So the big news in February was that I got myself a motherfucking xBox 360. Awwwww, yeah. This was the first thing that I ever bought on eBay (and I didn't even have the patience to do it properly in an auction - I saw one listed for a decent price in one of those "buy it now" auctions and just WENT FOR IT!) ˆ me ˆ xbox ˆ

Wireless controller? Check. ˆ me ˆ xbox ˆ

"Welcome-to-Burger-King" headset so you can be verbally mocked by the eleven year-olds that beat you at online games? Check. ˆ me ˆ xbox ˆ

Hahaha. Here's a photo that pretty much sums up why I this site isn't kept very up-to-date. ˆ me ˆ videogames ˆ xbox ˆ

On Thursday, a whole bunch of us took Sarah out to dinner at Kate's Joint to celebrate her birthday! Here she is showing off a glow in the dark coffee cup and some sort of kissing flamingos decoration (which had to have been gifts from Meredith). ˆ sarah ˆ birthday ˆ

Then it was time to open the "big" gift... ˆ sarah ˆ birthday ˆ

...we all chipped in and got her the digital camera she wanted! Happy Birthday, Sar! ˆ sarah ˆ birthday ˆ camera ˆ

Me and Big Ben Cho! ˆ ben cho ˆ me ˆ

On Friday night, I went to the Stolen Transmission at Orchard Bar for a special "It's Sarah's Birthday" party! Here's Karen with the birthday girl! ˆ karen ˆ sarah ˆ

Gurj and Leigh. ˆ jeet ˆ leigh ˆ

Karen has tiny eyes. ˆ karen ˆ

Me, Leigh, Gurj and the birthday girl (seen here picking a winner). ˆ jeet ˆ leigh ˆ me ˆ sarah ˆ pick ˆ

At some point someone's hipster scarf got passed around. I first tried to make it work for my "gay pirate" look... ˆ me ˆ scarf ˆ

...but eventually settled on using it for my "old lady with babushka" look. ˆ leigh ˆ me ˆ scarf ˆ

Posh put it to work Keith Richards style. ˆ meredith ˆ posh tony ˆ scarf ˆ

Jenny put it to use in some sort of futuristic style that as-yet has no name. ˆ jenny ˆ scarf ˆ

Meredith rocked it wild west style. ˆ meredith ˆ scarf ˆ

And Leigh made it into a tiny, tiny shirt. (But that's because she has a history of tiny, tiny shirts). ˆ leigh ˆ best ˆ scarf ˆ

Posh Tony and Leigh were scandalized by... ˆ leigh ˆ posh tony ˆ surprise ˆ

....Scott's "talent." Hahaha. ˆ blow job ˆ

SCANDALOUS! ˆ leigh ˆ surprise ˆ

Scott and Greg. ˆ greg k ˆ scott m ˆ

Brandon and Sar. ˆ brandon ˆ sarah ˆ

Tastyface and Karen. ˆ karen ˆ me ˆ tongue ˆ

Brandon and Gurj. (I LOVE this photo). ˆ brandon ˆ jeet ˆ laugh ˆ

Jenne and Joe. ˆ jenne ˆ joe ˆ kiss ˆ

Me and the birthday girl - this photo was taken just moments after a huge fight broke out on the dance floor and Sarah ended up getting accidentally clocked in the face. Ooof! ˆ me ˆ sarah ˆ

Gurj, Leigh and I made her a sympathy card on a napkin. ˆ jeet ˆ leigh ˆ drawing ˆ napkin ˆ punch ˆ thumbs down ˆ

Illustrations by Leigh. ˆ drawing ˆ napkin ˆ

Towards the end of the night, I reached into my pocket to get something and realized I was still carrying around the drawing that Grant did of Posh Tony from last month (because every time I was feeling a little down, I'd pull it out and look at it). I got Tony pose with it again to try to gauge the likeness. Hahahaha. ˆ posh tony ˆ best ˆ drawing ˆ

On the way home, Leigh took a lil' break to relax in street-side style! ˆ leigh ˆ chair ˆ

On Saturday morning, Meredith and I went down to Chinatown to get our dim sum brunch on and we came across the remains of a (Chinese New Year?) parade. ˆ blood ˆ chinatown ˆ

The rain soaked the confetti and the streets looked like they were pooled in blood. ˆ blood ˆ chinatown ˆ

On Monday night I went out drinking with Posh Tony and we ended up shooting pool at Max Fish (where we almost got beat to death with a pool cue because of Posh Tony's inability to shut-the-fuck-up when he's drunk). ˆ posh tony ˆ max fish ˆ pool ˆ

On Tuesday night I was walking home down Rivington Street and when I passed the Streit's matzo factory, I saw that there were a ton of dumpsters out front filled all the way to the top with matzos! ˆ dumpster ˆ matzo ˆ

