On Sunday afternoon I was coming back from the park and I noticed that there's a bakery right near my house that has a cool window display of the different kind of custom cakes they offer. They had wedding cakes... ˆ cake ˆ

...Bachelorette Party cakes... ˆ cake ˆ

...and what I'm hoping is a Bachelor Party cake. I love her totally sheer shirt. What a slut! ˆ boobs ˆ cake ˆ

On Wednesday night a whole bunch of us met up for dinner at La Palapa to celebrate... ˆ faran ˆ karen ˆ peter g ˆ quinn ˆ

...Ellen's birthday! Yaaaaaay! ˆ ellen ˆ birthday ˆ thumbs up ˆ

Mmmmmm. Mexican-y. ˆ food ˆ mexican ˆ

Gurj was there showing off her "napkin trick" where you use a hidden knife to make the napkin look like it's dancing. Gurj is the fucking QUEEN of this move. She is like a professional Napkin Illusionist. ˆ jeet ˆ quinn ˆ napkin ˆ

Needless to say, the entire table was busy documenting her "show." ˆ sarah ˆ camera ˆ

The birthday girl blowing out her birthday cupcake! ˆ ellen ˆ birthday ˆ candles ˆ

After dinner, we walked over to some dive bar (I forget which!). On the way there, Ellen stopped for a quick holistic facial. Ha! ˆ ellen ˆ flyer ˆ

Lawrence, Gurj, Ellen and Vanessa! ˆ brother lawrence ˆ ellen ˆ jeet ˆ vanessa ˆ

After getting settled in, it was present time! One of Ellen's gift was a pack of "nerd themed" temporary tattoos. She opened them on the spot and we started applying them. Mollie (seen here with Creepor Lawrence) went first and opted for a classy winky emoticon on her wrist. ˆ brother lawrence ˆ mollie ˆ fake tattoo ˆ

Hahahah. (Bonus points to Gurj for accidentally making it look like she's licking Mollie's arm). ˆ brother lawrence ˆ jeet ˆ mollie ˆ fake tattoo ˆ

I went for this sweet-ass 20-sided flaming die! ˆ fake tattoo ˆ

Everyone picked out the biggest tattoo for the birthday girl. ˆ ellen ˆ sean m ˆ fake tattoo ˆ

Sean was happy to apply it with love and extra attention to detail. ˆ ellen ˆ birthday ˆ fake tattoo ˆ wave ˆ

Ta-da! It's hard to tell from this photo but it's a picture of an Atari 2600 joystick with a banner underneath it that says "OLD SCHOOL." (It also says something underneath in binary: 0011010000110010. Which if you convert to ASCII is "42." Maybe a Hitchhiker's Reference?) ˆ ellen ˆ best ˆ boobs ˆ fake tattoo ˆ

Anyway, enough nerd speculation! Let's get back to admiring Ellen's fantastic temporary tittoo. ˆ ellen ˆ sean m ˆ best ˆ birthday ˆ boobs ˆ fake tattoo ˆ

Happy Birthday, Ellen! We love you! ˆ ellen ˆ fatty ˆ piper ˆ dogs in outfits ˆ

On Friday night I went to The Dove on Thompson Street to see some OLD SCHOOL Nerve.com friends who have since gotten all-growed-up and moved out of NYC so they could start MAKING BABIES! Soon after I arrived, look who showed up with a stroller! ˆ joey ˆ stroller ˆ

That's right! It's Joey and Lorelei with their recently-arrived munchkin, Elliette. Hahaha. This pics makes me smile every time I see it. ˆ elliette ˆ joey ˆ lorelei ˆ baby ˆ

And because everyone knows that Emma and Lorelei do EVERYTHING TOGETHER...here's a pic of super-preggo Em to proving that she and her husband Rob are only a couple of weeks behind Joey & Lo in the baby-making dept! (Their daughter Evie was born less than two weeks later! Two girls! Ev & El = the next Em & Lo?) ˆ emma ˆ preggo ˆ

On Saturday I was at a store and they had a poster advertising a forthcoming book signing by Adrian Tomine and I took this photo of it so that I'd remember to tell Vin about it! ˆ drawing ˆ poster ˆ

As I've mentioned before, Meredith occasionally borrows my camera to document the craft projects she does for her She's Crafty column on PopSerious. Here's a skull zipper-pull! ˆ crafts ˆ

Pac-Man zipper-pull! ˆ crafts ˆ

She also played around with making a couple of dangly cellphone charms. ˆ crafts ˆ

Oh, and she also got her nails did around the corner. ˆ hand ˆ nails ˆ

Check out that detailing work. Noice. ˆ nails ˆ

On Thursday night, I met up wtih Lisa (who looks like she was channeling Stevie Nicks during her "Indigenous Peoples of New Mexico" phase) and we kicked some late night karaoke jams at Winnie's. ˆ lisa ˆ karaoke ˆ winnies ˆ

Giving Whitney some feeling. ˆ lisa ˆ karaoke ˆ winnies ˆ

On Friday night a whole bunch of people came over to our place to hang and play some Cranium! ˆ amanda ˆ jeet ˆ katie ˆ meredith ˆ murdo ˆ sandy ˆ siege ˆ stuytown apt ˆ

