Just got back from the bank and cut two of the biggest checks I have ever held in my grubby little mitts.. me and the wife are due at the seller’s attorney’s office in 90 minutes to give away all of our money and slave for the rest of our days to pay off the mortgage.. fitting that it is gray and pouring outside… the only good part of all of this is that we get to stroll into work late with a good excuse….

weekend started with dinner after work Fri night with Altera’s high school friend and his new fiance that we have never met… the wife was running late so I met up with them first.. a few drinks and even I am more socialble…but it did get really chilly by the river after the sun went down and the fiance actually was shivering… but the burgers were pretty good and a few drinks will always warm anyone up…Saturday was the first time we took the neice to Yankee Stadium… she was a little bashful at first and prob a little intimidated by the 50,000 plus crowd, and the noise.. she had her hands up over her ears for the first hour… then we figured out what was holding her back… hot dogs… first she took a bite of mine.. and then proceeded to commandeer her Dad’s… twenty minutes later… “more hot dog”… so my uber cool 2.5 year old niece.. scarfed down two stadium dogs.. and needless to say was in a more boisterous mood afterwards… but it was too hot in our seats and we called it an early day… missing the offensive onslaught… and seeing rookie slugger Shelley do his thing…instead we hit the Father in Law’s joint and picked up two bubble teas and walked up to the apt… met up with another of the wife’s childhood buddies and her new BF.. then made our way up to 131st St.. to Dinosaur BBQ… we pass by this place all the time on the way to the GWB… and have heard really good things… tried to make reservations.. only a week in advance to weekend… and it is first come first serve for the few tables outside.. so we set up a perimeter and swooped on the first table that opened up… really good BBQ… service is a little on the slow side… but the meat is right up there… just about the time we were finishing up our meal outside.. we heard our party being called… 2 hours after we got there… so be prepared to wait in weekends or be prepared to hover over diners outside.. after dinner we all walked off the meal back to our apt and had a night of Wii tennis and Mario Party… yours truly passed out at midnight… yesterday was brunch with the in laws… baseball on TV.. the wife plowing thru Harry Potter and an afternoon with the babies… time to get dressed and trade all of our money for a key and a few pieces of paper

Last night the wife and I went out to dinner… an everyday thing in NY… but not last night… last night was beyond food.. last night was art that you could only see once you put in in your mouth, I honestly cannot recall the last time I ate in a NY restaurant and was this blown away… since the wife has been killing herself at her firm… they have a policy of giving their associates a thank you voucher for a dinner on them for billing x hours a month.. it is a ridiculous number of hours.. needless to say the wife now has a small collection of these vouchers.. so we decided to use the funny money and hit Masa.. the place is known for how expensive it is.. and prob why we have not been prior to last night because dropping that much money on one meal is truly hard to stomach, esp for a cheap ass like me… but since we had the blood, sweat and tears of my wife’s efforts footing a good part of the bill we said why not… first off the space itself is very soothing and calm… lots of wood and very few seats… at first the hostess was going to seat us next to a large party in the dining room.. I asked if there was any chance of sitting at the sushi bar.. and lucky for us we were OK’ed to sit at the bar…. the actual counter itself is one huge velvety smooth piece of timber… must have come from a tree at least 100 feet tall.. so beautiful and that piece of wood is going to last for a hundred years, I will admit I was rubbing it for most of the meal, they must sand that thing every night… one of the diners in the party next to us busted out a paper and pen.. and the big man himself snapped “get a pad, don’t write on my counter”… this is also the first time I have ever watched the big honcho of any restaurant actually work… watching all the guys in the kitchen is half the joy of eating there… I won’t go through each dish.. but needless to say there wasn’t a dud in the line up and there were a lot of items… granted I didn’t leave stuffed.. but I left not hungry and very aware of how good everything was…. just to illustrate the attention to detail they give to the food there.. the three pieces of toast that comes with the caviar / toro dish is not toasted. but grilled over a wood fed fire piece by piece.. so even the toast has unreal flavor….I don’t know when we will go back there.. but I will say this.. if you are a fan of super high end Japanese food.. Masa is truly worth every penny….

