Switching to a Weekly Post

Monday's conglomeration began with the Robert Talbott Best of Class necktie. The background is a black herringbone weave. The larger squares are gold but bordering on a copperish shade. That's what really sold me on the tie in the first place. The smallest squares are white. The mid-sized squares are light blue and the reason I chose a blue shirt. The sport coat is a silk/wool tic(?) weave I've had so long that I don't even remember where or when I got it. It's got several colors with black and tan the most prominent.




This conglomeration is very similar to one from early May noted in a catchup post here. The necktie for Tuesday's conglomeration is a Paul Fredrick instead of a Roundtree and York. I also went with a Four-in-hand instead of a half-Windsor. I like the Paul Fredrick tie much better and its counterpart helped me simplify the fifth of July. To top it off, the navy sport coat, of course. I'm still on the lookout for a navy/red/white striped necktie to try out with the navy/red windowpane dress shirt.



Paisley ties are fairly rare in my collection. This one is a Ferrell Reed City of London so that's its first step in the right direction. The second would be small, tightly grouped paisleys. It does not look like a paisley pattern from much of a distance at all. A white shirt and gray sport coat round out Wednesday's conglomeration.



Friday's conglomeration began with the dotted Jos A Bank necktie. I really had no idea what I was going to do with it. I would like some sort of olive colored sport coat some day and that's what I would have chosen for this tie. Olive can be a difficult color to pull off. I did wear olive trousers with the tan sport coat and ecru dress shirt. Trousers are one thing and a jacket yet another. That's really the reason I'll never have an olive colored suit. The jacket will have to be just right. A sport coat means that I can conglomerate other things much easier than if it was a suit.



Today's conglomeration actually began with the white Charles Tyrwhitt dress shirt. I can't really wear it to work so it's going to get a lot of church duty until it's not my favorite anymore. I suspect that will take quite some time. The blue suit was the second pick for the day because I hadn't worn it in a while. The necktie is a Ferrell Reed City of London. It's a navy/red in sort of a basket weave pattern. I tied it in a half-Windsor because it's an extra long tie. That's what happens when an Ebay seller doesn't mention all the details. I still like the tie just fine all the same. I matched up some navy/red silk knots to hold the French Cuffs together. I'm still getting the hang of those things.

Something New to Conglomerate

The dress shirt and necktie are both Charles Tyrwhitt. The tie is one of their sevenfold models. It must want to be knotted because it made such a good knot with so little effort on my part. The shirt is a 180s twill and is by far the best shirt I own. It's so soft and comfortable that I really didn't want to take it off after I got home today. It's also my first French cuff shirt which allows further conglomerating:

I used silk knots rather than cuff links because silk knot allow a little more freedom to conglomerate in some color. I got several different colors because it's a white shirt that I can wear with nearly any tie.

The pocket square is a Carot and Gibbs that has a navy and red paisley pattern in the middle but I only wanted the blue border with gold trim to show. So that's how I folded it. Pocket squares are a bit of a new art for me and it will take a little time to get that part of conglomerating in line.

Stripes on Stripes

Another Talbott Best of Class conglomerated over a blue stripe dress shirt. The small, navy stripes in the middle of the larger tan stripes called for the navy sport coat. A good thing for a Friday. The tan stripes also worked well with the tan trousers I conglomerated in with the rest of the, uhhhmm, outfit. And tan trousers are definitely a necessity when one owns a navy sport coat. That's what "They" say anyway.

Simplicity For Conglomerating's Sake

Rather than conglomerate a blue and gold tie with the charcoal suit, like I normally do, I decided to conglomerate a blue tie with a slightly gold shirt. It works pretty well and I like the idea of simple when conglomerating. Sometimes. The tie is a Paul Fredrick and it's woven in a herringbone pattern that adds more interest than a plain solid.

