rock, rock, rockaway beach

saturday morning adrianne, harrison, iliana and i hitched a ride with andy down to rockaway beach. it took a little while to wind our way through queens but we got there and quickly set up our spot on the beach. we brought along plenty to entertain ourselves with. while the girls read, harrison and i threw a football, imitated pitchers, juggled, played one-man badminton and watched crazy drunk girls run around the beach; all the things one hopes to do on the beach. andy, in the meantime, was on a conference call. eventually andy joined us with enough time for some touch football.

it was a lot of fun. was it better than long beach? hard to say, but i was glad to get out there, if only for the new york experience and as an excuse to endlessly listen to the ramones' song.

it's a mustache new year

this year marked the second attempt at a mustache new year's party. this time we got near full participation, as you can see. some of us were man enough to grow there own, for the rest of us we had bandits, smartys and scoundrels. not only did they mustaches add a distinguished air to our personas, they also made the festivities that much more festive.

guess who's mustache.

holiday bon soiree

look at us! we are adorable when we get all cleaned up and ready to attend the holiday bash of the season. then, of course, we get our grubby little hands on the gingerbread men/stars of david and chocolate chip cookies and things get a little silly.

then we get our hands on the eggnog, manhattans, and coors king cans...and things get a little messy.

wow. what a party. thanks go to adrianne for the delicious gingerbread men, and a big thanks go to mark and sara for hosting.

magic man

let's go to the fair!

the dutchess county fair! it's the biggest fair in the state!

since the beach was a bust, adrianne and i were stuck inside. that is, until harrison called saying he, andy and jon were going to the dutchess county fair. adrianne, who is from dutchess county, and i burst into action and were out the door headed to brooklyn to catch a ride upstate. we made it into the fair in a flash, thanks to andy's driving, and we were on to the midway. there was food, livestock, and, of course, rides. i convinced adrianne to join me on the cliff hanger. look at us. we're flying!

after gorging on a smorgasbord of fair food, including corndogs, french fries, roasted corn dipped in a vat of butter, caramel apples, hot roast beef sandwiches, and apple crisp sundaes, we made our way to the shopping tents. there, andy bought a sharp brown vest and the rest of the boys tried on cowboy hats. "hey there, buck-a-roo."

after the fair, we all visited the pasquarelli compound where we enjoyed some rousing games of scrabble and scategories. the next morning, adrianne's dad made some delicious eggs for breakfast and we were out the door headed back to the city.

we're going to the beach, beach, beach...

adrianne and i are going to long beach on saturday. who's in?

update: it was cold and rainy on saturday so instead of going to the beach we went to the dutchess county fair with andy, harrison, and jon. see next post for details.

Saturday: I have short shorts!

this marks the first anniversary of my blog. hooray! this time last year i was writing a post about preparing for mark's (s. gary's) birthday celebration. well another year has passed and it is time for another birthday bash in his honor. this year's party started at the water taxi beach in long island city which is basically a ton of imported sand spread out on the banks of the east river. the beach features a $2 shaefer special which everyone at the party was taking advantage of, including the out-of-town guests of honor, mr. and mrs. big mark.

after suffering through the 90 degree heat long enough i returned home to meet adrianne. we went out to dinner then met everyone at east river bar for act two of the nights festivities. as usual there were drinks downed, pictures taken and fights avoided. luckily i was able to miss act three at the levee where i hear everyone finally dropped off the ledge of reasonable drunk behavior.

bon anniversaire!

dice and ice

memorial day weekend just finished up and just between you and me, it was fuckin' awesome. adrianne and i continued our burger tour at burger joint. for those of you who don't know this place is in the corner of the lobby at the le parker meridian hotel. yes, the same hotel where guests of "live! with regis and kelly" stay. as you can see the burgers look like they were made on the side of the road, but they taste like the burgers you make in your dreams. the right amount of grease, right amount of cheese, right amount of everything else, and that's it. absolutely no filler. these guys don't mess around. delicious.

on sunday adrianne and i went to the park for a little picnic. we had a beautiful day laying out in the sun, drinking lemonade, playing kissy-face. later, everyone joined us for more sun and to throw a frisbee. hey, it's the sheep meadow. they all but hand you a frisbee on the way in.

finally on monday, to honor the troops, andy held a barbecue in his back yard. in this case a back yard consists of a patio, some picnic tables, and a fake cactus. ed brought a grab-bag of meet. everyone else filled in the gaps. by gaps i mean vegetables and beer. man can't live on beef alone, otherwise this happens. beside causing ourselves gastrointestinal stress, there was also some entertainment. for those of us with any money left in our pockets by that point in the weekend, there was some dice to be thrown. along with it came some delightful frozen treats. perfect to enjoy in the first evening shower of the summer. it was a fantastic way to finish off the weekend.

cheers to everyone on a well executed weekend. and apologies to mark and sara for giving deuce all that people food. i'm sure he lived up to his name that night...sorry.

sara's house

hey look, sara made a house. this is what happens when you start drinking at 4 in the afternoon, which, evidently, isn't unlikely when the thermometer reaches 70º the first week in march. i personally made it to 2am that night. sara, em and daniel made it much later. when i talked to an old friend of mine the next day she seemed to think it was a matter of course. as if getting wasted on the first warm day is a rite of spring. i thought about it and i recall, however blury the memories, that when it does finally get warm i usually hit a number of bars with my friends. man, drinking is fun!

