Yay, it's November! On Friday night, we went to see Fiasco play a show at Crash Mansion. Crash Mansion has one of the best sounding rooms in downtown NYC, but the crowd there is always a little... ˆ amanda ˆ fatty ˆ grant ˆ band ˆ crash mansion ˆ fiasco ˆ

...mmmmm, different. ˆ amanda ˆ crash mansion ˆ fiasco ˆ

But hey, that's why they got into this whole rock thing anyway! ˆ amanda ˆ fatty ˆ grant ˆ band ˆ crash mansion ˆ fiasco ˆ

Katie and Amanda cold-lamping after the show! ˆ amanda ˆ katie ˆ coldlamp ˆ

And Amanda showed off her crazy ass in her crazy-ass shiny pants. Ka-POW! ˆ amanda ˆ booty ˆ

"I say hot damn when I see a big ass." ˆ amanda ˆ me ˆ kiss ˆ

Mara was in NYC visiting from Canada (before moving here permanently a few weeks later) and we got in touch and she came to see the show! Here's Grant and Mara! ˆ grant ˆ mara a ˆ

Marina (the future Mrs. Fatty!!!), Fatty and Mara. ˆ fatty ˆ mara a ˆ marina ˆ

Now make sexy faces! ˆ fatty ˆ mara a ˆ marina ˆ

Hahaha. I love this pic so much. Clockwise from top left: Jah (Fiasco's new drummer), Katie, Fatty, Amanda, Mara and me. ˆ amanda ˆ fatty ˆ jah ˆ katie ˆ mara a ˆ me ˆ thumbs up ˆ

The band that played after Fiasco drew another, uhhh, different crowd. ˆ evan ˆ dance ˆ

But hey, they partied down pretty hard so it was all ok. ˆ bowtie ˆ dance ˆ

The shirtless guy in the hot-pants and the bow tie was totally giving Fatty the hardest nips, though. ˆ fatty ˆ nips ˆ

On Sunday afternoon, I met up with Sarah and Leigh and we went to some fancy private club that Sarah got a membership at in Chelsea. ˆ leigh ˆ sarah ˆ brunch ˆ

Vince and his lady friend. ˆ vince ˆ

See? Fancy, right? ˆ sarah ˆ painting ˆ

After brunch, we went back to apartment 3A, met up with Scott, and spent the rest of the day maxing and relaxin' on the couch. ˆ leigh ˆ scott m ˆ apt 3a ˆ

Oh, and taking turns wearing Monkey like a little dog-hat. ˆ scott m ˆ dogs ˆ monkey ˆ

Hahahahaha. OMG. I wasn't at this party, but Leigh emailed me this photo the next day and it's so good that it needed to be posted here. (PS - Leigh, what are you drinking? Is that a giant glass of Scotch??) ˆ bob saget ˆ leigh ˆ best ˆ sorta famous ˆ

On Tuesday evening, Murdo came by to say hi! Check out Hector all bundled up in his backpack! Murdo rides his bike everywhere and this is how Hector travels with him when he's biking! Hahaha. Sooooo good. ˆ hector ˆ murdo ˆ dog in a bag ˆ dogs ˆ

After Murdo left, we got back to work trying to finish up packing up our 7th Street apartment before the big move on Saturday. ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ moving ˆ

On Wednesday evening, Meredith came home with TWO MORE rats! She'd left with plans to rescue a brown rat, but because the brown rats are so much rarer, the people that were hosting the rat-adoption event had a rule that if you wanted a brown one, you had to also take a white one! So, that's how we ended up with FOUR RATS! ˆ box ˆ rats ˆ

Here's Ratso and Roxy meeting Mitzi (the brown one) and Lulu (the teeny tiny white one) for the very first time. ˆ box ˆ rats ˆ

After getting used to each other in a neutral setting, we put all four rats into their new home together. ˆ cage ˆ rats ˆ

Satisfied with the success of the introduction, Meredith decided to kick back and relax with the newest issue of Rats Magazine. Hahaha. ˆ magazine ˆ rats ˆ

A couple of weeks earlier, I'd resigned from Community Connect after accepting a job at Meetup.com, and after a little over two years there, Friday was my last day! ˆ cci ˆ

Enjoying Friday snacks with soon-to-be-former-co-workers! ˆ julie ˆ cci ˆ

Hahaha. Found all sorts of awesome random detritus downloaded from the internet while I was cleaning up my work computer.

