Piper’s hair was a bit nutty today. The nurse had done it nice after Piper’s bath, but Reagan took it out of the pony tail and eventually put in a french braid. But I liked it when it was all crazy-woman style. Today’s visit was a lot of fun for me, because Piper was pretty interested in playing with me. I used the trick that we learned from our b-i-l JR, last weekend. Just lay on the floor, and Piper is automatically interested. Here she is leaning over my face to check out my ear.

She also checked my nose for boogers.

What good is having dad visit, if you can’t tap his watch?

And of course, she had a tickle session from Reagan

(Photos: Jake and Reagan)

If you want to see a few more shots, feel free to click through here.

First of all, I didn’t even score myself last week, because I didn’t run at all. Since I earned an F-, there wasn’t really anything to evaluate. This week, I did slightly better. The weather was a lot cooler, so I had no excuses. Otherwise, I may have earned a little bit better than the D+ that I’m slapping onto this week. The two midweek runs were really short, and Today’s run was half-hearted. This will be the last week of anything below a C, though, unless I’m injured. I say this, because Monday I start a 20 week training program for the NYC Marathon in the fall. So, I’ll be running 4 times a week, at a minimum with at least one of them being 14+ miles. It is a pretty lengthy training period, I know. But I have never formally trained for any of the marathons that I have completed, so far. So, I figured that I may as well go for it. Let’s see if I still like running when November rolls around. Hehe.

Since we are on the subject of running– Today was an NYRR club points race, for the ladies only. It was a lot of fun to just go and cheer on Reagan and the rest of the ladies on our team. Below: Reagan in the finish straight.

Below: Paula Radcliffe coming out of the starting gate (not competing, just showing support for the ladies)

Here are a couple of fun shots of our female teammates with Kara and Paula. It as a really fun day.

The only official item that we have calendared for this weekend is a race that Reagan is running. It is the NYRR Mini 10K. It is a Women’s-only race that dates back to the 70′s– and “mini” refers to the miniskirts that were popular during the era. The race is Saturday morning. If it wasn’t exciting enough that Reagan was running, so is Kara Goucher and Paula Radcliffe. Still not exciting enough? They are both pregnant (Reagan is not pregnant, hehe).

Besides the Mini 10k, I’m sure that we will find some fun stuff to do this weekend. Most likely there will be some World Cup viewing in the mix. I have seen a lot of cool promotional stuff leading up to this year’s iteration of the World Cup. But my favorite, by far is the t-shirt below:

When your team scores a goal, pull your shirt over your head, and this is what you get. Pure genius, if you ask me (via). Even though the matches officially kick off today, for me the World Cup doesn’t really start until Brazil plays it’s first match. It’s so crazy that they have a new Ronaldinho, from when I was living there in 1999. Maybe for the next world cup they can have a new Pele. Hahahaha.

While we are on the subject of cool stuff that I have seen recently– I discovered a photographer today whose work completely blew me away. His name is Nadav Kander. Here is one of his images from the series: “Yangtze, The Long River.”

Check out more of his work on his site. It is seriously otherworldly (via).

I have written about Os Gemeos before. They are a Brazilian duo that does street art. When I say duo, I mean twin brothers. Os Gemeos actually means “the twins” in Portuguese. There is a very distinct look to the art that they do. They use a lot of bright yellows and reds. I first learned of Os Gemeos on some graffiti documentary that I watched with Reagan. It had footage of them touching up a piece in Sao Paulo. The cops showed up and one of the twins went over to deal with them while the other kept painting. The dialogue was something like:

Cop: “Do you have a permit for this?”

Gemeo: “No, no we don’t need one. We had one when we originally painted (probably BS). But today we are just touching it up”

Cop: “Who issued the permit?”

Gemeo: “Oh it was for charity. You know… for the kids and stuff (probably BS)”

It was a lot like watching Obi Wan do Jedi mind tricks on storm troopers. Aaaaaanyway– the shot above is one that I took last fall, of a mural that Os Gemeos painted on Houston St., when Dash Snow died. The installation is currently covered by a temporary wall featuring Shepard Fairey’s May Day mural.

Os Gemeos recently started keeping a blog. It features their work, as well as cool stuff that they come across in their travels. They just barely launched the blog a few months ago. I have really enjoyed following it. You can find it at osgemeos.com.br. Check it out.

I was in the park last night, doing what I like to do (playing with cameras). On the way out, I decided: “Since I’m here with my gear, why not grab a slow-shutter shot of the GW?” So, I grabbed the image below. For extra fun, check out the full resolution version here.

