The Housewarming Party

Well, as many of you know I hosted a housewarming party this weekend to show off the new place. Sorry if you weren't invited, but if you weren't, then you probably don't live in the state. Or I haven't seen you in forever. WHY DON'T WE TALK ANYMORE? Just kidding. But anyway, for those of you that were there, thank you for coming, to those who came bearing gifts, extra special thank yous. You may also get some special thank you cards with Van Gogh scenery. You are welcomg for that. :-)

But anyway, the housewarming party was a great success, lots of people came, and I really enjoyed seeing you all. And since it's what you're all waiting for, let's get to the highlights, since there are plenty of them. Away we go!

-Thanks to Matt and Drapo for picking up ice after I specifically told them that I would pick up ice, and forgot to thirty seconds later.

-Thanks to Ryan for bringing a case of normal beer since one of the ones Drapo and I picked up was non-alcholic. We didn't do it on purpose! But it's this other guy's fault, we saw him buy about fifteen cases of Coors Light before we got there. there was none left for us. WE SWEAR!

-Thanks to Matt for leaving four bottles of beer in the freezer. They froze overnight and shattered into weird ice and glass sculptures. It looked like the Fortress of Solitude in there. But beer flavored. Three of those bottles broke and I did some major freezer surgery the next day to get all the glass out. The last one didn't break, but Drapo isolated it in the sink where it hissed and made other weird noises while it melted. Thanks to that beer for not exploding in my kitchen. And thanks to Drapo for leading me away from the refrigerator when I first discovered the mess. I really did need another two hours before I could deal with that. :-)

-Thanks to Kelly for bringing tarot cards to the party and giving Drapo two readings. We found out quite a bit of stuff- apparently he's going to the hospital soon, (but not for himself) his luck is turning around soon, and he might be turning gay. I wonder if that's all happening on the same night?

-Thanks to Matt for providing the biggest "I can't believe he did that" moment of the evening, but completely not remembering who Melissa (Melly Mel!) was and introducing himself to her.

-Thanks to Ken's friend Aaron for giving me the best boob compliment I've had in months.

-Thanks to Pat for saying on the funniest lines of the night. We were talking about Kim and how fast she got good at poker, and Pat said, "Yeah but you guys always get so mad when you lose. It's REALLY annoying. HA.

-Thanks to Onnik for unsuccessfully trying to buzz Kelly back into the building five times. It was really fun to go down to the lobby with no shoes on and let her in.

-Thanks to everybody for eating all of the vegetables and cheese and crackers I put out. It was awesome not to have a bunch of stuff left over. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do with a dozen non-alcholic beers....

Anyway, if I've forgotten any funny moments, feel free to post them in the comments section. :-)

The Shake Shack

The Shake Shack is one of those New York things that you wish you didn't like doing (cause it's a lot of freaking work) but its too fun to pass up. On a day as beautiful as this, it's hard to resist being drawn into grassy tree-y, flowery Madison Square Park, where the Shake Shack is located. Chuck and I went for lunch today...we tried to go earlier, thinking we'd beat at least some of the lunch crowd, but we weren't too successful. There was a line at least forty people deep when we got on it. No worries. We talked as we inched our way up to the window. What's good about the Shake Shack is they have awesome burgers, fries, hot dogs, and of course, shakes. what's bad is that you have to wait at least forty minutes before you get up to the order window. We place our order, and then you have to wait again for it to be ready. Today that wait was 25 minutes, which I think is a bit crazy. As Chuck said, they probably sell about eight hundred hot dogs a day, so would it kill them to have a bunch grilling already? 40 minutes online + 25 minutes waiting for your hot dog, fries and shake = too long a wait for that kind of food. But the fries were pretty awesome, and Chuck and I did enjoy spending the entire lunch hour (and a half) outside. The Shake Shack. Try it if you dare!

Something About This Week...

Isn't it strange how this week historically lends itself to tragedy? Food for thought:

April 15, 1912 - Titanic sinks, thousands perish in the freezing North Atlantic

April 19, 1995 - A federal building in Oklahoma City is blown up (by an American, no less) and hundreds are killed

April 20, 1999 - Two students go on a shooting rampage in their school killing over a dozen people and themselves in Littleton, Colorado

April 16, 2007 - Another student goes on a shooting rampage at his university, killing over thirty people including himself in Blacksburg, Virginia

Weird huh?

Patriot's Day

Today I am going to complain about the state of Massachusetts having Patriot's Day off. Since the weather is so crappy here in New York, it would have been really nice to not have to go to work today. So anyway, apparently the state of Massachusetts gives the third Monday in April off every year for "Patriot's Day", celebrating the first battles fought in the Revolutionary War. Now since I'm a New Yorker, I'm going to argue that Patriot's Day should be extended down through the other states that were involved in the Revolution - weren't the thirteen colonies all in it together? Didn't we all hate the English equally? Didn't we tell them to take their taxes and their religious persecution and go fly and kite? Yeah we did. If anybody should be screwed out of this holiday, it should be California and Montana and Wyoming - who had no idea that a country was even forming over here in the late 1700s. If I had any free time on my hands I might start a letter writing campaign to Congress, but since I am at WORK today, my plate is already full. Hope you enjoy your holiday Drapo!

Heaven Lake

Just finished this novel. I've been taking a lot of books out of the library lately in an attempt to save money. And I wasn't sure I was going to like this one, but I felt like I'd been browsing the fiction shelves long enough. I ended up really enjoying this book though. The main character is Vincent, he's 23, and heads to Taiwan as a young Christian volunteer to spread the Christian word to the Tawainese. At first I didn't like Vincent very much - he was self-righteous, a goody-two shoes, and far too judgemental for a person his age. I thought I was going to go through the book hating him (which is sort of enjoyable, hating characters becomes almost as fun as liking them) but events unfolded and soon Vincent was changing, adapting to his new situations, and dealing with his life in a variety of ways - sometimes with strength and confidence, and sometimes with weakness and cowardice. I think that Vincent is a good example of a complex character, and I think that that's a lof of what made this book great. The amazing descriptions of travel and life in Taiwan and China didn't hurt either. I recommend this read!