A Connecticut Recap

Connecticut 2013 was a fun trip.  

It started fast with a flight out Saturday night and an early morning phone call asking if I could go to a Louis Vuitton meeting on Monday morning.  Sunday was also the day to get up and going early with Mom and Dad to get to see Megan's baptism.  That was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. 

Sunday afternoon I went to NYC and wandered the city for a few hours before checking in at the hotel before the meeting Monday morning.  

Monday, I spent in the city at LV training and learned all about how we're going to use our new work phones to clientele and learn how to train the rest of the store.  After the meeting I went shopping for a couple hours on 5th Avenue and eventually met up with Mom, Dad, Rick & Beth and Alena.  

Tuesday, Mom and I met up with Megan, Mattingly and Myla at the outlets in Clinton.  I enjoyed a hot dog and shopping with Mattingly.  Mom and I also went to New Haven and went to Gant, J.Press and a couple other places before heading home.  Tuesday night we also went to the Rock Cats game.  I saw Miguel Sano play; maybe we'll see him up here with the Twins next year.  

Wednesday, M3 and I went to the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington for a couple hours with lunch after at Red Robin and a trip to Westfarms.  We also grilled out Wednesday night and mom made my favorite vegetable and cheese dish! 

I was off to NYC again Thursday.  I spent the whole day there, taking the train in at 7am and getting back to Union Station in New Haven at 12:15am.  I got into NYC early and walked down Broadway on my way to SoHo where I spent most of the day before eating dinner with Adam and Alana at Edo Sushi near the Flatiron Building.  After dinner I wandered back up Broadway and 5th before hitting a late train back to New Haven.  

Friday was a relaxing day that we just spent at home with a quick trip to New Haven to stop at J. Press again for an awesome shawl collar sweater.  

Birthday Ideas *Update

1. Flight to NYC for a couple day trip to wander and shop and tour 

2. Flight to Chicago for a couple day trip to wander and shop and tour 

3. LV Cabas V Tote. It's from the 2012 Mens Spring Fashion Show if I remember correctly.

What would happen if I could get my hands on this tote?  This would be the ultimate statement bag, something I'd use every day carrying to work.  The Gaston V logo would be awesome to have making me known but only to those who know LV.  If not, I can always hope for the F/W bags from the fashion show next time this year.  This look like this.  :)

This bag.  

All of these. 

This coat.

This bag.

More unique, less usable but this bag. 

This makes me want a cape.  This is supposedly part of the women's collection next fall.  And this makes me want a cape.  I'd wear this even though it's women's.  And it's something I'd buy all of you.

This was from F/W 2012. And I'd wear that in a heart beat.  

And since I'm cold all the time you know as well as I do that I'd wear it. 

Masai Rug

At training in NYC I was decorated with a Masai rug folded and styled on my like this one on the right. The pattern is different, the one that connects to the link above.

Well, what else could I possibly want.

Gift Card to Martin Patrick 3
Gift Card to Black Blue
Gift Card to Len Druskin
Gift Card to Nordstrom

I mean this pretty much covers it.  There's so many other things I would want or take but it's mostly a time identified by me at a fairly specific time and place.

Gant Rugger, Tommy Hilfiger, J.Crew, Billy Reid, Todd Snyder, Band of Outsiders, Shipley and Halmos, ...

A plane ticket to run a road race somewhere--Chicago, New York, Connecticut, Boston...
A trip to watch the NYC Marathon in the fall?

A MacBook Air

Tons of money for a new car for Katy in the fall.
I want this, Jeep Wrangler 4x4.  Katy probably doesn't.  :)

Who knew your son, brother, friend and stranger would be this high end luxury driven and interested.  

Tell me if you guessed it.  Or if you saw it somewhere in childhood or adult hood.  

We're Alive

Hello 2013.

Katy and I are alive.  In fact we are alive and well.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving with Bob & Deb, Bob's mom Gerry, Josh, Laura & Malin and Bopa.  It was a great mix of family and relaxing.

