A few weeks ago, Amy & I caught a Chicago Rush vs. Utah Blaze game at the Allstate Arena. We were joined at this Arena Football game by my parents, along with two fellow Kidology staff members who were in town for various meetings… my boss Karl Bastian and our Executive Operations Coordinator, Todd McKeever.

Steve, Todd, & Karl

The sound system was way too loud and distorted at times

Let's just say right off the bat that there wasn't much of a football game. At the time, the Rush were undefeated and the Blaze had yet to win a game. And it stayed that way with the Rush winning this game 63-40. So when you have a blowout like that, you tend to poke around and see what else is going in. Continue Reading…

Today Amy & I grabbed lunch at XOCO, which is chef Rick Bayless' "quick serve Mexican" place in Chicago that opened last year to much fanfare.

XOCO

It's located right next to his other two restaurants, Topolobampo and Frontera Grill (which we ate at a few years ago). Continue Reading…

I recently got a new hat, thanks to my friend Branden who visited Walt Disney World not too long ago. I had seen this hat show up on some theme park blogs, so I asked him to track it down while at the Magic Kingdom.

My new Monorail Hat!

It's orange and black and features an iconic Spanish phrase on the front: "Por favor manténganse se alejado de las puertas." As any Disney theme park fan will recognize, this is the safety spiel that plays when boarding the monorail.

Can you say this?

I've written about this spiel before, ironically when I tracked down a t-shirt with the same phrase. Here's the audio for the safety spiel, recorded by "the Voice of Disneyland", Jack Wagner:

Audio: "Please stand clear…"

Jack passed away in 1995, but he still is the "voice" of the monorail safety message at the parks. I also use this audio on my phone as my ringtone. Yes, I'm a dork.

Hi Mickey!

Incidentally, the hat is part of Disney's "Vintage 1928 Collection", which has a worn and distressed look… thus the built-in rips and tears on the hat. Very cool!

When I was in college, for some reason I got my hands on a 5-foot-long mockup of a stick of Wrigley's Spearmint Gum, which adorned my dorm room for many years (and now adorns my parents' basement!)

Steve holds large gum with roommate Tim (1995)

The item was a very accurate portrayal of a stick of gum, complete with removable wrapper and foil underneath. There even were "do not litter" markings on the back. I'm not exactly sure what this was originally designed for, but it looked pretty official.

I mention this because today Wrigley — based here in Chicago — announced that they are dropping the use of foil wrappers on most of their gum lines. From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Wrigley cutting back on foil wrappers
April 22, 2010
Cheryl V. Jackson

Wrigley is scrapping the foil wrapping for its iconic brands.

After using foil for more than 100 years, Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. is dumping foil wrappers and replacing them with paper for its five key chewing-gum brands: Juicy Fruit, Doublemint, Wrigley's Spearmint, Winterfresh and Big Red.

The switch began with some of Wrigley's hip, envelope-style cardboard packs late last year and will move through all packaging this year, the company confirmed.

The paper wrappers cost about 13 percent less than foil, according to the Chicago company, which says the switch won't affect the freshness or the taste of the gum.

The move should save about 850 tons of aluminum, according to Wrigley — keeping the equivalent of 60 million cans a year out of landfills. But Wrigley will keep the silver foil wrappers on its Extra brand gum and the colored foil wrappers on its 5 brand.

Wrigley was one of the first gum makers to use foil wrappers, starting around 1900. But the stick gum is a throwback to bygone times. Today, most chewing gum comes in the form of tabs, pellets or cubes.

Sad to see this era pass… but at least I still have my oversized stick of gum to remember it by!

Never thought I'd be writing this again, but…

On Friday, Amy & I attended the home opener for the Chicago Rush. Yes, an Arena Football game! Given that the AFL canceled the 2009 season, it had been 642 days since we last saw the Rush play. What happened with the AFL? Stay tuned for a future blog post where I explain everything in layman's terms, because a lot of friends and family are asking the same thing!

Steve, Amy, and Dad... back at a Rush game

Anyway, this was the second game of the season for the Rush, having come off their opener which they won on the road against the Iowa Barnstormers, 61-43. Given the skeptical approach I had on this reborn version of the Arena Football League, we didn't renew our season tickets. Instead, we're taking a "wait and see" approach and going with the cheap seat approach on a per game basis, just to see how Rush 2.0 works in the greater scheme of things.

