J. Crew Bowery drafting tote review

About a month ago I wrote about the Bowery drafting tote at J. Crew and compared it to some similar bags that are currently available. In the process, I concluded that in spite of its $98 price tag, it really was a pretty good value.

Well, this past Saturday, my wallet a little heavier with money that I made from house/pet-sitting, I went over to J. Crew to take another look. When I got there, I found that the bag wasn't where I had originally seen it, but was in the back with the sale items. When I looked at the price tag, I saw that it had been marked down to $50, and when I took it up to the register, it rang up for $30! I don't know if this was some sort of mistake or not, especially since the bag still costs $98 on the J. Crew website, but I'm certainly not complaining.

I have to say, while I think that bag was a pretty good value for $98, for $30 this thing is an absolute steal. Here are some additional pictures, in case you're interested.





As for thoughts on the bag, I don't really have any complaints. As you can see from the pictures, the interior pockets are plentiful and useful--something that is too often lacking on a lot of tote bags. Its also large enough to fit my laptop, along with a textbook or two, so it certainly versatile. While the bag is promoted as being waxed, it's not like someone took a Barbour jacket and made it into a bag. However, I am somewhat tempted to give an application of Barbour wax to see how it would look. Regardless, it seems pretty well-made and the materials seem like they are going to age really nicely.

If you're interested in the bag, I suggest getting on the phone with your local J. Crew to see if they have marked them down in the store as I suspect these things will sell out quickly once they get marked down on the website.

Over the Rhine- "Snow Angels"

Over the Rhine is really a fantastic band, and their most recent Christmas album, Snow Angels, is a great one to pull out this time of the year. It came out in 2007, but hasn't lost any of its charm (nor has Karin Bergquist's voice). "All I Get for Christmas is Blue" and "Darlin' (Christmas is Coming)" are two of my personal favorites, but Linford Detweiler's piece "Goodbye Charles" is definitely a stand-out. It's a tribute to Charles Schultz that is played in the style of the Vince Guaraldi Trio and sounds like it could have been on the original A Charlie Brown Christmas album. I was even fortunate enough to hear them perform a few songs from this album at their concert that I went to in Athens last year.

One of the major points of this post is to let you know that you can currently stream this album for free on Over the Rhine's website. You can go there and look for the Over the Rhine Record Player image on the right side of the page, or you can click here and open the player directly. Merry Christmas.

Southern Staple: Cheese Straws

Cheese straws are, quite simply, a classic Southern snack. Equally at home with a glass of sweet tea on the porch as they are being served at a cocktail party, cheese straws are an unpretentious but delicious choice. And while cheese straws are fairly simple in concept, the ingredient list is basically just cheese, flour, butter, salt and cayenne pepper, it is in the execution that things become tricky.

A proper cheese straw is light and dense and should have a good snap to it. It should not be too gummy or crumbly, nor should it be crispy like a potato chip. The two keys here are proper density of the dough, the proper texture/shape.

My mom (who is a frequent reader of A Trip Down South and will probably be excited that she is getting a shout-out) makes, in my opinion, the best cheese straws in the country (pictured above). They are just the right texture, which is due in large part to the use of a hand-crank cookie press. She has an electric cookie press that she tried once, but they just didn't turn out right. Whenever she makes them, it's usually only a matter of days, if not hours, before they are gone.

Unfortunately, getting your hands on some really good cheese straws can be somewhat difficult. While they do sell them at stores like Publix, they are usually quite expensive ($6 or $7 for a pretty small bag), and even those aren't as good as homemade ones. If you've got a suggestion for readers as to what some of the better store brands are, I'm sure others would appreciate it.

4th Annual Day After Thanksgiving Sporting Clay Shoot

This is a little late, but if you've been reading here for a while, you may remember last year's post on our family's 3rd Annual Day After Thanksgiving Sporting Clay Shoot. Well, this year, we added a few more family members and went back to Brush Creek Sporting Club for the 4th Annual Shoot. Here's a picture of our whole crew:

Here is last year's picture of my brother and I

and the one from this year. If Barbour is looking to endorse us, we're open to discussions.

Oh, and I won for the fourth year in a row. Hopefully I'll be able to hang on again next year as the competition is getting stiff.

Blog of Note: Manifold Destiny

I've known Greg from the blog Manifold Destiny since back in high school. We even played lacrosse together back on the ramshackle team that myself and another guy started at our school. While our paths have crossed on several fora and other blogs, Greg decided to start his own blog a couple of weeks ago and so far he's off to a great start. While it's still fairly new, Greg's got a good eye and is doing a good job of finding the best of the best around the blogosphere. Be sure to give it a peek, and look for it in my "Curriculum" blog roll on the right.

Game Time

The real national championship game.

A Trip Down South logo: Part II

You may have noticed the new logo up top. I had designed this logo

and then my friend Sarah Margaret hand drew it and painted it in watercolor to give it a more organic feel. She's pretty awesome. I'm pleased with how it came out and hope that you like it.

Southern States Flag Belts

Are you a Southern who's jealous of your South Carolina friends always sporting their South Carolina flag belts? Well, it's finally your turn.

A hat tip to Greg at Manifold Destiny for this one, Tennesee-based company Traditional State makes belts, dog collars, and other products featuring the state flags of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. These are definitely going on my Christmas list. Check them out below.

Alabama

Georgia

Mississippi

Tennessee

Texas

Pictures of O'Connell's

As a sort of a follow-up to Lawrence's post the other day about O'Connell's in Buffalo, here are some photos that I took of the inside of the store when I paid a visit (made a pilgrimage?) three years ago. Even these pictures don't completely capture the sheer volume of stuff available there. Really quite staggering. Plus there is an upstairs.

There are approximately 48,000 sweaters in this picture. Note the college mufflers near the ceiling.

Note the wall of ties and sweaters crammed in above the suits

Need a suit?

Need some pants?

Sorry this picture is fuzzy, but please note the stacks of Alden boxes on the back right wall

That is a wall full of shetland sweaters behind those coats

Gap Authentic Fit jeans: A caveat

After posting what was generally a glowing review of the Gap Authentic Fit jeans a little over a month ago, the honeymoon period has ended and I would like to follow up with this caveat/complaint/advice. If you are thinking about purchasing these jeans, I would highly recommend going down at least one size.

I tried these jeans on in my normal waist size at the store they fit so I bought them (being a man, that is about as much information as I want to obtain in a dressing room). Upon trying them on at home (after removing the tags), I realized that while the rest of the jean fit well, the waist was actually at least an inch too big. I had missed this because all of the excess material was in the back and when I tried them on, I guess I hadn't been looking for it. I figured that the jeans would shrink a bit when I washed them and it wouldn't be a problem anymore. Well, I did wash them and they did shrink a bit, but once I started wearing them, the waist stretched back out to its original size, and since then, the thighs have stretched a good bit too. I had breakfast with my friend who works for Gap this past week and mentioned the problem to him and he did admit that Gap has had problems with their denim stretching more than they want it to. While that might be part of the problem, I think that it is also vanity sizing on the part of Gap, which I find kind of annoying. If anyone from Gap corporate is reading this and would like to provide me with a new pair of jeans, in the correct size, I'd really appreciate it.

Other than the sizing issue, I have still been pleased with the jeans after a month and would still recommend them. Moral of the story: size down. They will probably look pretty tight when you do, but don't worry, they'll end up looking alright after a couple of days.