I will try to get better at blogging.  What kills me is the loading of pictures and the time it takes up.

I didn't work until 1pm the day after Thanksgiving so it was quite the normal day.  In fact, the season was quite normal except for the last ten days which got pretty intense.  But we had many more intense days at Herbs throughout the season.  And now, they're doing inventory.  And that's nasty compared to ours.

Christmas Eve was great.  I enjoyed two four day weeks back to back.  At Herbs it was 5 long days each week.  We were again at Bob and Debs with the same group of people.

I am still into fashion.  Style.  Big time brands and unique clothing.  I need to get a blogging and twitter thing going.  I'd love to explore retail consulting.  But I need to know more.  I'm still apprehensive about becoming a "store manager" or something like that.  Nothing will prep me.  You just have to do it.  I've found that there is no being prepared in a job.  You just get entrusted to doing it and you have to come through.  I just want to know someone knows I can do the job or will be there to back me up.

I want to curate something.  Decide on what is cool and what is not.  Be credible or something.  

That is a jumbled up paragraph.

Should I run Grandma's marathon?  OR Twin Cities?

Will anyone volunteer with me at Twin Cities in Motion?

Should I get an MBA or a new job.  Or what classes should I take to gain knowledge and confidence.

Confidence is huge.  Teach your kids to be confident.  Somehow.  Failure is not bad.  Getting it right and progress is just fine.  Don't take critique personally.  How early you can do that in high school and college effects that.

Katy is busy with work at work and at home.  But she is killing it.  I think she's doing a great job right now.  I love her for all the work she does.  It's wonderful to see.  It makes me want to keep up.

But another life lesson comes out here.  I don't take life competitively.  Why?  I wasn't taught that.  I was taught to be competitive with sports and select activities in life.  How can you be competitive in life?  That must make life suck. Or stressful.  And you know what?  Look at my face when I get stressed out.  Exactly.  Pick and choose your "life competition."

2013.  Gotta go make a list of things to get done.  

Chicago October

Once again Paul and I semi-spontaneously committed to Chicago.  For a day.

For the second year in a row Paul and I decided to make and take a day trip to Chicago.  And at the last minute we were able to add our chief financial officer-Lance.  

Spirit took us there nickel and diming us all the way.  It wasn't all that bad but if we stayed more than a day the costs would add up for packing a bag to carry on, to check, to print your boarding pass, to buy your ticket online.  It was a great price but then again, Paul said, if we booked the tickets at the counter at MSP we could have saved even more!  Well, maybe next time I scoot from work to buy tickets.  

So we went with no plans.  Plans were to be found.  I have had plans to shop Chicago for months so that's what I wanted to do.  But since I recruited Paul as the logistics coordinator and booking expert I had to broaden my horizon.  

After a few days of thinking plans found us.  We decided a train trip from O'Hare to Clark and Lake (I think but I'd have to check with our logistics coordinator) and from there jump on the red line to Addison.  We found our way up the red line to Wrigley and enjoyed a two hour tour of the old ballpark.  

I must say that Wrigley Field is in need of some updates.  The halls are narrow, old, stark and cold.  The press box looks and feels ancient.  In fact, you can see the wear on the tables where the typewriters were just lifted out and stored for the winter.  The locker room thinks baseball players are no bigger than 6'2" and 205 pounds.  And there's not much room to expand.  So, we know CC Sabathia will never sign with them for the clubhouse alone.  He doesn't fit.  

However, the tour as a whole was very enjoyable, interesting and informational.  It was fun to see the grassless field as they were leveling the field and doing maintenance before winter.  

After the tour we took the red line back to the loop where we eventually found Chick-fil-A for lunch.  It was the first time I'd been to one and it was good.  Soon they'll be open in Coon Rapids.  

Then I took over as the pseudo-entertainment coordinator.  