It's been a while!

We attended the game with my Dad and sat up in the good 'ole cheap seats of section 214 at Allstate Arena… upper level, east endzone, second row. Tickets were $10 a piece, which were an increase over the $8 that the Rush had been charging for the same seats in 2008. It was odd to step into the routine again after a long hiatus… even though I did attend a few Chicago Slaughter games last season with the "Slush" roster.

Continue Reading…

Last week, I had the opportunity to participate in a podcast discussion about the Arena Football League. I'll be writing more about the return of the AFL after a year of hiatus, but if you want to hear me babbling about the league, give it a listen.

Audio: Listen to the AFL Roundtable Podcast

This was the first episode of AFL Roundtable, hosted the by folks at ArenaFan.com.

It was facilitated by Tim Capper, Canadian-based staff member of ArenaFan. The show also featured JP Worley, who co-hosts another AFL-based show with Tim, and Henry Primeaux, who helps run AFLFanZone.com.

I'm not sure why I was asked to participate. It's like I've ever had an opinion or anything. I've always been more interested in the business and marketing side of alternative football leagues more than the X's & O's, so my opinions tend to be a bit different than those who are "really into" the indoor football world.

Or maybe it was my interest in the "new" AFL's first national sponsor, Le Vai Alkaline Ionized Water. Yeah, that should make for an interesting beverage review! I'm still waiting on my review sample from the company.

It's that time of year again. That's right, time to find the "good pop." That is, Kosher for Passover versions of Coke and Pepsi. These are considered awesome because they use real sugar as sweeteners instead of high fructose corn syrup. I'm not Jewish, but this Kosher stuff is awesome!

Note the yellow caps to denote Kosher

This year, the demand isn't as great, I feel, because we've been blessed by similar drinks in the form of Pepsi Throwback, Mountain Dew Throwback, and Heritage Dr Pepper. But still, as a beverage enthusiast, it was time to make a "Kosher run!"

Sucrose = Sugar

I've previously reviewed Kosher Coke, Kosher Pepsi, and even Kosher Caffeine Free Pepsi for BevReview.com, so I don't need to go into that here. This year, I went with my friend George up to Hungarian Kosher Foods in Skokie where they can always be counted on to have the Kosher drinks. And sure enough, I walked away with some 2 liters of Coke and CF Pepsi.

Kosher Bazooka Gum

But even more interesting was the box of Kosher Bazooka Gum that George walked away with. It had a very different taste, in my opinion, though to be honest I can't remember the last time I actually chewed Bazooka. (Michael Ei$ner now owns Bazooka's parent company, so maybe that's a reason!)

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Beyond that, it was somewhat funny to find that the enclosed Bazooka Joe comic was written in Hebrew. I'm not sure what's happening in the comic. Care to give a guess? (Make sure you read from right to left!)

Last night I was down at Catalyst Ranch for an end-of-rally party for EPIC, a non-profit founded by our friend Erin Huizenga.

The organization brings together creative professionals to work on projects for select non-profit clients that focus on education, children, and families… all on a pro-bono basis. It's a way for folks to give back and contribute to an organization that is making a social impact, but may not have the resources to fund such projects on their own.

EPIC pulls together what are called "Creative Rally Teams" which focus on projects for an 8-week period. These teams have folks from different design firms and expertise, but often include copywriters, designers, art directors, and Web gurus.

At the end of each 8-week "Rally" period, there's a celebration event, where the teams showcase the work they performed for the 2-3 selected non-profits. Oh, and there's food, drink, and goofy stuff too! Last night the non-profits being highlighted were the American Nutrition Association, Arts of Life, and the Lincoln Park Community Shelter.

Which brings us to ActionBooth. They describe themselves as specializing in "dynamic event photography." They were at the party last night to shoot photos of attendees, donating their time in doing so.

They shot some photos of our friends Meredith Rollins, Tim & Emily Lapetino, and myself… jumping. Yup, that's what we did.

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It's good to know I haven't lost much in my vertical leap!