I went out Friday night, but came home around 2am because I wasn't feeling well. I came into our bedroom and found this little git cuddling a stuffed animal and playing her Nintendo DS! ˆ meredith ˆ bed ˆ nintendo ds ˆ

Who's the prettiest nerd I know? ˆ meredith ˆ bed ˆ

Certainly not this guy. ˆ me ˆ bed ˆ ugly face ˆ

I woke up the next morning with a fever and spent all of Saturday in bed. Boo. ˆ sick ˆ

On Sunday I took the train out to NJ to visit my parents and grandparents. For whatever reason, I only took pictures of the train ride and no pictures of people! Hahaha. I don't know why, but I really love the strange, swampy marshland that's in New Jersey right outside of New York City. ˆ train ˆ

I love the way the water and grass contrasts with all the old, abandoned industrial train tracks and factories from when this area was huge manufacturing district. ˆ train ˆ

Strangely beautiful. ˆ train ˆ

I got home a little past midnight and when I went over to say hi to the rats, I noticed that something was different. ˆ ratso ˆ rats ˆ

...and by different, I mean that one of them (The Good One) was dyed bright pink! Meredith bought some Kool-Aid and decided to give Ratso a little bit of color. ˆ rats ˆ

Cuddle Rat! (Meredith, you're a weird rat mom!) ˆ meredith ˆ ratso ˆ rats ˆ

On Monday afternoon, I met up with Antony for some delicious Mexican food... ˆ posh tony ˆ

...and then later that night I went to see his band, The Five O'Clock Heroes, play at the Mercury Lounge. Here's Elliot and Posh Tony in action. ˆ posh tony ˆ band ˆ five oclock heroes ˆ

Nader on bass. ˆ nader ˆ five oclock heroes ˆ

By the way, I'm writing this almost a year and a half later and after years and years of touring, Antony's band is finally starting to blow up! Check out this vid of Pamela Anderson introducing them as the musical guest on The Sunday Night Project, a big variety show that airs in the UK. Insanity, right? ˆ five oclock heroes ˆ video ˆ

Congrats, Posh Tony! ˆ posh tony ˆ kiss ˆ

After the show we went over to what used be Pioneer Bar on Bowery (no idea what it's called these days) for the after party.

Nader and a ladyfriend. ˆ nader ˆ

On my way home, I stopped by Black and White and ran into Chris Black and Hallie! ˆ chris black ˆ hallie ˆ

Then this happened. Then we got yelled at by the bouncer for our lack of subtly. Hahahah. I love this photo. ˆ chris black ˆ hallie ˆ smoke ˆ

Thursday night I hung out with Leigh (the Scared Elf) and Max... ˆ leigh ˆ max ˆ

...and then on my way home, I picked up the Fatty and MADE HIM come over try out Guitar Hero. He had a little trouble getting it at first... ˆ fatty ˆ guitar hero ˆ videogames ˆ

...but then his METAL muscle-memory kicked in... ˆ fatty ˆ guitar hero ˆ videogames ˆ

...don't forget, back in the late 80s, Fatty (fourth from left - check out THAT MANE!) was the main ax-player in Nasty Magic, the sickest metal band in the entire greater-New Milford area of Connecticut! ˆ fatty ˆ band ˆ nasty magic ˆ

"Fatty Impresses The Rat Cellar with Gripping Set!" 4 Stars and 91% of notes hit? Who says that THE MAGIC is gone? ˆ fatty ˆ guitar hero ˆ videogames ˆ

METAL! ˆ me ˆ guitar hero ˆ videogames ˆ

Meredith: "Uh, and you call me a nerd for playing my Nintendo DS?" ˆ meredith ˆ

On Monday, Joe and Brandon came over for more Guitar Hero dork-action! Joe was killing it right out of the gate... ˆ joe ˆ guitar hero ˆ videogames ˆ

...Brandon, however, not so much. After his second or third attempt, he was like "How about I just watch you two play?" Awwww! ˆ brandon ˆ guitar hero ˆ videogames ˆ

On Wednesday night I went all the way over to the Meatpacking District to visit Leigh who was DJing at some new club that had opened up over there. ˆ crowd ˆ

By the time I got there, she'd finished DJing. The music was way too loud - but because she was promoting the place, she couldn't leave to go somewhere more conducive to having conversation. Leigh's solution? Steal a bottle of vodka and a bucket of ice and commandeer the back bathroom as our private lounge! Problem solved! Of course, drinking vodka on the rocks for a few hours... ˆ leigh ˆ

...leads to faces like this! Hahaha! I love you, you little klepto elf! ˆ leigh ˆ me ˆ drunk ˆ