We hit the Louis Vuitton store just off of Michigan Avenue, took a look at the Kusama windows and went in.  Katie told a manager there, Preston, that I was coming so I stopped in and introduced myself to him.  It was nice to see the store, meet Preston, and understand a little bit more about Louis Vuitton.  

We also went to SuitSupply.  It's a great looking, newly opened, well merchandised store from the Netherlands.  It was apparently in the space that was formerly occupied by Barney's corporate offices.  So the "penthouse" really attracted to Paul's and Lance's lifestyle.    

I also dragged Paul and Lance silently kicking and screaming to Zara, Gap to see the GQxBest New Menswear Designers in America, AllSaints, Haberdash, CityTarget, Ralph Lauren, Bottega Veneta, J.Crew, Topshop/Topman and probably more I'm not remembering.      

After the afternoon of shopping we hit the green line to Oak Park where we called on Emily and Eric to pick us up.  Luckily, Eric was available and he took us on a quick tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright neighborhood before we ate Giordano's deep dish and apple crisp that Eric made.  

As always it was fun to see Eric and Emily and it was especially fun to play with Edie and have her excited to see me.  Ella played it cool and had to finish an episode on the iPad before saying hi to me. 

I must say, it is something that I should do every other month or at least 3-4 times a year with how fun and easy it is.  It felt like we were gone for a couple days, packing more of the punch into a short time.  

I think Lance and Paul had a good time and that we'll have to anti up to do it more often, make it more of a routine and see E4 more!  And get my hands on some great fashion.  :) 

A Weekend With Megan

Catching all of no one up; Megan visited two weekends ago and we had a good time visiting with her and Myla.

She landed in the afternoon and I met Meg, Myla and Katy at the Mall of America for dinner.  We enjoyed some good food at Crave.

Saturday I had to work during the day but after work we ate dinner at Noodles, enjoyed a malt from Snuffy's and watched a movie to hang around at home.

Sunday we went to church and had a great afternoon hanging out and celebrating at Heidi's wedding.

It was alot of fun having her here and it was fun seeing Myla even though she didn't really warm up to me at all.

Reference the pictures that Megan put up on Facebook to see how the wedding went.

Thanks for coming Megan!  

Trying New Food-For Ella & Mattingly

Ella and Mattingly,

Check out Uncle Joel and Grandpa Ron try and tell you about trying new food!  I see all kinds of new food out there for you to try!

I hope you're up to the challenge, like I was, of trying new food!

Love you guys!

Painting 1064

Well, better late than never.

Here's the change of our jewel of the nile to bridle path.

I got things on the driveway about 7:30am and Katy and Paul joined me a little later and we put a full day of painting away!

Painting this stucco was quite the challenge with it being so textured.  Katy did a great job trimming most of the house, Paul did a great job soaking his roller and lathering it on the outside and in all the crevices.  And I did a little bit of both but it was probably shoddy.

Lance joined us later in the afternoon getting the back of the house 99% finished before we ran out of paint.

And we celebrated by going to Lake Minnetonka and eating outside at Maynard's right on the lake.  Well, somewhere on/in/near the lake.

Memorial Day 2012

Katy and I had this last Memorial Day weekend off.  It gave us the chance to get a few things done around the house.

I worked Friday night but we got right to checking things off the list on Saturday morning.  We hit the gym and afterwards on our way to pick up some Breugger's we got caught in the pouring rain!  It was the hardest I've seen it rain in a long time!  Once we got home we enjoyed some breakfast and coffee and saw Josh as he was dropping Libby off for us to watch for the weekend.  

At noon we set out to clean the basement with it looking like this.  

Once we broke down all of the cardboard and took it out along with the garbage we found we had started to see some progress.  

We ventured to Costco for some shelving because of the slight leakage in our basement.  I wanted to keep the plastic bins off the floor and not near the wall in jeopardy of a little bit of water when it pours hard for a while.

