When Reagan got home on Monday night, she didn’t waste any time showing me all of the video and photos that she shot while she was in Chicago. I have been working with her for the past few months trying to get her comfortable shooting the 5D in Manual. She took it with her on her trip, and didn’t have to call me once to ask me how to adjust the settings. The images came out awesome. I’m super proud of her. As I write this, she is in my office sorting everything out, in lightroom. If that wasn’t enough, check out her video skills! She shot and cut this whole thing herself.

Anyway, enough bragging about the wife. Today was one of those days where I didn’t waste one minute. I woke up at 5:30, Moved the car. Came home and changed into running gear, went for a run. After showering, I packed a messenger bag (with work clothes, camera and bike lock), took the train to Brooklyn. In Brooklyn, I stopped by M. Cuomo’s old apartment and picked up a bike that Mike left for me with his former roomie. From there, I rode across the Williamsburg Bridge, cross town, and down to the FiDi for work. I tried out the new parking area inside of the gated parking garages at my building. It was amazing. No anxiety about the bike getting ripped off, all day long. I was super busy, at the office, which made the day fly by. I know this is getting boring, but I must continue. After work, I rode to a gallery to shoot an opening. Then rode home. I have spent the rest of the evening setting up my new laptop that Reagan and Piper got me for Father’s Day. I’m writing this post from that very computer. The end.

We got out on the bikes, today and had ourselves a little picnic. Reagan was in charge of the sammies. She made tomato avocado and cheese on wheat bread. Delicious.

I put the blanket half in the shade (for Reagan) and half in the sun (for me).

I’m pretty glad that I brought the camera today, because Reagan was hamming it up.

Below: Reagan making her shadow dance.

We finished off our ride by hitting Pinkberry on the way home, before showering and heading to Westchester to visit the Pip.

She looooovvvves her new itouch. She is so used to having Reagan or myself grab our phones away from her, when she gets bored of looking at the display and starts eating them. For her birthday, we picked her up her very own, complete with an indestructible case.

Sunday morning, we were up at the crack of dawn, for a bike ride. It was such amazing weather. We just pretty much stuck the to the usual and headed down the Hudson River path going south. Early in the morning, we pretty much had the park to ourselves. It was really quite amazing. As we approached mid-town, it was a bit of a zoo. There were two cruise ships at the docks, that appeared to be preparing to depart. So there was a ton of traffic coming in and out of the terminals.

As we were passing the Circle Line piers, we heard a loud crunch/crash, directly behind us. I hit my brakes and turned around just in time to see a dudes bike come flying out from underneath the cab that he had just been hit by. I dropped my bike and ran over. He was able to roll out from under the cab, which I took as a good sign, especially given the fact that he wasn’t wearing a helmet. Reagan was on the phone with 911, as some police officers showed up. It was a  pretty nerve racking experience. It was pretty scary, but luckily it wasn’t worse.

After the incident, we continued downtown, and had brunch at the North Cove Marina, before lounging a bit at the Battery Park City Promenade, and heading back up town.

After the bike ride, we headed up to visit Piper. She was in a foul mood again, Sunday, until I let her watch some ukulele videos on my phone. For whatever reason, that was all she needed. After watching one or two, she was all smiles and party-time.

We tried her out in the chair again, too. Since she was in a better mood, it seemed like she sort of liked it. Although, she still clearly preferred Reagan’s lap, understandably hehe.

Later Sunday evening, we had the really fun opportunity of visiting our friends, and their brand new baby, at the hospital. Their little guy is super cute. He was in a pretty mellow mood, too, considering the fact that we interrupted his lunch, when we arrived. Reagan enjoyed holding the little guy, and I enjoyed watching.

I didn’t mean to post so much this morning. But I woke up early to move the car, and run (which I intentionally park on a Monday side, last night, so that I would have to get up), and it is pouring outside. So, the running part, didn’t really workout for me, this morning.

The weather today was phenomenal. The thermometer in the car, on the way back from visiting Piper said 76 degrees. Reagan and I took advantage, and broke out our bikes. We filled the tires with air and made our way down the Hudson River path to the 80′s somewhere, before stopping to hang out.  Of course I brought the camera. I got a few photos of Reagan that I was pretty stoked about.

