp family is headed up north where we will be sure to visit all of our favorite haunts, and might be going to Trader Joe’s every day. See you next week.

I could not make this up.

One spring Sunday afternoon a couple of years ago, we were sprucing up our landscaping. For some reason I remember it was UI graduation weekend. Anyway, all of a sudden I noticed the strangest thing. There were two nuns running down the sidewalk, right past the cul-de-sac.

They were girls, really, dressed in conservative grey frocks and black habits. I had to look at the calendar to make sure it wasn’t Halloween or some other dress-up holiday I didn’t know about.

We have seen the running nun a few more times in the past couple of years. I say nun because she has been by her lonesome. It is difficult for me to stifle my giggles, the randomness of it all. Why is there a young nun — perhaps a nun-in-training (pardon my ignorance, I am not Catholic) — jogging in my neighborhood? Not that that’s such a bad thing, just not something you see everyday.

This week, Time magazine did a report on the modern nun. They happened to focus on one young sister who works as a campus minister for the Newman Foundation on the UI campus.

I don’t know if Sister Sarah Roy is the running nun. But she is welcome back in the neighborhood anytime.

The garbage disposal (or disposer? You say disposer, I say disposal) has been out of commission at the lbotp house for some time now. A plumber we have used in the past was unable to commit to a time to come out here and look at it (other than 6:30 a.m.), so I called another company upon the recommendation of a friend.

This other company has its advantages in that they don’t charge you just for coming to your house. They charge by the job. And they wanted $131 just to reset my disposer/al, since the company man deemed that it was merely jammed — not unsalvagable, as I had convinced myself.

I reckoned that that was a ridiculous fee, and there was no question that the young fellow agreed. The sheepish look on his face was priceless. “Highway robbery” was written all over his forehead, because this was a no-brainer task that we could easily take on. Trouble was, I couldn’t find the little wrench that expressly came with the disposal just for this purpose. But my gut told me I should keep looking.

Not even an hour after sheepish company man left, we found it, and minutes later our disposal was back in business.

The moral of the story: always trust your gut. And if you’re wondering where I came up with that $400 figure, they wanted $262 to install a new faucet I had purchased for my guest bathroom. Whatever. Anyone know a good handyman?

• In case you didn’t notice, the N-G has upped its content on its Web site. More to read for free. Has hell frozen over?
• The folks at the DI’s “Buzz” entertainment magazine couldn’t hide their embarrassment after printing the results of their annual “Best of C-U” feature. the reason? They realized that its title was a misnomer. Instead, it should have been dubbed the “Best of Campustown.” It seems that the sophisticated and hip UI students proved themselves to be provincial by rarely venturing beyond the boundaries of Lincoln, University, Neil (that’s generous) and Kirby.  The editors  didn’t hesitate to criticize their readers’ limited C-U tastes in the appropriately-named “Likes and Gripes” section, the only page of Buzz that’s worthy of your time week after week. Too bad that’s not online.
• Was I the only person who had a difficult time finding the election results on WCIA’s Web site the other day? It might be useful to put a link on your homepage, fellas.
• Congrats to Matt of It’s Matt’s World for winning a seat on the Champaign County Board. I’m glad to see that he has no plans to vacate his excellent blog.
• Ever heard of Moe’s Southwest Grill? It’s coming to Normal, and might be showing up sometime in C-U too.
• Want a souvenir from the soon-to-be-departed K’s Merchandise? A shopping cart can be yours for $35.00. Makes a great Christmas gift.

Jim Edgar called my house twice yesterday. I didn’t know the former governor and I were on such friendly terms.

Today I get to teach Peanut her first lesson in civic duty — that is, even in nonpresidential election years, we must exercise our right to vote (especially as women) even if the candidates are a bunch of losers (much like the Chicago Cubs, right Judy Baar Topinka?).

Boy I’ll be happy when this day is over and all the ballots are tallied. Count me as a victim of election exhaustion.

