Ok; First of all, I apologize for the blurry blackberry photos. When Reagan and I were in UT, recently, we stopped through some of the local thrift stores in SLC. The Mormon church runs and subsidizes a chain of thrift stores in the mountain west region called “Deseret Industries.” Growing up in SLC, DI enabled me to to amass a very impressive bowling ball collection, as well as a huge collection of oversized wooden forks and spoons with carved handles.

The SLC thrift stores are basically a hipster’s paradise. I will admit that I have seen some pretty amazing stuff at thrift stores and flea markets in NYC (only because Reagan dragged me along, hehe). But in NYC, they call it “vintage” and try to charge as much or more than you could purchase the item new. It doesn’t deter hipsters (or Reagan) from buying the stuff. But I just can’t bring myself to pay cash money for the stuff.

At DI, it is the exact opposite. Instead of being overpriced, most of the items are priced much lower than their actual value. The wingtip slip-ons above are Bostonians, with leather soles and Vibram heels. I scored them for $4. They aren’t exactly Prada, but for $4, I wasn’t about to complain.

In addition to the shoes, I was totally stoked about a pair of glasses that I dug up. They were definitely my best find during our visit (and possibly my best DI find, to date). They are a pair of original B&L 5022 (the 1952 model) Ray Ban Wayfarers that I picked up for the extremely reasonable price of 50 cents. Check ‘em:

I saw this board on Format, today. So sick. It has all of the essentials, like sprayed on grip tape (old school Nash-style) and a built in bottle opener. Here is the Format description:

Santa Cruz introduces the ‘Land Shark’ Cruzer, which will surely revolutionize the age-old beer run tradition; full-equipped with a bottle opener on the bottom of the board, the Land Shark is just the kind of ride you’ll want for trips to the corner store before grabbing brews with their buddies this summer. The first board from this new range is the Rasta and it measures 8.8×27.5-inches and features 65mm Santa Cruz Road Rider wheels and spray-on, clear grip on the deck. The Santa Cruz Land Shark Cruzer is currently available for purchase here…

Man, I am so ready for warm weather.

Yes yes. How many times have I thrown up photos like this one before? Right? As I mentioned earlier this week, my Nike Plus sportband died on me, again. This is the third time it has happened. My cousin Liz suggested that I just abandon the sportband and go with the Garmin. I am almost to that point. I probably would have done just that, if it weren’t for the ever smooth and adept Nike customer service team. That, and the super cool staff at the running store in my building. I called Nike, who quickly trouble shot my watch with me and determined that it was a dud. They suggested that I try returning it where I bought it, before  sending it back to Nike. So I called Urban Athletics, who told me they would trade it straight across, for a new one. So, here we go. Sportband number 4 (pictured above). Treat me right, baby.

Switching gears completely, Reagan and I will be flying out west tomorrow. We have not been to the land of Deseret (yes that is Deseret, not desert), also know as the beehive state, since 2008 for my sister’s wedding. Since that time, one nephew and two nieces have joined the family. We have not met any of them yet. So, we have been anticipating this visit for quite a while.

Reagan and I were having a lot of anxiety about being able to go, because of Piper’s condition. But, it seems like she is on a pretty good plane, at the moment. God willing, things will continue that way, at least until we can return. Additionally, some of our amazing friends have agreed to take care of our car. Our lovely friends, the Alaska/Hofstra missies will be keeping an eye on our pad for us.

We will be taking a notebook computer with us (mostly so Reagan can play the cake building game). But I’m not sure how much posting we will get done over the next week. So, if it tends to be sparse, that is the reason.

Saturday was the first race of 2010 for me. It was a good one to start out the year with, since the weather was beautiful and it was for a good cause (run for Haiti). It was also pretty cool, because it was the first race that our new team “New York Running Club” was listed correctly on the roster/results.

I tried to charge my Nike+ sportband the night before, only to find that it was malfunctioning, again. The display looked like some sort of alien language. Reagan was kind enough to let me borrow hers, since she was sitting this one out. I will be sending it back on Monday Grrrr. The Central Park Races are normally capped at 5000 runners. But since it was for a charity (I guess), they doubled the cap and let 10,000 participants run. It was crrraaazyy. I wasn’t expecting such a crowd, so I showed up at the 9th hour and barely made it starting grid before the gun. As a result, I was way in the back and had no real chance of making it through the pack enough to get a good time. It was ok, though. My friend Mike ran with me, and we just had a relaxing race, and chatted the whole time. It also made me totally pumped for the upcoming running season and nice weather. Woo hoo!

Our Alaska/Hofstra friends also came to visit us, this weekend. Reagan and I pretty much just tagged a long with them through the village to various thrift stores, before hitting Broadway, in SoHo (pretty much Reagan’s dream day). It was a pretty good time, even for me.

We also saw this guy, playing in Washington Square Park. It is the same dude who drags that busted old piano down to the 4th St. A platform in the Subway on the weekends. Pretty awesome.

^_____Reagan, waiting for the A after our Piper visit on Sunday morning

Now that January is officially over, I’m starting to come to terms with the fact that 2010 is really here and well underway. February is going to be a big month for us. First of all, it is Reagan’s birthday is on Thursday. Woo hoo! Apparently, she is getting pissed off about people telling her that she is entering her “late twenties.” So, if you talk to her about, try to avoid that characterization.

Piper will most likely be moving back to Blythedale in the next couple of weeks (possibly next week). We are pretty excited about that, and what it represents, as far as her recovery from this illness that she has had.

