J Who?

I'm going to be a cranky old man for a minute.
  Does J. Crew make anything themselves anymore?  They're turning into a department store.  It looks like they've gotten their hands on some copies of Take Ivy and plan on making it their own, sort of.  "J.Crew has printed 300 limited-edition copies in a special slide case (and 700 copies of the standard copies of the book)."  is the news comes from an email I get from Thompson Hotels.  And I do think it's weird that a hotel chain is blogging about fashion trends like aviator glasses and Ivy style.
  J. Crew is current selling nearly thirty other brands other than their own on their website.  From jeans to bags to sneakers...the list goes on.  And it's not like you can't get these things from the companies that make them.  You can buy a Baracuta jacket from Baracuta.

Here's an example.  Let's look at the Tretorn T-56 sneaker.

Here is Tretorn from Tretorn, and here is Tretorn from J. Crew.  The Tretorn from Tretorn is five dollars less than what J. Crew is selling it for.  There are more examples, but I digress.

Take Ivy can be bought from Powerhouse, the company that is publishing it.

Not a very well thought out plan

It seemed like a good idea at the time.  I was trying to google this blog (Tea For One, as it was).  I'd like to at least be able to google my own blog and know that it is easy to find.  It wasn't even remotely one of the top results.  Tea For One is a Led Zeppelin song that I can't even hum the first bar to.  A bit hypocritical if you ask me.  So I decided to change the name and address of the blog to something more obscure (e.i. easily searchable on Google).

What I do know is the blues, and everyone knows that the blues start with Robert Johnson.  When I practice enough, I can play They're Red Hot all the way through.  In one verse, he and his babe bought a V8 Ford and they wound that thing on the running board.  Ahh, "The Running Board", that would be a good name for a blog.  But alas, it was taken (and not being used, damnit).  In another verse, the monkey and the baboon are playing in the grass and the monkey stuck his finger in the Good Gulf Gas.  Not as good as The Running Board, but good and available.

So I took it...and lost my blog roll, which is one of the main reasons I have a blog.  And I also lost my followers, yes, plural.  My lovely wife was one of my followers.  I can get her back.  But the other follower was a blogger named Tucker.

It was quite humbling when I found out that someone I didn't know, and blogger at that, was following my blog.  I had seen his blog before, however it was not on my blog roll.  Of course I immediately became a follower of his blogs and put them on my blog roll.  What I hadn't noticed was that he put my blog on his blog roll.  Now the name and address change to my blog has totally screwed that gig up.  Not a very well thought out plan.

Until I found out that someone was actually following my blog I never considered myself a blogger, but if you've ever seen What About Bob?, Bill Murray's character says "I'm sailing, I'm a sailor, I sail!".  Well, if I have a blog and I post blogs then that makes me a blogger.

Mt. Moosilauke, 4000 Footer #1

Well, I can finally post about something related to my very first post.  A couple of years ago I decided to hike the 4000 'footers of New Hamshire's White Mountains.  Today I found the time to get up one of these big bastards.  I climbed to the top of Mount Moosilauke, the western most 4000 Footer and also one of the most southern.

The day started off with leaving the house earlier than planned, so I arrived at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge at 8:45 am.

Moosilauke Ravine Lodge run by Darmouth College

Trendsetter? You make the call.

This is a preview picture of some Jack Spade suff.  Take a good look at that bag strap.  I know, it's kinda hard to see the pattern, but it gets better.

Now, check out Jimi's guitar strap.  The last photo is from Woodstock.

Now take a look at MY guitar strap.

So who is the trendsetter here?  Jimi, who is one of the greatest guitarists of all time, but dead?  Or me, an amature guitarist, who is alive and well.  You make the call.

Ultimate Compliment 2.0

I've had some unfinished business.  I posted on my birthday about what I was wearing when I received the highest of compliments on what I was wearing that day.  When I got home that day I took some pictures of my outfit but never posted them.  I wasn't crazy about how they came out and also I wasn't sure if I wanted to be the kind of guy who posts pictures of himself in his outfits on his blog.  But I can't just list the clothes I was wearing that day, that would be like trying tell you what a Picasso looks like.

Tie from the Top Shelf Flea

Matching the hardware

While were at it, let's see how the plaid-seersucker-partially lined blazer by Anderson Little from Boomerangs with sleeves lengthened by a great tailor looks.

Stick it in the fridge

It's in the fridge and will be all summer long.

