This has been my uniform lately.

IHJ-54
Black tee
888-XHS
Wesco

The IHJ-54 always comes through for me.

Johnny Cash
IH Tee
888
Wesco

And standing awkwardly, about to get some headshots taken.

Not the most conventional tool, but a shop apron is absolutely a tool. Having some of my most-used hand tools at the ready is super important, and rather than buying something that already exists that I'd likely be unhappy with, I decided to make my own fully custom apron.

This was nearly 80 hours of labor, and a shit ton of leather!

This is a project I've been meaning to get to for a long time, and I finally got it done today. I have two tees (one black and one navy) that had some bleach spots on them. No idea how they got there, but I've been wearing them for a while and wanted to get them fixed. I got some dye, and decided to do them both black. And while I was at it, I wanted to dye my white shirt red. The bleach spots are gone (hooray!), and the black over navy came out really cool. I'm also very happy with the red. Here are the results.

Before:

After:

My wife got a candid of me when we were setting up for pizza at the beach on Friday. I make pizza every Friday, and we live a couple of blocks from the water. I bought a stack of pizza boxes on Amazon, so in the summer, we sometimes take our pizza to the beach with a bottle of wine, and enjoy the sunset.

My wife doesn't like lamb, so when she's out for the night and I can cook whatever I feel like eating, it's a great opportunity to have something like this.

Rack of lamb with bordelaise sauce, roasted potatoes, and steamed broccoli.

@Oaktavia Dude, same. I'm so relieved. I've been wearing these boots hard for the last year, and depending on the weather or my body, that one boot was sometimes kind of brutal to wear.

@Oaktavia Definitely! But as others have already stated, the tightness on the instep is part of wearing new engineer boots until they break in, so I would caution against this practice for those that feel impatient. This is a last resort, and a way to make room for an unusually high instep on one freakin' foot! Both of my feet feel the same level of comfort now, thanks to the instep stretch on just one boot. Winner!

@Matt Gorgeous!

@mclaincausey How does it compare to the 16? I buy a bottle of the 16 every year around this time, and I've been curious about the 11.

@AtariHunter That's great to hear that you were able to get them how you like them!

@thooy05 Yes! That's awesome.

@Oaktavia I think I may have broken this wild horse. We'll see how they feel over a long period of time.

The right boot feels so much better now. I may do another round at some point, but they're good enough for today.

@Danimal506 Glad you were able to get in okay! Lots of flight delays because of the fog.

Check its out if you have time! It's quite a place. The restaurant is closed for renovations, but you can still eat and grab drinks in the bar.

We've done this three times now and will continue to do so, so I think it's officially a holiday tradition. There's a nice hotel in the area called The Lodge at Torrey Pines, and it's an absolutely gorgeous building which (and I'm not architecture expert, so please forgive me if I mess this up) seems like a combination of craftsman and Japanese design, and it's just stunning. We go there, see the carolers singing by a big fireplace, and tuck ourselves into a little room off of the bar for a martini and what they call the "Drug Store Burger." It's a pretty fancy place, so it's definitely a treat to go there. Anyway, here are some pics that my wife took last night.

@Brian Sometimes the best things aren't gourmet things.

@thooy05 Heck yeah! I'm going to check mine soon. Thank you

@Brian sounds amazing.