Product Review: Oxley Pants

Manufacturer: Bonobos (www.bonobos.com)
Price: $98.00

A couple of weeks ago, Bonobos sent me a sample of their Oxley pants in mint green (pictured), but they come in several different colors. The sample I was sent was too small for me so I haven't actually been able to wear them, but I can tell you a little bit more about them after having seen them in person, and felt them.

This casual pant is from a lightweight, breathable fabric (100% cotton), so it is perfect for the warm summer months. The fabric is high quality, and very soft; they felt  very comfortable in my hands, and I really wished that I had a sample in my size. The pants have a straight leg opening, with a medium-rise waist.

Southern Tide Lacrosse Helmet

Here is another example of lacrosse and prep culture colliding.

This is the helmet I will be using for summer lacrosse this season. The helmet is an all white Cascade CPX-R with a chrome cage, and I put a Southern Tide logo sticker on one side. The other side of the helmet has a Carolina blue number 25, and I added a Carolina blue mo hawk stripe to the top of it.

NCAA Lax Brackets

Here are the three brackets I did for May Madness. The first bracket is my selections for D1. I have Notre Dame, North Carolina, Johns Hopkins, and Duke in the Final Four, with Notre Dame beating Hopkins for the National Championship. This was an extremely difficult bracket to pick from, as there are about 10 teams that have real shorts to make it to the Final Four, and some of them play each other in the first round. There are also about 7 teams that I think are capable of winning a National Championship this year. Every scenario I picked seemed so right, yet so wrong at the same time. This is what I finally decided on.

Given the difficult nature of selecting from this pool of teams, I did a second D1 bracket: the "coin flip bracket." I flipped a coin for each game (the team on top was heads, and the team on bottom was tails), just to see which bracket ended up being better. This Final Four consists of Loyola, Princeton, Duke, and Stony Brook in the Final Four, with Stony Brook winning the National Championship over Princeton. I think it's pretty safe to say that my bracket of picks will end up being better.

Third is the D3 bracket, which has 28 teams vs. D1's 16, and first round games start tonight. I've wanted to fill this out for a few years, but given that I was playing D3 in the NCAA for the last four years, I wasn't sure what the legal ramifications might be. This bracket has fewer upsets in it, as the competition level throughout D3 isn't nearly as tight as it is in D1. Perhaps most interesting to me is that New England College (NH) made the tournament this year. In 2008, my team beat them 10-5. They did leave our conference, which features two top-20 teams, and won their new conference's AQ this year, but it just goes to show you how fast things can change in D3. My D3 Final Four is Cortland State (NY), Tufts (MA), Salisbury (MD), and Stevenson (MD), with Tufts beating Stevenson in the Final.

Michigan Lacrosse: Legacy

Prep Essentials: Brooks Brothers Etiquette Books

Here's something that every gentleman should own. John Bridges and Bryan Curtis wrote a series of etiquette books that is sold by Brooks Brothers.

The books cover lessons from dressing to grooming to toasts to being abroad, and more. Altogether, there are 11 books in the series, and they are rather quick, but extremely beneficial reads.  I own, and have read, A Gentleman Gets Dressed Up and 50 Things Every Young Gentleman Should Know. I still reference them when I need to quickly look up an answer for appropriate attire, or double-check to see what is acceptable behavior. The books are sold here for $32 each.

A Day in the Life

A lot of people wonder what life is like when college ends and the grind of the working world takes its place. The days of class for a few hours, with time for naps in between (or homework, if you prefer), going to practice and doing homework at night, and staying up late are now behind me. Here's a sample weekday schedule for me:

7:00 AM: My first alarm goes off. I prefer to gradually wake up, so I promptly turn it off, roll over, and try to go back to sleep.
7:15 AM: My second alarm goes off. I unhappily get out of bed and get ready. To get ready, I shower, shave, get dressed, make my hair look semi-presentable, put my packed lunch in my briefcase, and grab some pop-tarts to eat for breakfast.
7:40 AM: Leave for work.
8:00 AM: Arrive at work. The day starts with checking emails, and if necessary, fixing any emergencies that have come up since I left the night before. You'd be surprised how often this happens. I usually like to start my day with the "brainless" work since I'm not a morning person.
10:00 AM: This is when I usually eat my breakfast. It is also when I dive into some of my harder work for the day.
1:30 PM: I eat my lunch. I like to wait until 1:30/2:00 to eat my lunch because then I don't have to stay at work very long after I'm done eating. I eat at my desk (if we eat at our desk, and are available to handle things that come up, lunch counts as part of our hours for the day), and I check various websites for some mind-clearing entertainment.
3:00 PM: For the last hour of my day, I try to find something easy to do and let the day wind down.
4:00 PM: Leave work. If I need to do laundry, or go to the grocery, I try to make these errands on my way home.
4:25 PM: If I don't have to run any errands, this is when I get home. I always change out my work clothes and put on running clothes, and go for a jog, usually about 2 miles.
5:30 PM: I have completed my run, taken a shower, and changed into sweats. I try to decide on something to eat for dinner while mindlessly watching TV. If the weather is nice, I go outside and read on my balcony.
6:00 PM: Make dinner. I never make anything too complicated (mostly pasta or frozen food), and dinner is usually done being eaten within 45 minutes of me starting to make it. I spend the rest of the evening watching TV, or a movie.
8:30 PM: I get ready for the next day at work. I pack my lunch up (sandwich, chips, string cheese, cookie, bottle of water, banana), and iron my clothes for the next day.
10:30 PM: Bedtime. It usually takes me a while to fall asleep, so I feel like if I get in bed at this time, I will fall asleep shortly after 11:00 and still get my 8 hours of sleep.

VV Pink Whales Gear

The Vineyard Vines Pink Whales are a post-collegiate men's lacrosse team out of the Boston area. Here are some photos of their shooting shirts, and team helmets that were done by ZimaGear.