(Photo: David Koppe)

For me the jury is still out, on whether I like Hot Chip. They kind of remind me of a modern version of XTC, or something. One thing standing in the way, is that their name reminds me of Hot Action Cop. I realize, that is my problem, not theirs, but still. Anyway They are Brits, they play keyboards. Some of them are mustachioed. Press play to hear “I Feel Better.”

One thing I realized this weekend is that we don’t make it to Kings county enough. Every time that Reagan and I wander into Brooklyn we are both like “why don’t we live here.” I have to admit though, that depending on what neighborhood we go to, I get a little bit hipstered out. Anyway. We hit the Renegade Craft Fair, which was really cool. It was also really windy, and threatening rain the entire time. As a result, I didn’t really have the camera out much (sorry Zhush). I did snap the image above, just because I thought that it was cool that the display had a shelf made from a skate deck.

Eventually the clouds burst into a torrential downpour that lasted about 5 minutes. We bolted across the street into Urban Rustic just in time to keep from being totally soaked. It just happened that we were also hungry for lunch, so it worked out well. By the time that we finished eating, it was blue skies again. On the way back to the train, we grabbed some frozen yogurt (above) and hit several “vintage” shops (Reagan and Erin’s idea). But we did pass a cool door on Driggs ave that had a few stencils and wheatpaste pieces on it, including a cool C215 stencil. But, I really liked the wheatpaste below. I have seen it before, and I’m not sure who does it.

Anyway the weekend as always flew by far too quickly. See you soon, Monday.

I got the weekend off to a banging start, last night in SoHo. I had the privilege of meeting several professional skateboarders that I looked up to, as a kid, including original Z-boy Pat Ngoho. We kept the weekend in high gear on Saturday, with the arrival of Reagan’s Sister Erin and her husband JR. First we took a jaunt into Westchester to visit the Pipster.

She climbed under a chair, chasing one of her birthday cards that she had dropped on the floor, and had to be coaxed out by auntie Erin.

For dinner, we ordered in. But since it is so bloody hot in our apartment (even with the A/C running full tilt) that we retired to the rooftop for a picnic of sorts. It was breezy and much cooler up there. Of course I couldn’t be on the roof without getting a shot of my favorite buildings, hahahah.

It is hot in the city, these days. Really hot. Even so, I’m tooootally ready to spend some time outside of the air conditioned office. There are a few notable items on the agenda for this weekend.

Friday evening: I’ll be attending/shooting the “Love and Guts” art show in SoHo. It is a tribute exhibit to several skaters that I grew up idolizing.

Saturday: Reagan’s sister and brother-in-law are coming to visit. I’m not exactly sure what Reagan has planned yet. But I’m sure it will be a good time.

Sunday: Japan Day race in the morning. I’m not running. But I would like to make it down there anyway, to cheer on my teammates who will be running. Then.. we will be hitting the Renegade Craft Fair at Mccarren Park in BK. I’m looking forward to that one, too. Let’s not forget that MotoGP is at Mugello, this weekend (Rossi’s home track).

Of course all of this will be intermixed with PJ visits, and watching the BP cam. But, that goes without saying. Hehe

(above: self portrait)

I have been so freaking busy this week. It has seriously been the longest “short week,” ever. I haven’t had time to write anything interesting, or even think anything interesting. I have shot some really good stuff this week, though. It has also been really nice to have such an uptick in movement at my real job. Tonight I finally had a bit of a break, to just do… whatever. Reagan cut my hair, then I watched the BP cam (again), while doing other less important things (like setting up the above shot [which, btw, totally reminds me of this shot]).

The engineers have been able to place the cap onto the severed riser, now. But from what I can see, there is still a ton of oil coming out of every direction, not just the opening at the top of the cap. Several little robot hands are still furiously working on things. Hopefully the degree of spillage will be mitigated to a degree, once it is all bolted on snugly? I’m not really getting my hopes up, anymore. In fact at this rate, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if we find out in August that the relief wells have also failed. If you have the nerve for it, be sure to check out the June 3 “big picture.”

On a much, much lighter note, The New York Stock Exchange finally got their own Starbucks, right on the trading floor.

New York  , June 2, 2010 – Starbucks premier coffee, specialty beverages, and select food offerings are now available on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. A first at the NYSE, the Starbucks kiosk will serve the Exchange’s trader and employee community from 8:00am through the 4:00pm NYSE market close.

Awesome. Now if they could just outfit all of the traders with colostomy bags, they would be totally set.

(above: Peter P. Costa, Empire Executions, Inc. visits the opening of Starbucks on NYSE trading floor [courtesy NYSE])