And a little past 5pm, I turned in my (holy-shit-I-look-like-a-hippy) work ID (this photo was taken right after I'd gotten back from traveling Korea and Japan)... ˆ me ˆ id card ˆ

...and said farewell to Community Connect forever! Stephen M. was there to share my celebratory elevator ride out. ˆ me ˆ stephen m ˆ elevator ˆ

I came home and found these two little vermin having a drink together. ˆ ratso ˆ roxy ˆ cute ˆ drink ˆ rats ˆ

Even if you think rats are terrible... ˆ ratso ˆ roxy ˆ cute ˆ drink ˆ rats ˆ

...you kind of have to admit that they look pretty adorable right here. ˆ ratso ˆ roxy ˆ best ˆ cute ˆ drink ˆ rats ˆ

Then I smashed this one who went to bed super early because we were moving into our new apartment tomorrow! ˆ meredith ˆ bed ˆ

Saturday was MOVING DAY! Here's are living room all boxed up and ready to be transported. ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ box ˆ moving ˆ

And here's Scott who graciously offered to driving in from New Jersey with his pick up truck and help us move! ˆ scott ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ moving ˆ

And here's Leigh who graciously offered to come over and hulahoop in the living room so that we'd be entertained while we lugged boxes. Hahah. ˆ leigh ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ hula hoop ˆ moving ˆ

Our new apartment is in Stuyvestant Town right on Avenue C and 14th street. Here's the view of East River and the ball field from our bedroom. ˆ stuytown apt ˆ

And here's the view of the Con Edison electricity plant from our living room! (It's actually very pretty at night - if you're into the whole post-apocalyptic Blade Runner type thing). ˆ stuytown apt ˆ

We finished around 5:30. Here's Scott, Matt, Mer and Murdo celebrating after getting the final item into the apartment. After all the lugging, we decided to all head out for Thai food and feed everyone that helped with the move. Thanks so much for helping everyone! Every day I feel lucky to have the friends that I do. ;) ˆ matt ˆ meredith ˆ murdo ˆ scott ˆ moving ˆ stuytown apt ˆ

Oh, before I forget. Check it: In addition to Scott's big pick up truck, we hired two guys with a huge truck to help make the move go quicker.

One of the movers propped the door to our new apartment by wedging a quarter into the door jamb. We were all really impressed with this AWESOME TRICK until one of them totally destroyed our door on his way out when he tried to pull the apartment door closed as hard as could not knowing the quarter was still wedged in there.

After this happened, they totally just left without telling us, as if we wouldn't notice that the door was so badly bent out of shape that it wouldn't even close anymore. ˆ door ˆ quarter ˆ

Something we didn't discover until like an hour later when we were trying to leave the apartment for dinner! Luckily for us all, Scott is handy dandy, and after a couple of minutes with assorted drills and hammers (sorry about the noise, brand new neighbors) he had the door (sort of) closing again! Yay! ˆ meredith ˆ scott ˆ door ˆ

Murdo had to bust out, so we ended up going to Pukk with Matt and Scott. Here's Mer and Matt getting crunked on sangria. ˆ matt ˆ meredith ˆ sangria ˆ

Fruit teeth! Fruit teeth! Hahah. ˆ matt ˆ meredith ˆ sangria ˆ

After dinner, Meredith, Scott and I went back to our old apartment to pick up a few more things... ˆ meredith ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ moving ˆ

...and to clean out a strange variety of "tall boys" from our old fridge! Something for everybody, eh? ˆ cans ˆ

Taking 'er ease. ˆ scott ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ moving ˆ

