When my wife and I were building our house, we were given an option/spec sheet, much like buying a car. One of the options was a deck upgrade, from 10X12 to 10×16. I know, it doesn’t seem like much, but that extra space would have been very helpful for a grill, or a larger table. We went with the smaller deck so that we could put hardwood down throughout the bottom level. Good decision at the time, but we were stuck with the smaller deck, which sometimes makes outdoor living space a bit tight.

Our solution? Two fold. One, the gazebo you see above. At 10X10, it fit snugly, but perfectly on our deck. This has made it a good living area, for outdoor couches and stuff. Two, we had a stamped concrete patio put down, which makes the deck area flow a lot better. We’ve been extremely impressed with the gazebo, though. A very simple, and inexpensive idea, it really adds a lot more than the price tag would suggest that it could.

Make sure that you watch it in high winds, perhaps take off the canopy, and it looks to be a good all-weather space that you can enjoy year ’round. Even if you were too cheap to buy the bigger deck.

Check out the product page at Home Depot.

Do you cry at weddings? Does Grey’s Anatomy tie your stomach in knots? Are you the kind of man that spends more time fixing his hair in the morning than you do watching Sports Center or reading ESPN.com? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then 1) you’re probably not reading this site, and 2) if you are, by some fluke, reading this site, then STOP READING NOW, and get back to your regularly scheduled website.

The fact is fellas, we all need a little help understanding the fairer sex. Apparently, farts aren’t punchlines. Who knew?

Anywho, AskMen.com, a veritable fount of useful man knowledge, instructs us:

If every man stops to think about the one thing all women want more of in a relationship, chances are it’s TLC. Although tender loving care encompasses many emotions and acts, it boils down to the sensitivity of a man. As long as men are sensitive, women are happy.

The problem is that if you start giving in to your feminine side, you will also be giving in to her wants. But is this really what women want?

Dammit. Another question. Is there no simple, unemotional answer that is universally applicable and unrelentingly true? Must I paint my toenails to woo her? And, if I paint my toenails, will she call me Nancy and ask me if I want to borrow some eye liner?

AskMen, puts it simply, and by “simply” I mean NOT simply:

If your girlfriend is happy so long as you listen (or pretend to) when she talks, then leave it at that. But if you see that she wants you to be interested and ask many questions, then doing so might exempt you from a lot of future headaches.

I think the fact of the matter is, they don’t know, either. But the little test at the end of the article is funny, so cruise on over and prepare to be puzzled. I’m puzzled most of the time anyway.

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My wife and I will be replacing our Grand Cherokee here pretty soon, so we have started test driving vehicles. We have a young one, but I’m not sure that we need three rows of seats, even if they would come in handy from time to time (the in-laws have a minivan, just in case).

Our weekend drives saw tests of the new for 2007 Land Rover LR2 and the Ford Edge. The LR2 had a very premium feel, but for $40k and our family it was just much, much too small. On to the Ford Edge, and I have to say I was extremely impressed. The ride was very smooth and refined, and the cabin was exceedingly quiet at speed. The radio was nice, and my wife loved the vista roof, which is essentially a glass panel that runs the entire length of the vehicle. Of course, the size is a concern. Only 2 rows, and modest storage space in the trunk. Is Ford targeting this CUV at those of us “Married with Children,” or young hipsters and empty nesters?

So I’m putting out the APB. Anyone have one of these? Does anyone have any impressions?

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Noreasters and record setting blizzards aside, it’s spring, which means cookouts. Which means beer.

Take a few minutes to learn a couple things by watching this video. Learning doesn’t have to hurt, gentlemen.

Via Men’s Health

When it comes to myth, superstition and complete bullshit, there is as much circulating about alcohol as anything else. So, despite constantly hearing whispers about the health benefits of red wine, it’s one of those ‘facts’ we’ve always chosen to half-believe.

Antioxidants – don’t know what they are. Reduced rates of cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and heart disease – surely not. Resveratrol? Is that even a word?

Turns out it’s all true, and more (kinda):

A French study published in Cell reports that mice given resveratrol (at doses equivalent to slamming roughly 8000 bottles per day) become more athletic, as assessed using tiny mouse treadmills. Treated mice can run twice as far, and have reduced heart rates compared to controls.

Actually, a whole history of the popularization of the ‘red wine good for you’ theory is given here. In a surprise twist, from 1992 until now, the theory has traveled the opposite road to most similar hypotheses. Rather than being a solid theory, slowly eroded by science into ridicule, it started is life as the crackpot ravings of drunken Frenchmen and then built up a weight of scientific evidence.

