February 26, 2011 - Al Gordon Classic

The Al Gordon classic is a 4-mile race in Prospect Park & has basically been the true start of my running season the past couple years. It's pretty much a no-brainer for me in terms of registering... the park is pretty much in my backyard and I've run the course more times than I can count.

Once again, it was a fun run & I loved seeing some of my old Team in Training teammates before the race (go team!)

February 25, 2011 - Chocolate!

Tom returned from Brussels with fancy chocolate for me! It might look like I'm holding a box of crayons, but that's not what they taste like... each color is a different variety and so far each I have tried has been delicious!

I actually should admit that I've never eaten a crayon, or at least i don't remember if I have. Imagine if crayons had flavors - it would be like a box of jelly bellys... mmm. Tom and I saw someone buying 4 monster jars of jelly bellys at Costco the other day and I was jealous!

February 24, 2011 - Subway Study

I was on the way home from a post-work get together with some co-workers and I thought this photo, a reflection from the window of the train, would be more interesting then it turned out to be. The get together was fun though!

February 23, 2011 - Lazy Dogz

It's business as usual for the dogs...

February 22, 2011 - Don't Look At Me

I hate doing this, I really, really do - but for the sake of my project, I'm letting go of my vanity and baring the horribleness of the only picture I took for the day: the zit on my nose.

Somehow a monster appeared on my face, and the picture is me trying to figure out how bad it looked without a mirror handy. I realized too late that this is my only option for the blog, so there you go (big sigh.)

February 21, 2011 - Snow Day (Again)

After a beautiful day in the 60's 2 days earlier, I was brought back to February reality with more snow. Yuck (but Foxy like it!)

February 20, 2011 - Bar 2.0

Our friend Colleen is staying with us for awhile, so she brought over all her bar fixin's and combined them with what we already had - this is the result!

February 19, 2011 - View From Ikea

Ah, Brooklyn Ikea. The setting is really beautiful... with views of the Manhattan skyline, the statue of liberty, and this industrial view of the Gowanus Bay/ New York Harbor it couldn't be more picturesque. And when you add in the cheap Swedish meatballs, it's almost the perfect place.

February 18, 2011 - Animal Battle

It's Lion vs Chicken at the Farm arena to celebrate the arrival of new plastic animals!

I actually stole the idea for this brilliant tableau from our friend Will who works at the Farm. They have a huge blackboard listing all their beers and one day he perched two random animals along the bottom edge of the frame with a "vs" written between them. It made me laugh then, so I had fun recreating the message, bar-style.

February 17, 2011 - F Train to Brooklyn

On the way home from another fun night watching Colleen at the Duplex. The train was pretty full, but the trip was really fast (a nice bonus to cap off the evening!)

February 16, 2011 - Pill Time!

In our house, "pill" = "treat." Howard's on medication (he started having seizures last year,) so every morning & every evening is "pill time." Of course all 3 dogs get something, so it's a very exciting part of the daily routine.

February 15, 2011 - Safety Shot

Ok, it was about 10pm and I hadn't taken a picture yet so I went to one of my "go-to" models and asked Howard to be cute... this is what I got.

February14, 2011 - Ballemtime's!

Happy Ballemtime's Day (that's how we say it in our house!) Here are my four sweeties, each with their toys... Lucky me!

February 13, 2011 - Wine Tasting Party

Our friend Sean and his friend Annie invited us to a wine tasting party... It was wonderful. We met some really nice people, drank some delicious wine, ate some great food AND I got to show off my incredible skills at the game Celebrity (which actually even caused one wine-loving guest to behave a little inappropriately!)

Please note the appetizer you see at about 11:00 in the photo - smoked salmon w/ sriracha & goat cheese on daikon radish. Amazing!!!

February 12, 2011 - Date Night!

Tom surprised me Saturday night with dinner at 10 Downing and a show afterward. We both did the tasting menu and the meal was fantastic... I had shrimp & grits, beef tartare, and a cod entree that was served with a clam/sea urchin risotto(!) All excellent.

After dinner we walked a few blocks south to see The Divine Sister, the latest Charles Busch production. It was silly and fun, just what I would have expected (if the whole thing hadn't been a surprise like I said at the beginning.)

February 11, 2011 - Chicken Yakisoba

Even though Tom and I generally default to The Farm for dinner (see yesterday's photo,) we do actually eat at other restaurants in our neighborhood sometimes. This was my dinner at Kumo Sushi and it was yummy! I also had a spicy tuna roll and helped Tom with a roll that he ordered. Oh, and I had a lot of sake... it was a gooood dinner.

February 10, 2011 - The Bar at The Farm

After having a somewhat impromptu cocktail with our friend Colleen after work in the city, Tom and I decided to go to the Farm for dinner. I had the steak with marrow butter which was incredible (but you should have guessed that based on the description alone.) At some point while we were eating, our friend Chris showed up to have dinner... and then a little bit later our friend Lee - who is also friends with Chris - stopped in because he saw us at the bar while he was walking by. It ended up being a very social evening and lots of fun.

