My first encounter with the American Girl Doll happened last week at the Park Meadows mall.  I wanted to see the store that the Denver Post had written about. It was a huge article all about its arrival to Colorado. It’s hard to miss with its dark red colors and huge logo on all sides of the store.  Once you go through the revolving door, your whole idea of dolls will never be the same again.  You are welcomed by huge wood shelves that line the wall with books, clothes accessories and dolls.   The store has huge display cases like you are at a museum with different feature dolls.  It had one doll with full ski gear, jacket, boots, helmet and even a pet huskie.  Another doll had a group of Native American Indian looking dolls with native dress, moccasins, headbands etc.  I was blown away by the detail and accessories they provided each doll.  Also if your doll didn’t have the hairstyle you were looking for, not a problem at American Girl, they have full doll salon inside!

You couldn’t sit in the store and not be blown away about the company‘s concept and how everything was laid out.  Equally you can’t help but feel a little uncomfortable to think the company is not marketing to collectors, but are marketing them to parents of young girls.  The little dirty secret of American Girl is that anyone can have one of their dolls, that is if you have some “Benjamins”.   If a parent, relative or benefactor is willing to spend maybe several hundred dollars, one little girl a day will have it made.  Now I am not one to tell someone what they can do with their money or prevent a company from marketing a product to them, but I do worry about the family that feels that they need an American Girl Doll for their daughter, but really can’t afford it.  While eating at the Cheesecake Factory next door to American Girl store, I noticed a bunch of small chairs lined up against the wall.  All of them were too small to be a child booster seat, so after racking my brain, I asked the waiter what they were.  She informed me that they bought them because so many little girls hosted parties at the American Girl store and make a doll, then come over later to the Cheesecake Factory for food.  The restaurant capitalized on the American Girl fame by using the seats as a way for the girls to enjoy their food while there doll accompanies them.  When I flashback to that day in the restaurant while, standing in the American Girl store, I thought what does a parent of a girl that can’t afford one do when her daughter is invited to one of these birthday parties?  Does that parent scratch together the money to send her daughter to the store so she can be with friends regardless of the fact that it may set the family budget back a few hundred?

I am true believer that everyone splurges on something, clothes, shoes, golf clubs and even cars but what financial lessons are we teaching kids about “needing” a hundred dollar doll?  So much for hard financial lessons learned during the “Great Recession”?

If you are a male 35 years old or younger, video game console has dominated the entertainment landscape during your lifetime.  Mario is like a brother, “Call of Duty” was an interactive history class and “Madden” taught you to recognize 3-4 man or zone coverage when watching football on Sunday.  However, one large segment of society has not cheered the praise of Nintendo and Xbox,  that would be your girlfriend or wife.

Long gone is the stigma of being the fat guy in the parent’s basement playing video games.  Everyone from the guy working the local supermarket store, to your favorite professional athlete, plays games once in-awhile, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of family or paying the bills.  However, that will not stop your significant other from ever understanding or excepting how “grown men” can still spend money and time playing games.  You can tell her that the Playstation has been living with you longer then her, but I’m pretty sure that speech won’t go over well.  It’s my advice to you that you sneak your gaming in when you can, while she is sleeping, shopping or hanging out with friends but under no circumstance, ever hit that power button if she is with in the same distance as your WiFi connection.

Walking around Denver, I noticed a “troubling” trend that has affected a large part of the male population of Colorado.  I couldn’t tell you when it started, because maybe I was too busy with work or just tapping away on my iPhone to see it coming.  However, once you see it, you can’t turn your eyes away. Guys wearing skinny jeans?!

Now, I am use to seeing cowboys wearing tight jeans but these jeans were as tight as a wet suit.  I can remember girls wearing skinny jeans or aka lipstick jeans but when in the world did they jump over to the male human species? When did a guy decide that he wanted to wear another piece of clothes tighter then his socks?  A guy should not wear a pair of jeans that are so tight that you could see how much change he is carrying.  It should be illegal for a guy to wear a pair of skinny jeans especially in a bright neon red, green or yellow color, yes I have witness this horror too!

I know somewhere, a person is saying, “don’t knock it until you try it or maybe you can’t fit in pair”.   If you are that person and you are wearing a pair of skinny jeans, can you please explain something to me? Why?

Now enters a new player to the field, Sports Authority, another corporate black hole that took control over Gart Sport stores a few years ago.  The Broncos have signed a new deal to change the stadium’s name from Invesco Field of Mile High to Sports Authority Field of Mile High.  First reaction, you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig!  Second, at least it has the word “sports” in the name.

Big picture thinking, does it really matter what name is on the outside of the stadium?  No. If they are winning on a consistent bases and competing for Super Bowls as Pat Bowlen vowed.  You can’t hold on to the past forever, but if you are going to keep cashing in on the naming rights of the stadium Mr. Bowlen, can you please fill the stadium with a team that has a better chance of winning the super bowl then of  landing the first pick of the draft?