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.  

Martin Patrick 3 Grand re-Opening

Katy and I ventured out to a Grand re-Opening of Martin Patrick 3 in the North Loop of Minneapolis. I found out about the store about a year ago while on Pierrepont Hicks website.

So, I have been back numerous times since, most often perusing their fantastically textured ties, their summery bow ties, the start of them getting some clothing and their wallets, phone cases, business card holders and more.

















We were going to meet, James, a fellow manager at Herbs, there. We were one of the first people there as I had the NCAA Tournament to watch (ie-that UConn vs. Arizona post) so we didn't want to go late and stay all night. We wandered through looked at the goods and waited a bit for James to get there as he was fashionably late.

Once he arrived we walked through the new space with him and looked at their Altea Milano ties, Pierrepont Hicks neckwear, Corgi socks, Fred Perry polos, a great collection of vintage tie bars and cufflinks and books, notebooks and accessories that a gentleman would admire. We also stopped on the ID Design side, a furniture space for design and looked at vases, modern furniture and accessories.

Meanwhile, I found a Pierrepont Hicks bow tie and Katy found a tiny ring holder with the "at" @ symbol on it to put her rings in while she's getting ready. We people watched and finally got in line to get going to make our way to watch the UConn tournament game.

James and I said we were going to go and "dress to the 9's." And I tried.
























Katy went very nautical in her striped long sleeve crew neck shirt with a navy blazer styled with the arms rolled up and a nautical anchor necklace on.

I wore my new Clark's Desert boots with my more vintage Levi's from J. Crew last fall. I had on a charcoal belt on from Club Monaco a light blue oxford from Ralph Lauren and a Pierrepont Hicks tie casually fastened around my neck. It was a cool night so I layered with a DKNY charcoal blazer and a heavier DKNY navy blazer with vertical stripes giving it some differentiation from all of the solids I had on.






















































Ok, back to the story. We were "dressing to the 9's." I wanted to be trendy, fashionable, textured and layered since it was cold and I wanted to wear an oxford and a Pierrepont Hicks tie. So yeah, we were on our way out but the guy who rang me up noticed my tie and said "you should meet the creators of your tie." And around the corner comes Mac. It was perfect timing. He might have overheard but he looked right at me and said something to the effect of "I designed that tie" or "that's my tie." I shook his hand and he suggested we should meet his wife, Katherine.

Well we wandered to the other side of the dividing wall, patiently waited for a few minutes and talked with the creators of Pierrepont Hicks, Mac and Kat! It was a very fun conversation about the ties, how I wore it, how it was fun to see how 'real' people wore their products, their growing up in Minnesota and New York City and Katy and I growing up in Connecticut and California. We talked about business and how I went to Space519 in Chicago at Christmas to get my dad a Pierrepont Hicks tie but they didn't have one! They were engaging and interesting, have two young girls at home and seemed to really enjoy talking to us. We got on the subject of twitter and that we followed both the brand and Katherine herself; it was a fun 2011 connection partially through social media as I knew they'd be there at some point due to me and Katy following Katherine on twitter.

He kindly and very business like gave me his business card and encouraged me to buy ties right from him!

Oh, this is the bowtie I bought that night. And this is one I want, Nautical bow.

And I will.

I'm sure for me and Dad.