Date Night-Polo and Barbour

The etiology of my challenging week is not complex. My pathos has always been fairly simple to sort out and the most significant root cause was mitigated yesterday afternoon.  I’ve missed my child over these past couple of weeks and picking her up lifted my spirits incredibly. I’ve been in denial about LFG growing up while at the same time bracing myself for the next few phases of pre-adolescence.

I figured that by age twelve LFG would have all kinds of issues with her parents’ presence-you know...how cool or not cool our interaction with LFG and her friends might be. I had no idea it would begin at nine and a half years old. As one correspondent shared… "ADG you won’t be replaced, just rearranged”. Ok-I get it. I just wasn't aware that it would manifest this soon. Bottom line is that I now have more competition for my daughter’s time than ever before. She’s growing up.

She still remains a sweetie though…readily agreeing to a date last night at Cactus Cantina. Crazy Eights…Shirley Temples…Cheese Quesadillas…Grilled Quail…all is right in the world again.

Milkshakes at home before bed. We’re living a dream.

LFG has grown out of her first pair of Chucks…the high top pink ones. Dig the replacements. Dig the socks. Yes, she is her father’s daughter.

And speaking of young'ns and sentiment-you must go over to my buddy James' blog and read this story. It's the best thing he's ever written. 

Saturday morning...called for Jay Kos cords-the Hoof Pick belt that has trumped all others in my lineup-airport security be damned. LFG, the thespian had play practice all day and a birthday party early evening. Told you I had competition…I’m in chauffeur overdrive this weekend.

Gigantic cuffs and Suede Chauffeur shoes....courtesy of eBay. I'm gonna do a separate post on eBay later. Shut up.

After dropping LFG off I stopped at Polo Chevy Chase to do a couple of things…determine the dollar value of the Polo gift certificate LFG gave me for Christmas and to subsequently spend it. Trust me; I held no fantasies regarding the amount.

The Spring 2010 goods are rolling in and I’d say that Ralph and minions have done a stellar job. Fall 2009 was strong and I just hope that the economy will behave commensurate with the sartorial acumen displayed at Polo. Digging the shoes-Orange and all.

I'd wear the green or the blue babies in a heartbeat but most of you knew that already. Shut up.

Polo Made To Measure…courtesy of Corneliani was way out of the orbit of my forty dollar gift certificate but nonetheless I culled my pick of swatches just for fun and blog posting. Windowpane is well represented.

And for those who remember the days when Polo would build these babies in the fuzziest of fuzzy dice models-there back. Here's the Ashton-and there ain't a damn thing here remotely associated with the twee little man child Ashton.

And the Kipling. Rudyard's cantankerous colonial ass would be proud. Max Beerbohm (Maxminimus) considered it sport to continuously harangue Rudyard Kipling.  The dice on this Kipling are so fuzzy that I can hardly stand it. Hold me-touch me-touch me in ways that make me feel a bit uncomfortable-just on the verge of violation. Anyone got a cigarette?

Linen and cashmere here. Plenty of fodder to rip holes in at home. The upper right hand swatch is 100% Cashmere-it almost begs to be made into something. Damn.

If I had to pick-to edit-to trade-off-to decide on three...Then here you have it.

Since my lovely gesture from LFG wouldn't cover any of the above-in spite of the fact that I am so in need of summer linen trousers-I opted for an orange pocket square.

And finally-I finished my Barbour reconditioning project. This is the anti A.D.D. endeavour and I’ll be really pleased to not involve myself in this task for another year or so. This effort requires patience and keen attention to detail-not exactly my strong points. There have been superb how to posts on blog sites and I’m grateful for the insights provided therein. I wouldn’t on my best day do a unique post on my Barbour wax-undertaking but I will offer one suggestion. Get a damn heat gun! I’ve had one for years and this baby made application easier and to hell with keeping the can in hot water. Hit it with the heat gun every few minutes and it remains liquid.

Seven hours in the bathroom amidst a running hot shower and we are good to go. This shot is about three hours into the seven hour steam. Now the wax is fully accommodated and evenly-kindasorta-assigned.

Time to don the chauffeur guise and pick up LFG.

Onward. Waxed. ADG.