So, we picked up these shelving units.  

It's no where near as exciting as a flight and a quick few days to Chicago but it was a huge thing that has probably been weighing me down for a long time.  I knew the basement needed to be cleaned up for so long but it was so hard to get down there.  But we did!

And despite it looking great we can still do more.  But this was step one in the successful accomplishment during the rainy and cloudy day Saturday.

Saturday night we went to Green Mill with Paul.

Sunday we went to church, Costco again for some grilling ingredients and enjoyed the warm weather by going to the Mall of America with our friend Emily.  We hit a bunch of stores, enjoyed the wandering and made an afternoon of it.  After the mall we grilled out; hamburgers, asparagus, fruit, mojitos and a fantastic strawberry shortcake Emily made!

We also watched True Grit.  It was a decent, entertaining movie.

"You're no bigger than a corn nugget!"  That seemed to be our favorite line of the movie when True Grit was talking to the 14 year old girl as she was trying to hire him to find who killed her father.

Monday we went running at Como.  I ran twice around the lake and the second time I brought Libby with me.  She ran a 6:40 mile with me however started out much too strong for finishing in a 6:40.  Although she did poop twice causing a stoppage in pace.  I didn't get too many looks at my Garmin to see how fast we were going but at one point early on we were at 5:56  pace.

Our Memorial Day activity took us to Bob & Deb's too.  We grilled out again with them, Bopa and Bob's mom.  Again it was burgers and brats with some wild rice in them.  We also ate potato salad with bacon in it, cole slaw, fruit salad, chips, ice cream and cookies washed down by iced tea or lemonade.

The other activity going on for Memorial Day was once again with my favorite Twin Cities tie company, Pierrepont Hicks, was holding a little challenge to wear their goods and show them off.  So, that is what this outfit resulted in.  Sunday night Emily, Katy and I picked this outfit out.  And I liked it enough to add a khaki blazer and wear it all day to Bob & Deb's!

Pierrepont Hicks bow tie (a sample; meaning I might be the only one who has one, if not I'm one of a very select few who have one)

Pierrepont Hicks Buzzy Pocket Square

J. Crew woven & shorts

Banana Republic belt

Cole Haan shoes

So, I emailed her this picture and I got on the website, just as her challenge stated!

The link to this shot at Pierrepont Hicks.

The link to this shot at Pierrepont Hicks.  Any opinion on who did it best?

These were the looks that didn't pass the test to Pierrepont Hicks.  

And one shot of our new shoes...Katy's J. Crew Soludos and my Cole Haan Franklin Wingtips.  

Twin Cities 1 Mile

The Twin Cities 1 Mile came and went quickly last Thursday night.  

I have been running a few times a week for a couple months which I thought put me in a good place to run a little faster.  However, I still have not gotten any speed work in so I just wasn't ready for a fast pace.  

I worked until 6pm and picked Mom up before arriving to Nicollet Avenue with about an hour before the race.  I warmed up with 1.75 miles and stretched and off I went.  However, I didn't get as close to the front of the line as I wanted to, the corral packed in early I think.  

After getting going I did my best to stay strong and consistent with effort, though soon my mouth was so dry my spit solidified, I'm pretty sure, because I spit out once and it felt like I was spitting out a piece of sand.  About half way through I kept running strong and maybe for a close to two tenths of a mile I really thought hard about going hard to the finish but I just couldn't pull it off.  I just maintained as best as I could and finished up.  

Also, previously to running I asked people to tell me how they thought I'd do.  

I finished in 5:11.2 making Katy and Paul the winner because their guesses of 5:12.00 and 5:13.50 were the closest.  Megan guessed 5:07 and Eric 5:18.  Amanda guessed 5:15 and Lance said "best ever."  

It looks as if I owe Katy and Paul dinner.  

A Sketchers I told you!

I told you to stay away from Sketchers shape ups!

