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.