Men Who Look Like Zach Braff

Everyone knows how much I enjoy a good Zach Braff moment. Two of my best friends invented a blog dedicated to ZB look-a-likes (some are a stretch, but it's hilarious to see the hidden similarities).

http://menwholooklikezachbraff.blogspot.com/

Officially Summer

This weekend was a pretty great "officially summer" weekend. On Friday we had a 30th birthday BBQ and party for our friend Sam. That was pretty much 100% pure hijinks and tomfoolery.

Meredith balancing a watermelon.

Kebabs. Best ones I have ever had in my life.

Cake time.

Abe being difficult while he is fitted with a do-rag.

On Saturday the Grand Street Community Band, in which I play the alto clarinet, played a concert in McGorlick Park in Greenpoint. That was really fun because it was like guerrilla music making. There were no announcement, no formal audience...we just set up shop and played marching band music. Park were confused at first, but mid-way through our program we had a nice gathering and everyone was enjoying the free live music.


Me making a "Enough with the picture taking." face even though I asked Abe to take pictures.

On Sunday I went to the beach with Abe and my cousin, Eddie. We left at 8:30am and didn't hit any traffic and left around 2 and got back to Brooklyn just before a huge thunderstorm hit. I didn't take pictures because I took myself off the clock and just allowed myself to read junkie magazines and nap. I did finally get my cousin over to help me put some new script on my website so hopefully I'll have that up and running before July.

Birthdays, Gardens, and Friends - Oh My!

I am full-on crashing right now due to lack of sleep, late-night cocktails, and scurrying around town trying to get myself together for the Renegade Craft Fair this weekend.

Yesterday was my 29th birthday - whoooopeee! It was a great one - at work my co-workers totally pranked me. The owner of the company was talking to me in my office about insurance and what I was doing this weekend. Meanwhile, our receptionist, pretty much the cutest & sweetest girl I've ever met, calls me and is like "Ryan, oh my god, the bathroom is flooding and spreading down the hallway!" I like ran out of my office and my co-worker told me she was in the conference room - as I was opening the glass door I realized that they got me good. On the conference table was a ring of my favorite beers encircling 29 cupcakes - and all of my co-workers. It was so awesome. My face must have been priceless.

After work I got to open up presents from my parents (my mom sent them home with me 3 weeks ago and I've had to see them every day and not touch them!). The highlights were a stainless steel Thermos, solar-powered garden lights, and a CD of songs from the Muppets (I have a special place in my heart for "The Rainbow Connection".

Then I went out to dinner with my 5 New York best friends (I know my Boston and LA best friends would have been here if they weren't do far away!) at Nita Nita. We had a great dinner and I got some awesome presents from Mere and Colleen (I also got a an awesome rabbit book-end from Piper last week). Margot has something up here sleeve, but it's still en route from England - how fancy.

After dinner Colleen, Piper and I continued the fun at Hotel Del Amo where we indulged in some fancy cocktails and made ourselves at home in the back room for a few hours.

Today I was in the backyard and saw that my tiger lilies bloomed!! This is why I love plants and flowers so much. I bought a small container of 3 lilies last year at Wal-Mart. They were on clearance and lasted for just a week or two. I totally neglected them and just let the container sit out in the open all winter. Well, holy crap, because this spring they came back with vengeance! There are like 6 or 7 of them in the pot and they are twice as tall - and blood red!

The heat wave this week has been painful, but my seeds have loved it. I planted arugula and lettuce seeds and within a couple days I had seedlings. Awesome.

Pretty Plants

Oh wow, now we're really having a problem. I think I drank too much coffee and that's why I can't concentrate this morning.
Anyway, I was just zooming around the kitchen and it struck me how adorable all my plants look today. The sun is coming through the windows and it looks so pretty. Plus, I received a ton of cut flowers yesterday, which are really sprucing up the place. Cut flowers make me feel like a millionaire.

Shelves in kitchen - this is a succulent gardenscape work in progress.

Shelf in bathroom above the toilet.

Little baby squirrel just having a snack under the shade of the mushroom.

Abe worked an event Thursday night and he got home at about 2:30 and decorated the bedroom with about 10 stems of orchids and a huge bunch of tulips! I woke up in the morning and couldn't believe it. (Don't mind the mess on my dresser...it's impossible to keep it uncluttered).


Then, my friend/co-worker, JJ, gave me 10 huge sunflowers yesterday. I got into work and he had left them at my office door. He said he wanted my birthday weekend to start off right. Awww...so sweet.

Pre-Party Planning

My 100th post! I feel like I should do something special, but I was actually coming on here to talk about pre-party planning.

Last night Colleen and I (and Abe) got together to pick out songs to play at the birthday party after the bands are done and its time for us to have a good old fashioned DANCE PARTY! We had 4 Apple laptops on the table - it was a little obscene.

We spent most of the night just fooling around and Abe giving iBook lessons to Colleen. We also managed to spend an hour researching Dan Smith of the ubiquitous fliers seen around NYC that read "Dan Smith Will Teach You Guitar". We found a great article written by someone who actually took a lesson from him, and we also found a weird, earnest song someone wrote and performed that references him.

I got a manicure yesterday and it matched the cherries we were eating perfectly.

We at over 2 pounds of cherries last night.