February 9, 2011 - Hill Country

After far, far, far too long - I finally caught up with my friend Kenny. He met me & Tom at Hill Country for a little barbecue, and it was a lot of fun. At Hill Country, you walk up to different food stations and tell people behind the counter how much you want of everything. I had beef shoulder, mac & cheese, and chili. The food was good, but to be honest, the company was much better!

Also, for anyone who doesn't know, Kenny is a real-life celebrity having appeared as a finalist on The Amazing Race. His season (season 3) was so fantastic it resulted in the series first Emmy win for Outstanding Reality Competition. A new season starts next week and it should be great - treat yourself and watch!

February 8, 2011 - And It Begins Again

So... I'm in for another NYC Marathon! Hooray! This year, my goal will be to run injury free - with 10 fully functional fingers (ha ha).

February 7, 2011 - Doughnut Luv

Ok, I know I already posted a picture of Hucky with his favorite "baby" last month but it's pretty much attached to him at this point - even when he is trying to sleep!! He just loves it so much, it's ridiculous. Luckily he mainly just holds it in his mouth and doesn't chew it, so I'm hoping it lasts for a long, long time.

February 6, 2011 - Best Friends

Sigh, what can I really say except that Foxy & Howard are CUTE together!! They were just hanging out on the sofa being sweet to each other when I took this picture.

February 5, 2011 - Treasure!

I was cleaning the basement today and made a discovery. Yes, I was cleaning. And, ok yes, what I'm about to tell you will expose the fact that this is the first time I really looked at what was left behind in this specific cabinet since moving in over two years ago. But who cares??? I found a big bin of comic books! Cool ones! There were multiple issues of X-Men, Avengers, Spider-Man, Hulk, and Thor... plus tons of random titles.

Tom and I spent the afternoon cataloging them - any collectors out there?

February 4, 2011 - Old School Nachos

Guilty Pleasure alert! I can't resist the taste of cheddar cheese melted over tortilla chips. Just 2 minutes at power level "4" in the microwave and I'm a happy man. Note - the best chips to use are Doritos because they already have tons of cheese flavor but I made do with regular tortilla chips in this case.

Fittingly, these were enjoyed while catching up on what's probably the cheesiest show on television these days - "The Bachelor." C'mon... it's not real, right? I don't understand it at all, but I still watch. Those poor girls.

February 3, 2011 - Tom's Monkey

Jim & Makram joined us for dinner at The Farm on Adderley... and of course it was great (the food and the company.) Besides catching up on Makram's new project (raising chickens) we made friends with some other folks at the bar and Tom told them all about how I won't let him get a monkey.

Now, before I continue, I must tell you that one of the fun things at The Farm is that they have little plastic animals all over the place (great for kids as well as people who hang out at the bar a lot like us!) The animals used to be pretty farm specific - cows, horses, chickens, pigs, maybe a dog or a goat once in awhile - but recently they've become a bit more exotic and are mostly jungle themed these days... including monkeys!

ANYWAY (as if you can't see where this is going,) after Tom told our dining neighbors that I'm responsible for denying him his dream of getting a monkey, one of these nice people found a plastic one and passed it over to Tom. It soon was posed on the side of his plate so I could take a picture of his "pet" as a reminder of this happy moment (ha ha.)

February 2, 2011 - Chinese New Year, Plus!

Tom and I celebrated Chinese New Year with our friends Kip & Lee, PLUS we continued to celebrate Tom's birthday, PLUS it was my dad's birthday, PLUS according to Phil we're done with winter, so there were lots of events to enjoy!

The picture is from our fantastic dinner at No.7 in Ft. Greene. They brought in a special guest chef to prepare a Chinese New Year's feast and had an incredible family style menu they served to everyone. There were place card envelopes with our names at our seats and they kept bringing me beers, hooray! It was all delicious and really indulgent, especially my favorite item - the red cooked bone-in pork shoulder (I think I might have eaten half a pig.)

February 1, 2011 - Birthday Boy

It's Tom's birthday! Hooray!

Because of all the weather stuff going on in NYC, Tom's office closed early so he went to the movies and saw 127 Hours. And if you haven't already... treat yourself and please read the latest post on his blog (www.hundredandonethings.com) in which he declares his love for James Franco - it's truly inspired.

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

January 31, 2011 - Tony's DiNapoli

Our friend Colleen found out she was a finalist in this year's Nightlife Awards - critics picks of the year from NYC's cabaret, comedy, and jazz clubs - so Tom and I went along to see the ceremony at The Town Hall. It wasn't a typical award show, since people knew whether or not they won before it started and there weren't any thank you speeches, but there were a lot of great performances. Some of my favorites were Christine Ebersole, Nellie McKay & Hannibal Buress - and it was hosted by Bruce Vilanch who kept the audience laughing pretty well.

After the show, many of the winners, nominees and "insiders" shuffled down the block to a place called Tony's DiNapoli for drinks and schmoozing at the back of the restaurant. Tom and I stayed out of the real scene and had our drinks at the bar (as pictured here) with a few other folk who were also fans rather than industry people.