Games

We've had such a terrific weekend so far. In fact, I'd almost love to just re-live yesterday - it was that much fun. I wanted to post in the morning before kicking off our day, but that didn't work out because we ate bagels, drank coffees and watched Weeds (we LOVE that show...it's really competing for my Dexter affections but doesn't quite aim high enough, by a very narrow margin, though) and then I launched right into my whole "make football food for CB while he watches football" tradition. I went to Key Food for the necessary items - raw vegetables, a block of cheddar, sour cream, black beans, pork tenderloin, beer, and so forth, and man, it was quite the goat rope (I just learned this term earlier in the week at work - it's allegedly Midwest native and all my time there, I never knew). There were people moving like turtles down the aisles, taking up way more space than they should have, stopping mid-step to stare up at the rows of canned goods, etc., and I just wanted to shove them out of the way...in fact, once I even muttered, "PEOPLE" (all caps) while squeezing around a handful of pokey persons. But whatever - I endured. And I proceeded to come home and fill the fridge, empty the dishwasher, and begin my afternoon of Kitchen Therapy. I chopped up vegetables to initially satiate Craig, then concocted a Lime-Spiked Black Bean dip (won't make again but it was edible enough, and healthy) then threw together Alabama Pulled Pork with White Barbecue Sauce (pictured above) and while the pork simmered, I picked up some mac salad at Bagel Express upon Craig's request. Shredding pork is really satisfying. I don't know. It just is. Anyway, the sandwiches were awesome, and seriously satisfied Football Food Tradition during Purdue v. Notre Dame. It isn't chilly enough for chili, but I do look forward to chili season because I already have a group of chili recipes that rock on hand, and always delight in finding new ones. Chili is so plain yet can turn exotic in an instant, depending on the risk one opts to take.*After eating we were hanging around really not doing or saying much - Purdue lost, and Craig became "bored". He's adorable when he's bored, because he plays with his toes and looks around restlessly and announces, "I'm bored" in between pregnant pauses. Previously, he had been researching Guitar Hero on the Internet. We all know where I'm going with this now - no narrating necessary. We went to Best Buy, completely on a whim, bought a Wii, and Guitar Hero. And a guitar controller. It was all too funny. I laughed the whole while. We literally walked to Best Buy at 86th and Lex, marched right in, rode the escalator down to the basement level where the gaming devices are housed, and just went for it. It was so awesome, maybe the most reckless thing we've done since renting a car and driving to Mohegan Sun a couple of months ago (not sure if I posted about that but that was WEIRD, random and reckless, indeed). We came home, and for some reason I found it imperative that I speak to Craig's best friend Chris, who lives in Indianapolis. He's so kind, such a nice person and so very funny and candid and smart. So, I phoned him and we chatted about The Wii while Craig hooked it all up. There is this "sensor" thing that is placed somewhere and I was all, "Craig, I'm asking Chris where to put it!" while Chris voiced his opinion on where to put it in my ear through Craig's phone, and while Craig was muttering stuff like, "This can't be that hard, why am I not setting this up correctly" and I was a liaison. Skipping over a lot of boring in between, finally Craig figured it out and before long, he was ROCKING Guitar Hero. I mean ROCKING. He had shoved the coffee table out of the way and I watched while he rocked and then we bowled...Wii bowling is FUN FUN FUN. Why I am over 30 and loving a gaming console is beyond my comprehension, but I am full on admitting that a Wii is good times. We stayed up until 4.30 this morning!!! We haven't done that since we were like 20. I don't know. We had so much fun. And today, we are both super bleary-eyed and currently Craig is eating more raw vegetables and I'm contemplating organizing my closet, although, Craig just informed me, "We might take a break from football for some bowling" which just pumped some adrenaline into me. I would like to also note that the size of a Manhattan living room is not exactly conducive to comfortable Wii play. But we make it work.*Today is monumental for Shea - Last Day - Shea Goodbye. It's a rainy one in New York this afternoon, but they're plowing through. It's like overstimulation, today...NFL, MLB, Wii, DEXTER tonight (I'm going to NEVER wish it were Sunday night except for during Dexter's new season, at which time I'm going to RUSH through my weekends to get to that THRILL) and overall just a lot of lazy Sunday stuff. I'm cheery, I'm grinning. I'm happy. And I'm ready to face whatever comes this way.*One last note: Paul and Karen were gifted with a new baby last week, quite prematurely - 9 weeks early. His name is Ivan and from what I understand, he is doing very well - just hanging at the hospital for a while to gain a few pounds and to be under observation. Congrats to the new parents! Ivan officially enters my universe as the First Baby I've Ever Known Born in Wichita, Kansas. Nice.

