Vibram Five Fingers - Shoddy Materials..

The strap on my Five Fingers finally broke the other day.. I got the shoes in August of last year and the strap on my right shoe split already?! I noticed it happening so last week I called Vibram, their response to the problem was to point me to a fan site which tells you to duct tape the straps to stop them from ripping! So, basically Vibram understands that they make shoes that will fall apart in less than one year and really don't care.. How can I recommend these shoes to people if I know they won't even last a year? It might not be so bad if they were only $30 or so, but they are $85 and that's a lot to pay for shoes that don't even last a year. These shoes are meant for outdoor sports which means they are meant to beat up, how can you make flimsy shoes that are meant to be used for outdoor sports? So now I'm left with three options: buy a new pair (am I really going to give them more money for another 8-9 months of shoe wear?), duct tape the ones I have (now that it fully ripped how well is the duct tape going to last?), find another manufacturer who makes similar shoes? I'm going to do the 2nd one for now but I will be on the look out for the 3rd option because I am not happy with the quality of these shoes. Now the trick is finding brown duct tape, you would think it's not hard but it seems to be out here in Chicago. I've gone to three different places and they had all kinds of crazy colors, but no brown..

Terra Plano makes a shoe they call Vivo Barefoot but they are not "toe shoes", I wonder why they call them barefoot? I'll have to find some and try them on. According to their website there is ONE location in the US and it's in NYC. Maybe I can find someone else who carries them?

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This week I'm out in Chicago, it's cold and wet and I forgot my duster.. Well, that's certainly not going to keep me from adventuring out.. :)

I got here on Sunday night and went over to the White Chocolate Grill for the amazing Balsamic marinated Rib Eye. I've been to that restaurant four times and every time I've been there I have gotten the same thing.. Yes, it's that good! If you ever get a chance to be near a WCG make sure you go and get that steak. There are few of them across the country so you never know..

Monday night I went to the Cubs game, I was debating it because of the weather but I figured I'd head over to the stadium area at least. Once in front of the stadium I have to admit I couldn't ignore the allure of spending a night sitting in the brick and ivy. I got a cheap upper deck ticket and headed over to Goose Island for a pre-game beer. Got one of their new summer ales and headed into the stadium. I was originally going to do dinner at the Chicago Diner but timing was bad so I ended up eating two bison dogs in the stadium, those two options are equally healthy right? Yes you read that right, bison dogs.. Wrigley field now has bison dogs and hot dogs, the crazy thing is that they are the same price! It was a good game but man was it cold, the wind whips through the upper deck worse then in NY.

Tuesday I went into Chicago with two students and we went to Goose Island for dinner. As we were leaving the Cubs game was getting out so instead of getting stuck in the sardine of a train we walked over to the Chicago Diner area. We were looking at the menu in the window and Christine commented that she had not a Fat Tire in a long time and that it was one of her favorite beers so we went in to get one.. Unfortunately they were closed so we went to a pub nearby and got one there, we ended up staying and chatting for a long time and didn't get back to the hotel till about 2am.

Yesterday I went into Chicago to meet a girl from OKC. Met near her apartment and walked around a bit before deciding on an Italian place (forgot the name but it is over by House of Blues). She moved to Chicago recently from New Hampshire and is still getting familiar with the city. After dinner I headed back to Naperville and tried to find brown duct tape which was a failure as previously noted.

Tonight I'm going to see a Burlesque show at Blue Bayou. It's not till 10pm so I may end up going over to a concert venue to see Kim Taylor before hand.

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Last week I was home catching up with everyone.. Kevin came over and we made enhancements to his armor and made me a breast plate and hat armor for FI. It looks pretty bad-ass, I am going to post pics on Flickr in a little bit so you can see.

Saturday we went to the new CT Robin Hood Springtime Festival. It started out as a miserable day with TONS of rain! Luckily the rain stopped before any of the plot shows and it ended up being a really nice day. If you're familiar with the Pope and Cardinal show you would be interested in knowing that the guy who played the Cardinal wrote the plot for the Robin Hood faire and the guy who played the Pope is the good king.. I have to hand it to both CT Ren Faires, they make you have to go twice because of the sheer amount of shows and things to see. We are going back on Sunday of this week to see some of the regular shows, hopefully it will be nice out..