Gigantic Cat Tree

So, we got a cat. It's name is still to be determined, but we've gotten a few toys for it. Since it kept trying to get onto the mantle - cats like high places - we decided to get a cat tree. A cat tree higher than the mantle, in fact, so it fits here.

A trip to Petco later provided an awful lot of failures. For $120-250, you could have a sturdy plywood structure with carpet haphazardly stapled to it, and exposed plywood in various places. We were very much not impressed. For $300+, you could have something that looked solid, and had carpet well attached, but $300 is an *awful* lot to spend on a piece of furniture for a cat, in my book.

Enter the generic Petco brand cat tree. You have to assemble it yourself, but assembly was very easy, and instead of being 100% carpeted, it's hardwood birch with carpeting where the cat sits. It was $150ish, and sits the cat eye level with me, which the cat seems vaguely satisfied with. It's *furniture*, in my book, defined as "higher quality than Ikea produces". A+++. Would buy again. Ironically, the box was covered in about a 1/4" of dust, as the prebuilt carpeted things sell well, whereas the stuff you can't see pre-assembled doesn't seem to sell well at all.

Distractions and Motorcycles

I was distracted by a move across state lines, a new apartment, a new job, a used motorcycle, and a gently-used cat.

That said, the motorcycle gave me endless opportunities for trying out a few things. Specifically looking for a jacket to cover me if I fall off the bike, I'd really appreciate if the jacket came down to my hips, and roughly to my wrists. Normally, I buy outerwear a size or so too big, and the extra room in the torso helps to become extra room for my arms, but that doesn't work very well for motorcycle gear. The reason is that if you have an extra 2-4" of torso material in a jacket, it *really* flaps in the wind at 65 mph.

That said, Vanson Leathers will make you anything you want, but at a price. For textile jackets, Aerostich makes a semi-custom, but can only extend jackets by 2" and pants by 3", which isn't really enough for me. Firstgear came very recommended for reasonably priced textile gear, but their tall sizes required me sending back two jackets and giving up. Folks have recommended Motoport for full custom kevlar gear, and Gerbing's for heated gear.

Then someone said they were about my height and fit a Cortech jacket. Cortech is made by the same company as Tourmaster, and Tourmaster's stuff, I like. Which brought me to a Tourmaster Intake 2 mesh jacket, which is a hair short, and a hair too wide, but for $120, A++. Ordered a LT, then wound up ordering and keeping an XLT.

It's been amazing how many folks have had decent suggestions, and just how many people have had a friendly word to say. Motorcycle Superstore was great with selection, and price, and New Enough had the best return policy I've ever, ever seen, combined with lowest-on-the-internet prices.

More about choices on pants and gloves in another post. Heck, another post on the bike is also in order, as it was a bit of a headache to find something good on gas that I fit onto. For the not motorcycle inclined - especially as I'm posting about a bike in November - I'll try and focus on other things shortly, as well.

Banana Republic

Someone told me Banana Republic started carrying tall sized shirts. I gave up on them awhile back, because everything looked nice, but ill-fitting. Marked on their website is a "Big & Tall" section now, under "New Special Sizes". Apparently most of this is only available online, and here's the new sizing chart.

Long sleeve shirts gain 1.5", short sleeves gain 1.5" in the body and 0.75" in the sleeves, they add a 36" inseam pant (score!), and waists up to 44". Sounds exactly like the Gap's offerings as of five years ago, to kind of bring the brands (under the same ownership) more into one line.

The shirts don't help me, as that's still too short; back to Eddie Bauer for my polos shirts. The pants, though, seem a win, as that really opens up a ton of dress and business-casual options.

Fail: Old Navy

So, my girlfriend occasionally heads into Old Navy seeking something awesome. I'm yet to see this succeed, but I try and find something in the Men's section that I like. This is always an epic failure.

Old Navy sells, near as I can tell, four sizes; Small, Medium, Large, XL. They sell pants to a 34" inseam (too short!), and the shorts are cut to fit someone of average height.

If you aren't in the 80-90% of the population that this works for, well, don't spend the time, because this isn't going to end well. They specialize in absolutely mainstream clothing for average size people, which, well, please drive through.

Nordstrom's Smart Care Pants

So, 36" x 36" is what I shoot for in pants, but that's tough to find for dress pants. Dockers don't seem to fit my rear end without looking ill-fitted, and I've tried on a lot of different pairs.

