These tears are no more!

From Samurai 710's

From Samurai 710's

Folded inside out, you can see the sewing:

From Samurai 710's

Back pocket with wallet fade:

From Samurai 710's

These jeans have come such a long day since day 2:

From Samurai 710's

Post from: Read Reid's Blog

Samurai 710s – Post Repair Day ~387

Since Day 29 on Dec 6, 2009, I’ve worn these bad boys for something like 140 days. I did miss 11 days while I was in South America, but for me it’s just easier to count total days. Anyway, I’m really happy with the wear, particularly around the knees. The pocket where I keep my wallet is slowly wearing down; it may need a repair soon, but so far so good.

From Imperial Denim

In other denim news, Self Edge has started doing denim repairs! I dropped my Samurai’s off on Saturday and will have them back next week. So excited to wear them after nearly 150+ days :)

Post from: Read Reid's Blog

Imperial Duke’s Day 140

A few days into getting the pair in November, I did a wet soak (sitting in cold water). The jeans stretched out pretty quickly and they aren’t uncomfortably tight like my 19oz Samurai’s were when I had a big meal =p

I think they’re wearing in nicely – the honeycombs are tighter than my Samurai’s and they’re developing more slowly, probably because the denim isn’t as thick. One thing I like is that they’re a bit longer, so I’m getting some wear from stacking them. I’m very happy with them!

Check out the slideshow:

Post from: Read Reid's Blog

Imperials Dukes Day 29

Paramore:

This concert was originally scheduled October, but was postponed since the leader singer got laryngitis. The wait, in my opinion was well worth it. This group, who I only have come to know from Guitar Hero and Rock Band, played a high energy show to a mixed group of punks, hipsters, and middle-aged rockers. And to quote the most recent episode of Glee, Hayley Williams has great hairography.

Reduced Shakespeare Company:

Kolina has already recapped what a great performance this was, but I’ll say it again – these guys are even funnier in person. If they’re ever in your area, buy tickets! Walnut Creek also impressed me – Va de Vi Bistro & Wine Bar had some excellent wines and the Pyramid Brewing Company has some tasty beers.

Las Vegas:

Spent Saturday – Tuesday here. Stayed at the Palazzo. Saw O. Enjoyed the acrobatics and music (cello solo what up). Walked parts of the strip a few times. Won money playing craps, my new favorite game. Ate at the following:

• The Buffet (Wynn) – 5+ stars again for great food. This time, we didn’t see any people puke in the dessert area.
• Aquaknox (Venetian) – Strong martinis. Rude waitress – she took our candle at the end of the night!
• Oyster Bar at the Panazzi (Harrah’s) – excellent oysters. The Rockefellar oysters are so rich. Hope you have good cholestral.
• Yellowtail (Bellagio) – service was horribly slow (even though the restaurant was practically empty). Decent sushi. Sushi samba is better though.
• Sushi Samba (Palazzo) – pretty good sushi, even better drinks, although the wine is overpriced. The bartender will also cheer you on as you do aeriel cartwheels around the empty mall.
• Mararitaville – For inexplicable reasons, we came here twice. Good margaritas. My “Perfect Margarita” was practically all alcohol, hence its name ;) Eric and I also took the volcano nacho challenge and failed miserably. Bad choice:

From Las Vegas Nov 2009

More food:

Since I’m in India for almost all of December, I hit up as many food places as I could before going. 99 Chicken, Panda Express (twice!), Carl’s Jr, and VIP. Also spend a day in San Francisco and checked out Andalu (okay breakfast) and Bar Tartine (not very impressed, sadly enough).

St. Louis:

Visited my family along with Kolina for Thanksgiving. Again, Kolina beat me to the blog post, so you can read about it there. Highlights include visiting my old favorite restaurants like The Posh Nosh, Steak n Shake, and Ted Drewes Frozen Custard and deep frying out turkey. We successfully cooked Spinach Gratin with yams and a delicious pumpkin pie.

So that was that. Since I am falling asleep while finishing up this post, you can check out all my pictures here:

1. St. Louis Thanksgiving
2. San Francisco
3. Las Vegas

Whew, long and busy month. December shapes to be very similar, which keeps me happy even though I’m away in India right now. More later once I recover from jetlag!

