Should auld acquaintance be forgot

Happy belated New Year everyone. . .i'd like to say i haven't been posting because i've been so busy creating and keeping a plethora of resolutions but in reality i've been watching the first season of the west wing and sleeping. . .because i am a productive member of society.

i was a very lucky girl the weekend of new year's eve because le bff and her hubby, Mr. T, ditched their kids and came to visit!

we did a lot of things like go see stand-up and eat dim sum but the best pics were from our field trip to ps 1 in queens. we did a photo shoot on the roof.

here they are:



and here we all are:



that was actually the second picture i took of the three of us because the first one turned out like this:



which is now rogray's favorite picture of me. . .insta-poll: should that be my new blog photo? log your votes in the comments.

rogray and Mr. T got very close:



but not as close as me and le bff:



new year's eve rolled around and we got ready. our hostess for the evening was miss n and in our pre-party discussions she reminded me that the last time she saw le bff was in 1999 when she visited me in London and my "flatmates" and i had a party and le bff and i wore matching outfits head to toe. so le bff and i decided to do the same this time around as a little surprise. here we are getting ready:



ah yes, proof that every woman inexplicably opens her mouth while applying mascara. . .what the hell? please explain.

the boys decided to wear matching outfits too (and ended up doing a better job of it than us ladies) and here they are with miss n:



you'll notice miss n is holding a martini glass. what was in that glass - mayhem, that's what. i don't remember having more than 2 of the fruity martinis miss n was making but the next day i felt like i had been swimming in a pool full of pomegranate watermelon vodka liquid. . .so you can imagine things got silly quickly. miss mo arrived and the craziness began. a montage:



crazy apparently means i make the same facial expression in every photo -- although in that last one you can make out the outline of me bending over -- which implies some serious booty dancing. . .things got so crazy that i even caught le bff and Mr. T making out in the hallway!



see what happens when you leave the kids at home?

for our final photo shoot we did a couples photo of the 4 of us in our matching outfits:



as you can see le bff and i thought it would be a good idea to put the boys' hands on our chests -- because we think we're hilarious when we're being immature. . .but look at what happened next:



which one of us took a little convincing that it was time for us to go? i think i should re-name that picture "one of these things is not like the others."

when we got home rogray serenaded le bff and Mr. T to sleep:



and then we all went to sleep -- and by sleep i mean passed out drooling onto our pillows. . .it was a very lovely way to ring in the new year. . .the next day le bff and Mr. T went home to georgia and their kids and rogray and i spent the day reminiscing over 2006. . .which mainly consisted of remembering that we have barely consumed alcohol in the past year and now we were paying for our weakend tolerance. . .

Happy 2007 people. . .good luck to you optimistic types who actually made resolutions. . .

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. . .

and all the loot i got!!!

Merry Xmas everyone.

rogray and i are in amish, pa at his mom's celebrating this blessed holiday that has enticed jews for centuries. . .and now i can be a part of it.

rogray's sister holgray and her bf, kk, are here too and we all got some slammin' stocking stuffers: passes to movies, floss, toohpaste, snowglobes, chocolate santas and the life hammer!

rogray scored a new wardrobe and i got a few new clothes too. rogray got books, i got cds, and, thanks to holgray and kk, we both scored my favorite kitchen appliance ever made.

and the mystery of rogray's present to me? the answer is the most awesome gift ever: the complete calvin and hobbes harcover box set. that's right -- every calvin and hobbes comic strip ever printed in art book quality. i am beside myself with joy.

what i've learned about christmas is this: it's about spending time together as a family, sharing the joy of warm relations and rejoicing in the generosity of the human spirit. and presents. and eating.

i think someone said something about it being someone's birthday but i was too busy eating peppermint bark, moose munch, cookies, peppermint cake and rogray's spinach artichoke dip to hear what they were saying.

chanukkah oh chanukkah

tonight is the last night of chanukkah. tonight is the night rogray and i will exchange presents. presents are, perhaps, my favorite things ever.

rogray's present to me is in the big blue bag and weighs maybe 50 pounds.

my present to him is in the teeny tiny red package that weighs maybe 2 ounces.

so far the guesses for what his present could be are an anchor, a giant rock, or a very heavy bowling ball.

anyone care to throw in a guess or two?

winner gets a virtual pat on the back sent to them via email.

deck the halls! (w/ wgc #14!)

last saturday was our 2nd annual holiday ArtJam!: Brooklyn edition. what's an ArtJam!? i'm so glad you asked. . .it was created with jk in l.a. last year. you share arts and crafts supplies and just make things until you can't anymore. usually it would be just jk, rogray and me making collages and the like but the holiday version is open to all. we supply food, drink and supplies and in return people make ornaments for our tree. we then keep our favorite ornaments for the next year and hopefully in a few years we will have a tree full of ornaments that have all been made by our friends.

here are the top ones from last year:



the first two are from the dude. the red one is his portrait of rogray. the last one is jk's panda ornament. for some reason my picture of the virgin mary and hassidic jew ornaments made from last year didn't get on the old flickr page. but you can imagine.

we threw some logs on the old "fireplace":


whipped up some latkes, pigs in a blanket, spinach artichoke dip and rogray's pine nut and gingerbread cookies:

and herbed potato chips: .

both went over grand -- he'd never made cookies before and they were deelish. i think i'm forgetting how to cook.

here is a collection of photos of people making crafts. look at the joy on their faces. basically people came in and either made a beeline for the food table or one of the craft tables.



the chef brought cupcakes and various toppings for people to make edible crafts! here she is:


people with their cupcake masterpieces:


here is mr. mo shoving an entire cupcake into his mouth:


his wife was very proud.

here are people being silly:

lawyer gets fresh with rogray:


this is as crazy as the hulk gets:


the critic acts smarmy:


this is me at my tipsiest (read: drunk oblivious to the hangover that will inhabit every aspect of being the next day):


do i look like bugs bunny there? i feel like i do. . .

c-dog and i get serious and do a p.s.a:

don't do drugs kids!

doesn't our hair look really good there?

enough of this. here are the ornaments!

here is the top of the tree. i call it "the father, son and the holy spirit."


a fashionable crucifiction:


koogs':


the hulk's 3 wise men:


a gentlre reminder for the holiday season from mateo:


mr. f's hidden talent comes out:


a heart exploding with ArtJam! joy:


c-dog models her ornament:


ms. mo made a collage that will forever live on our refrigerator. look how amazing it is:

it doesn't even look like a collage! it looks like a picture out of a magazine.

rogray and i made dreidels out of clay!

i went classic on the right while rogray went stylishly artistic on the left.

in the end our craft table looked like this:


and our tree looked like this!




there are so many more ornaments that i didn't take pictures of yet. i think it's safe to say that the party was a success. the food was eaten we ended up having more liquor than what we started with (thanks guys. how'd you know all i wanted was wine and whiskey? you're geniuses.) rogray and i didn't even have that much clean-up. merry happy chrismukkah everyone!