Conglomerating Block

I really have run into a bit of a roadblock with the conglomerations. Today's is no exception. The necktie is a Paul Fredrick woven with a silver/gray background, black, diagonal window pane and light purple outlined, black paisleys. It is one of my favorite ties and I do like to wear it but the purple (lavender) dress shirt is a sign of the color rut that I'm in right now. Hey, purple is pleasing to me at this point in time so I'm going with it. The other thing is gray suit yesterday, gray sport coat today. Oh well. At least the conglomerating does not feel like a chore. It will be a sad day if that happens.

Purple and Blue

I've been having some fun trying out purple and blue combinations lately. I'm not sure what brought it on (probably the colors on a tie) but it's getting to be a habit. I think it started here.

Today's conglomeration tries the lighter shades of purple and blue. The necktie is another Jos A Bank Signature. I guess it's officially colored lavender. There are bigger, white rounded boxes and smaller squares in two shades of blue. I selected a light blue dress shirt instead of the darker blue. That relates back to what I said on Sunday about trying to keep the tie darker (or at least as dark as) the rest of the conglomeration. I topped it all of with the gray, solid suit. I think it works fairly well.

I've gotten a bit into conglomerating socks too. I just don't have it in me to blog about those though. Maybe some day but not just yet.

The Ordinary Striped Tie

What would the neckwear world be like without striped ties? Less ordinary is my guess. I do like striped ties though because, generally, they're easy to conglomerate and they also make it easy to coordinate and contrast at the same time. Generally and today is no exception.

The burgundy background is the contrast to the suit (and shirt too, I guess) and the blue stripe is the coordination with the shirt. Nothing like stating the obvious, I guess. Oh, and the white stripe on the tie corrdinates with the white stripe on the suit? Yeah, I'm pushing it a bit.

I also guess that I'm running out of things to write about. A Summer lull maybe. A muse is what I need. A new tie maybe. Maybe I ought to go down to Denver this weekend and check some thrift shops for something out of my norm to shake things up a bit. Definitely an idea with merit.

City of London Rut

Another Sunday, another reason to conglomerate. And I am in a bit of a Ferrell Reed City of London rut. I have been trying to acquire a Turnbull and Asser tie but none of them on Ebay are quite what I'm after. Hopefully soon.

I usually don't like to have my tie be lighter than my suit but today I tried it. It's a pretty simple tie and I was hoping the light blue would bring out the lighter blue in the suit. It didn't quite work. The off-white (ecru) dress shirt did bring out the gold in the centers of the squares on the tie though. One out of two ain't bad.

I'm kind of running short on ties now. I really need to go through what I have worn and not worn so I can plan against repeats as much as possible. Although there are a few that I do want to repeat because they are favorites.

Running Behind

I'm still trying to get used to my new schedule and keep up with my blog. I seem to be running about a day late. Since today, Saturday, is a non-conglomerated day, I have a chance to catch up.

I skipped the casual part of Friday yesterday since I got in a bit of trouble for fully participating last Friday. The positive responses have continued and general acceptance has been the norm. A very nice result.

The tie is another Ferrell Reed City of London. It's a pretty thick, woven gold with lighter gold squiggle things. The background is somewhat of a basket weave design. The blue circles are the reason I selected the blue, straight collar dress shirt. I selected the tan sport coat for no other reason than I had worn the navy one the day before. It works and I'm not sure the navy would have.

Simplicity, Top to Bottom

The fifth of July felt like a Monday so simplicity was key. A white dress shirt is always tops on the list when in simple conglomerating mode. The navy sport coat is the other obvious choice when simplicity is key. So what else would I select to tie it all together than a navy/silver necktie? Honestly, I think it's a fairly nice conglomeration overall, if I do say so myself.

Same Suit, Shirt, Different Tie

Today's suit and shirt are the same as Sunday's. The necktie is quite a bit different and illustrates yet again what a difference a tie can make for a conglomeration. It is another Jos A Bank tie -- regular, not Signature. The lavender stripe picks up the color of the dress shirt really well. The orange stripes add a little contrast for some interest.The purple/lavender basket weave stripes add some interest in texture.

