Friends

We've had a blast this weekend with the Gordons and other friends here in New York. Thursday we got out of work early so we were able to go to the grocery for ingredients for the Bojda Burgers for Independence Day at Amanda's. Brian and Julie arrived around 6.30. Craig helped them to find a parking spot on our street (!) because 92nd was closed most the day due to Subway Construction. They had a look around our new apartment and deposited their bags - we drank a beer and then headed out to try Justin Timberlake's restaurant in the 70's called Southern Hospitality. The place was pretty cool, actually - fried pickles and nachos apps, Julie ate the mac and cheese, the boys ordered steak and cheese sandwiches and I tried the grilled shrimp over dirty rice (they brought out the fried shrimp by mistake and while normally I don't turn plates away, the fried pickles were enough fried goods for me so I requested a replacement with the grilled shrimp instead - no problem, it only took like 10 minutes longer). After dinner we stopped at several bars on our walk back home, winding up, of course, at Biddy's. Friday morning, the 4th, we slept in a little. We woke up and I headed out for bagels and coffees, then we all showered up and Craig slapped together his famous burgers for Amanda's barbecue later that afternoon. He and I stocked our cooler with beer and the pre-made burgers and jumped in a cab to drop the cooler at Amanda's. Amanda lives on 3rd Ave between 109th and 110th, so we requested that the cabbie hang out and wait while Craig ran up to her place with the stuff. Then we were back here to pick up the Gordons and headed to the Bronx via subway. The weather the entire weekend was not promising, but we managed to enjoy a majority of the game and were undercover in our awesome seats compliments of someone through work. The innings were quite long and involved, including a ball hit into left field which Johnny Damon slammed into the field wall to attempt to catch - the ball rolled out of his glove and he fell to the warning track while the ball teetered briefly ontop of the field wall before falling forward to land near Johnny, field side. Johnny was injured when he crashed into the wall but really the whole play had the crowd rumbling because of how weird it was the moment when the ball seemed suspended ontop of the wall. I also witnessed my first live rundown between 1st and 2nd bases - I thought that was fun. After the 7th inning, it had begun to rain and it was already closing in on 4.30, so we left the Bronx and traveled to Spanish Harlem for some traditional 4th of July Bojda Burgers and beers. We stayed a couple of hours, then headed downtown to find fireworks. The rain really wouldn't let up, so Julie and I stopped for umbrellas at a Gristedes...as luck would have it, the only selection included compact leopard-spotted umbrellas and one large hot pink Mary Poppins umbrella. I chose the latter and we were quite the pair with our ugly fashion accessories. The fireworks started late but were okay to watch. I'm not as into fireworks but someday will have to be because eventual children will love them and I will want to take them, of course. Anyway, Saturday morning we woke up and traveled via taxi cab to the Circle Line Boat Tour pier. The skies were threatening but we arrived in perfect timing - not too late but not overly early, either - and we lucked out to grab four really good seats outside but undercover. This is like the 10th time for Craig and I to cruise around the Hudson and East Rivers, and we enjoy it because it's like New York in a Nutshell. The Nikon was acting up (ie., User Error) which frustrated me and reminded me that I seriously need to spend some time learning how to use the thing. The book I bought is useless - I'm going to have to do some more probing and even perhaps entertain the notion of taking a crash course. I like to mess with the settings a lot but without being completely familiar with what I'm doing, there are times where the camera just refuses to operate (when I don't have all the stars aligned properly). I intend fully to purchase a nice telephoto lens however those cost about as much as the camera kit itself, and to invest that much in a lens, I feel I should know what I'm doing first. Craig agrees.*After the boat, we wandered through a rain-soaked Times Square and jumped on the train to find the White Sox statue at Union Square (there are 42 Statues of Liberties positioned throughout the City garbed in all MLB teams' logos, along with 12 other statues of various paint jobs, as part of the oncoming All Star game at Yankee Stadium) and then headed to Cafe Fenelli in SoHo for lunch. We wandered some more following lunch, then traveled in a taxi to Alphabet City, where we drank a few beers at Grape and Grain and the Porch. Our last stop of the night was, of course, Satsko, where we've been dragging everyone regardless of food interest/interest in sake, and we convinced Brian to try crazy milk sake. Things got a little wild, and Craig and I kept shouting "mabuhay" at each other which we learned from Zane on Three Sheets Phillipines. I guess Julie and Brian just figured it was a "thing" that Craig and I do, but then this morning before they left we were eating breakfast watching the MOJO channel and a clip showed Zane shouting "mabuhay" from the Phillipines episode, and Julie exclaimed, There it is! You guys kept saying that over and over again last night! Craig and I got quite a kick out of each other right then. We have adapted the saying and like I told him this morning, when he says it I feel like I have to say it back to complete it. It means "live" or "thrive", according the Zane's website. See? Watching drinking shows is no waste of time.*Today, we saw off the Gordons and have been basically completely unproductive. I'm about to contemplate a grocery trip and will probably straighten up somewhat around here. The forecast for like 5 days is a drag, more of what we had these past two days. I'm feeling really anxious about our new couch, but we won't probably be able to purchase it until mid-August. Things should be looking up gradually considering we both just got good raises at work and we're nearing the upgrade of things we own/wish to own. The second bedroom is empty except for a bookshelf and dresser - never did I imagine myself living in an apartment in NYC where we have a spare room! And once the couch is bought, we will shove the futon in there to be used for guests. Brian and Julie slept in there on the air mattress and it was really nice for a change to be able to host two grown humans and not feel like we were all elbowing around one another. I should be able to invite friends over now and comfortably be able to entertain. We're probably going to be able to fit a smaller scale couch plus a chair in our new living room. Things are good.*Back to work tomorrow for a full week. Oh, boy. But, it's what keeps us here and we are definitely blessed.*