HP Daily Blog

HP Daily Blog correspondent EB reports on Belly Dance’s brand extension:

“They were just sitting there, so we decided it as time to sell them something.”  That’s how Belly Dance’s store manager described the idea of what to do with husbands of expecting mothers.  “While the mom is shopping for maternity wear, the dads are bored to the bejeus.  It’s perfectly understandable.  I would be too.” 

To tap this untapped resource, Belly Dance had its designers retrofit some looks for the tummy toting pops.  “To be honest, there’s not a huge difference between a pregnant mom and a pot-belly dad.”  With fabrics that are beyond comfortable and for the most part unisex, Belly Dance has designed a line of men’s leisure wear.  “If you’re lounging or watching a ball game, you may as well be comfortable. That’s what we’re selling men: Comfort.”  

From flannels to fleece, stop in to Belly Dance and check out their new arrivals today.

Since all HP Daily Blog correspondents are busy today running errands, HP Daily Blog correspondent EB is left to mis-report on what he surmises to be the downtown HP parking situation. 

“$10, $15, $20…”  No, this isn’t the Board of Trade, this is the price for one of downtown HP’s most coveted items. “Parking is at a premium today.”  While it’s difficult to hoard parking spots, unless of course you park perpendicular to the spaces, you can at least squat in a spot until someone waves some hard currency your way.  “Unless I get a $20 or a coupon to E-Street, I’m calling my boyfriend to see if he wants to take my spot when I leave.” 

Indeed, tag-teaming has proven to be one of the more effective ways to score a spot. “If it wasn’t for inherenting this parking spot from my father, I wouldn’t have been able to return my Xmas gifts until…say…tomorrow.”

Many Happy Returns!

HP Daily Blog Correspondent LL reports on a heartwarming “overheard” moment…

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” recalled the mother with her 3-year old son Matthew.  She was referring to the man operating the crane game at Fuddruckers.   “He’d put in his money, move the crane, grab a stuffy and pull it out of the machine.  It was unreal!” 

Most Fuddruckers diehards rarely see anyone pull any stuffed animals out of the machine, let alone twice in a row.  So she did what any mother would do.

But no luck.  The crane operator couldn’t score any more stuffies and Matthew went back to his table empty handed. 

Thanks Again Mr. Crane Operator!

It was a learning opportunity to be sure, as the mother explained how sometimes you win and sometimes you lose and that sometimes, the crane comes up empty. 

Several minutes later, after Matthew and his mom returned to their Fuddruckers’ deliciousness, the man operating the crane nonchalantly called over, “Hey Matthew, you forgot to pick up your prize.” 

Humanity – It’s Contagious.

HP Daily Blog Correspondent PP reports on the holiday moment that almost wasn’t.

The guests arrived to smiles, water glasses with lemon slices and plates of warmed hors d’oeuvres.  However, just an hour before, the environs were anything but hospitable. 

“Our turkey pan sprung a leak,” recalls the hostess JW.  “We were planning on deep frying the bird for 45-minutes but unless we could patch the hole, it just wouldn’t work.”

While her son was Googling ways to microwave a 25-pound bird, she thought about reaching out to Ravinia Plumbing.  “We just needed someone to patch this hole.  Time was running out.  We didn’t know what to do.” 

“When you don’t know what to do – call us” may as well be Sunset Foods’ tagline.

JW called Sunset out of sheer desperation – the store had already closed for the holiday more than an hour earlier.

However, somebody answered. 

Headed out to his own T-Giving meal, the Sunset representative offered up the store’s own, in-house, commercial weight pan to save JW’s holiday dinner.

“If it weren’t for Sunset’s assistance, I doubt my guests would have been able to over-eat as much as they did. Thank goodness they left satiated – otherwise, I would have been the talk of ….. of well…Sunset.”

While shuttling between the Braeside and HP train stations, we couldn’t help but notice a small, yet competitve rivalry breaking out amongst the monthly pass artists.  November pits 2nd grader Giovanny against October’s Shintaro – the 1st grader who’s got some serious non-straying power…Both Giovanny and Shintaro are clearly tremendous colorers, mostly staying within the lines but occasionally clipping them.  On first glance, the 1st grader appears to have received some performance enhancing assitance on stenciling, but maybe Shintaro is just that good.   

And Giovanny really aced that red car – right down to the winter radials.  Even looks like he rotated them! 

Impressive stuff…. Clearly these two both have a bright future – so long as they Play it Safe.

The very hungry caterpillar was hankering for some Confection Connection deliciousness:

On Monday, he ate some  amazing english toffee…but he was still hungry.
On Tuesday he ate a pail of nonpareils…but he was still hungry.
On Wednesday he ate several raisin and nut clusters…but he was still hungry.
On Thursday he slurped down some gummy worms – and a couple bears for good measure…but he was still hungry.
On Friday he couldn’t resist Confection Connection’s white chocolate pretzels…but amazingly he was still hungry.
So on Saturday, he had one rum infused truffle, one chocolate covered ’shmellow, 2 slow moving carmel turtles, one savory fudge meltaway – ok fine – 3 irresistable meltaways, 1 door-stop sized chunk of milk chocolate, a couple laces of licorice (several varieties), one itty-bitty bite of almond bark, a handful of Halloween candy corn and that’s it – except for the peanut butter smoothie to go!!!!

After swiping his Chase Bank “one’s free every 5 minutes” debit card for $20 bucks ($13.25 plus $6.75 for sales tax), he thought to himself ”oh no!”  He had a tummy ache. 

The next day he ate a wafer-thin mint leaf, dipped in a lil’ dollop of hot fudge - and ok it’s true – he couldn’t resist a handful of  Confection Connection’s amazing toffee  – IT’S JUST TOO GOOD! – But that was it – and it was worth it because he felt much better…

It’s a tough call. Both streets have closely packed houses with short driveways which minimize down-time between stops.  Both streets have their share of generous homes, king-size candy bars are not out of the norm.  Marion, however, benefits from more latch-key moms, who leave a “please take one” candy bowl dish at the front door.  If you time it right, that could mean “please take one bowl” of candy.  It’s the trick-or-treat lottery, and one lucky bird is bound to hit the jackpot and have enough candy to last until summer camp. 

The downside to Marion is 1) no sidewalk and 2) the secondary market. If you finish with Marion, sure, you can scoot through the woods and get to Stonegate, but then what?  More work, more downtime between houses, and the candy trickles in slower and slower.  Sound familiar?  With Barberry, you can run right over to Sumac and Edgewood - significantly better turf than Stonegate et al.

Perhaps most importantly, Barberry is flat.  That hill on Marion off Green Bay is treacherous, and we’ve seen too many pirates and princesses sprain their ankles navigating down it.  So unless Marion comes up with some shuttle bus service to navigate that stretch – and closes down the street in light of a lack of a sidewalk - we’d go with Barberry.

With that said, no HP schools opted to go with the Unicef Trick-or-Treat program last year – Perhaps this is our year…