New Suit, Fancy Tie

Today's necktie is somewhat special. I have never worn it before even though I've had it for years. It's a Robert Talbott Sevenfold. I acquired it on Ebay for a lot less than what it was originally priced but I still somehow had that feeling of dread should harm come to it. Silly.

It's a fairly different tie than what I normally wear but still very much in the realm of repetitive geometric. It's more horizontal than I normally care for. The pattern is made up of varying shades of blue and gold. In person it really is a very nice tie and nearly ties itself into a pretty nice knot.

I draped it over a background of an off-white (ecru) pinpoint, spread collar dress shirt. I was trying to pull out the gold a little more because the suit is a cross-hatched navy/blue pattern. I figured there was enough blue already between the suit and tie but I could have easily paired it with a blue or white shirt.

Speaking of the suit, it is another Jos A Bank but it's an Executive collection rather than Signature. It's not quite as constructed (conglomerated?) as the Signatures but the pattern/texture was too cool to pass up.

Supply and Demand

Evidently I am the only supply of neckwear wearing at the new job. My casual Friday experience was what I thought it would be -- nothing special. Except that I was continually asked where my tie was. Several people nearly demanded that I continue to conglomerate. They did not actually say "conglomerate", of course, but that's how I heard it.

Today's conglomeration is all new. I actually started with the shirt this time, sort of. When I picked up the suit earlier in the week I had this purple (They call it lavendar) in mind but I didn't have a tie that I thought would work. I found a similarly colored shirt and the salesman showed me this tie. It has a light gold background with darker gold squiggly lines. What's difficult to make out in the picture are the dots that are different shades of purple. It's a regular Jos A Bank brand.

The suit is a new Jos A Bank Signature. It's a medium gray solid. I had been looking for just such a suit for quite some time so when it went on sale at 50% off, I couldn't resist. Then when it was totalled up at the register, it turned out that it was really about one third the original price. SoI bought another blue suit that should make its debut tomorrow.

After looking at the picture, I'm really going to have to figure out a better way to take the pictures. The flash washes out a lot of the color and textures of the dress shirts. Sometimes the ties too.

Something A Little Different

The necktie is a little different. Sort of. It's not a Jos A Bank Signature, for one. It is, however, a Ferrell Reed City of London. It is the very first one that I acquired and the reason I acquired so many more. If it's not the first then it's very close to it. It's a really nice combo of navy and gold with a fairly interesting (if very repetitive) pattern.

I usually conglomerate it with a blue stripe but decided to stay fairly plain with a white spread collar. Of course the navy sport coat got the assignment to round out the conglomerating.

That's about it. It's late and my drastic change in schedule is starting to catch up to me. I'll be taking a break from conglomerating tomorrow and seeing what all the fuss is over Casual Friday. I've got to try it at least once, don't I? Not to worry. I will be conglomerating something brand new on Sunday.

Yet Another Conglomeration

Everything is still going very nicely on the new job. Every day there are more positive comments. Quite a change, actually.

Today's conglomeration began with the necktie, as usual. It's a switch for me and my first Charles Tyrwhitt. I was really wanting a bit more of that English bold and bright coloring for a change of pace but ended up with a regular gold colored tie with blue dots. So it goes with Ebay sometimes. Really, though, I just wanted to try one of their ties to see how they suited me, so to speak. The texture of the weave is quite substantial and makes the tie far more interesting than a regular gold, blue dotted tie would normally be. Maybe I should try harder for a Turnbull and Asser tie if I really want bolder colors. Besides, if anyone asked about it, it would be cool to say, "Yeah, it's a real Asser!" Or, "This one's so bright it'll turn a bull!"