Sniffing Cork: Bench-Top Boozing and the Health Effects of Red Wine [via Vinography]

It’s all well and good to chase the career of your dreams. But if all you dream about is being obscenely wealthy, it’s hard to tell your guidance counselor, “I wanna grow up to be a rich guy, and I don’t care how”.

So this list of the USA’s highest-paying jobs steps in when everyone else’s greed detectors kick into gear. Although poorly researched, mistake-riddled and possibly even completely made up, it gives a good snapshot of how much more everyone else is making than you.

The list is full of surprises, too. Doctors and pilots make lots of money – who’d have thought? Dentists are worth more than IT managers – quelle surprise! Prison guards don’t need to finish High School – wonders never cease.

Highest paying jobs in the U.S. [Jaslabs via Luxury Launches]

Everyone has a tried and true hangover cure: fried food, more alcohol, over-the-counter analgesics, medically-induced comas, etc etc.

As with every illness, however, prevention is the best cure.

(Obviously the best way to avoid a hangover would be to stay sober. But we all know that’s not an option. In fact, we’re disappointed in you for making us mention it.)

Luckily our bitter enemies kindred spirits at Urban Monarch have posted the foolproof five simple rules to drink to excess and avoid a hangover. For example:

RULE # 2 : Stick to top shelf booze

Part of what causes a hangover is the amount of contaminents which remain in the liquor after the filtration process in complete. Higher quality (and yes, priced) liquor constantly advertises the fact that additional distillation is used (”Triple Distilled!”) for a reason; it makes the taste smoother and eases your body’s work in processing it. And leads to a lot less hangovers.

They all make sense, and there’s nothing there that we haven’t heard before.

But it’s amazing how soon we forget them when the thinking turns to drinking.

A tippler’s life for me : preventing hangovers [Urban Monarch via
Liquor Snob]

Nearly every man, in a moment of weakness, has made the firm decision to start properly caring for his skin …and then promptly forgotten it.

Okay, so we might not all be falling over ourselves to tackle anti-ageing creams and mud masks, but the least we can do, according to Men’s Flair, is clean the damn thing:

…get yourself a skin toner and at night moisten a cotton ball with a little toner. Then take the moistened cotton ball and swirl it around your forehead, nose, cheeks and neck. You will be surprised to see a VERY dirty cotton ball. All that dirt would stay on your skin and clog your pores if you didn’t use a facial cleanser at night! This would cause breakouts, blackheads, and create an unhealthy environment on the surface of your skin.

Come on guys, it’s a start.

Why and How To Use a Face Cleanser [Men’s Flair]

A few times a year you’re gripped by the same fear – everyone who sits around you in the office knows your wardrobe intimately. So intimately that they talk about individual garments as if they were their own.

Comments like, “Remember when we had that meeting? It was a Wednesday, you were wearing that brown shirt”, or, “This is an important client, I think you should wear those dark gray pants”, etc. You feel unimaginative, boring, cheap and out-of-touch. Well, at least you should.

The incorrect thing to do is go home, open up your wardrobe and go postal on every piece of clothing you own. Dragging everything down to a charity bin and starting again, only to fall into the same pit of despair six months later.

The correct thing to do, according to the team at Ask Men, is to inject a handful of fresh pieces every season to compliment your staple collection. 2007, luckily for you, is apparently a great year to do it, and their suggestions – tartan scarves, tweed jackets, the colour gray, to name a few – seem just weird enough to make sense.

No one will notice you’re wearing the same shirt as last Tuesday if you’re wearing a gaudy new scarf. It’s a stroke of fashion genius.

2007 Work Wear [Ask Men]

If you’re the kind of man who quickly grinds a Philishave across his face for a minute on his way out the door to work, then you’re missing out. Forget extreme sports, religion, family or the arts – the fulfilling pastime you’ve been seeking all these years is right in front of your face.

While our wives and girlfriends have long understood the pleasure, satisfaction and relaxation that pampering oneself can provide, we’ve been depriving ourselves for the best part of a century.

It’s time for all of that to change. Shaving Stuff have unearthed the amazing Guide to the Gourmet Shaving Experience, a step-by-step guide that takes the reader on the entire wetshaving experience – from the decision to make the giant leap to safety razors, to in-depth discussion of everything from technique to shaving brush stands.

As philosophical as it is technical, it’s one of the few shaving tutorials that focuses as much on why as how:

I have discovered that the focused attention and meditative mindset of shaving with a safety razor can produce a Zen experience in the morning shave.

Most of us live hurried lives, multitasking and rushing. What the morning shave with a safety razor offers is a small oasis of unhurried calm and single-minded attention to remind you of what it feels like to take your time and not be doing one thing while thinking of something else.

It’s as compelling as it is comprehensive. You’ll never grow another beard again…

A Guide to the Gourmet Shaving Experience [via Shaving Stuff]