Mercedes Benz Fashion week is also this month, starting next week. I’m already booked for one event, but hoping to get a couple more things lined up. There are a few possibilities in the works, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

At the end of the month, assuming that Piper is in good shape again by then, we are planning to make a stop out west, to visit our new little nieces and nephew. It will be a really huge thing for us, since my entire family will be there (except Piper ), even the ones from Alaska.

Finally, for something completely random: Check out this slide that I found on the sidewalk, over the weekend. I haven’t seen a slide in ages! Some people pick up change. I pick up this (someone’s trash). Hehehe.

We were able to see Piper in real life, this morning, for the first time in over a week. She definitely looked like she is doing better. It was tough for us to get a real sense of how she is feeling though, since she slept during the entire time that we were there. Her nurse said that she thinks Piper has her days and nights mixed up. I don’t blame you, lil’ Pip. If I had been drugged into a coma like they had you, I probably would have a lot more than my days and nights mixed up. Even though we were kind of bummed that we couldn’t see her awake, it was really really nice to see her, at all.

Reagan and I still aren’t feeling 100% better. But we just threw on some face masks and called it “good enough.” Although, Reagan wouldn’t wear her’s over her nose– hahaha.

Piper’s A-line is now out. So, the only remaining inter venous line is her center line. She is still getting a pretty stiff cocktail of meds through it, but in each case the dose is much smaller. Her nurse also told us that they are going to try to get her completely off of the nitric this week, as well as the morphine. She didn’t say anything about the NG tube (the one going into her nose), but hopefully that will be coming out soon, too. I’m sure that it drives Piper completely crazy. Such a tough little girl.

Since Piper has been back at Columbia, I have been back to the old car moving routine. I have not enjoyed it. I normally get up at 6, so that I can get it done before there is any real traffic. The sweet spot is between 6 and 7. After 7, there is a garbage truck and a school bus blocking every single street in our neighborhood.

This morning, Reagan woke me up, while she was stirring around. I had one of those sudden moments of panic, like I knew I shouldn’t still be asleep. I had forgotten to take my phone off of silent, and the type of alarm that I had set for moving the car, doesn’t make any noise, when my phone is on silent. It was already 7. I got down stairs just in time for the blizzard to start, and in time to get stuck behind every school bus and garbage truck in our neighborhood, at least once. Hahahaha. I’m ok with that though, because the snow was very pretty and entertaining to watch, while taking breaks from watching the dudes toss garbage into the truck.

At long last, I did find a parking spot in time to make it down to work w/o being late, where I took the above photos of the storm. I know they are kind of boring. I liked these ones much more.

To add a little bit of contrast to the gray photos above, I thought I would post the image below. It has made its way around the internet by now, but I thought it was cool enough to share again anyway.

The image comes from artist Steven Worley’s blog. In his post, he outlines the history of Crayola’s color spectrum, and how the palette has expanded over the years, saying:

Crayola’s crayon chronology tracks their standard box, from its humble eight color beginnings in 1903 to the present day’s 120-count lineup.  According to Crayola, of the precious crayons of my childhood – the seventy-two colors from the official 1975 set – sixty-one survive.

So cool.

It has been kind of a crazy week for us, already. In addition to being back at my real job, I have been running all over the place, to cover various fashion trade shows, after-parties, etc. I really enjoy it, though. I see a lot of cool stuff and meet a lot of cool people. So I can’t complain much.

Below are just a few random things that I recently found:

• I have taken up sleeping in my clothes. I’m not really sure how it started, or why I keep doing it. It isn’t like it is any more comfortable. It doesn’t really save me any time, either. Because I generally just wake up too hot, a couple of hours later and have to shed anyway. Also, I would really not recommend sleeping in clothes that require dry cleaning.
• The other day, we were talking to some of our friends about when we first started hanging out. I’m paraphrasing here, but they told us that, in trying to decide if they wanted to hang out, the convo went something like “are you sure that you want to hang out with them? Isn’t he that kid who wears his hat sideways?” I guess that I never realized what a potential friend deterrent hats, or how they are worn, could be. Hehe
• Reagan and I were eating Subway sandwiches at some point over the weekend (one tends to eat a lot of Subway, when camped out at the hospital), when Reagan started admiring what an amicable chap our sandwich artist was. Do they still call them sandwich artists? Anyway, Reagan proceeded to tell me that if anything happened to me, she would get with the sandwich guy. I told her that if anything ever happened to her, I would get with Eva Mendez. I remembered that convo, when I saw the new CK billboard, Tuesday night. Also, Reagan made me admit that E. Mendez is the real reason that I own “2 Fast 2 Furious.” Although, I do like the cars, too. I hope that nothing ever happens to Reagan (or me).
• There is an event that some of our friends are planning for this weekend. On the latest round of planning email, our status was marked as “figuring it out.” Hahahaha. I feel like that is a truism that can be applied to just about any facet of my life, currently.

I saw all of this ice that was collecting in the north cove marina, from my boss’s window Monday, when I was in his office. I decided to photograph it, Tuesday morning on my way in. The funny part? Apparently I wasn’t the only person I know, taking photos of floating ice in the Hudson.

I know that everyone has seen millions of comical examples of product packaging on products originating from Asian countries. Just the same, I cracked up at this one and couldn’t resist sharing it.

A few weeks ago, I ordered this nifty little LCD protector from Ebay, for the back of the 7D. As you can see below, I was able to install it pretty easily.

I attribute the ease of installation to the carefully worded “Use method” that I read on the back of the package.

Establishment is completion!