The dress shirt is a Land's End, blue stripe, straight collar. Nothing special at all. The collar is a fair bit higher than most I have which makes it able to handle the thick knot the tie produced. The collar will not come together at the top in the inverted V that "They" say is so important. The gray sport coat tops it off although I think the navy would have conglomerated just fine.

Blogging and Conglomerating to Continue Indefinitely

If I'm coated, tied, blogging and conglomerated then it must be ok for the new job. Either that or I'm looking for a new job that's tolerant of conglomerating and dresses for interviews.

The new job is everything I had hoped for and more. My conglomerations are not only tolerated but have also been encouraged a bit here and there.

Today's necktie is another Ferrell Reed City of London. It's a very fresh Ebay acquisition that has somewhat brushstroked squares of different shades of gray. The smaller blue squares keep it from being too monotone. The jumbling of the squares on the black background keeps it from being too orderly yet it is quite orderly and symmetrical. Pretty cool tie that was an absolute steal on Ebay -- less than $6 delivered to my mailbox.

The dress shirt is a black and white Ottoman stripe that really appears gray from much of a distance. The stripes add a fair bit of texture, close up or far away, and a bit of a sheen. The only real option for a sport coat to finish off the conglomeration was the black one.

Two days on the job and two conglomerations. It'll be interesting to see how long I bat 1.000.

First Day

The nervous and exciting first day on a new job. I haven't done this in over a decade. I also get to find out if I'll still be conglomerating with any sort of regularity. With that in mind I decided to go with a full suit, hoping that overdoing it on the first day would make it easier to continue. Kind of asking forgiveness rather than permission.

The necktie is a brand new Talbott Best of Class. Yes, I actually bought it brand new with the first day on the new job in mind. I now understand why they are considered some of the best on the planet. I have other Best of Class ties but they have already been knotted by someone else before I acquired them. Now that I've experienced a brand new one, I'll go back to acquiring others on Ebay. I had to try it once.

The background is black with an open basket weave design. The colors of the weave are shades of purple, blue, and teal(?). It's a real eye catcher and it will be a favorite for a long time to come.

The dress shirt is also a Robert Talbott. It's got a windowpane weave with a dobby weave inside each "pane". I know it's called dobby because that's what the description said. I purchased both from Hansen's Clothing in Iowa. I dealt with Mr. Hansen himself and it was a pleasure. The shirt and tie cost more than the suit. That's probably the last time that will happen and it won't be because I'll buying more expensive suits.

The suit is the charcoal gray one. I had planned on having a new, medium gray solid but it's not yet ready. Such is life.

Hopefully I'll be able to continue conglomerating or I'm going to have to get rid of a bunch of dress shirts and ties and acquire some other form of clothing. I do have other clothing but not in a quantity sufficient for everyday wear.

Navy and Purple

This is the first time I've conglomerated purple with navy. I think it is anyway. The necktie is a Robert Talbott Best of Class for Nordstrom and another Ebay acquisition. The dark squiggles in between the purple squiggles are navy which is the reason I decided to try the navy sport coat. I think it works pretty well. And, of course, the white centers of the "eyes" is why I conglomerated the whole thing with a white dress shirt.

The dress shirt is different than any other dress shirt I've ever worn. It's not that it's white or has a spread collar though. It's textured. I think the combination of the flash and reducing the size of the picture washed out the texture of the shirt. That's too bad because it really adds to the overall interest of the conglomeration. Here's the manufacturers picture of the shirt with a closeup:



The tie is sure to be a favorite for a long time to come. I think it'll be conglomerated with something gray next time. That's what I was thinking before I saw it live and in person.

Monday's Trial

Yet another Jos A Bank Signature necktie. It's one of the older, non self-tipped versions. This particular one was extremely difficult to get a decent knot and after several attempts I just went with what I had. That's a problem with Ebaying ties -- there's no test drive possibility. Life's about trade offs anyway and I guess the trade off for cheap, nice neckwear is the lack of knottiness.

