I swear that the dogs in the big dog run at Washington Square Park were trying to do this while I was walking Moxie this morning:

One of my all time favorites from back in the day (had a brief cameo in the movie Sixteen Candles). Became irrelevant with the invention of call waiting.

One (of many) event at Tales that I didn't attend was the Spirited Awards. Instead, I went and ate dinner at Cochon with some friends. Given the fact that it's historically a long, drawn-out affair with very little food (and the food that is served isn't particularly good), I think I made the right choice.  That said, I did miss some hilarious videos made by Tess Mix of  Le JIT Productions.  Luckily for all of us, she put them up on YouTube for our enjoyment. Here are my three favorites:

American Bartender of the Year

 

Sh*t Brand Ambassadors Say (Best American Brand Ambassador)

 

Best High Volume Cocktail Bar

"And like that, poof. He's gone."*

I am not a person who disappears. At least not deliberately. If I don't return a phone call quickly, I'll likely send an email letting you know I got your message and that I'll call when things slow down. If I don't want to talk to you because you've pissed me off in some way, I'll let you know. I won't just disappear.

I don't understand how someone can communicate with you on a daily basis and then drop off the face of the earth with no explanation, but I am faced with that situation right now. I alternate between being worried, sad, and furious, and I have no idea if it's something I did or said or if this person just doesn't have the emotional strength to communicate with me or anyone right now. No idea. And that's the part that pisses me off the most; I want to know why almost more than I want to get a response to my last email or phone call at this point.

But overall, I'm sad that I've lost a friend and I'll never know why.

*A great line from The Usual Suspects

As much as I wanted to do that bit from The Princess Bride at my sister's wedding tonight, I am restraining myself. She's much more grown up now, but this is still one of my favorite pictures of her. Congratulations to Katie and Pete! Looking forward to celebrating with you this weekend.

This weekend's theme was restoration.  Friday night @cocktailspirit and I went to a yoga class, which was exactly what I needed after my busy week.  After a quick dinner, I spent some quality time on my couch catching up on my DVR.  Saturday I slept later than I thought was humanly possible, then met Bill for dim sum at Red Egg.  Afterwards, we wandered around Chinatown and the Lower East Side, then decided to continue over the Williamsburg bridge.  Once we got to the other side, we rewarded ourselves with a tipple or two at Dram.  On a side note, Dram's new food menu looks great.  Have to return at some point when I'm hungry. 

Sunday began with laziness and the NYT, then I headed to Maharlika for brunch with @selenawrites and @libationdiaries to support our friends Enzo & Noel, who are involved in this great pop-up Filipino brunch spot.  The gorgeousness you see above is the Eggs Benigno: lola mahal's home-style pandesal, thinly sliced housemade spam, calamansi hollandaise and kamote fries (more brunch photos here).  Selena and I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and walk off brunch by walking downtown and over the Brooklyn Bridge.  Afterwards, I went home, did some writing, and watched the Oscars, which were only bearable thanks to Twitter and a Vieux Carré.  Oy.

All in all, a lovely, relaxing weekend.

For many years, my friends Augie and Lauren used to have us over on New Year's Day to eat vats of mac & cheese, drink white Russians (a.k.a. Caucasians) and watch the Big Lebowski.  Once they had kids, the tradition slowed down, but last year I watched it up in VT (sans mac & cheese, unfortunately), and this year, I decided to make some mac & cheese, even though I didn't have the movie handy.  Luckily, a friend invited me over and sure enough, he owned the movie.  I toted the mac & cheese over and a tradition was restored.  Next year, I'll make sure I've got all three crucial elements, but this was a good start.

Heard this the other night at Vandaag. And it's been stuck in my head ever since. I found it impossible not to whistle along!

An excellent and fairly well-balanced three day weekend, I'd say!  Friday night started with a quick stop at a birthday celebration for @Lincolnwrites, then on the Red Hook express for dinner at Fort Defiance with @livethelushlife @mysteryaction & @shotsandcuts before heading to Sunny's for Jill DeGroff's art show, where I met several folks in person I had only interacted with via email and got to catch up with a few folks I hadn't seen in a while, which was great.  After that was my first-ever live band karaoke!  Makes me miss being in a band.  Sort of.

Saturday was a relaxing day on the couch before heading out to Bill's for a dumpling-fest with John, Jimmy and Wallace -- we made three varieties of dumplings, all quite delicious, and finished off with Asian-flavor-inspired gelato and sorbettos from Il Laboratorio del Gelato.  The rest of the photos are here.

Sunday included a much-needed trip to the gym before the LUPEC NYC new member brunch, a surprise afternoon at Clover Club with Jordana (and Katie) in front of the fire, and a birthday dinner of squash soup, chicken liver pate, pork shoulder over polenta with roasted veggies, and a green salad with beautiful watermelon radishes at Jeanne's.  A lovely day/night in Brooklyn.

Monday I had lunch with Mom at Pearl Oyster Bar, saw Youth in Revolt with Rob Y., then home for a quiet domestic evening of mac & cheese and laundry before heading to bed at a decent hour in preparation for the busy week ahead.  Ahhh. 

It seems somehow wrong how excited I am about the hot date I have with my couch, a home-cooked meal, and Up on Nextflix tonight, especially since it's likely that nobody else is joining me. Sigh.