I was also pretty pumped to finally be able to use my new cheeseburger bike bell, that I installed right before our ride. Reagan got it for me as a gift, a few months ago. So awesome.

I really liked this one:

There are a few more photos from the bike ride, over here.

First of all, Bloomberg’s Summer Streets are back, starting next weekend. I’m pretty pumped about that.

We had so much fun last year. I was able to ride Park Avenue, all three weekends. We are going to be camping on the 15th, this year, so we will be missing that weekend for sure, but I think that we are going to try to take full advantage on the 8th and the 22nd. Here are some links to photos from last year. From 8-23-08, and from 8-16-08.

Saturday morning, I went for a run from our house to the piers at 125. My knee was hurting from the outset. Reagan rode her bike down and met me there. The initial plan was for me to keep going, down into the 70′s and try to get in 12 miles or so. Because of my knee issues, it didn’t exactly work out that way. I hung out with Reagan for a bit, tried to stretch out my ITB, then ran home. So I ended up having 2 quick 3 mi. runs. Lame. I decided that it is bad enough I’m going to go to the doctor this week and see what is going on with my stupid knee. It’s getting ridiculous.

Yesterday, the rain was back monsoon style. So we opted out of seeing Coldplay last night. I was able to get caught up on a couple of weeks worth of sleep though. Something about hearing the rain hitting the window ledge.

Piper is doing extremely well these days. Yesterday, she had a great visit with some of her friends, and Reagan wrote all about it.

^—–Reagan sitting in an old cannon installation on Governor’s Island

Reagan read this great article in Time Out NY, earlier this month about Governor’s Island. I had been reading random things about it on Gothamist for the past couple of months as well. We finally decided to check it out today. When I say check it out, we really went for it. We rode our bikes from our house, to the Battery Maritime Terminal (took the ferry to the island) did a lap on our bikes and rode home. It was probably a little over 30 miles total. Reagan was resisting a little on the way back, but ultimately pulled through. She still looked great too.

^—Reagan riding through Riverside Park in the evening.

She is especially tough, being that in honor of the NYC Triathlon happening tomorrow, we also logged a few miles running this morning, as well. She didn’t quite make it through the movie tonight and had to head to bed early, but I don’t really blame her.

^—–Chillin’ on a bench in Colonel’s Row on Governor’s Island (timer shot).

On the way back, I was putting the camera back in my basket, after shooting a few shots of Reagan, in Riverside Park, when this really nice lady offered to take a photo of us together. Notice how I am totally sticky and beat-down. Notice how Reagan looks looks fresh as a daisy. Totally typical.

^—-Riding through Riverside Park, taken by a very kind lady, out for a walk with her kids.

Here for the rest of the photos.

Reagan and I, have on occasion had discussions regarding the integrity of retailers (lifestyle pushers) like Urban Outfitters. My argument is that, by providing all of those reproduced “vintage” (FYI, I hate the term vintage) tees, etc., in one location, and charging a ton of money for them, Urban Outfitters has effectively taken away everything that may have been cool about the items.

Whereas, if one happened upon the item at some mothball laden Army surplus store, thrift shop, or flea market, the item would have been oozing with character etc..  But because of the advent of Urban Outfitter-type organizations, even the flea market/thrift shop variety has been downgraded in character, coolness, and novelty. Which, I can see how this probably wouldn’t affect Reagan’s purview of the chain much, because I feel like the aspect I’m complaining about isn’t as prevalent in the products for women. Especially since Reagan doesn’t really buy the logo tees and stuff.

So that was my rant about UO, generally. Well, last month the Chain took things to the next level. Now not only can you buy your prepackaged hipster costume at Urban Outfitters, you can also purchase a custom fixie (pictured above) to parade your new faux-vintage duds around town.

I’m not really even sure where to start on my list of things that is wrong about this venture. I mean most of the guys that are legitimately hard core enough to call a fixie their main mode of transportation, most likely also call it a tool of their livelihood and have also most likely never heard of a chain called urban outfitters.

To wrap up this little outburst, lets mix in a little bit of positivity. Check out these hot handlebars that I came across yesterday.

These beauties, made by Nitto, are the B123 model. They are a hot choice for velodromers, messengers and casual commuters alike. This particular bar comes custom painted by Death Spray Custom with the iconic love/hate tattoos (so you don’t have to get real tattoos on your real knuckles).