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.

Well, this weekend I was finally able to justify the masses of camping and climbing gear that I dragged with me when I moved to New York from the Rockies. It is a good thing, too, because Reagan has threatened, on a few occasions to toss it all out. Friday night we went camping with a bunch of our good friends near Bear Mountain. I couldn’t believe how close it was to the city. The camping arrangements were NY, style. It was basically like a campground subdivision, full of various camping lots. It was a great time, though. We all had tin-foil dinners on Friday night, and stayed up late chatting around the fire.

Saturday morning, we went climbing at some routes along the train tracks, on the West Point Academy property. It was one of the hottest days of the summer, so far. I was incredibly rusty, with my climbing abilities, but I still had a blast.

Click here for more photos.

Reagan and I were able to take a little road trip down south, this weekend to Virginia Beach. Some of our friends have access to a great beach house down there and invited us to tag along. For the most part, the weather was awesome. It was mid 80’s for the entire time. Sunday was a little overcast, at times, but still pleasant beach weather.

It was really cool to drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. I saw a thing about how they built it on Modern Marvels, one time and had been curious about it ever since. I also loved watching all of the ship traffic come in and out of the bay, while we were there. We even saw an aircraft carrier on its way out to sea.

On the way home, we stopped for dinner in Delaware. When I came outside afterwards, there was a group of guys with motorcycles, in the parking lot, by our car. One of the guys had done his whole bike up in red carpet. Hahahaha. It was awesome. I snapped a couple of shots (below) and chatted it up with the riders for a few minute while I was waiting for Reagan to come out.

We had a really great time down there and were glad to become a little better acquainted with some of our friends and their families. More photos can be seen here.

This seizure inducing little ditty, consists of four frames of bumble bee shots that I took, the other day at the Bronx Botanical Garden.

We got Piper all moved in back at Blythedale and everything, today. I’m feeling pretty good about the way this week is coming to an end. Reagan had a girls night tonight, with one of our friends who is moving away. It gave me a chance to get out and skate a bit. It was really nice to just unwind. This time I thought ahead and wore 2 pairs of socks on my pushing foot, to avoid blisters. I didn’t take any pictures of skating, but there was a pretty dramatic sunset while I was skating down Riverside, to get to CP. These shots are on the early side, but you can image how it just got better and better.

I also ran into this little guy. I see raccoons all of the time when we are down skating in the park, but generally they are just hustling across the road and I can’t get the camera out in time. This guy, however, was up for a full on photo shoot. Standing up on the hind legs and everything.

Other kind of awesome stuff about this week/weekend:

1. The Beastie Boys (minus MCA) were on 30 Rock, last night.
2. Reagan and I are running a 10k in the morning for Kidney something or other. We will see our friend Cuomo there, for the first time since he moved back to CT.
3. Stake Conference this weekend which means that church is later and shorter than normal.
4. If I had to make an estimate, I would say that Piper is feeling probably close to 90% herself again.
5. My brother Pete’s birthday is today.
6. My first post for my new paid blogger gig was published this week.

When I first woke up today and saw the weather, I sort of panicked for a sec. All of these things were going through my head: ” I’m going skating, I’m going running, I’m going biking, I’m going to the park.” When I checked my phone, I had an email from the guys who run the Broadway Bomb, about a skateboard race in Central Park. I also had a note from my friend Jared about going golfing in the Bronx. It was a very tough decision. Ultimately, I decided that I should hold off on longboard racing until I have had a chance to get out and push around. I haven’t skated since last summer. Plus my friends Jared and Debi are super cool. I wish that Reagan could have come with us. But, being the popular girl that she is, her day was booked long before she got up and looked at her phone this morning.

I was a bit curious about what it was going to be like at the driving range. I mean, when I think of the Bronx, the first thing that naturally comes to mind is golfing (after gang shootouts, of course). It was actually a pretty nice course. Although, we didn’t actually end up playing the course this morning. Jared and I just hit some balls on the driving range, while Debi read magazines and took pictures of us (because we that good). But I think that we are going to try to make it back up there to play the course, now that we have seen what it is like, and that it is so easy to get to. The best part is that, right when we were getting toward the end of our session, the cart went out to gather the balls. This is fun on any driving range, because it is moving target practice. None of us were expecting what happened next. The driver parks off to the side, and gets out wearing a ball glove, smoking a cigarette and taunting all of the people hitting. Hahahahaha. It was the craziest thing ever. So there he was, running all over the range, like an outfielder on crack. I guess that is how they do it, at the muni-course in the Bronx. There is a shot of the guy below.

As if the driving range wasn’t enough fun for one day, we headed back down to the UWS for burgers, then spent the afternoon in Fort Tryon Park Hitting some Croquet. It was pretty packed, but we managed to find a spot of lawn large enough to set up. The lawn hadn’t been mowed for a while, so it was a little bit extra challenging. Thanks again, Jared and Debi for letting me be the third wheel.

