when i'm having a bad day...

or a good one, i like to walk by the pet store on steinway street and look at the puppies. who wouldn't?

for kelly

i had a friend visit from nashville with his new girlfriend and we met up in front of the met one day for lunch. i hadn't even been since i moved here. they were running a little late...

so i looked at all the people on the steps and thought about eating a hotdog...

but instead i walked around central park. central park is a place you have little desire to see as a tourist but REALLY appreciate when you live in new york. i wanted to take pictures of some kids playing in the leaves, but i didn't want to look like a creep. this shot of the path is the best i could do. you'll just have to trust me that it was awesome that day.

being near such a great art museum and looking at all the crazy pigeons and squirrels made me miss my friend kelly. and then i saw this:

these bears were guarding the entrance to a playground to keep out all the creeps with cameras. wish you were here, kel!

roomies

andres and i kept the bar at a nonprofit fundraiser party thing the other week.

on the way home we realized it was autumn and andres had a frolic in the leaves. then we realized we live in astoria and it's so great that there are trees everywhere.

i've recently become enamored with ben & jerry's chubby hubby. it will henceforth serve as my transition food from sweet to salty cravings (and vice versa).

it's nice to live with someone who doesn't make you crazy. it's even better to live with someone who will partake of the simple pleasure of peanut butter spread on marshmallow stuck between a couple of pieces of chocolate.

mmm...

this is the dessert portion of a patchwork dinner i put together at a bar that didn't serve food but encouraged patrons to bring things in from outside. i love a challenge. we had: assorted sushi, 1 beef and 1 bean/cheese burrito, a bag of chips, and a nutella crepe. and i got it all within a block.

hospitality under the influence

everyone who knows me knows that i LOVE to entertain. complications with my new apartment (see: "good night, sleep tight...") have made housewarming an impossibility, but it didn't stop me from getting amy sedaris's new hospitality book, "i like you", and dreaming of one day having people over to this beautiful place. there are lots of helpful tips for the modern hostess. tip of the day: Gift ideas for gypsies - compass, can opener, shoe inlays, hairpins, waterproof matches, trail mix, corkscrew, "it's not your fault" lice comb.

good night, sleep tight, don't let the...what the...?

Everyone's abuzz about NYC's bedbug problem. Turns out my place was infested (see disgusting welt to your left). Now, I don't want to jump the gun, but it looks like we may have these things beat. I'll feel sure of it in another couple of weeks, but it's hard to contain the excitement of the prospect of a life without parasites. Wish us luck!

last week

last week i made coq au vin for the first time and it was one of the most delicious meals EVER. andres (my roommate) played photographer. i was talking to my sister mary on the phone. umm... notice how the "fruit bowl" is full of cookies and limes for gin & tonics. oh, and i think i spy some sour patch kids behind that beer. we're healthy eaters, i swear.
my old college buddy jared just moved back to jersey from minnesota. i took him to the oldest (?) bar in new york, mcsorley's. i think kelly's husband micah would like this place. pretty much all my guy friends would like this place. when you want to order they just ask "light or dark?" and then they bring you two small glasses of it. pretty bare bones. we also had a ham & cheese sandwich. next time i'll stick with the beer.

marathon sunday

sunday i spent the day observing jacob, my friends lis & ethan's nephew, for a class. we had so much fun. here he is playing backgammon with uncle ethan. he doesn't usually wear gross undershirts like that.











i got to spend some time with little abigail, too. there is nothing in the world like that sweet toddler lovin.

let's catch up...

here's what else i did in massachusetts:
i had beers at wild horse with ingrid and rachel.


got a haircut from wendy at liquid hair studios. she felt like robinhood that day.

had cappuccino with my sister at atomic.
we saw jenny lewis and the watson twins. what an awesome show!!! (rachel was there too) afterwards we got hot dogs at spike's junkyard dogs.

i saw my friend grant for about 5 minutes, during which time he insisted on a photo shoot.

my eating buddy

i love food, and there's nothing better than sharing a meal with someone who feels the same way. one of my favorite eating buddies is my friend arlo, in cambridge.
when i was there we went to one of my favorite places, green street grill, (www.thegreenstreetgrill.com) and had fried chicken livers with fennel corn salad on the side, a cold lamb sandwich with watercress and figs, and butterscotch pudding. it was so good i forgot to take pictures, but arlo was a sport and posed as though we were still eating.
we finished with a rogue chocolate stout for second dessert. have you ever had that? it tastes pretty much like chocolate milk, which is a good thing.