This picture was taken earlier this week of our new little Avocado tree. It is now almost as tall as the other plant in the pot. See how much it has grown in one week!

It looks like of the anxiety surrounding the start up of the CERN Hadron Collider was all for naught. However, just because they are spinning protons, doesn’t mean that they have smashed anything yet. I think that is what people are nervous about. I seem to recall reading earlier this year that they won’t actually accelerate to full speed, or start smashing atoms, until the spring. So I guess the world may still suffer death by man-made black hole, in the spring.

It’s autumn! When I was riding my bike this morning, not only was I cold, I got a freaking ice cream headache. As soon as I got into work, I had to throw on a cardigan and drink some tea.

One weekend left until the Philadelphia Distance Run. Reagan has run almost 100 miles in the last 2 weeks. She has seriously been detonating. I have had a pinched nerve in my neck (lame excuse, I know), so I haven’t really run for about a week and a half. I’m feeling great now though. So I still plan to try to sneak in a few more training sessions next week.

2 more weekends until Weezer. If you read Reagan’s blob (and I’m sure you do, because hers is about 1000 times more entertaining than mine), you probably saw that Weezer is playing the Garden this month. Reagan picked up some tickets for us on Monday. We are getting more excited by the day. In fact, last night we watched “Nirvana, live tonight, sold out” to get us pumped for live rock shows.

Alright, as with the Guess and Nautica ads, I actually think that the clothing in this particular ad is swanky. I also covet the G-70. It appears to be a finely crafted vessel. This shot though, comes off so awkwardly. What is going on in this picture? They get all dressed up for a boat ride through the fjords in the trusty ol’ G-70. He throws on his mock turtleneck, she: the white pea coat and stilettos. They pull up to a rocky bank and decide to lounge for a bit. As they gaze down the shore line, they become entranced by the spectacle of a mother seal eating her young. He is fascinated, but overcome by moral instincts. He mutters “c’mon baby, lets go” and gets up to leave. She, with eyes still fixed on the carnage, whispers “Not yet. Not… yet.”

For those who like to work out wearing business casual attire, Nautica has the thing for you. The “True Khaki.” As you can see by the photo of these guys running across sundial bridge, Khaki is very versatile workout attire. I bet Santiago Calatrava himself wears Nautica khakis for jogging. Who wouldn’t want to forgo the lightweight nylon and elastic, for some sweat soaked cotton held up by a D-ring webbing belt. Let’s not forget the unmatched comfort given by the addition of a wrinkle-free, slim fit, stretch cotton, button up (with the top 2 buttons open and sleeves rolled up, of course). Finally, get rid of those hoity toity “running shoes” and replace them with a pair of topsiders or converse skid grips. Now you are ready to do some real running.

Ok, I don’t really know what happened to Guess. I used to freaking love their stuff. Reagan and I would go to their store in Roosevelt Field mall when we were first dating, and spend like 2 hours in there. There was actually one girl who worked there, that asked where Reagan was, one time, when I went to the store without Reagan. Lately however, it has been a different story. Don’t get me wrong, their jeans are still top notch, in my book. Their shirts and women’s wear, however, not so top notch these days. It looks very similar to the stuff that you would find in one of the knock off shops in Spanish Harlem, or on St. Nicholas above 175th street. Anyway, the point of this post is to address the magazine ad, more so than the direction that the brand has taken. So check out this ad. Not much different than any of the Guess ads for the past 5 years, or so, right? Blonde girl with huge hair and tons of mascara, chilling out in the desert somewhere. In this particular one, she is sans shirt. A little racy, but still in line with the whole “Guess image,” if there is such a thing. The real kicker is the dude in the picture. Or rather, what he appears to be ogling. He isn’t admiring her heels or the bootyshorts. What is even better is the expression on his face. You could almost use this picture for one of those “fill in the caption” contests. What is going though this dudes little male-model mind? “Yeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh, that’s right baby, you look at the camera, I’m just going to keep staring at your chest, to make sure these don’t go anywhere.”

It is back-to-school season. Football starts this weekend. The temperature will soon start to drop. All of that can only mean one thing: fall fashion ad campaigns. For whatever reason, I read several men’s magazine. I subscribe to enough of them, in fact that Gay Men’s Health, took notice and has been hitting me up for donations over the last 6 months. Anyway, when the fall fashion ads start to roll out, I always take notice. It’s hard not to, since you have to page through them for half of the magazine, before you can even get to the first article. Some of them are very cool, almost inspiring. Others, well… aren’t. Normally I just roll my eyes and turn the page, when I come across the latter. But this year, I have decided to showcase a few of the most ridiculous fall fashion ads that I have come across, so far this season. Today, I’m posting a couple of examples from a Dolce ad.
They always seem to have a pretty good mix of Gothic and Collonial style in their composition. But I’m just going to leave that aspect of it alone. What I WILL comment on, are the grotesquely massive fur ear-flap hats worn in the ads. Ok, these hats were disgusting last year. The only people that could pull off the look, were women over 6′ tall (without heels), that were going for that Siberian, yet Amazonian flavor. Even then, it was only accomplished with marginal success. Lets face it, the hats are huge, ridiculous looking and have real fur (probably). So what does Dolce decide to do, make them even bigger and more ridiculous. The one dude’s earflaps are wider than his freaking shoulders. I took 9 foxes to make that hat. I can see by the picture that you live on George Washington’s estate and everything, but 9 foxes for one hat? More to come. More Dolce & Gabbana looks.

After our visit with Piper on Sunday, we decided that it was ideal weather for a bike ride. Reagan is really starting to look comfortable on hers. She wasn’t afraid to call out “on your left,” when passing people or anything. On the way home I had trouble keeping up with her. All I could see was her vapor trail, hahahaha. Seriously though, she was cruising right a long. We took a break in the middle of our ride, to just sit on the pier and soak in the gorgeous weather. We were trying to speculate how many more weekends this year, we would be able to be outside like that. The convo was getting kind of depressing, as late summer traditionally is, for me. It used to be going back to school that would bum me out. Now it is digging in for the fourth quarter push. I am still curious to see how its going to go down this year, with the market being so screwy. Even if banks keep unloading, the way that they have been for the past few weeks, I imagine that Reagan and I will be seeing a lot less of each other this fall. Anyway, just as we were getting all bummed about the summer quickly winding down, Reagan brought up the fact that we have 2 races coming up, that we are both pretty excited about. Hopefully our races, coupled with college football, will be able to provide us with a depression free autumn, hahahah. Hooray for fit wives and college sports.

I love this picture, because I feel like it captures Reagan’s excitement about bike riding, so accurately.