The weather has been pretty mild, but patchy lately. We were pretty excited last week, when it broke 70 degrees. We went on a bike ride and everything. The shot above is of Reagan and her bike, Marsha  (short for Marshmallow) last week. Well, I’m not sure if I’m ready for the weather that appears to be around the corner for this weekend. The forecast says 88. Can you believe it? I guess that I won’t complain, since it was such a cold nasty winter. But I was hoping to ease into the warm weather a bit.

With the weather warming up, I have been mentally planning out all of the outdoor activities that I would like to participate in, this summer. For the past few summers, we have managed to include a couple of decent croquet games. Most of them proved to be very memorable, including an entire day of croquet in Rhode Island, summer of 2007. Growing up, my family played croquet all of the time, and I loved it. We had several sets, and would play in our back yard. My grandparents also had a set, and we would often play in their back yard on certain Sunday afternoons.

At my grandparents house, the set was located in a type of yard-care utility shed, situated on their covered patio. In addition to croquet, badminton, lawn mowers and chainsaws, there were all sorts of awesome treasures kept in that shed. One of my favorites was Lawn Darts. For those unfamiliar with the sport, it is similar to horseshoes, in that there are two teams trying to score points based on accurately throwing objects through the air and across the yard. Unlike horseshoes, the object hurled through the air in Lawn Darts, is a giant weighted dart. This game rules.

In retrospect, I’m pretty surprised that there was never an incident like the one alluded to in the warning above, when we played. We would set up very complicated Lawn Dart ranges, with the target rings, to make the game more challenging and interesting. On several occasions, the targets were placed in a part of the back yard where it would have been impossible for the person lofting darts to see if someone was going to walk around the corner, right onto the target range. Anyway, I wish that I had a set of these babies to toss around this summer. Although, I can imagine liability being fairly high, throwing these things around in a public NYC Park. Ah well, I can always reminisce.

This music post was inspired by Reagan. She has had a crush on Perry Ferrell (no relation to Will), since she saw a picture of him in an Nieman Marcus ad walking some dalmatians. Perry is, of course, the singer for Jane’s Addiction, then for Porno for Pyros. As you may recall, Dave Navarro, was also a member of Jane’s Addiction, before joining the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as their umteenth guitar player.

Jane’s Addiction was definitely one of my staples, through the Jr. high and high school era. I really liked most of their stuff. Perry has a kind of high voice, so I would always have to sing along in falsetto when I was jamming out to them in the car. The song that I’m sharing today, is probably my favorite song, of theirs. It doesn’t really have all of the heavy guitar that you normally find in Jane’s Addiction songs. Which is funny, because it seems like most of their songs that were really popular (Jane Says, Been Caught Stealin’) didn’t have the really tough rock sound. It does however have one of those the signature Navarro whining drawn out solos like you find in pretty much all the rest of their songs.

This song is called Summertime Rolls. The first time that I ever heard it was on the radio, on a super hot summer afternoon. It was before I had really heard a lot of their stuff, so I must have been in like, 7th grade. I remember thinking how well the flow and style matched the title so well. I thought, this really was the perfect song to listen to while baking (in the sun, not from smoking) on the beach next to your girlfriend. It instantly became one of my favorite songs.

It is especially nice to listen to in the winter, while trying to zone out and ignore the fact that it is in the teens outside (N/A, in NY this week). So go ahead and check it.

I got out and skated last night for the first time since June. It was the type of weather that was custom built for skating. The temperature was less than 80, but more than 70, with a very mild breeze. Another thing that was cool about last night, is that instead of freestyle skating, we were just bombing hills on the longboard. I can’t even remember the last time that I rolled out the longboard. I had forgotten how fun it is. Part of the problem is that there is a severe shortage of smooth pavement and of hills in NYC. Even though longboarding is a relatively simplistic counterpart to normal freestyle skating, I think that the simplistic aspect is what makes it so appealing. My friend Col and I were discussing it a bit last night during our session. There is something very liberating about making huge esses down a long hill. It is super smooth and has such good asthetic.

I’m so glad that longboarding has come back with such force. For a while it seemed like longboarding disappeared. The skating, of course all keyed from what was going on with surfing. All of the really old guys, like Duke Kahanamoku rode longboards. But they were also made of redwood, so they probably had to be huge, just for the buoyancy factor. Then it seemed like the 80’s were all about getting as technical as possible on shortboards, even if your style was weak. PS, remember T&C shirts? I had like 10 of them. Hahahaha. The only people who rode longboards, it seemed were the traditionalists and beginners, who needed the extra stability. Thankfully, in the early 90’s guys like Wingnut, started to showcase how cool longboarding really was. Then guys like Joel Tudor and Bonga Perkins (my personal favorite longboarders), who really brought the sport back to the competitive level.

Joel Tudor, rocking the I heart NY garb.

My first Longboard. A Hawaiian built Keoki, 11′ 6″.

Anyway, we owe the old guys, big time. Our session last night reminded me just how much.