The dress shirt is the off-white (ecru) straight collar and the only sport coat I figured would conglomerate is the tan one. Maybe I should have stayed in bed. It's my last week at this particular job so I couldn't do that.

Burgundy With Charcoal

No, I'm not talking about barrels of wine.

Today's necktie is yet another Jos A Bank Signature but it's a Signature Gold instead. It's another advertising thing like "new and improved" or something. Actually the Gold lines are a notch above the regular old Signature line and they are numbered as well -- like # 172 / 210 or so.

This is the first time I've tried anything other than a gold or blue tie with the charcoal suit. I had taken a salesman's advice on the colors of ties up to this point but decided to risk a little and try my own hand in the conglomeration. I think it works and the tie does have some gold and blue in the pattern. I knew better than to stray too terribly far. That's one of the very attractive things about ties -- you can change the whole look of a conglomeration just by changing the tie.

The shirt? Just a regular old blue point collar. Well, French blue.

Another Simple Friday

Well, sort of simple. The necktie is yet another Jos A Bank Signature. It's a really thick, unwieldy tie that has a mind of its own. I doubt this one will make it out of the closet again because it's just too stiff.

The dress shirt is a red and blue striped point collar. I really didn't want to put the navy coat over the top of this pair so I conglomerated it with the tan coat. I think it works.

Breaking The Trend

I started the week off with three straight floral designs. Alas, I could not find another to conglomerate that I hadn't already worn. Today's necktie is a basket weave. I guess it could be continue the trend somewhat. A flower basket?

Another Jos A Bank Signature with the dominant colors being navy and gold and a touch of red in between the weaves. I suspect this is an older model because it is not self-lined like most of the other Signature ties I have. I also a few other Signature ties that are not self-lined but they are not in nearly as good condition as this one.

The dress shirt is a blue spread collar pinpoint. I'm beginning to like spread collar shirts more since they tend to show more of the tie knot. What other sport coat could I have conglomerated other than the navy? The gray, I guess.

Flower Power

I was proofreading yesterday's post before I added the picture and published it and noticed I mentioned I'm not fond of florals. I then noticed today's necktie is also a floral. Then I noticed that Monday's had a bit of flower power in the pattern as well. Must be the subconscious at work.

Today's floral is a Ferrell Reed City of London. It doesn't mention anywhere on any of the labels that it's an extra long but it must be. I ended up folding the tail back on itself and pinning it just so I could get a decent knot and apron length. That's the first time I've ever done that. I had thought about wrangling it into a full fledged Windsor to soak up the extra length but decided against it since I already had on a straight collar dress shirt. The gray sportcoat was a natural selection to conglomerate with the purple and gray in the tie. I may try the black one next time around.

Black Tie, Sharp Dressed

What's a blog worth if you can't quote ZZ Top at least once? The "paper" it's printed on? I doubt you'd be able to see a tie on Billy or Dusty.

Today's black tie is another Jos A Bank Signature. It's a floral pattern which I usually avoid. The jacquard weave adds another interesting texture to the overall look. The dress shirt is an off-white (ecru) point collar. I usually wear this tie with a French blue but decided that as good as my life is going right now that I really didn't feel black and blue. The black sportcoat tops it all off.

I stopped by the local Jos Bank store on the way home from work because they had a pretty good sale going. I had my eye on a gray solid suit (Signature, of course) and after they totalled it up it was half what I expected to pay. That's a really good sale! So I bought a blue tick (I think it's tick) as well (not Signature). The sale was for Father's Day, I think, and to offload the current season's leftovers. I'm not a father which is one of the greatest regrets of my life. So I started the process to join a mentoring program. I hope that all works out.

Recycling Sunday's Shirt

I only wore the shirt for a couple of hours yesterday so I really didn't see any reason why I couldn't wear it again today. It's not one of those non-iron ones so I was going to wear it again before it got washed anyway. Certainly before it got ironed again.