Fridays

Staycation day! I'm so happy. We were supposed to head to Chicago this weekend to visit Dustin and maybe catch up with Kelly and Melissa and anyone else from that fine town that we know, but money recommended that we not travel what with costly airfare right now. Plus, I ordered the couch! Hurrah, only, it won't arrive to the greater Metropolitan New York City area until November 12. Sheesh. We will be more than ready, with the futon moved into the second bedroom and a huge blank wall waiting to receive the beautiful piece of furniture. So, this post may be hasty, but I wanted to mention a few things before we kick off our glorious blue skyed staycation day with temperatures in the sixties - the sixties people! First of all, we did manage to make it to Yankee Stadium one last time to catch the White Sox this week. I left in the 8th because I was feeling a peculiar NYC dread of crowds that only hits me once every now and again. I just couldn't fathom trudging the perimeter of the stadium in the 60,000 people sea to get to a forever packed 4 train, not on a Monday night. But, Craig wasn't far behind (Alison and Scott were with us, too.) Second of all, last weekend at Radegast it was discovered that oddly my friend Amanda and a friend that Craig and I know through work named Adam lived in the exact same apartment unit in Brooklyn, a few years apart. Beer has me clouded on the details but what a weird occurrence, right? This City gets smaller every day.*I would be a little wordier, but Craig is hovering because he's anxious to get his day kicked off with a cup of joe from Mud on E. 9th. We're spending all of today and perhaps tomorrow hugging the Lower East Side and Alphabet City, our two most fave places to be cool kids. Last night over a drink at Ten Degrees Craig instituted one rule for today: we cannot go into any bar or restaurant that we've been in before. Nice. Good rule. We will duck into shops and I will snap Nikon photos and it will really, really just be a nice day to have as ours. TGIF in a different way, today.*

