Sweet Blog O'Mine

Category: Fun

  • Whew.

    To start off: Gothamist makes Forbes’ Best of the Web!  Hooray!

    And now, for the ridiculously fun weekend recap.  Friday night, after a trip to the spa for a little microdermabrasion (I know it’s froofy, but my skin felt soooo soft the next day), I met up with a fairly significant posse from the beach house.  Chip had friends who were having a rooftop party in Hell’s Kitchen, so after a quick taco at Tulcingo Del Valle, we headed on up and enjoyed the view.  In line with my small world issues, within five minutes of chatting to the one non-beach-house person I spoke to that night, I discovered that we knew three people in common (I’m telling you — I know everybody).

    dogs?Saturday was brunch at Home with some of the fabulous ladies from the beach house (we can’t get enough of each other), then off on a wild adventure in the Rockaways with Alizinha.  Through the magic of the interweb, she and I were invited to a party by the Gurgling Cod and his wife, the Cinetrix.  They were coming down from Beantown just for the occasion — a birthday party and a pig roast (that’s two pig roasts this month, if anyone’s counting).  My friend Rick of Rick’s Picks was there as well (bearing his Windy City Wassabeans — yum). After a very, very long ride on the A train, we made it out to Rockaway Beach and had a grand old time: wading in the ocean, playing darts, drinking pina coladas, eating well, and meeting new people.  Thanks to Jen (the birthday girl) and Rob, our very generous hosts.  In organizing our ride back home, I somehow managed to convince one of the partygoers to come with me to Williamsburg, where I was to meet up with the Lovely Miss Katie for yet another rooftop soiree.  After a ridiculously long car ride and finding the right address on the wrong street, Tom and I wound up at the Levee instead.  We were joined by Manhattan Transfer (thanks, Dodgeball!), and lazily decided to stay put rather than track Miss Katie’s party.

    Blue Crab Fest at Bar MinnowBut the next day, it was rise and shine and back out to Brooklyn, this time for the blue crab festival at Bar Minnow, where the Lovely Miss Katie, Nikki, Scott, Mike, Rob and I gorged ourselves and made quite a mess.  Instead of subjecting people on the subway to our crustacean-spattered selves, we opted to air out at the Gate and the Patio Lounge, enjoying some of Park Slope’s finer outdoor establishments, perfect for an afternoon beer, a pitcher of sangria, and plenty of good company and hysterical laughter.  Pictures from the Rockaway Beach party and other random pics are here.

    As if all that wasn’t enough, we ended up on Scott’s roof making grilled chicken tacos with grilled pineapple salsa, and finished up the evening watching Adam Perry Lang make his Iron Chef debut.  When I finally made it home, I slept like a baby. 

    After this weekend’s food festivities, I took advantage of the one-week pass to Equinox that I was given at my new job and went to a spin class after work, which kicked my ass all over the place.  Did I really do that several days a week at 6:30 am at one point in my life in the not-so-distant past?  Sheesh.

  • Beach. Fun. Food.

    139_3970Blah. Blah. Blah.  For those of you who aren’t in the beach house, this might be getting tedious, but for the rest of you, here are the pictures!  Thanks to all for a great time, Greta for a kick-ass dinner (I seem to be photographically obsessed with the beauty of the antipasti plates), and Yael, Jimmy and Laurie for letting us crash the karaoke party in Saltaire and for the generous handful of drink tokens.  We won’t thank you for the headaches we had Saturday morning.

  • Fame*

    As I was riding the subway to work on Friday morning in a pre-caffeine haze, a woman came up to me.  "Are you Laren?" she asked.  "Yes."  "I thought so.  I read your blog all the time."  Whoa.  I tell ya, that put me in a great mood for the rest of the day.  So Nancy, if you’re out there, a big shout-out (between  the pre-caffeinated state and general subway clatter, I’m still only about 95% sure she said "Nancy," so major apologies if I’m wrong).

    In other fame news, Gothamist Food was in the New York Times yesterday in a column called Blogs 101.  Thanks to Alizinha for pointing that out!

    * A nod to David Bowie.

  • Laying Low?

