I think that I’m going to start evaluating my running on a weekly basis, assigning a letter grade each Friday. I came up with that idea, because this week I earned an F-. It is only Friday, but I can already make that assessment, since today was my first run, since last Friday. So, from here on out, I can only improve. My grade will be based on, how many days I run (ideally 6, per week); how many miles, how many gorgeous mornings I wasted by hitting snooze, etc..  I’m hoping to keep the grading thing going at least until after marathon season, this fall.

It has been a rough week, weather-wise, and I’m still battling blisters from my new sneaks. Just the same, I have been reading about all of my friends out west who have been battling through the snow, on their runs. So, I don’t really feel like the weather excuse is holding up so well.

On a positive note, my goal to run 500 miles between 1-22-10 and 1-22-11 seems to be going fairly well.

According to my little Nike Plus chart, I’m almost 34 miles ahead of schedule, as of today. Something to feel good about, I guess. But seriously, the thing that gets me going the most, is all of the positivity from my friends who also run. I think that you guys are so awesome. I know that running isn’t a team sport, in the traditional sense. But, it really motivates me to feel like I’m a part of the running community. Kind of nerdy/sappy, I know.

Anyway, to wrap up this post, here is some entertainment. The shot below is from the Central Park Conservancy 4 mi. race, weekend before last. Look how awesome that guy in the Five Fingers looks. I almost want to get a pair, just so I can look more hard core.

I think that Reagan is making burritos for dinner. Heaven.

I was thinking it would be fun to get some full moon shots, last night when I was watching it rise through the window. Not much later, I saw a shot on Gothamist that was taken at 5:45 in the morning, that looked pretty cool. It made me want to copycat, and shoot one in the morning, also. So I woke up at 5:30 (since it is laundry day, anyway), grabbed the tripod and gear bag, and headed up on the roof. No sooner did I get up there and set up, than I realized I had left the 200mm lens down stairs. Dreading the trip back down the ladder, I snapped a couple at 40mm. I soon realized that they were all going to turn out like crap, w/o the 200mm. So I hurried down the ladder, grabbed the lens and climbed back up, just in time to get it mounted and get the shots below.

As I was reviewing these shots in lightroom, I could actually see the moon setting, from frame to frame. It was kind of cool.

As the moon was starting to disappear below the skyline, I turned around and saw this. Yes, a[nother] sunrise photo. Hahahahaha.

Totally unrelated, but worth mentioning: Reagan wrote up an abbreviated first hand account of the events leading up to, and the delivery of Piper, that was published on Design Mom, yesterday (albeit they misspelled her name). It was pretty cool for me to read. It made me revisit some of the emotions that I was having, at the time. Piper and Reagan are pretty amazing, especially when put in perspective.

Ok, obviously this project isn’t so secret, if there is a movie about it on the interwebz. One of our good friends painted a little chair for Piper, not too long ago. It is really cute, and Piper likes to sit on it. But she hasn’t quite grown into it yet (i.e. her feet don’t quite touch the ground when she is sitting in it). So one of her therapists suggested to Reagan that we get Piper a smaller chair, in the interim. Instead of buying her one, I thought it would be fun to make one for her. So, I got started on it Monday night. I drew it up, cut it and assembled it. The batteries died on the flip right before I started putting it together. I think that it is just as well. Because, this video is at 10x speed and it is still 4 mins long (kind of  a large time commitment, I know [especially if you have as short of an attention span as I do]). There are a few extended shots of my booty. Be sure to enjoy those, hahahaha. Reagan will be in charge of painting it. Hopefully it will be done by the end of the week. I’m not much of a video editor, and I didn’t really get creative with the sound track either (if you hate Girltalk, mute it). Having the disclaimer out of the way, here is part one of the chair build:

G. Love and Special Sauce is another one of my favs from back in the day, that continues to produce. This track is from “Lemonade” featuring Tristan Perryman. I thought about doing “Rhyme for the Summertime,” but it has been raining for 3 days. So, I opted with “Beautiful.” Check it.

(Photo: not sure who shot it, but I think it is awesome)

Reagan said that she had to help Piper with the spelling on “Rgyeedddfhhmyymlehykjh.” Pretty impressive, just the same.

We had a pretty great visit with Piper on Sunday morning. Some of our friends, and Piper’s friends came to hang out. Piper was all dressed up cute and had her hair done, when we arrived. She was in a great mood and ready to play. It is so fun to watch her interact with other small children. She is so curious. She spends a lot of the time hanging out with friends just staring and observing everything that they do.

Piper wasn’t stingy with the smiles, either. It is really fun to visit her, and see her pretty much acting how she was before the big scary January incident.

A few more photos, over here.

It was a beautiful day to be in New York, Saturday.  The weather was absolutely perfect. Reagan and I headed upstate early with some of our friends, to climb at this place that we discovered last year. It was Reagan’s first time climbing outside of a gym. She put on a very impressive display of natural ability.

It is kind of crazy how close we are to the tracks. There was kind of a lot of train traffic today, too. We were only on the wall for a few hours and in that span 3 trains came through. As loud as it was, it made for some cool shots. Hehe.

Additional photos over here.

Even though I should have spent the evening picking up trash, planting trees and rescuing puppies, I went to a party, instead. I mentioned earlier this week about my friend Zach’s connex with Kiehl’s. Well, unfortunately Jeff Koons and Pharrell didn’t make it out to the party. But it was still a really good time.  I had a great time chatting it up with Zach, and the other guys shooting the event.

I also ran into/met Joanna, a blog-o-sphere friend for the first time, in person. I always wondered if it would be an awkward situation, when and if I ever met someone in person, who I had previously only come to know the online version of. As it turns out, it wasn’t awkward, at all. I’m sure it helped matters that we have some mutual (real life-o-sphere) friends in common. Reagan and I have both been reading her page, since she featured an item relating out our friends, a little over a year ago. Actually, Reagan was probably reading before that. Anyway, she is just as nice, cute and friendly in real life as you would expect her to be, from reading her work.

Here are a few additional photos from the party:

Thursday afternoon, I decided to stop by the Mural the Shepard Fairey is working on, in the East Village. I had originally wanted to go by on Wednesday, but it ended up raining like crazy. Today worked out well, though. I was on my way through the neighborhood, anyway, for the Earth Day party at Kiehl’s. Fairey was out working on the wall. After shooting a few frames I said what’s up and told him that I had met him at the TS collab with Levis. He said that he remembered me (pretty cool for him say, whether true or not), then wiped the gold spray paint off of his hand before shaking mine and asking me to remind him of my name. We then chatted for about 10 minutes about random stuff including the impending gallery exhibit, before he hooked me up with a handful of stickers, and invited me over for beers. Ok, ok, the invitation for beers was a joke.

The reason that I’m telling this story, is because I think it is so cool that despite being such an icon, Fairey has not let it go to his head. It is true that I was a fan of his art before I knew much about the guy. But the fact that has the personality and attitude to back it up makes me like his stuff even more.

Fairey was even mellow with this little kid (below) who was passing by with is parents. Can’t wait to check out the exhibit next week.

A few more shots over here.

This leftover shot from Kolob Canyon, from our visit in March, was the best that I could come up with for my 2010 Earth Day post. Go save some whales, recycle, etc..