Mike and Jori's Wedding

The whole point of the trip was to head to Mike and Jori's wedding on Saturday, July 9th. It was a short drive to Mount Charleston and as we drove out of the Las Vegas strip and downtown area you saw lots of sand, rocks and mountains. But as you kept driving you started to see small bushes, cacti and trees. It was a nice wedding in the mountains at 8,500 feet and I'm glad we were able to go.

Las Vegas

Another vacation out west took us to Las Vegas for a wedding and some time with parents again!

We were able to go to Mike and Jori's wedding outside of Las Vegas, in Mount Charleston, Nevada. We arrived early and stayed late in order to hang out on The Strip with Mom and Dad. It was quite the week of entertainment.

The trip was filled with great food, wandering, shopping, sun, the pool, a few rainstorms, The Lion King, Mike and Jori's wedding and more.













The view from the 20th floor out on the mountains.



















I had to travel in style. Em, you said you can't wait to see what I wore to the wedding; well what about this outfit?













This was on the top of Paris Paris, we went up after eating at Mon Amie Gabie where I ate delicious salmon and Katy had a steak with bleu cheese. We saw the Bellagio water show twice.













This is the Bellagio water show.













The Paris Paris view of The Strip.













Friday we went to the Hoover Dam and went on the full Dam tour. It isn't a long drive there but we got there in good time and early enough to not be overcrowded. That was great because the last time I was there it was packed; granted that was when they didn't have the new bridge built so all Nevada to Arizona traffic used one two lane road.


























Since we took the full Dam tour we got to see a ventilation spot that was about halfway down the dam wall. The next view is great!













This was from inside that air vent/shaft.













A modern marvel. Also, you're in Nevada and Arizona once you walk about half way across the dam.












































This was in Boulder City where we stopped for lunch.

Mom and Dad Visit

What an excellent few days with Mom and Dad!

We were able to get a few things done all while having fun and ducking the rain showers!

On Thursday night we went to Crave in Minneapolis and sat on the rooftop with all of the cool Minneapolites. I ate Glazed Grilled Salmon with lobster mashed potatoes, sweet chili buerre blanc, and sauteed spinach. Of course we also ordered the calamari for an appetizer and that was also great. Dessert was a s'mores brownie. Yum!

Friday we went to the Science Museum of Minnesota and took in the King Tut omnitheater and exhibit. It was the first time we were there in a long time and enjoyed another interesting film and exhibit.

After that we went to Izzy's for ice cream in St. Paul and then to the Mall of America. The highlight of the MOA was mom and dad both got some sweet shoes.

Saturday, Dad, Katy and I got together to attack the back yard. We took down the smallest of our bushes and a small tree in the back yard.




























Here's the video of the bush take down.





Sunday, Father's Day, we went to the Twins game! I didn't think we'd have too much trouble getting tickets but it ended up more of a challenge than I thought. We hit a couple scalpers which didn't turn out for us but we took standing room only tickets and watched in right center field. Though, that saved us a bit of money.

In the crowd we spied Nate and Amanda, Uncle Paul and Nate's dad. We also spied Lance in his season tickets. We exchanged texts before he came over to say hi and said "I have paparazzi" because I was taking pictures of him and waving.

After the game we went to DQ for some ice cream and then finished it out with Axel's Bonfire on Grand Avenue on a beautiful night.

Tuesday we finished up the trip with lunch downtown at Cosi with Katy.

Overall, it was great to have Mom and Dad. Another thing on our to do list is add a bed and furniture so they can stay with us and so can you!

TC 1 Mile

I ran the Twin Cities 1 Mile again on May 12th.

Making excuses or telling the truth I didn't run very much beforehand because of poor Minnesota spring weather due to chilly temperatures, clouds upon clouds and rain I just didn't get out very much to run. So, I ran my slowest mile in 3 years, 5:25. However, I was okay with that because I really didn't run very much.

I've always set "goals" to try and be in the top 20-30 in the general masses but I can't maintain running in the winter here. Can someone keep me accountable next winter to maintain fitness so I can run faster next year?














The TC 1 Mile also served as the USA Road Mile Championships too and attracted a good crowd of professional runners. Sara Hall, Ryan Hall, David Torrence, Tommy Schmitz, Gabriele Anderson, Heather Kampf and more.

Sara Hall ran under 4:32 and David Torrence won in under 4:00 winning $10,000 each for the time prize in addition to the $4,000 for winning the race.

Here is Sara Hall.

Boston Marathon Slow Mo Videos

I know the Boston Marathon was a few weeks ago but I found these videos and found them to be interesting because of the athletes in them, Ryan Hall and Kara Goucher as well as the running motion-the biomechanics behind running a marathon as fast as they do.




Credit goes to http://runnyknows.tumblr.com/

Ryan Hall






Kara Goucher

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.

Watching College Basketball with Joel

Ever want to watch a game with me?

This was the Final Four from Houston, Texas. Arizona had the ball and the chance to win the game. This was my reaction.




UConn won. And then they won the NCAA Championship!