Did you?  I sure hope so but if not it looks like you might be able to get your money back!

And honestly, I thought about how Sketchers had fallen off the map this morning on my run.

I ran to Como and around and stopped to stretch.  As I was stretching a woman walked by with an old beat up broken down pair of Sketcher's Shape Ups.  I shuttered.

Then, I thought about the brand and how much of a big deal they were at Herb's a year or year and a half ago they had shoe table collateral and were flying out of the store.  Fall came and so did the boots so Sketchers was de-emphasized.  And now, I laugh at how insignificant they are.

And now if you want your money back on them, go and get it!  (Wait, I hope no one who is reading this owns any.)

From Darren Rovell's twitter page.

Joel, Katy & Paul Go To Switchfoot

Northwestern College hosted one of my favorite bands a couple weeks ago.


Paul realized they were coming to town and asked me and Katy to go to the show.  He hadn't ever been to their show before so he was pretty excited.  Katy and I have seen them a few times before at Concordia College and at the House of Blues in Las Vegas and also at the Minnesota State Fair.  


The Rocket Summer opened...

but the real draw was Switchfoot.

I am the sea on a moonless night

Calling falling, slipping tides
I am the leaky, dripping pipes
The endless, aching drops of lights
I am the raindrop falling down
Always longing for the deeper ground
I am the broken, breaking seas
Even my blood finds ways to bleed
Even the rivers ways to run
Even the rain to reach the sun
Even my thirsty streams
Even in my dreams
I am restless
I am restless
I am restless
I'm looking for you
I am restless
I run like the ocean to find your shore
I'm looking for you
I am the thorn stuck in your side
I am the one that you left behind
I am the dried up doubting eyes
Looking for the well that won't run dry
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/switchfoot/restless.html ]Running for the other side
The world that I've always been denied
Running hard for the infinite
With the tears of saints and hypocrites
Oh, blood of black and white and grey
Oh, death in life and night in day
One by one by one
We let our rivers run
I am restless
I am restless
I'm looking for you
I am restless
I run like the ocean to find your shore
I'm looking for you
I can hear you breathing
I can feel you leading
More than just a feeling
I can feel you reaching
Pushing through the ceiling
Till the final healing
I'm looking for you
Until the sea of glass we meet
At last completed and complete
Where tide and tear and pain subside
And laughter drinks them dry
I'll be waiting
Anticipating
All that I aim for
What I was made for
With every heartbeat
All of my blood bleeds
Running inside me
I'm looking for you
More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/switchfoot/#share

Fumbling his confidence 
And wond'ring why the world has passed him byyy (guitar) 
Hoping that he's meant for more than arguments And failed attempts to fly, fly We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? Somewhere we live inside Somewhere we live inside We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? Somewhere we live inside [ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/switchfoot/meant+to+live_20134687.html ] Dreaming about providence And whether mice or men have second tries Maybe we've been livin with our eyes half open Maybe we're bent and broken, broken We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? Somewhere we live inside Somewhere we live inside We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? Somewhere we live inside 
We want more than this world's got to offer We want more than this world's got to offer We want more than the wars of our fathers And everything inside screams for second life Yaaa We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? We were meant to live We were meant to liveWe were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? Somewhere we live inside Somewhere we live inside We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? Somewhere we live inside [ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/switchfoot/meant+to+live_20134687.html ] Dreaming about providence And whether mice or men have second tries Maybe we've been livin with our eyes half open Maybe we're bent and broken, broken We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? Somewhere we live inside Somewhere we live inside We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? Somewhere we live inside We want more than this world's got to offer We want more than this world's got to offer We want more than the wars of our fathers And everything inside screams for second life Yaaa We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? We were meant to live We were meant to liveWe want more than this world's got to offer We want more than this world's got to offer We want more than the wars of our fathers And everything inside screams for second life Yaaa We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? We were meant to live for so much more Have we lost ourselves? We were meant to live We were meant to live