Nantucket or Where we won't be going back to anytime soon

The bride and I had such a great time on Martha's Vineyard after our wedding that I thought it might be nice to check out Nantucket.  We did, on Memorial Day weekend, in the midst of the Figawi boat race.  It turns out that the man from Nantucket is Martha's douchbag brother.

On Martha's Vineyard, the weekend after Labor Day, there were many things to do and see and these things just seemed to find us.  We happened upon great restaurants, we took a bike ride from Vineyard Haven to Oak Bluffs and then found a quiet beach.  We found places where there were affordable things to purchase.

Not so in Nantucket.  Things just didn't jump out at us.  Restaurants, shopping, activities...nothing.  Thing were expensive.  The Whaling museum admission was 17 dollars and we passed.  The worst part was that the island was full of drunk preppy douchbags.  All the rich girls wore aviators and colored wayfarers.  It was funny watching girls in high heels crossing cobblestone streets.  There were a couple of bars that were packed with drunk twenty-somethings.  Parts of downtown Nantucket seemed like a college campus.

I did buy a pair of Nantucket Reds at Murray's Toggery Shop.  Probably the only good thing to come out of our trip.  I could have bought them online but it was nice to be in the shop.  Murray's had a great selection of seersucker critter shorts.

We were booked for the 8:30 pm high speed ferry to leave but we were ready to go at 4 pm.  We caught the next ferry at 6:00 and got the hell out of there.  Let go to the tape...

The Fast (and expensive) Ferry

"Buffy, do you see Muffy's boat?" 

Nantucket is very beautiful

Muppetts

  My wife is a muppetts fan of sorts and I've always like the muppetts.  We did watch The Dark Crystal on our second date (suprisingly romantic).  We don't have a collection muppetts in every room like weirdos.  But who doesn't like the muppetts?  So I found out about the Jim Henson's Fantastic World exhibit at the National Heratige Museum in Lexington, MA.  Seems that it's owned by the Masons, so it's free (I'm being stalked by the Masons don't 'cha know).  Funny thing about the Masons, anything they do is free.  This museum, a Harvard-Yale football game tailgate and tickets, Dixie Echoes concert to benefit Matt Brown, ect.  So it's ironic that they call them Free Masons.

I've never heard of these guys, but they had their own show called The Tales of Tinkerdee.

This is a poster Henson did while in college.

You know this guy.

This is one of the earliest Kermits in a coffee commercial.  And on that note we were also fond of the La Choy Dragon.

My Hero

Then I was told by a museum employee that I had to stop taking pictures.  Fair enough.

The Ultimate Compliment

Let it be known.  Today, May 14th 2010, my 33rd birthday, I received the highest sartorial compliment.  A certain patient of ours who happens to be the general manager of a certain century old men's clothing store told me that he liked what I was wearing and that I should be a model for the century old men's clothing store.
I think that there are enough clues there without violating HIPPA regulations.


New tie from the Top Self Flea (I have the sporting gentleman tie)
Lands End Canvas navy blue/white gingam pocket square
Lands End tailored fit blazer
Lands End tailored fit campus collar blue oxford button down shirt
Gap straight fit chinos
Suede Desert boots from J. Crew
Brown belt from Old Navy that I've had forever
Fossil watch

Cherry Poppin'

We have a patient who probably sleeps with a bow tie on (bad visual) and we were talking about it at work a couple of weeks ago and I mentioned that I own one bow tie.  The girl I work with, who is a bit eccentric, really thought I should wear it to work one day.  That day was today and I just popped my bow tie cherry.  And it's hard to do.
First you have to learn how to tie it.  That was tough.

There were many Youtube clips and step by step images, but this was the one that worked for me.  Step 4 is the hardest part.  I was so confused on where I was doing what, looping tab Q into slot J.

Then, it takes big balls for a 30`something year old guy to go to work in a busy hospital and walk around all day with a bow tie.  I did get some nice compliments and a lot of people looking at me.  The trick was to pretend the bow tie wasn't even there.  I think that's the key to pulling off any type of clothing/style/fashion.

My wife took a picture when I got home.

Bow tie by Brooks Brothers.
Blue oxford trim fit botton-down w/ varsity collar from Lands End, brown linen sports coat from H&M, Khakis from Old Navy, dark blue socks from Dockers, and brown split toe shoes from Ecco.  Watch from Fossil.

Funny thing, when I was driving through the parking garage this morning, I saw a guy (mid 40's, Asian {because details matter}) wearing a bow tie.  How dare you, sir!  So I took it as a sign that it was an Unofficial Bow Tie Wearing Day.