Take 2

Now that I've gotten over my deep and dark anger at Blogger for erasing every single one of my finely crafted sentences the other day, I'm going to try to capture the last two months for you. Again. And you can bet that this time I'll be pressing SAVE NOW approximately every five words. SAVE NOW.

Ok, let me think...I believe it started something like this...

GEEZ. Two months since my last post? It seems that this would-be blogger has fallen right off the wagon. Since my three devoted fans have started assuming that Eric and I have either been swallowed by the Hudson or have finally become the hermits we occasionally pretend to be, I decided it was time to dust off the trusty laptop (or rather, open up a website other than evil Facebook) and indulge you (and myself) with some musings.

In my FAILURE post, I mentioned that the original title for this tale of two months was "Blowouts, Brunches, Backbends, and Beets." Well, that pretty much sums it right up. Wow. That was totally easy! See you guys later!

Ahem.

In March, Eric was very lucky and got to go to Washington DC to "work" and see our friends, then spend two entire weeks traveling to Montreal and Toronto, where he "worked", stayed in nice hotels, and hung out with friends, and then to California, where he "worked" and "innovated", ate giant sandwiches filled with fried cheese, and had parties with all his boyfriends.



I, other the other hand, was unlucky, and spent those two weeks living a surprisingly healthy lifestyle- eating my greens, doing lots of yoga (hence the "backbends" referenced earlier), and embracing my hermit-like nature by staying in and hanging out with the Tuckster. OMG. SAVE NOW.

This was all in preparation for Julie's visit over Easter, which really just ushered in April, now affectionately (?) called Blowout Month at the Vier-house.

As usual, the highlights of Julie's visit were our meals. There- I said it. But, it's true.



We had a huge night out on the town with Pops, followed by a day where we ate nothing but meat- including meat from the street, which I luckily now know is the very best kind of meat. We sunned ourselves while sipping fresh margs at Blockheads, though there were sadly no girl fights in the bathroom line this time and watched Twilight: New Moon (which, incidentally, is HILARIOUS). On Easter we made the incredible journey down to the Lower East Side to go to Paul's church ( that is FAR), and had a great great time. I have never been to a church, especially a Lutheran church, that is quite so fond of accidentals, syncopation, and "This Little Light of Mine." Easter brunch was at Calle Ocho (duh), where we learned from our new bestie, Antonio the waiter, that it was our SIXTEENTH time brunching there. WOW. We seriously need a life. But the good news is that now we are best friends with a (really funny) waiter there.
Once we recovered from Easter brunch, we wrote some mad libs with Paul. Do you remember how fun mad libs are? They are truly one of the best inventions ever. On Julie's last day, we walked around downtown and across the Brooklyn Bridge and then ate our weight in calamari at, you'll never guess---- Calle Ocho.

(save now)

As you can imagine, I needed a bit of detox after that. Not for long through, because luck would have it that MOM was coming to town a mere week and a half later! And, the festival of food and cocktails began again!

Highlights of mom's trip included an afternoon spent wandering midtown in search of a lovely little cafe for a late lunch that would preferably feature a nice lamb salad and French wine. Apparently though, these restaurants do not exist between the hours of 3 and 5. At last! A weakness in New York dining! Luckily, Blockheads is always willing to serve the people icy fresh margs, so we didn't have to cry for long. It was Paul's birthday that weekend, so he threw a party in Mom's honor. We made the trek out to his sweet pad on the rosy Rosy Isle and celebrated Paul's 27th year with cosmos, stinky cheese, fried mozzarella, home-made cupcakes, a lot of gays, and, most importantly, pigs in a blanket. When's the last time you had, or even thought about, pigs in a blanket?? I recommend you do it right now. Yeah. They're that good.

Don't worry- we took some home in our pocket for breakfast the next day.

And I am SO not even kidding.





Despite the lingering effects of Paul's Birthday Blowout, we again sojourned to the Lower East Side for church, and Paul, despite even stronger lingering effects of his Birthday Blowout, managed to play all the notes on the piano as loudly as he possibly could. Then, refreshed from our time with the Lower East Side Lutherans, we went to our SEVENTEENTH brunch at Calle Ocho.

If you think that at this point I needed to sober up and maybe, I don't know, go to WORK or exercise or do chores or something, you're definitely right. And I did do those things, but luckily (?) for me, I had another Blowout in the works for the very next weekend.

Our dear friend from college, Mara, was in town, so, clearly, we had to show her a good time so, clearly, we had to take her to Calle Ocho for our EIGHTEENTH brunch. Save. Now. It was a very mature, quiet, and well-mannered brunch, and then our new friend Antonio came by and it was all over. We (meaning Paul and Eric) even decided it was a good idea to continue the Blowout at home with some Peach Flips, Mario Party, and maybe a little dancing! It was a really great time, but I will say this: We are officially too old for that kind of behavior. Thus sayeth this old lady.

Some time in between Blowouts, we went on a bike ride down to Battery Park. Anyone that has talked to me lately knows I'm obsessed with riding bikes, but after this experience, I think I'm going to have to start clarifying that. I'm obsessed with riding bikes in the beautiful, crisp, not crowded Colorado Rockies, NOT the INSANELY crowded bike paths of Central and Riverside Parks. It was like Bumper Bikes, and I was not happy.

I survived to tell the tale though, and was rewarded with guacamole and a fresh marg for my tears.

Things have wound down a bit, which might be partially due to the fact that it jumped from 40 degrees to 90 degrees in approximately 8 minutes, so now everything around me is pretty slow moving, due to the fact that everything (including my person) feels as though it's been steeped in maple syrup. I LOVE SUMMER.

Finally, and this is completely and utterly unimportant, but I have got to tell you that I have begun a rather intense love affair with beets. I just cannot stop eating those silly, magenta, and oft misunderstood vegetables. They're like candy. Or jewels. Or candied jewels!

And with that stunner, I bid you adieu. We do have some pretty big stuff in the works for the next few days, so get ready. I might actually have something to talk about other than how much I love to eat bright pink vegetables.

We can all at least hope for that...

save now.