    So I told a friend on Friday that I was "laying fairy low" this weekend.  He replied, "why do I think ‘laying fairly low’ for you means only going out for dinners and brunches this weekend?"  He wasn’t too far off base.  I went out for dinner at Bellavitae on Friday night with Eric and Amanda, then on to Blue Ribbon Bakery to visit fellow beach-housemate Jim, who tends bar there (and introduced me to a new cocktail, the Susie Taylor (who the hell is she?)).  Saturday I trekked to the Upper West Side for a baby-naming for Caleb and Rachel’s new daughter, Hannah (so much hair on that little peanut!), then off to the wilds of New Jersey for Carrie’s 30th birthday party, where we ate gi-normous burgers the size of my head and then had a late-night swim.  I returned early Sunday morning to have brunch with Deb at Eatery, then a stroll through Central Park, and finally a nap before dinner at Mercadito Grove  with Jon, Sarah, Erika, Jeremy, and Eric.  After dinner Eric and I ventured to the Maritime for a drink (and to gaze at all the pretty boys), but then I was sooo very ready for bed. 

    Yeah, I’m not very good at laying low.

  • She Bop*

    When it comes down to it, it’s all about the ladies.  Even as recently as law school, many of my closest friends were guys.  This certainly isn’t a bad thing, and I still have some great guy friends, but there’s something special about having good girlfriends.  I’ve been very lucky — over the past few years, I have met some pretty damn cool women.  It seems like there’s a plethora of us here in NYC (although some men out there may beg to differ).

    I got together with a few female friends the other night at Mercadito for dinner and to catch up (get the shrimp tacos and the guacamole sampler!).  You’d imagine that the first topic of conversation would be boys, right?  Wrong.  It was our jobs.  Don’t worry, we got to boys eventually (we always do), but it was interesting to see that, at this particular point in our lives, our careers were in the forefront of our minds.  I have another all-women dinner planned for next week, and am already looking forward to it.  Guys are great, we love them, but they just can’t bitch about bikini waxing and jackasses in quite the same way that we can.  Well, maybe about bikini waxing.

    * Yes, it’s a nod to the Cyndi Lauper song.  No, we didn’t talk about that.  Not this time, anyway.

  • The Pig Out and Other Festivities

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    The Chance house was jam-packed this weekend, but luckily, it was jam-packed with some fun folks.  As usual, we ate well, danced up a storm, and sang at the top of our lungs.  And even though we broke some of NY Mag’s rules for how to keep your housemates from hating you (Kelly Clarkson, anyone?)*, we got along just fine.

    But one of the major highlights of the weekend was the pig roast.  The caja china did exactly what it should, and the pig turned out tender and juicy with very crispy skin.  John made a mojo, which he injected into the meat, and then essentially there wasn’t too much to do while the pig did its thing.  Flipping it over was somewhat of an ordeal, but other than that, it was done in less than five hours.  We didn’t have any apples for the pig’s mouth, so there was some, um, improvisation in that area.  The black beans and hot sauce, based on recipes from my pig-roasting class, received rave reviews (and thanks to John M. for being my bean consultant), and everything was consumed in record time.

    Pictures from the weekend are here, but beware — there are raw pig photos.  Proceed with caution if you have a week stomach or are a vegetarian.

    * Courtesy of Michelle, who pointed out our collective faux pas.

  • Nothing Says “I Love the USA” Like a Pig Roast

    Caja2_pict_smallAfter last night’s wonderful picnic dinner and Shakespeare in the Park, I wearily came home to pack.  I’m off to Kismet for the long weekend, and in honor of the holiday, we’re roasting a pig.  John purchased a Caja China, I’ve packed my recipes from my pig-roasting class (hoping that I can translate from a suckling pig to a regular-sized porker), and we’re ready to go.  I’ll let you know how it goes.  Have a great weekend! (And happy early birthday to my lovely siblings, Bill & Katie, who will hopefully be coming out at some point this weekend for a beach day).

  • Making the Blog

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    (courtesy of Gaping Void)


    Very often, when I attend an event, or go on a trip, or have a conversation, someone will ask, "is this going to make the blog?"  For example, I went to a family wedding in DC last weekend, stayed with my friend Christopher, and hung out by his pool with some friends, and until this moment, it never "made the blog."  Why?  It’s not because it wasn’t a great weekend (it was), or that I didn’t take any pictures (I took one or two).  It’s because I never really decide exactly what I’m going to write about until I actually sit down and write.  And if my writing takes me in a direction other than a recap of what I’ve been doing, so be it.  So if you’ve spent some time with me, or had a conversation with me, and it doesn’t "make the blog," remember — it’s nothing personal.

  • Another Reason I Love New York


    subway surfin’

    Because you never know what you might see on the subway.

  • Return from the Beach

    135_3575Sigh.  It’s not easy to come back from sun and fun filled weekend in Kismet.  Especially when you’ve only got one final week (albeit a short one) to go at your current job before a two week vacation.  Despite a nasty cough and a case of laryngitis (also an unfortunate high school nickname), the weekend was great.  Pictures from this weekend and last weekend are here.