Enter a trip to Nordstrom's. And seeing the (professional wrestler) Dave Batista. As I noticed, he's 6'6", 290, and shopping. For pants.

What works? Unbelievably enough, the store brand, Nordstrom's Smart Care pants. They come in four or five different khakish colors, they look business professional. They come in sizes up to 46" x 36". They tailor the length for you - in store - at no additional cost if you happen to want an odd length. They fit me perfectly, get me compliments, and apparently also fit guys much wider than I am.

They never need to be ironed, just smooth them out when they come out of the dryer. Again, to look great, they never need to be ironed.

Oh, and it gets better.

As an added bonus, they never, ever seem to take a stain. A few of us were drinking - heavily - and a friend of ours who worked at Nordstrom's came in. They saw me wearing the pants, and mentioned "those aren't supposed to ever stain!" Being men of science, another friend proceeded to dump a glass of red wine on my lap. A minute later, after finding a paper towel, I blotted the wine off the pants completely. It was amazing.

My only complaint is that they're pretty darn formal looking; they don't get wrinkled enough to be truly casual pants.

Get them here. $29, right now. I might pick up a spare pair.

Sierra Designs Paul Bunyan Sleeping Bag

Sleeping bags fit folks up to 5'10". Tall sleeping bags, 6'3". Stretch out some of the girth , 6'6". But taller? Good luck. For example, Feathered Friends in Seattle would be glad to make you a custom bag, which came highly recommended... but they're charging $500 and up for the thing.

Enter Sierra Designs. Their tents don't ever fit me. Their rainjackets don't fit me. But the Paul Bunyan Sleeping Bag is the winner. Ostensibly designed for a pro wrestler gone to the NBA, or a professional basketball player who retired into the Japanese sumo league, this is a *big* honking sleeping bag. It will fit someone who is 7'+ tall, without batting an eye. It's around three and a half pounds, so it's *heavy* for a backpacking bag, but it's rated to 10F,and for fourth-season trekking, might be quite the way to go.

My only gripe is the girth; if you're thin (I am!), and air sneaks in an out of the bag's collar when you roll around. I've solved this in the past by pulling the collar tight, or wearing a scarf to help seal it up. Meanwhile, I'm also carrying around the extra weight. I keep debating having Penny, the seamstress of Specialty Outdoors, cut a third of the bag out for me.

Anyways, $100 (clearance), $140 (full price). They stopped making them two years ago, but they have enough stock in various internet shops that this will be around for awhile still.

2005 Scion xB

I've sat down in full size trucks (1500), economy and midsize cars (Elantra, Sonata, Malibu), compact cars (Jetta, Sentra, Prius), luxury SUV's (Santa Fe), truck SUV's (XTerra), large cars (Crown Victoria, Maxima) and a whole slew of other things. I learned to drive in a Suburban (which required I slouch on the bench seats) and a Cadillac Seville (a tight fit, as well).

So my utter surprise at having head room to spare in my girlfriend's car is what brings us here. The original body model Scion xB may look like a tiny delivery van crossed with a Duplo toaster... but it's by far the most spacious vehicle for headroom I've ever had the luck to encounter. Wow.

I can sit in the back seat, my butt against the back of the seat without slouching, and still have headroom left to spare. It's also getting 35 mph highway. This is the best vehicle *ever*.

First post

So, like the sidebar says, my name is Dean. I'm 6'9". This causes me problems with, well, cars, clothes, doorframes, and continually being asked if I'm a basketball player. It's all well intended, but tracking down cars, clothes, and various sundries that I actually want to use has been a hell of a chore at times.

I have a 43" chest, and 36" waist; I'm not chunky. If I were ten inches shorter, I'd be right between L and XL on the size charts. 36" inseam, 37" sleeve, 13 shoe, if it helps anyone out there place where I'm coming from (or not!)

I've been this tall for fifteen years, give or take, and recently had the awesome experience of sitting down in my girlfriend's car. Which... just... fits. It's awesome. It's stellar. It's the best thing ever for me. She suggested I take my love of this to the internet, and here I am.

So the plan is to review stuff for extra tall people - the folks too tall to usually fit into the 'tall' sizes - and post 'em up here, win or lose. Here goes.