There were like 5 or 6 entire dumpsters filled up with it! ˆ dumpster ˆ matzo ˆ

And a whole dumpster filled with matzo dough! Oy vey! Vhatta Vhaste! ˆ dumpster ˆ matzo ˆ

On Wednesday night I went out with Rachael (my high school sweetheart, awwwww) to grab a few drinks and catch up. ˆ rachael ˆ

I've known her since 1993 (which means she knew me when I had the Steven Segal haircut: Shaved around the sides with a pony-tail in the back! *Shudder!* Hey, it was Jersey in the early nineties! Whaddya want from me?) ˆ me ˆ rachael ˆ

Thursday night started out in the East Village. I grabbed a few drinks with Grant, Amanda, Chris the Greek (who was in town from DC) and Eric George. ˆ amanda ˆ chris the greek ˆ eric george ˆ grant ˆ the bird ˆ

Later that night, I headed west to meet up with three of my co-workers, Russ, John and Philip, and we all headed to some club where... ˆ john merlino ˆ phil modestin ˆ russ porchia ˆ

...Leigh was hosting a party. ˆ leigh ˆ me ˆ lips ˆ

Leigh hooking us up on the free drink tip! ˆ leigh ˆ bartender ˆ

The ugly face of the night was all about trying to touch your top lip to the bottom of your nose! Leigh and I both made great success! ˆ leigh ˆ me ˆ lips ˆ

Not only did Russell manage to touch his top lip to his nose, he actually managed to pretty much COVER his nose! Hahaha. ˆ russ porchia ˆ lips ˆ

Leigh and Russ. ˆ leigh ˆ russ porchia ˆ lips ˆ

Ginny was trying for like two whole minutes to get her lip to touch. ˆ ginny ˆ lips ˆ

Finally, Leigh reached in and gave her a lil' help. HONK! ˆ ginny ˆ lips ˆ

After getting our free drinks on with Leigh, we all hopped in a cab to some other party that was going on in the basement of the Tribecca Grand. The music was pumpin' so we hit the dancefloor. Russell showed off his moves. ˆ russ porchia ˆ dance ˆ

Hahahah. ˆ phil modestin ˆ russ porchia ˆ dance ˆ

John and Phil. ˆ john merlino ˆ phil modestin ˆ

Merlin and the guys that were DJing that night. ˆ merlin ˆ

Sheal was not able to touch her lip to her nose. ˆ sheal ˆ

What's up, 4am? This is a picture of three dudes who are going to be very, very late for work the next day. ˆ john merlino ˆ phil modestin ˆ russ porchia ˆ drunk ˆ

On Friday night, I hopped into Dennis's car and he drove me up to attend Stoopid Newman's birthday party in South Norwalk, CT. (Newman was Dennis's roommate in college and my roommate for almost two years right after college). Right as we were about to walk into the party, I remarked that Dennis's gift for Newman "looked too nice." Dennis agreed, so we took turns stomping the shit out in the parking lot before we went into the party. Hahaha. Dennis went first.


Then I gave it a few more kicks and scuffs for good measure. ˆ dens ˆ jump ˆ

The final result! Happy Birthday, Stoopid Newman! ˆ josh newman ˆ gift ˆ

And here's the birthday boy! ˆ josh newman ˆ birthday ˆ hug ˆ

Here's me and Dennis with the birthday boy! Dennis got Newman a... ˆ dens ˆ josh newman ˆ me ˆ birthday ˆ

...Dodgeball.com t-shirt! Dennis to Josh: "Happy Birthday...now help promote my company!" (Actually, I'm only teasing Dennis! The dodgeball shirt was relevant because after we graduated college and we all got booted off Syracuse University's web servers, Dennis bought the dodgeball.com domain as a place for the three of us to move our personal sites to! They were hosted there for a year or two until Dennis wanted to use to domain for a "city guide" project he was working on in 2000. So that's when Dennis moved his personal site to TeenDrama.com and I bought the I Keep a Diary domain!) ˆ josh newman ˆ birthday ˆ shirt ˆ tongue ˆ

I'm not sure who this guy was, but I photo-stalked him around the party for like 5 whole minutes trying to get a clear shot of...(get out of the way balloons!)... ˆ balloons ˆ

...the most awesomely impressive braided-rat tail I've ever seen (ok, that wasn't on a lesbian). ˆ balloons ˆ braid ˆ ponytail ˆ

As a bonus, I also got to see David Modziack (sp?), former Modem Media co-worker (and Peter North lookalike!) whom I hadn't seen in six years! ˆ me ˆ modziack ˆ

Josh's awesome birthday cake! ˆ birthday ˆ cake ˆ

John, me, Lillian, and Newman (looking like he's REALLY drunk but I think he was just caught mid-blink). ˆ john ˆ josh newman ˆ lillian ˆ me ˆ drunk ˆ

