A Day of Friends

Caryn, Larry, and Joey braved the slushy roads to visit me here in the city today. Really, it wasn’t about me at all, though. Caryn wanted Joey to see some of the city’s Christmas decorations and have a chance to take her picture in front of the Rockefeller Center tree. It was freezing but we toughed it out and got some good photos. And we were smart enough to approach the tree from the side, rather than head-on from 5th Ave. As crowded as it was where we were, it would have been much worse if we’d come at it from a different angle. I’m seeing Caryn, Larry, and Joey again on Christmas. Maybe Joey won’t double in size and pick up a whole new arsenal of toddler skills before I see her again this time!

After they left, I sped out to Queens for Kimberly’s birthday party, which was fabulous. I cannot praise enough the dinner that she put together. Every single thing we ate was homemade. That bread? She baked it. That pasta? Yeah, she made fresh pasta, rolled it out through one of those play-dough looking contraptions, folded them into pockets which were then filled them with homemade squash and parmesan filling. Seriously—I can’t do that. And then to top it off we had an amazing ricotta and pine nut torte for dessert. I did lend a spring form pan for the torte, though, so the night would probably have been a disaster without my help. :) Once we were all done oohing and ahhing over the food, we played surrealist games like Exquisite Corpse. Kimberly has promised to send out the products of our surrealist mind bending, and I’ll share some choice ones once I get my hands on them.