On Friday afternoon, Mike and I took Court out to a farewell lunch! Two weeks earlier he'd announced that he was resigning his job as Chief Operating Officer of Community Connect (where he was my boss) in order to take a job as the CEO of a new start-up called Yodle that helps local business advertise online! (Where I currently work and Court is my boss again! Yay!). ˆ court ˆ mike montero ˆ cci ˆ

I know he's my boss and all, but I just can't help myself and need to point out that I think Court is exactly what McLovin will look like when he grows up! ˆ mclovin ˆ

Look! It's CourtLovin! Hahahahaha! ˆ court ˆ mclovin ˆ best ˆ

Later that night after work, I went to the opening of Katie & Ellen's show in the East Village. A bunch of the pieces there were collaborations between Ellen and Katie and there were a bunch of a familiar faces... ˆ art ˆ

...or familiar masked-faces! Check out Grant flexing down in his Mexican wrestler mask! ˆ grant ˆ art ˆ

And Ellen using the frame from Jack's party to frame herself! ˆ ellen stagg ˆ art ˆ boobs ˆ

My favorite was this illustration of two monkeys that was done on an old-school 5 1/4" floppy disk! I liked it so much I bought it as a gift for Mer! ˆ art ˆ monkey ˆ

Later that night I went over to the Blue Owl to wish Karen M. a happy birthday! Here's the birthday girl with Karen L. and Dens. (Dennis had just recently left Google and was saying goodbye to his old ID badge). ˆ dens ˆ karen landes ˆ karen marsala ˆ

The previous photo was so nice that I just had to sneak myself into it. ˆ dens ˆ karen landes ˆ karen marsala ˆ me ˆ

Around 2am we all went around the corner to see the apartment that Karen had just bought! Here she is showing off the "fish tank in the fireplace" in her new building's lobby! ˆ karen marsala ˆ fish ˆ

I tried to take a group shot of us all in the elevator and failed miserably. Boo! ˆ me ˆ natasha ˆ elevator ˆ

On the way home I took this super-spooky of Tompkins Square Park! ˆ tompkins ˆ

On Saturday night Meredith and I went out to meet up with Vin and Dave. ˆ dave g ˆ vin ˆ

Wing-wong! ˆ meredith ˆ pretty ˆ

Meredith caught Vin and I taking one of our signature "Tough Guy" photos that we've been doing as joke since at least 1998, and wanted to give being a "tough guy" a shot. ˆ me ˆ vin ˆ tough ˆ

Hahaha. She pretty much nailed it her very first time! I like how she combined the "NJ-Guido Brow-Furrow" with the "Staten Island Mouth-Pout." A very effective combo! ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ tough ˆ us ˆ

On Tuesday night Meredith and I went to the Bitter End to see Caitlin sing (with "WHITEBOY" Mitch Mitchell on guitar!!! LOL!). It was a charity show to raise money for... ˆ caitlin ˆ band ˆ

...The Pinwheel Project; a non-profit that has programs to provide sick children with extra care during their hospital stays. ˆ meredith ˆ

Caitlin's pretty much the best singer I know, so the show was great. And as an added bonus... ˆ caitlin ˆ band ˆ

...Coco was there! We hadn't seen her in ages and got to catch up! ˆ coco ˆ meredith ˆ

After almost dying on my bike ride to work on Thursday morning (a big truck pulled over into my bike lane and almost smooooshed against a row of parked cars), I decided to stop being an idiot and went to the bike store during lunch and bought a helmet. ˆ me ˆ helmet ˆ work ˆ

I look like a turtle. ˆ me ˆ helmet ˆ

I came home to this! Hahaha. ˆ meredith ˆ best ˆ

And then I played with Ratso (whose pink, Kool-Aid fur had pretty much gone back to white). ˆ me ˆ ratso ˆ

On Saturday morning I met up with Rachael to get breakfast at Curly's Vegetarian Lunch! Mmmmmm! ˆ rachael ˆ

And then on the walk home I saw this totally sweet and sad tribute to John the Super on the block next to mine. ˆ sad ˆ

I don't know why, but I thought this was so sweet and heart-breakingly sad at the same time. ˆ sad ˆ

Later that night, Mer and I went out to Katie and Siege's apartment. Here's Nina and Katie with their matching blond-bangs! ˆ katie ˆ nina ˆ

Catrinel and Maureen were there... ˆ catrinel ˆ katie ˆ maureen ˆ

...and we all marveled at "Heart of the Cajuns" painting that Siege's agent had given him of an old family photo of Siege with his mom and little brother. ˆ siege ˆ art ˆ

Then we made ugly faces! ˆ me ˆ ugly face ˆ

Cat's a pirate. ˆ catrinel ˆ ugly face ˆ

Siege and Cat. ˆ catrinel ˆ siege ˆ ugly face ˆ

Goodnight! ˆ meredith ˆ