On Friday night I went out to Brooklyn for Siege's Mardi Gras-themed birthday party! Here's me with Catrinel (I think!). ˆ me ˆ mask ˆ

Meredith doubled up with a mask and a hoodie in an attempt to go incognito (but I'd know those blue eyes anywhere). ˆ meredith ˆ hoodie ˆ mask ˆ

Nina, however, doubled up using a mask and a wig and it worked because she came up to me and I had NO IDEA who it was. ˆ nina ˆ cat ˆ mask ˆ wig ˆ

Sarah and Black-Haired-Nina! ˆ nina ˆ sarah h ˆ wig ˆ

A little after 1am, Katie brought out a King Cake that Siege's mom had FedExed up from New Orleans for the occasion! ˆ katie ˆ siege ˆ birthday ˆ cake ˆ candles ˆ

Hahaha. It's rare thing to see this man surprised. ˆ siege ˆ birthday ˆ mask ˆ surprise ˆ

Happy Birthday, Siege! ˆ katie ˆ siege ˆ birthday ˆ cake ˆ candles ˆ mask ˆ

Katie, Nina, Peter and Meredith. ˆ katie ˆ meredith ˆ nina ˆ peter ˆ

Sarah, Nina, Wendy, the Birthday Boy and me. ˆ me ˆ nina ˆ sarah h ˆ siege ˆ wendy ˆ

After everyone had eaten their King Cake, the party moved to the room with a camera and... ˆ siege ˆ camera ˆ

...well, the rest is just too predictable. ˆ naked ˆ party ˆ

When Siege takes the camera off the tripod... ˆ siege ˆ camera ˆ

...you know it means things are getting...interesting. ˆ party ˆ

Hahahaha. I love this photo so much. I love how he's all shrugging like "Who, me?" Happy Birthday, handsome! ˆ siege ˆ camera ˆ shrug ˆ

On Saturday night Meredith and I went to the midnight movie at the Landmark Theater to see muthafucking CONAN THE BARBARIAN on the big screen! ˆ movie ˆ

Hahaha. Oh, man. Best worst-movie EVAAAAAR! ˆ movie ˆ

On Sunday night we cleaned the rats' cage and then I decided to give them their very first... ˆ me ˆ bath ˆ

...bath! Hahaha. The Good One (Ratso) didn't mind the bath at all. In fact... ˆ bath ˆ rats ˆ

...Meredith gave her a little chew-stick treat in the middle and she seemed downright happy to be nibbling away in the water.


Here's a "rat bath" vid where you can see her leaping up out of the water at the end. ˆ bath ˆ rats ˆ video ˆ

After I was finished soaping her up real good... ˆ bath ˆ rats ˆ

...I gave her a vigorous rubbing with a towel which she actually seemed to like a lot. (The Bad One, however, turned out to pretty much HATE taking a bath and scratched the shit out of my arm when she tried using it to climb up out of the water!) ˆ me ˆ bath ˆ rats ˆ towel ˆ

After we finished bathing our vermin, I started making cupcakes for Meredith's birthday! ˆ me ˆ cooking ˆ cupcakes ˆ

It's 12:08am! Happy Birthday, lady! ˆ meredith ˆ cooking ˆ

On Monday night, Meredith and I went to NINJA for a birthday dinner with her parents! Here's me (doing my best ninja impression) with the birthday girl! ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ birthday ˆ ninja ˆ

Meredith's mom and dad (showing off his wicked karate chop!). ˆ mr silverman ˆ mrs silverman ˆ kung fu ˆ ninja ˆ

Meredith chowing down on her fancy ninja-cuisine! ˆ meredith ˆ birthday ˆ food ˆ

Any restaurant where you get to hold giant katana swords is A-OK in my book! (The best part is, Meredith's now the fourth person on this site to appear in a photo tagged with the word "sword!") ˆ meredith ˆ best ˆ ninja ˆ sword ˆ

After dinner, we went back to our apartment for Meredith's birthday party! Check out the turnout for Birthday Cranium! ˆ meredith ˆ birthday ˆ cranium ˆ

Piper was there doing her thing. Walking across the game board... ˆ piper ˆ cranium ˆ dogs ˆ

...showing off her doggy-dingus. You know, the usual. ˆ piper ˆ butthole ˆ cranium ˆ dogs ˆ

The Three Cs: Caitlin, Corrie and Candy! ˆ caitlin ˆ candy ˆ coco ˆ birthday ˆ

Leigh! ˆ leigh ˆ hat ˆ

Even Lauren Flax (who are hadn't seen in forever) came! ˆ lauren flax ˆ

Sarah and Cat. ˆ catrinel ˆ sarah ˆ

Katie and Nina. ˆ katie ˆ nina ˆ

And here's Old Siege One-Eye getting down with one of the birthday cupcakes I made! ˆ siege ˆ cupcake ˆ

Sarah, Leigh and the Birthday Girl! ˆ leigh ˆ meredith ˆ sarah ˆ birthday ˆ hat ˆ

I CAN HAS CUPCAKE? ˆ rats ˆ

Eeeek! Vermin! ˆ leigh ˆ hat ˆ laugh ˆ

Ratso wanted to meet Piper but Piper was too scared of her! Hahaha. ˆ piper ˆ rats ˆ

Caitlin and I. ˆ caitlin ˆ me ˆ

It was a Monday night, so by 3am the party had pretty much cleared out except for a few stragglers. One of whom was the guy sitting on the left who'd brought his dog along! (I think he's one of Meredith's friends from grad school) ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ

His dog was down to keep on PARTYING! ˆ dogs ˆ

Leigh started wrassling with him and got him all riled up. ˆ lauren flax ˆ leigh ˆ dogs ˆ

Watch out for the red rocket! ˆ leigh ˆ dogs ˆ

After Leigh got the dog all wound up, it would leave Lauren alone. Hahaha. ˆ lauren flax ˆ dogs ˆ

"Mmmmmmm....delicious arm!" ˆ lauren flax ˆ bite ˆ dogs ˆ

Hahaha. Happy Birthday, Mer! ˆ lauren flax ˆ leigh ˆ meredith ˆ best ˆ birthday ˆ couch ˆ

A week later I got a call from Alysha who was in town visiting from San Francisco! We went to Veselka and got our latke and pierogi on...and then headed over to the basement of Lit for some Sunday night karaoke action! ˆ alysha ˆ me ˆ

After I snapped this pic of Natalka (who I hadn't seen doing karaoke since the Sid and Buddy era of karaoke!), my camera died! Boooo! ˆ natalka ˆ karaoke ˆ