Then, we headed back up to our brand new apartment! Here's Meredith, totally over-joyed back at the new apartment after discovering that our new apartment had FIVE big closets which meant that one of them could be used as the new Rat Hole. (Meredith likes to drag a mattress and blankets into a tiny closet and read books and take naps INSIDE the closet with the door closed.) ˆ meredith ˆ rat hole ˆ stuytown apt ˆ

After Meredith had gone to sleep in the Rat Hole, Scott and I hung out for a bit, then I helped him load up the sweet ass, brand new bureau that was left behind by the woman who'd just moved out of our new apartment. Score! Thanks again for all your help, Scott! ˆ moving ˆ

We got up nice and early on Sunday and began the long unpacking process! Here's our brand new bedroom. ˆ stuytown apt ˆ

Here's the office / guest bedroom. ˆ stuytown apt ˆ

Dining room! ˆ stuytown apt ˆ

Living room! ˆ stuytown apt ˆ

After a long day of unpacking, Mer and I decided to treat ourselves with a celebratory dinner at Curly's Vegetarian Lunch, which, in my option, is pretty much one of THE BEST restaurants in the East Village. After we ordered, Mer got busy drawing thanks to the crayons and blank place mats they have on every table. Seriously, even if you're not a vegetarian, you should try this place. It's insanely good. I highly recommend the ˆ meredith ˆ drawing ˆ

Meredith holds up the final work! Seriously, even if you're not a vegetarian, if you live any where in NYC you should check this place out. It's small and usually pretty crowded, so we usually order take out.

If you're gonna give it a shot, I highly, HIGHLY recommend the following: The Cubano Sandwich, the Buffalo Blue Cheese Burger (I get that shit with bacon on it!) or the Open Face Turkey Sandwich with Cornbread Stuffing. OMFG, soooo good. Every single person that's a non-veg that I told about this place was skeptical and every single one of them came back and apologized for doubting me. Hahah. ˆ meredith ˆ drawing ˆ

After dinner, we stopped by our old apartment one last time and collected the few things that we still had in there! ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ bike ˆ moving ˆ

Goodbye, 7th Street apartment. Thanks for such a great year. ˆ 239 e 7th ˆ bike ˆ

On Monday, I hooked up the TV and stoked to see that our previous tenant had forgotten to cancel cable! FUCKING SCORE! I was, however, quite shocked to see the new HBO On Demand line up for November. Designa Vagina? Pumping His Grundle? Holy shit, right?

Kids growing up today must have it so easy - they can just turn on the interweb or HBO On Demand and pretty much see EVERYTHING. Back when I was little, if I wanted to see some some titties I had to wait until the end of the month and then go down to the Cumberland Farms (which is the north Jersey equivalent of 7-11) every day and sneak around back and go dumpster diving - hoping we'd hit the jackpot and arrive on the day that they threw out all the n00dy mags from the previous month! (We used to sell all the extras to kids in Middle School - $5 a mag!).

It was either that or wait until everyone went to bed and stay up for hours watching the Spice Channel hoping that the "scramble" would clear up long enough to see a tit! Hahaha. ˆ best ˆ tv ˆ wtf ˆ

I still had a couple of weeks off before I started my new job at Meetup. So I spent Tuesday afternoon exploring Stuyvestant Town. Here's the awesome fountain in the middle of the Stuy Town Oval. ˆ stuytown ˆ

Stuy Town is famous for being one of the few places in Manhattan where you can see black squirrels! ˆ black squirrel ˆ squirrel ˆ stuytown ˆ

"Hi, does you have a treat for me?" ˆ black squirrel ˆ squirrel ˆ stuytown ˆ

Then on Tuesday night, Ellen and Piper came over. Our official first guests in the new apt! ˆ ellen ˆ piper ˆ dogs ˆ

Ellen and I went and got dinner... ˆ ellen ˆ

And then we came back to the apartment, met up with Meredith, and got crunked on the housewarming wine Ellen had brought with her! ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ stuytown apt ˆ us ˆ