Yep, see? He looks sober in this photo! I also worked with John and Lillian at Modem Media way back when and hadn't seen the two of them in six years either! Happy Birthday, Stoopid Newman! It was great to see you! I ended up catching the 11pm MetroNorth train back to NYC (because Dens got back in the car and drove up to Mt. Snow). After the train ride, I went home to relax for a bit, then around 3am, I decided to swing by Orchard Bar to see what was going on. ˆ john ˆ josh newman ˆ lillian ˆ me ˆ

And what was going on at Orchard Bar was a whole lotta titties! (PS - Jenny Penny I SEE NIP!) ˆ jenny penny ˆ karen ˆ sarah ˆ boobs ˆ nips ˆ

There, that's much more PG. Thanks ˆ jenny penny ˆ karen ˆ sarah ˆ boobs ˆ

Everyone that was there that night was totally rowdy. At one point in the night, Karen and Jenny realized that they were both wearing ridiculous 80s tights, which led to a whole series of photos... ˆ jenny penny ˆ karen ˆ tights ˆ

...like this. Hahaha. (This is pretty much the photo that should be displayed in the Wikipedia entry for "free-drink tickets: results of"). ˆ jenny penny ˆ karen ˆ tights ˆ

I can't believe that's actually Jenny's leg that Gurj is holding. It looks like Jenny's handing her some kind of fake "trick" leg or something. ˆ jeet ˆ jenny penny ˆ tights ˆ

Gurj, Josh, Jenny, Jenny's fake "trick" leg, Karen and Sarah all crammed behind the tiny DJ booth in the back of old Orchard Bar. ˆ jeet ˆ jenny penny ˆ josh m ˆ karen ˆ tights ˆ

Sammy and Brandon. ˆ brandon ˆ sammy ˆ

Sarah and me and our matching hair. ˆ me ˆ sarah ˆ

Oh, by the way, can you touch your top lip to the bottom of your nose? Gurj: Yes! ˆ jeet ˆ lips ˆ

Karen: Yes! ˆ karen ˆ lips ˆ

Josh: Yes! ˆ josh m ˆ lips ˆ

Josh and Karen gettin' cozy. ˆ josh m ˆ karen ˆ

And even cozier! (Josh's face in this photo makes me lol). ˆ josh m ˆ karen ˆ best ˆ boobs ˆ

Sarah and Gina BonJersey. ˆ gina bonjersey ˆ sarah ˆ laugh ˆ

Gurj, Jenny and Brandon. ˆ brandon ˆ jeet ˆ jenny penny ˆ

At the end of the night, we were freaked out because someone left behind a blue plastic bag with something really heavy inside of it. We opened it up and found some sort of wet, igneous rock, wrapped in a soaking wet towel. ˆ rock ˆ

Best we can figure is someone was bringing it home to (or stole it from?) an aquarium or something and then just got really drunk and left it behind. ˆ rock ˆ

On Saturday night there was a blizzard and the only other person besides me that felt up to braving the snow in order to head out was Amanda (who can definitely touch her lip to her nose). ˆ amanda ˆ fur hat ˆ lips ˆ

We went to MisShapes and it was pretty much totally empty. Except for fellow lip-to-nose touchers Jenny "Fake Leg" Penny... ˆ jenny penny ˆ lips ˆ

and Karen "Aqua Tights" Ruttner. ˆ karen ˆ lips ˆ

On Sunday, Meredith and I trudged through the snow to get some brunch and see a movie. ˆ meredith ˆ excited ˆ snow ˆ

"Look how much snow there is!" ˆ meredith ˆ snow ˆ

On Sunday Leigh and I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to get animal -shaped humidifiers! ˆ leigh ˆ excited ˆ frog ˆ humidifier ˆ

Valentine's Day! I got Mer a bunch lil Valentine's gifts. First up... ˆ meredith ˆ fur hat ˆ valentines ˆ

...a Malibu flavored chocolate bar. ˆ meredith ˆ fur hat ˆ valentines ˆ

Next up... ˆ meredith ˆ gift ˆ valentines ˆ

...wrapped in naked-lady newsprint, no less... ˆ meredith ˆ gift ˆ valentines ˆ

...a frog-shaped humidifier for Meredith's air-so-dry-you-get-nosebleeds apartment! ˆ meredith ˆ frog ˆ gift ˆ humidifier ˆ valentines ˆ

And last but not least, a fancy carrying case for her new laptop! (And yes, I really do have a girlfriend that gets totally stoked about getting a laptop bag for Valentine's Day! I win!). Happy Valentine's Day, gorgeous! ˆ meredith ˆ gift ˆ valentines ˆ