Post from: Read Reid's Blog

November Recap

In the meantime, here are some pictures of what I’ll be wearing for the next few months. Eric also has a pair so we can compare wearing patterns!

From Imperial Denim

The distinctive back pockets is one of the main reasons why I purchased these:

From Imperial Denim

From Imperial Denim

Post from: Read Reid's Blog

Imperial Dukes

Luckily, this year, Kolina took charge and created some awesome, home-made Max Costumes! You can read all about it on her blog post and check out the photos, so I won’t cover those details. Instead, a quick recap of the weekend, Halloween-wise:

Googleween

So, I dressed up for work on Friday in my Max Costume. It was definitely well-received, with one person even asking me where I bought it. The best part was when Sophia and I were late to call into a meeting with about 20 people. Nobody in the other room was dressed up, so when we showed up on the projector, the conversation immediately stopped and the meeting lead said “Wow, what are you?”

My pictures are here, but here are some of my favorites:

For obvious reasons:

From Googleween 2009

Henri was a banana!! Nelson was also a Max!

From Googleween 2009

My coworkers had such awesome costumes:

From Googleween 2009

Gregory, who I traveled around Goa with, is ON A BOAT:

From Googleween 2009

San Francisco:
On Saturday, I headed up to San Francisco with some friends. We first stopped at Selfedge, where Eric and I purchased Imperial Dukes. They are an incredibly tight pair of raw denim I’ll no doubt wearing in over the next few months (while I wait for repairs on my Samurai’s.

We enjoyed a nice meal at Delfina Pizzeria after more than a one hour wait (yes, it was worth it). We then headed to Suede for a Halloween party – I ran into a few folks I knew from Stanford and had a generally good time, despite the loud music and being really hot in my costume. We got several more compliments about our costumes, so that was worth it :)

So Halloween was successful, since Kolina spent so much time putting together such awesome costumes.

Sunday was almost a day of recovery, before Wilmot and I went cycling around the South Bay. More about that later in another blog post.

Post from: Read Reid's Blog

Halloween Weekend!

Before:

From Samurai 710's

After:

From Samurai 710's

Much darker, right? Well, this was within minutes of taking them out of the wash. They were really damp and air drying took almost 24 hours. I drove down to LA this past weekend with the jeans in the back seat, drying.

As far as differences, the first time I put them on after the wash, they were tight! I mean, really tight. Like, I almost couldn’t button them. It’s entirely plausible that this was just because I’ve been eating a lot lately, but after suffering through one day of super-tight jeans, they’re now incredibly comfortable. Kolina says it’s because the starch has washed out.

From Samurai 710's

I am definitely fine with that! Besides the unfortunate tears developing in a not so great area (see picture below), I’m really happy with the results. When do I plan to wash them again? Maybe day 300 :)

From Samurai 710's

Post from: Read Reid's Blog

Samurai 710s Post-Wash!

From Samurai 710's

It’s been 137 days since I got these jeans and there’s only been a few days where they weren’t worn (camping in Yosemite or 100+ degree weather in Goa). Biking to work in them has also resulted in a small tear to them:

From Samurai 710's

That’s the before pictures. I put the jeans in the washing machine, on the ultra-handwash and low spin settings, and threw in a small amount of organic detergent.

So, how did they turn out? A much more dark blueish, that’s for sure. But, they’re currently very wet with water and I’m air drying them. More pictures and another post when they’re dry.

Post from: Read Reid's Blog

Day 137 – Samurai 710s – Pre Wash

Day 48:

From Samurai 710′s

Day 87:

From Samurai 710′s

Day 48:

From Samurai 710′s

Day 87:

From Samurai 710′s

Day 48:

From Samurai 710′s

Day 87:

From Samurai 710′s

Post from: Read Reid's Blog

Samurai 710s – Day 87

Anyway, pictures!

From Samurai 710′s

From Samurai 710′s

From Samurai 710′s

From Samurai 710′s

In the last picture, of my left rear pocket, you can start to see a wallet fade. I rarely put my wallet in my back pocket, but even from the few times that I have, you can start to see a fade.

Post from: Read Reid's Blog

Day 48 in my Samurai 710s – Pre-Travel