2005 --> 2006

even though i'm here at work on this holiday monday, i had a really great new year's weekend. here's how it went down:

thursday:
i took time off of work to help devy take care of final moving arrangements. her super shuttle to the airport was over an hour late, but thankfully she made it ok and had an uneventful flight home. it was really sad to see her go, but my sadness is outweighed by her sheer happiness of the thought of going back to california. i'll miss her a lot, but i'm glad she's much happier now.

i was a bit sad at work, but in the evening my spirits were lifted when i had dinner with my friend and former co-worker suzanne. her mother joan made a wonderful lamb dinner for us, after coctails with the whole family (grandma ruth, jay, josh, danielle and alexander, plus our friend paul). it was really really nice to be in their company, and we had a great time. after dinner josh put alexander to bed, i lost all my cheerios in texas hold'em but dominated the boggle scene. i'll try to root out some pictures of alexander for everyone, he is absolutely the cutest, most adorable baby boy i know!

friday:
worked for a few hours and had demarco's pizza for dinner. it was recommended to me by tien, who originally heard of it on sliceny. anyways, it was good. i think this could be my favorite pizza in the city so far. no, it is my favorite pizza in the city. try it. i certainly want to try it again.

saturday:
i started watching full metal alchemist, which i got a few weeks ago but never started. for lunch gerlad and i picked up cheese at murray's, and lobster bisque at the lobster place. i was excited to try it, but the bisque was a little too pureed and had an aftertaste that i couldn't put my finger on. nonetheless, still pretty good. after watching sky high (corny but enjoyable, with bruce campbell, lynda carter and some kids in the hall playing supporting roles) we went grocery shopping at chelsea market for our new year's halibut dinner with janet.

for the actual countdown, tien invited us to a house party thrown by mark, one of eric tam's good friend who i met at his wedding. the place was unbelievable, and it was one of the most festive parties i've been to in a long time. thanks again mark!

sunday:
still no internet at home, so i checked my email at the apple store. they've got a really comfortable auditorium to sit in, and the classes are pretty cool. too bad yesterday it was the digital photography/iphoto class i've seen three times already. for lunch i met with gerald and janet at pho nha trang in chinatown. pretty good pho but i think the best i've had is still in westminster.

after lunch i felt like something sweet, so gerald led us to the chocolat michel cluizel inside the abc carpet and home store. we all got to sample a few chocolates, and gerald and i both left with our own assortments of delicious treats. afterwards, we tried to catch match point, but because the next three showings were sold out we ended up watching munich instead. all of us thought it was so-so, and definitely a little too long.

for dinner, gerald and i had burgers from blue 9, which were the best burgers i've had so far in nyc (only because i can't specifically recall the burgers at shake shack, which were tasty as well). from blue 9, we walked to bua for drinks with monica and her friends from out of town. i had a great time trying to convince one of her friends to move to new york, but i'm not sure if she bought it.

overall, this was a great weekend to kick off the new year. i got to spent a lot of time with friends - some i see all the time, some i hadn't seen for a while, and some i just met. good pizza, good burgers, good friends, good times.