Mets

Shown is a little slice of our beautiful City as seen from the rooftop garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We went last weekend to view a few sculptures, but I was more enraptured by this new view of NYC. It's been a while since I posted but that's primarily due to how busy we've been. Currently I am sitting at the desk with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and a plateful of baby shrimps in chili sauce over white rice from Wu Liang Ye, the authentic Sichuan delivery joint we found almost immediately upon moving into the neighborhood back in 2006. Craig is eating his favorite chicken dish on the couch watching the Mets against the Phillies - big game, considering the Mets have risen back to the challenge of going to the playoffs. Anyway, once I finish this post, which is really just a lazy Friday night mindless endeavor, we're chick flicking it with Definitely, Maybe. We've had it from Netflix for months now (weeks, at least) and it's just collecting dust.*I know I never returned to recap Indiana, but I did post enough pictures and in summary, it was incredible to see all of Craig's college friends and to spend so much of the weekend with them. We also saw my family on Sunday, equally enjoyable and important. We returned to the City that Sunday and had a tricky week ahead, then following that was Labor Day weekend, which found us spending most of our time watching Seasons 1 and 2 of Dexter, about which I will go on in a moment. We also helped our friend Jeff bid farewell to his longtime Happy Hour Hole called P.J. Carney's, then spent a fun-filled evening the next night with Jeff and Lauren and their friends on the rooftop of their Long Island City building barbecuing and ringing in the Labor Day of 08. Monday was our trip to the Met, and this week has somewhat crawled (sometimes I think short weeks tend to do that even moreso than full length ones). We went to Biddy's with Amanda on Wednesday after Sala Thai for dinner, which was lots of fun (our new favorite barkeep Benjamin was tending) and the only other thing really going on is the wild ride that will be this year's Presidential Election, which finds both a first African American nominee up against Bush's twin McCain and a female VP nominee. Things are getting sticky and ugly all at once. Craig and I are indeed voting this year - I hope for change for the good.*So Dexter. Dexter is amazing. We had such a fun Dexter experience, watching the episodes back to back to back to back, almost exclusively doing nothing but filling our eyes and minds with Dexter episodes. I don't want to sound trite, but it is by far the very best show that has ever aired on television, ever. Now, Season 3 begins on Showtime September 28th (can't wait) however this masterpiece has the potential to shoot straight downhill...but I highly doubt and have high hopes that the writers understand just how pivotal it is that they keep us clinging on for more. I've compared it to a crime novel, a pageturner. I've wondered why I have felt just so connected to this character with a dark secret. But it's no surprise to me that I root on this evildoer (although he only slays murderers, which helps us to love him all the more) because I have my own dark passenger, as I think probably a majority of us do, so of course we connect with him. Many of us carry something around that we'd just be better off not revealing. And I love that he began with no apparent emotions and has somehow evolved into more of a tender human in certain respects. It's amazing to see the story of this person unfold. I bought both Seasons 1 and 2, and am so very glad I did.*I'm trying not to reveal too much of it, but I do love it so much, and tend to gush when loving something. It's the first time in a notable amount of time that I've fallen into something and let it wrap around me this much. And what's great, too, is that this show is a total mainstream thing, and for so many reasons...and I like that it's as mainstream as it is. That elates me, in fact. So anyway...Dex is my new thing. Luckily, Gale is watching it so we can compare email notes, and a couple of people at the office have seen it, and Craig is way into it, too. So I can gush freely.*Today was strange. I had strange sensations all day. I can't explain precisely, but I was brimming over with words - spoken, (mentally) written...and when not speaking either via my voice or email, I felt quite still and calm, but with a wave of words working its way to shore. And I am almost to the path of clarity - I can view it up ahead, where I will hopefully fall right back into the patterns where my brain doesn't stop writing lines of poetry, where I'm constantly aching for a notebook, where I feel happy to read recipes and explore the kitchen (that has already come home for me, actually) and where Craig's smile lights the entire core of me (he has a great smile) and life can resume some sort of normalcy. I'm looking forward to this.*Upon Craig's request, I picked up stuff for KB's awesome breakfast for tomorrow - I make a mean plate of scrambled eggs, with a little milk added and some Monterey Jack cheese and salsa, accompanied by potatoes and Thomas Whole Grain English Muffins (can't wait for those!) and I'm hoping Craig will go for coffees while I cook up. And we are hovering in the apartment tomorrow because Hurricane Hanna allegedly heads this way, although by that time she will be nothing greater than a Tropical Depression yielding lots of rain and some wind. We had planned a whole Radegast Beer Hall event tomorrow in Brooklyn with Jeff, Lauren, Megan, Amanda, Sharon, Eric, Andrew, Peter and others, but I canceled it due to tomorrow's forecast. A beer hall is best enjoyed with the skylights thrown open and sun shining in.*Plus, college football is back. We've got leftover Indian from the other night and Sichuan from tonight, ample amounts of beer in the fridge, and more than enough corners of the apartment that need cleaned. And we've got Weeds episodes to watch (we want to catch up to it, as well...Showtime is just kicking it with the good TV these days) and we have each other and all in all, it's going to be a downright great weekend. That's all.