super pork

superbowl sunday has come to mean one thing for me the last couple years...pork. oh there's still nachos and beer and, oh yeah, football but really, thanks to jon and harrison, it's about pork. this year they outdid themselves. i think they put in 10 to 12 hours in preparing their lovely cuts of pig. however long they spent it was worth it. those sandwiches were freakin' delicious. if it wasn't for all the other food there i would have eaten three or four of them.

the party itself was just as great a success. there were crazy girls, dudes being dudes, gambling, and, of course, the party dude. special thanks go to andy for hosting, ed and sara for the big board, europe for "final countdown", sex, and of course jon and harrison for delicious ass pulled-pork sandwiches. bravo, gang.

metal night in williamsburg

saturday night's alright for metal...no, that sounds lame. it was the type of night that get's people in trouble...wrong again. one more time...it was time to rock!...wow, that really fell short. i don't think words can really sum up saturday night. all you need to know about saturday is nicely collected in the photo above. of course, this photo says a lot too.

won't you take me to...niketown!

so. it's been a little while, i know. to be honest i've spent most of my free time playing kissy-face with my new, ahh, woman-friend. also, i was getting tired of posts without illustration. but now i got a new canon sd400 and i'm ready to document my adventures through the city then tell you, my dear readers, about it.

the inaugural night out with my camera led s.gary, sara*, and i uptown, near the park, to the new niketown on 57th street for the unveiling of the new nike air max 360 (above). to be honest the shoes aren't that hot, but seeing all the older model air max was freakin' awesome. (notice in that picture the air soles the shoes are displayed on. the floor around the display also had air-sole tile around it. s.gary, sara*, and i were standing on those for extended periods of time because our own shoes provided so little cushioning.) mostly the three of us cruised the five-story store, checking out the shoes, the apparel, and the wall-sized photos decorating the store walls. all in all it was a rad time. oh, and big tigga and bernie williams were there.

best weekend ever, man

really quickly, i just want to get this out there between all the shit i have to do tonight. (laundry and eating a burrito) this past weekend was raa-had. friday i met a friend of mine for drinks in st. mark's. found out s.gary was in union square so the two of us met him and his friend, saran. evidently saran is loaded (money, not booze, although come to think of it at the time i met him he was both) so he continued to by rounds for everyone. sara* made an appearance, but only briefly. she came from seeing "rent" and looked like she had been hit by a bus. so take that as a warning. stay away from the movie. after the * left, the four us took the train down to the village for a party at a new asian, ultra-modern bar. we said hello to the guest of honor, slugged his scotch and ordered another round. we left when we finished the beers. i found out later we didn't pay anybody for them. yes! after that it's a blur, but i think tater-tots at trash happened. maybe a PBR to wash those down, either way great way to start the weekend.

saturday dawns and there are plans to be set in motion. i can't devulge too much, people are reading this. let's just say dudes were being dudes, with dudes using digital sensors to capture all the shenanigans. i know that sounds gay, but it was. except nobody touched brown. after we broke down the set, s. gary and i cruised back to his place. sara* looked a million times better than the previous night and was ready to go out. s.gary had an engagement in midtown so i had the pleasure of squiring sara* about town. we tried to go to 7B but it was packed. so we picked the next best thing, 7A. alphabet city bars are lazy. they all have the street letter in their name. we had a few drinks, even more yawns and headed back to the 'burg rather early. besides we had a brunch in the morning.

now sunday. starts off with a marathon mom brunch. both em and a.chef brought their moms to brunch, but not at the same time. we were there for 3 hours, no joke. i had two black eye chai lattes and em and tm had at least 3 cups of coffee. we were wired. finally around 2 i got the call from miss anna that she was ready to go down to red hook. we planned a trip down to a bar called "sonny's" that right on the water for a book reading. book readings are boring. you can't order a beer while people are reading and they use lame jokes to fill out tired extended metaphors. but one the reading stopped it was a great place. the bar was packed during the reading and totally empty once the final book closed. it was me and three of my friends, and the 3 people working there plus the owner. so we talked with him about his place and all the great stuff on the wall. he returned our quizitiveness with free wild turkey. we finally decided it was too late for another whisky, and we came back to williamsburg for a delicious sunday dinner at union picnic.

whew! i am worn out. what an awesome weekend.

thank you for leaving town

i stayed in the borough for thanksgiving. that was rad. i avoided the anxiety of travel, didn't miss work, and still got to see my family and friends. my sister hosted a small but delicious dinner after my family and i went to the parade. then we all headed to s.gary and sara*'s apartment for mad dog and turkey carcass tossing. everyone was full of cheer. although i noticed something peculiar walking down bedford the night before thanksgiving: the neighborhood was empty. i saw maybe 10 people where i would usually be sidestepping jerks the whole 12 blocks down to grand. not only was no one around but bars and restaurants closed too, for the whole four day weekend. i was embarrassed to live here. as s.gary said, "proof again that williamsburg is a college town." regardless of the desolate population, everyone that stayed here had a great time in BK, without all those clowns. hope yours was equally enjoyable, wherever you were. cheers.