The necktie is another Jos A Bank Signature from Ebay. It's only 50% silk with the other half comprised of linen. It wrinkles quite easily and ties a very uncooperative knot. I think I might stick to 100% silk from now on. Of course it could be the liner, I guess. The design is a bit of a windowpane (I'm in a windowpane rut lately) with small flowery things where the lines cross.

I'll give you three guesses which coat I selected and the first two don't count. Yes, the navy sportcoat.

Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!!!

I've conglomerated this particular tie with the charcoal suit before but I switched it up with a regular old blue shirt instead of the "French" blue like I did here. Or should that be "Freedom" blue instead? Just kidding.

Finally a Friday!

Heckuva a thing to say after a four day week following a week of vacation but, really, I think I needed a vacation from my vacation. As a result, today's conglomeration is pretty straightforward too. So what else would I do but conglomerate around the navy sportcoat? If it's the navy sportcoat and a non-thinking conglomeration then it must be a blue dress shirt. To necktie it all together I selected a red tie. It's got some nifty shades of blue ovals to, you know, take a bit from the shirt and sportcoat. It's a Paul Fredrick that looked really good in the catalog but never quite that good in person. It does make a pretty good knot though so it's not all bad.

And with that I'll bid a fond adieu until next week -- Sunday. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Caught Up!

Another Mickey tie. Two is two too many for some but the pattern on this one is also less than obvious. Another Disney World label and also made in China. This one is a woven rather than a print so it's a little more substantial than Tuesday's tie. I conglomerated it with a purple stripe, straight collar dress shirt and black sportcoat. The purple stripe in the dress shirt really pulled out the light purple squares in the pattern. Not bad at all and what I was hoping would happen.

Sadly I spilled my first up of coffee on the shirt and had to change to a plain white. I did manage to miss the tie though. The shirt will wash (pretreated immediately!) but ties do not clean very well.

So that's it! I'm all caught up now. I'll be starting my new job on June 25. I'm really not sure if I'll be able to continue my conglomerating or not. I know that first day will be conglomerated and maybe I'll ask if there's a ceiling to the dress code rather than a floor. I really do hope that I can continue but if not then it's been fun while it lasted.

Catching Up VI -- Wednesday

I'm almost caught up! Wednesday's necktie is another Jos A Bank Signature. I'm not really sure if the pattern is hearts or clovers. I guess it doesn't really matter. I had a difficult time conglomerating this one but finally settled on the blue and navy windowpane dress shirt and tan sportcoat. I had considered several other blue options for both the dress shirt and coat but decided against being that blue.

Now, to be completely honest, I'm not wearing the coats in the pictures anymore. It's too warm to be coated and tied. I take the picture with the coat I would have worn with the conglomeration had it been more conglomeration type weather.

Catching Up V -- Tuesday

A new tie! I purchased this one on vacation. If you look at the pattern you might be able to tell where I went for vacation. I visited the Florida version of the Big Mouse's house and had a very good time.

The necktie actually has a "Walt Disney World" label and is made in China. Not a bad tie at all and even though it's one of those character ties that one is not supposed to wear to work (or ever according to some of "them"), the pattern is less than obvious.

The dress shirt really is white. And it's clean too. I bought a new camera for the trip because the old one had seen better days years ago. The rechargeables had not been charged again since vacation so the flash did not want to work. The combination of new camera and less than full batteries made for a poor picture.

I'm wondering if the compact fluorescent bulbs in the light fixture are causing the yellowing of the shirt. I'm also wondering if that's why my charcoal suit looks blue in some of the pictures I've posted. I'll have to put up with it anyway if that is the case. I've reduced my overall electrical use by about 25% thanks to those bulbs.

The new camera is a Canon Power Shot IS. I bought it the day before I left for vacation. Risky, I know, but I figured I'd have plenty of time to figure it out on the 3.5 hour flight to Orlando. It didn't even take that long before I was taking some reasonable pictures. The steepest part of the learning curve was learning the individual controls, mostly the zoom. I have not yet been able to take a decent macro type, close up picture.

