My Day In Pictures – January 13th, 2011

It was freezing cold, and the wind was blowing mercilessly, so I was glad when we finally stumbled in the door of the Brooks Brothers store in Kansas City to pick up the custom shirts I designed and ordered back in December.

When I arrived, the shirts were ready to go. I looked through them and they were excellent.

The boxes in which the made-to-measure shirts arrived were really cool. They pulled out, like you'd see in the older movies when someone had clothes made for them.

This is what the shirts looked like when I started to open them from the Golden Fleece boxes in which they were packaged.

When you open the box by pulling on the tab, the shirt slides out, wrapped in clear plastic. This shirt was a Herringbone PInk fabric I chose during my visit in December when I designed the shirts that came in this batch.

This is a closeup of the pink herringbone fabric from the above shirt once I had taken it out of the packaging.

I mixed up the monogramming options and added some more unique options than the usual block font.

Another one of the shirts I had made ...

I loved this white herringbone shirt I had made. If you look closely, you can see that the white fabric is textured.

The blue and white stripe shirt ...

This is the lilac herringbone shirt I had made (in the foreground), which is sitting in my closet next to a handful of lilac shirts from Nordstrom so I definitely seem to like that family of color.

Aaron looked through the fabrics to design his shirt. The problem was, he is an extra slim fit and they don't make the custom patterns in non-iron fabrics, which he prefers (I like the traditional fabric, myself). This presented a challenge. I cannot figure out why they wouldn't offer that service. It doesn't make any sense.

Evelyn helped Aaron put together his shirts. She makes the entire experience enjoyable. If you are in Kansas City, I highly recommend her.

As Aaron designed his shirts, I started looking through the fabrics that can be used for trousers or sports coats. There was one I loved called 34442, Best Make Flannel, Super 100's All Wool Light Grey Chalkstripe, Woven in Italy, Barberis, #85, 11 oz/ya FA10. To have trousers made out of it would cost $560 but the store has sales based upon your volume of purchases that start at 10% but can escalate to 20% to 25% in the right circumstances. That means if you got the biggest discount, then added sales tax, you'd be looking at $460 per pair.

I also really liked this shirting fabric. I'm thinking about having another shirt made in it when the March sale rolls around and the new fabrics arrive.

At the restaurant, Aaron ordered a red pepper and mozzarella bruschetta covered in a balsamic vinegar as our appetizer. It was fantastic.

I had the cheese filled sacchetti pasta tossed in parmesan cream sauce with white wine, shallots, fresh rosemary, thyme, basil & Pancetta bacon, and finished toasted pine nut bread crumbs.

Aaron had a handmade pizza with fresh parmesan and cesar salad.

Aaron sitting across from me as we talked about the businesses and waited for the food to be delivered to the table ...

We picked up a Technivorm Moccamaster coffee machine from Williams-Sonoma, which was only about $300 after tax, for the second office he and I are opening. It is supposed to make the perfect cup of coffee (other than Douwe Egberts) and it really was flawless. The design is from the 1960's and is considered so good it hasn't changed since then ... each Technivorm Moccamaster is individually tested in the Netherlands. Buy one.

We also got a Breville One-Touch Tea Maker, which makes pots of tea just like coffee. It is amazing. You need to own one of these, too. I think it was also $300 or so after taxes.