I love how Piper looks all cute and frisky in this photo... ˆ ellen ˆ meredith ˆ piper ˆ cute ˆ dogs ˆ tongue ˆ

...and totally passed out in a food coma in this one. "Rub. My. Belly. *groan*" ˆ piper ˆ dogs ˆ

On Wednesday we did some more unpacking! Here's our new living room coming together. ˆ stuytown apt ˆ

Then it was time to clean the rat cage. It got expensive constantly buying cage bedding for the rats so Meredith decided to order huge industrial rolls of brown paper and a paper shredder and make her own bedding! ˆ meredith ˆ paper shredder ˆ

Ta-da! Sure, maybe making your own bedding for your pet rats is kind of strange... ˆ paper shredder ˆ

...but I mean, seriously, c'mon. Even if you hate vermin, there's no one in the world who can't say this picture of two rats spooning each other in a box isn't ridiculously cute. (PS - If you count the intertwined tails, you'll realize there's a third rat cuddled up in the box behind these two love birdsrats. ˆ best ˆ cuddle ˆ cute ˆ rats ˆ

On Thursday afternoon, I rode my bike around and enjoyed the mild, fall weather. Here are the mini tennis courts that are right outside our building. ˆ stuytown ˆ

Here's the pathway around the courts. ˆ stuytown ˆ

Leaves changing in Tompkins Square Park. (PS - Happy Birthday, Mom!) ˆ tompkins ˆ

On Friday night I went over to Angels & Kings (which has since been shuttered because they got busted serving drinks to underage kiddies!) to say hi to Brandon who was DJing there. I arrived and found Andy and in the booth with him. ˆ brandon ˆ sarah ˆ dj ˆ

I quickly squeezed my way in. ˆ brandon ˆ me ˆ dj ˆ

Vince was there. You know, raising the roof. Doing his thing. ˆ vince ˆ

Vince and Brandon. ˆ brandon ˆ vince ˆ

Nick was there rocking his new, incognito look. ˆ nick m ˆ

I tried on the glasses but without the wig I think I was still pretty recognizable. Maybe not so much if I put on a different colored shirt. ˆ me ˆ glasses ˆ

Dolla, dolla bill, y'all. ˆ brandon ˆ dj ˆ money ˆ

On Saturday, my brother Brett and his fiance (now wife!) Amy came into town and we met up with them at the Natural History Museam. ˆ amy b ˆ brett ˆ dino ˆ museum ˆ natural history ˆ

Here's Brett crushing his tiny, dino head. ˆ brett ˆ museum ˆ natural history ˆ

T-rex! ˆ dino arm ˆ dinosaur ˆ museum ˆ natural history ˆ t-rex ˆ

Vestiges of larger ancestral arms? Oh, man - can you imagine how much scarier a t-rex would be if it had normal sized arms that it could use to reach out and grab you? ˆ sign ˆ t-rex ˆ

Dance it out, now dance it out. ˆ dinosaur ˆ museum ˆ natural history ˆ

My new friend Sylvie that had just moved to NYC recently came and met up with us. ˆ brett ˆ sylvie ˆ puppet ˆ

Are you tickling the puppet? ˆ sylvie ˆ puppet ˆ

Step 1: Press Button
Step 2: Receive Bacon ˆ sign ˆ

On Sunday night, I met up with a big old group of people at a Japanese restaurant down on the Bowery to celebrate... ˆ japanese food ˆ

...Jenny Penny's birthday! Yay! ˆ jenny penny ˆ birthday ˆ

Here's me, Jenny (the birthday girl!), Shruti and JB. ˆ jb ˆ jenny penny ˆ me ˆ shruti ˆ birthday ˆ excited ˆ

And here's Jenny showing off one of her gifts: a bartender's guide that had pictures of topless, oiled sluts cupping their boobies on every page! (Clearly given to Jenny by someone who knows her well!). Happy Birthday, Jenny! ˆ jenny penny ˆ birthday ˆ boobs ˆ tongue ˆ