Catching Up IV -- May 20 through May 23

There really aren't any overly notable ties in this set of conglomerations. The bottom two are Jos A Bank Signatures. The second one up may actually be a Signature Gold model but I can't quite remember. Only four? Yes! It was the week before vacation and by the time Friday rolled around I was already on vacation mentally so I took Friday off too. That's also the reason for the simple conglomerations. I was thinking more about conglomerating shorts and t-shirts.

Catching Up III -- May 13 through May 20

Two neckties of note in this series -- second up from the bottom and second down from the top. Both are Ferrell Reed City of London. Both are skinnier than I tend to like and both have a somewhat vintage feel to them. The bottom one of the two was mistakenly sent to New York first by the Ebay seller. She apologized and sent a decidedly vintage tie along as well. I'm not quite sure I'm up for a tie that wild but I may give it a shot anyway. What have I got to lose?

The other ties are pretty standard fair. The third conglomeration down from the top is one I'll be wearing again. I really like how it turned out. I like the colors and stained glass pattern of the top tie but the tie itself has seen better days. It's an older Jos A Bank Signature.

Catching Up II -- May 6 through May 11

There are a few things to note for this week. My specific necktie searching finally paid off a bit. The bottom picture in this conglomeration of conglomerations is the first tie I was looking for -- something different to pair up with my charcoal pinstripe suit. I visited with a salesman at a local menswear shop -- the only non chain in the area -- and he helped me select this tie based on my description of the suit. I think he nailed it pretty well, sight unseen, and even suggested the dress shirt color too. It's a JZ Richards necktie and cost as much as about 10 Ebay ties! I have not ever spent that much on a tie before. Yes, I did have buyer's remorse but when I conglomerated it all together, it subsided. A little.

The interesting thing about JZ Richards is that the ties are manufactured very near me in Boulder, Colorado. Boulder is known as "The People's Republic of Boulder" and "Eastern California" thanks to their fairly liberal views in an otherwise fairly conservative state. One would be more likely to see tie dye rather than a necktie. Maybe next time I visit I should sport a tie dyed necktie!

Personally, I really like the town as a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there -- it's too expensive because they've really clamped down on growth. If I had the money, though, I would live there. Boulder is nestled up against the foothills of Front Range of the Rockies and next to the Flatirons. Gorgeous! The bike trails are extensive and have very nice scenery to entertain. The Pearl Street Mall is full of street performers at any given time, has several very cool bookstores, one of the best toy stores I've ever visited, a kite store, and the best burritos in the area. I couldn't find specific pictures of some of those places but this link has a general overview of Boulder that's fairly good.

The next conglomeration up from that is also the next necktie for which I was searching. Yes, a simple navy, red "regimental stripe". I liked the blue, navy, white stripe tie on my blue and navy windowpane dress shirt so well that I thought a navy and red would look as good on the navy and red windowpane. I don't like it as much so I may try and find a navy, red, white stripe. It shouldn't be too difficult to find.

The third up from the bottom is the also another specific search necktie. I had been trying to find another tie to conglomerate with the "orchid" Lands End dress shirt. It ended up being more difficult than I thought it would. And again, I ended up with another striped tie. I was really trying to avoid a stripe. I did get many compliments on the conglomeration so it must not be too terribly bad.

The remaining three ties are really nothing special. The first, going from bottom to top, is another Ferrell Reed City of London. It's actually a favorite of mine and one that I can put on anytime on mornings I don't feel like deciding on neckwear. The next up is another Jos A Bank Signature. It's a fairly difficult tie to conglomerate so it's saved for mornings when I've planned to wear it the night before. Last, but not least, a black and gold Robert Talbott Studio. This is actually my funeral tie. Seems to be anyway. No, it was not a funeral tie that day, thank goodness. Personally I think funerals should be colorful and celebratory.