Dirty Birdies and Sweet Brains

Kristie, Angie, me

We continued to have more visitors over the past week. The first set was my friend Kristie's sister, Angie and her BF Wilson from the Bay Area. We all went to dinner one night at Chow Bar and had the most yummy desserts...chocolate filled crispy wontons and flourless chocolate cake.

chocolate-filled crispy wontons

flourless chocolate cake

At the beginning of the week, Mike played hooky because it was such a beautiful day :) and we attended our friend Julie's white coat graduation, at the Columbia Medical Center Garden, all the way up on 168th St.

Later on that day, Mike and I checked out the famous Bryant Park, where NY Fashion Week is usually held. It's my new favorite park here. It's just a really nice, clean place to people watch and eat lunch. It's located right in front of the NY Public Main Library. The park gets super crowded during lunchtime. By the time we left, the lawn was completely filled with lunchers.

Mike ate a chocolate cupcake...

I liked Bryant Park so much that later on that week, when my mom came to visit, I brought her there for lunch :)

Then I brought her to Max Brenner (a chocolate maker) to get, Mike and my most favorite, bestest drink in the whole wide world......a CHOCOLATE GRANITA. It's an icy version of a milkshake, but a hundred times yummier. They serve it in this fun "Alice" cup with a metal straw, making the drink even more fun to drink. Mom loved it...so much we went back 2 nights later for another :)

Mom drinking her granita from the Alice cup

As a mother's day gift, we brought mom to our favorite restaurant...Babbo..the same place that I brought Mike to for his bday.

We had a good time and even got mom a little tipsy before the main course arrived :)

For our main courses, mom had Sweet Breads (aka BRAINS!!!). Isn't it interesting how they disguise brains with a nice, cute name like Sweet Breads?! I feel for the person who expects literally sweet breads and realizes that it's BRAINS!! I did try the Sweet Brains, I mean Breads and they were amazingly good. I just wish mom didn't tell me what they really were....

Mom and her Sweet Brains...I mean Breads

I had the XXX quails (aka dirty birdies). The reason I call it triple X quails was well....you can get the idea from looking at the picture...for some reason, anytime I order quail ANYWHERE, it comes out looking real dirty on the plate...just ask Lisa, she knows what I'm talking about :)

Get a room you dirty birdies!!!

It was finally time for mom to bid farewell, so we had a wonderful brunch that morning before seeing her off...

spring awakening

the dead of winter has passed giving way to the life of spring. after 4 months of bitter cold that forced many new yorkers into hibernation, the snow has finally melted, the sun is shinning, and nature has awakened. laurie and i wasted no time taking advantage of the warm weather taking in the sights that new york has to offer. first, we headed out to brooklyn to see the cherry blossoms (missed the full bloom by a week) in the charming brooklyn botanical gardens. getting out of the city and hiding out at the bbg was the perfect solution for some r&r.

laurie and the cherry blossoms

the cherry blossom promenade.

after the cherry blossoms, we headed over to the historic brooklyn bridge. built in 1870, spanning almost 6,000 feet across, the bridge is an impressive sight and an iconic part of the new york skyline.

laurie and i (amongst the tourists) making our way across the brooklyn bridge.

one of the great perks about this time of year, it brings out a lot of visitors. our friends andy and kurien came out from san francisco to visit us and experience ny. they came into town, took in the sights, saw some broadway shows, and one night, andy starred in the opening act of the conan o'brien show. one of the evenings, we were able to meet up with them for some dinner and late night drinks.
kurien, laurie, myself and andy toasting to friendship at central bar*.

*this location may contain highly agressive cougars who will, at times, slap, grab or pinch ass. for more information about said attacks, feel free to contact mikey or andy, vicitims of the ferocious cougars -you have been warned!!!

Hello and Matzo Ball Soup

So after months of not working, I started working again at this really cute studio called Hello. The work they produce is mainly print with some web design. I love their design style and they use lots of flourecent colors in their work, which is really refreshing :) The owner and all the girls I work with are German, so there's lots of German talk in the office. A lot of the clients we work with are either German or Swiss too. The office just moved from Soho to Chinatown, so I'm right in the middle of busy Chinatown (Canal St). I love the new location because it only takes me 20 min to get there from our apartment and the subway station I get off at is right on the corner of my office! Here's some photos of the office:

Storage Room and Library

Lunch/Client Meeting Area

Bosse's office on the right, (my desk right in front of her office)

My desk

View of busy Chinatown from our office

We've also had lots of visitors lately and have lots more on the way! The latest set were Twy and Schlo (pictures to come) and Mike's friend Todd and his GF Rya, from LA. Todd was the wonderfully entertaining MC at our wedding, for those of you who remember :) They all came just as the weather was starting to get warmer. Todd brought us to one of his favorite places to eat when he comes to NYC, Carnegie Deli. It was there that Mike and I had our first matzo ball soup, which was super duper yummy. We also had these delicious pickles and a huge open-faced corned beef Reuben.

Mmmm, matzo ball soup and pickles...

Todd and Rya

The next night Todd and Rya wanted to walk around the East Village. One of the places we brought them to was this fun, coin-operated, fast food joint on St. Mark's where you can get cheeseburgers, corn dogs, and other junk food from these hot pink vending machines.

I forgot to mention that the four of us also saw Les Miserables that weekend. It was the first time for both Rya and Mike and they both really enjoyed the show. Mike enjoyed it so much that he bought the soundtrack that night (Sat) and we've been listening to it non-stop for the past week(today is Sat, a week later)...so much that I want to throw it out the freakin window.