Killspencer Weekender 2.0, $595 via Killspencer.com.

Easily one of the most bizarre parts of being a blogger is all the weird email we get. Whether it’s people demanding that we publish their press releases or give them free advertising space, PR people trying to pitch us on stories that couldn’t have less to do with handbags and accessories or the one deranged person who wrote us a 10-paragraph email about how terrible Kim Kardashian is while pretending to be Kardashian herself (yes, it was all in the first person and it was as crazypants as it sounds), the things we receive never fail to entertain. For better or for worse.

But on the good days, our email does occasionally bring us something very special that we actually want to write about, like the Killspencer Weekender 2.0. This sharp, somewhat affordable, extremely versatile bag is our pick for this week’s Man Bag Monday, and we might have never seen it if not for our commitment to sifting through the debris of our inboxes.

Last night on Real Housewives of New Jersey. We did a lot of talking. The monkeys didn’t dance this week, not like they’re supposed to on Real Housewives. Instead, they sat around and talking about the talking that would go on later, whether that talking was Teresa’s sit-down with her brother, her eventual meeting with Melissa or Caroline’s new gig talking on the radio.

Sadly, the episode was all talk and no action. Bravo did that (not so) adorable thing that they do where they show us all the build-up to a potentially interesting plot point in one episode and then save the actual plot point for next week, which means that we sat through a whole lot of nothing for an hour last night. Well, it wasn’t nothing I guess. It was talking. And that might be worse? It’s hard to tell.

Even though Chanel is a brand with a rich history and plenty of iconic aesthetic elements from which to draw, I think we all get fatigued of flap bags and black and ivory color schemes after a while. Because Karl Lagerfeld is a man worth his enormous paycheck, he seems to be able to sense that feeling within his client base and zig when everyone expects him to zag, which has lead to a freshness and creativity in the past several Chanel collections that continues to delight me.

On Friday, we introduced you to the Outstanding Pieces range from Chanel Paris-Byzance Pre-Fall 2011. Today, we’ve got the regular line of handbags, which are pretty great themselves. There’s a lot of “Chanel” in these bags, more so than in the Outstanding Pieces, and certainly some of them are bread-and-butter sales leaders. But the change in tone that they, along with the bags from the two preceding seasons, represent is a smart and welcome one, even if it’s subtle.

With head designer Stefano Pilati’s relationship with Yves Saint Laurent bigwigs rumored to be growing ever more tense, it’s always interesting to see what Pilati will turn out when it’s time for a new collection. I was lukewarm on his work for Fall 2011, but Yves Saint Laurent Resort 2012 is a whole different story. Not only were the nautical-chic clothes absolutely lust-worthy, but the bags and shoes, which are most brands’ chief moneymakers, will likely retail very well.

The bag that I’m most excited about is the Yves Saint Laurent Chyc Cabas, which you can see in one of its iterations above. The roomy tote has both functional and aesthetic appeal, and the frayed red straw accented with white leather and gold hardware makes me want to leave my apartment and make friends with someone who owns a boat. This collection will hit stores right around my birthday. Hint hint.

For everyone who entered our #featuremybag contest a week ago to win a Rebecca Minkoff bag, I apologize for not announcing winners sooner. Problem is there were so many amazing entries it took me a long time to look through them all and also narrow down the entries. You all are just that good!

After much debate, we decided we just couldn’t get enough of @anjamk’s photo of her Balenciaga Bag. The beauty of the bag is one thing, but the composition of this photo is what caught our attention most. For her win, @anjamk will win a Rebecca Minkoff Morning After Mini. Congrats!

Last night’s episode of Real Housewives of New York was a whole lot of awkwardness and boringness and nothingness wrapped into an hour of ill-advised television. Bravo, listen to me and listen good: We don’t want to know anything about our Housewives’ sex lives. We’d prefer to think that they’re all smooth like Barbies below the waist. Please take that into consideration for future seasons.

The episode did have one redeeming element, which was the screaming match between LuAnn and Alex that took up the last ten minutes of the show. Unfortunately, it took us 50 minutes to get there, and it’s going to take us approximately 1500 words to do the same, after the jump.