From top to bottom:  1) The Lovely Miss Katie and her sister Jenny at he birthday dinner at ‘inoteca; 2) a dragonfly at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden; 3) we convinced Jeff to stay in town so that we wouldn’t have to drive upstate (thanks, Jeff!); 4) after drinking wine in Jenn & Carolyn’s backyard for a while, we decided to french braid each other’s hair; and 5) Jimmy and I grilled a delicious dinner up on his gorgeous and tranquil roof deck.  There were a few things that didn’t make it onto the camera, including a visit with Mom & Stephen, a nap or two, a pit stop at Winnie’s for karaoke, our picnic in Prospect Park, dinner at Cubana Cafe, and drinks at Brooklyn Social. 

Nothing has made me laugh harder than that particular phrase in a loooong time.  No, I can’t even begin to explain.

The long weekend was so much fun that I had to stay out at the beach last night just so I could enjoy yet another amazing meal (pulled pork sandwiches (pig roast leftovers) with grilled pineapple, grilled corn with chipotle lime garlic butter, caprese salad, "sex rice," and homemade ice cream cake) with fantastic company and a gorgeous sunset to top it all off.  I took the 7:25 a.m. ferry this morning and went straight to work.  Between the early morning, four (yes, count ’em, four) FOUR MILE runs (yay!) and a session with my trainer at lunchtime today, I’m about ready to keel over, but I had to put up the pictures first.  Enjoy — they’re all right here.

Picture of the American flag composed out of jello shots.  Talk about your patriotism!

And I’m waaaay tan.

I week at the beach was just what I needed.  I was able to clear my head a bit, and now the clouds aren’t quite as heavy as they were before I left.

Three books, one lobster dinner/birthday party (complete with John’s traditional lobster hypnosis session, pictured above), the first smoked ribs of the season, a few naps face down in the sand, my longest run so far (plus 3 others), a healthy dose of grilling, visits from Rob, Ali, Bill, Kate & Kira, and great company all around helped out quite a bit with the healing process. 

A week of decompression is great, but an extra day off (today) is excellent, too.  While all of the "real" attorneys are at the firm outing, admin staff (like me) got the day off.  I got to sleep late, hang out with a surprise out of town guest, and play hooky at the movies today, but now, I have to somehow bring myself back into gear so that I’m ready for tomorrow.

Did you miss me?

True, the only time I got to put on my new bathing suit was when I got into the hot tub, and I didn’t see the sun all weekend, but I had a wonderfully relaxing weekend at the beach.  My dinner turned out great (damn, I love that grilled pineapple salsa!), I got to shake my groove thang a little, sing the inaugural rendition of "We Belong" for the season, read trashy magazines and the Times, meet some new people, spend some quality time with Deb, walk along the beach, and go for two 45 minute runs with Katie.  The same run that was quite hard for me last year isn’t so bad at the moment.  Guess all this time at the gym is paying off!

I finally managed to make it to Rachel’s In the Flesh reading series after several months of scheduling conflicts.  Although I certainly enjoyed the readings/performances, my favorite part of the evening was seeing so many people whom I hadn’t seen in way too long (okay, there are probably more links, but I was getting lazy there).  Other highlights of my week included my now semi-regular Tuesday night kickboxing class (take that, stress!), drinks and crudo at Dona, a Hillary Clinton fundraiser, and the first summer associate event of the summer.  Tonight was all about a hot date with my couch, some Pio Maya chicken mole leftovers and a tape of last night’s Top Chef.  I’m about to top that off by curling up in bed with some hot porn — food porn, that is (the new Bon Appetit was in my mailbox today).  At least I know I’ll have sweet dreams (bad pun fully intended, of course).

The few moments last weekend I didn’t spend either at the movies (Poseidon at the IMAX), chowing down on swine (Pigfest), or on the couch recovering (from Hallie’s wedding), I was apparently mugging for the camera with Doug.  Lovely, aren’t we?  Pictures of the Pigfest and a few from the wedding where my tongue isn’t hanging halfway down my face are on flickr.