Yes, that describes me to a tee. With a 7-month-old that somehow forgot how to sleep through the night, I often sing this refrain, one made famous by the wonderful children’s performer Ralph Covert.

This may be a stretch, but Ralph is to kid’s music what Shrek is to kid’s movies: it’s something that both parents and kids can enjoy, at face value for the kids and beyond for the parents.

Ralph Covert is a Chicago musician (and lead singer of the rock group Bad Examples) who has taken his Ralph’s World act national. He can now be seen on the Disney channel with a few music videos, and the Mouse just released a Ralph’s World album (listen here) that is somewhat of a RW “greatest hits” (and includes the aforementioned coffee song). The Champaign Public Library also carries a bunch of RW CDs.

It just so happens that Ralph’s World will be making its Champaign-Urbana debut this December 2. We have had our tickets for months. This will be the place to be for the mac-n-cheese set. As far as the lbotp family is concerned, this is the best thing to hit Champaign in years!

Mr. lbotp and I celebrated our anniversary last week. We have been hitched now for four glorious years.

To celebrate, we had an adult evening on the town. We have a soft spot for the symphony, and it just so happened the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was making their annual appearance at Krannert. And it just so happened that Peanut’s grandmother was in town to give us some free babysitting. And it just so happened that I am lucky enough to have a friend in the Krannert ticket office.

Realizing that the CSO is one tough ticket, I e-mailed my friend (let’s call her Rhonda) to see if she might be able to sell me a couple. When Rhonda found out it was our anniversary, she told me they were complimentary. That would have been enough.

But when we got to Krannert and opened the envelope, I discovered that these weren’t just any tickets. Our seats were better than B. Joseph White’s — center aisle, about eight rows up. We could see every facial hair on the guest violinist’s face, every bulb of sweat on the conductor’s neck.

So thanks Rhonda, you’re the best. And thanks to Mr. lbotp for four wonderful years.

• Will the proposed southeast Urbana Meijer store actually come to fruition? The company has owned the land at the corner of Windsor and Philo Road since “the early 1990s.” That is a long time, people, and they’ve made this threat before. But this might seem more real since development is planned for the corner across the street — an area where the developer floated the idea of a TJs. I guess the bigger question is can Urbana support both a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Meijer? In that location, it’s safe to say they might be counting on Champaign folks zipping down on Windsor …
• Peanut’s grandma was in town this week and we checked out the new sushi place that went in in the old Hinode space, Sushi Kame. Although we were just there for lunch, we had a good experience there. It’s hard for me to rate this downtown Champaign establishment because I’m still not eating much in the way of raw fish, since I’m nursing my baby. But the bento box was good, the waitress friendly and for the most part attentive, and they had one of my favorite Japanese items on the menu (gomae, spinach with sesame paste). The only off thing we found was that for some reason they the only takeout menu they had was specifically for lunch. I’ll go back there again, especially once I can eat the good stuff again.
• If you’re in the mood to do a little early holiday shopping or want to get that book for your book club, head over to Pages for All Ages this weekend and you can do something good for a school or charity. A certain percentage of your purchase will go to a participating school or organization, if you mention it at the register. Heads up, girls: we found this adorable tote that can be a gym bag, a great carry-on or even a diaper bag. (Pages had it a little cheaper than the price listed on the Web site.) I got it in green.
• In case you didn’t know, the No. 1 football team in the country is coming to town this weekend. So let’s compare Champaign-Urbana and Columbus where it really counts — the Coldwell Banker College Home Price Comparison Index: “The Coldwell Banker College Home Price Comparison Index looks at the home towns of 119 Division 1-A college football programs to see how much the same type of house costs in each market. The benchmark: a 2,200-square foot single family house with four bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, family room and two-car garage in a middle-management type neighborhood.” Columbus ranked 62nd at $251,364; Champaign-Urbana was somewhere higher, at $229,650 — a victory of sorts.