I have lived in NY all my life outside of college and our past year of travel… and I have seen most of the things that most NYers see day to day, have seen a man poop on the sidewalk, seen the subway totally flood after five minutes of hard rainfall , mariachi bands in subway cars and have even spotted Cosmo Kramer trying to buy a hat at Barneys…. but this morning I got to experience something I never thought would ever happend to me.. I got catcalled… by a dude…

I was walking to work like I do every morning.. but this particular morning..around 8:15am… going eastbound on 49th right before Madison Ave…. a man.. a large bald chubby man… leaned out of his passenger side window and called out “Excuse me sir!”… I had my earbuds in so didn’t hear it too clear.. than he said it again.. and I looked back.. and around to make sure it was me.. and since I was the only person on the block..I figure it was me… ” nice butt”… I heard… “nice bag”.. since I carry my work bag behind me… OK I figure… then he repeats “nice butt…tight butt”… I make a strange face.. I must have not heard this right… then he motions with his hands… a cupping motion and swivels his hands side to side.. and once more “tight butt”… all the while leaning out of his old Honda with his friend driving.. now I wish this was just some kids daring each other or some other prank… but since I had been staring back at this car for fifteen seconds now.. there were no other people in the car.. and the driver was just looking straight ahead… and the guy himself had an expression on his face that I can honestly say I have never seen before.. but he was not laughing… so I made yet another confused face…and just walked away… gotta say when I got to work today.. felt a little weird…. but I will also admit.. when I left the bathroom for the first time this morning… I did check out my rear end….tight? no.. triangular..yes

I made out like a bandit this year for my b day

Air Zoom Dunkesto.. my second pair in an equally sweet colorway.. these are basically sweatpants for your feet

Dunk SB Mid, my first pair of mids in sweet yellow and red with velcro strap

AF1 Beijing Edition, keepin it native

Left work at 7pm on Friday and rushed back to the apt to try and get the laundry done before the room closes… of course the one time I go down there on a Friday.. it’s packed… so had to schlub 40 lbs of clothes back up and wait for the cycle to clear out… wound up finishing all 4 loads at 10pm… yeesh.. but since the wife was working late again.. it didnt’ feel all that late.. but I had to get up at 6am to hit the links with the bro in law… so I sacked out by about midnight up at 6… and off I went to NJ… great thing about being up that early.. sausage McMuffin… mmm… weather was great for golf.. too bad I hadn’t played in two years… so had one birdie, one par, one bogie and 15 holes of triple bogey or higher…nice…. but was good to get out and play a round… for every five horrible shots that go two feet.. there is that one 250 yard drive or approach shot that actually lands softly on the green.. golf is such a ridiculous game

Got back to the apt.. popped in the shower and met up with the wife at the bro in laws place to spend some quality time with the neice and nephew….babies are so funny.. when they belong to someone else.. but it was just what the doctor ordered for the wife who had to go into the office while I was out hitting golf balls into every water hazard on the course, nothing picks you up out of a funk as the sound of a 2 1/2 year old laughing her butt off, or a loud ass burp from a tiny 15 pound newborn… after a couple of hours with the babies.. we had dinner at Chipotle… Cali style burritto joint that just opened up on our block.. pretty tasty…

Then back to pack up our overnight bag and party duds to spend the night at the in laws in NJ… I passed out before my head hit the pillow… after a good nights sleep we had our usual Sunday brunch with the in laws and then put on our wedding best and headed to New Rochelle for a college buddy’s wedding …. met up with some friends I haven’t seen in a while… and of course, the wife is off to the races as soon as the champagne is passed around… then at cocktail hour two more glasses and a shot of Belvedere for good measure… the wedding was very nice ..esp since it felt quite a bit like ours…. wedding officiant… sister of our officiant… band.. our band… wedding favors.. photos… same as us, cake… dead ringer… and I found out later from the groom’s mother that the whole wedding was more or less based on ours.. which is really cool , that they had such a good time at our’s that the wanted their own to be like ours….. and the wife kept hitting the sauce… a G&T here.. a glass of wine there… Soco and lime there.. and before you know it… she’s screaming and dancing… then after dinner… in the pooper praying to the porcelain gods… I decided to exit a little early since I was realizing I would have no navigator and I don’t know New Rochelle of NJ… and as luck would have the the CD for the navi in my MIL’s big ass shiny S500….was not there… so I tried to reverse directions from the  tiny wedding invite directions… wound up on Greenwhich CT naturally…. finally made it back to NJ.. and then hit an hours worth of traffic on the GWB.. which must have felt even longer for Pukey McPukesALot riding shotgun…

All in all a very event filled weekend.. then I had to go to work and then I felt like blowing my brains out… I hate having a job… maybe I’ll feel better if I buy some more sneakers….

On a side note.. my parents did finally call to wish me a happy bday.. on Satruday!!!.. my birthday was Tuesday… they are too busy now for their only child… parents join a club with wave pool and badmington courts and they lose their minds….oy