Gurj was there looking cute. ˆ jeet ˆ

Murdo was there showing off his incredible sense of balance (and a pretty serious head o' hair). ˆ murdo ˆ best ˆ

Then it was Cranium time! ˆ amanda ˆ murdo ˆ cranium ˆ

Action shot. ˆ meredith ˆ cranium ˆ

Hahaha. ˆ katie ˆ me ˆ siege ˆ cranium ˆ

Bridget and Sandy (and Hector!). ˆ bridget ˆ katie ˆ meredith ˆ sandy ˆ

Most people took off around 1:30, but Gurj stuck around for a while with me and we played Rock Band together. ˆ jeet ˆ rockband ˆ videogames ˆ

And then around 3am we finally got up off our asses and headed down to Orchard Bar (er, or maybe Hanger Bar?) to visit with Karen... ˆ jeet ˆ karen ˆ

...and Sarah Mitch Miller! ˆ sarah ˆ record ˆ

We got played records, got crunked on big drinks served in weird jars and tried our best to fit an entire glass in our mouths like Susan used to do way back in the day. ˆ karen ˆ blow job ˆ

Not. Even. Close. ˆ karen ˆ me ˆ blow job ˆ

On Saturday I went out to New Jersey to celebrate my dad's birthday! Happy Birthday, Pappi! ˆ dad ˆ birthday ˆ

Then later that night I took a ride up to Pat's Bar in Landing to visit Scott, who after years on the waiting list, is finally a regular bartender at Pat's! ˆ scott ˆ best ˆ pats bar ˆ roxbury high school ˆ

Scott gives the thumbs up as he locks up! ˆ scott ˆ pats bar ˆ

Sunday was my dad's actual birthday and Meredith came out to join us! Here's my dad getting ready to open some presents. ˆ dad ˆ birthday ˆ gift ˆ

Golf book. ˆ dad ˆ birthday ˆ book ˆ gift ˆ

After my dad was done opening his present, we moved on to some Christmas gifts that we'd never gotten a chance to give each other because Meredith and I were both sick in late December and were under quarantine. ˆ mom ˆ gift ˆ

After we opened presents, my mom gave us Christmas stockings that were filled with... ˆ meredith ˆ gift ˆ

...scratch-off lottery tickets! (No big winners). ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ scratchers ˆ

Later that night, Meredith and my mom baked a cake for my dad's birthday. Here's Meredith mid-decoration. ˆ meredith ˆ cake ˆ

Voila! An orange and blue Syracuse football cake for my dad! My dad nearly creamed himself...Cake, Football and Syracuse are like this three favorite things in the world (in that order). ˆ birthday ˆ cake ˆ

He even wears cute little sweatshirts with the team he's routing for on them when we watches football. I know you're not really supposed say that sports fans are kind of adorable...but what can I say? Tell me this photo isn't a little adorable. Happy Birthday, Dad! ˆ dad ˆ birthday ˆ cake ˆ candles ˆ

Ok, enough with the mushy stuff. Hand me the knife, woman! It's cake cutting time! ˆ dad ˆ mom ˆ cake ˆ

Obligatory pics of CANDLE FANGS! ˆ mom ˆ candles ˆ vampire ˆ

HISS! ˆ meredith ˆ candles ˆ vampire ˆ

Mmmmmmm...I take after my dad. Yellow cake with chocolate icing and PUDDIN' in the middle? Holy shit, I'm drooling on my shirt right now writing this caption. The ol' Pavlovian cake-caption response. ˆ birthday ˆ cake ˆ

On Monday night I hung out with my girls. ˆ edie ˆ leigh ˆ

Heading out. ˆ stairs ˆ

We went to The Darkroom because... ˆ best ˆ stairs ˆ

...our friend Little Miss So-and-So was DJing. ˆ sarah ˆ dj ˆ

I'm going to punch you both right smack in the middle of your two perfectly-pursed puckers. ˆ leigh ˆ sarah ˆ pretty ˆ

Then I ran into this guy! I don't even think this kid's legal yet and he already knows the right way to lean against a jukebox. ˆ jackson ˆ jukebox ˆ

We made a party on the dance floor. (PS - Jackson, is that Sailor Moon in front of you? WTF!) ˆ jackson ˆ crowd ˆ

Later on Lauren stopped by! Hadn't seen her in a reeeeeal long time! Not since Meredith's birthday party over a year ago! ˆ lauren flax ˆ leigh ˆ me ˆ

Hahaha. There was a flier up advertising some party the MisShapes were DJing at and somebody totally took the time to go out of their way and write the word "DOUCHE" with an arrow pointing to Geordon's name. It made Sarah sad. But me, I'm a real sucker for passive aggressive acts that are done with flair! You won me over with your pink pen, dear flier vandal! ˆ sarah ˆ flyer ˆ sad ˆ thumbs up ˆ

It got late so we kissed the little one good night and headed out... ˆ jackson ˆ me ˆ kiss ˆ

...so that we could lay back and lounge on the sidewalks. The cool, steel embrace of a curbside, overturned grocery cart. It's what's SO HOT right now. ˆ leigh ˆ shopping cart ˆ street ˆ

On Tuesday night I went out to dinner with two of my most favorite former co-workers ever, Mike & Court. This picture makes me so happy. Our "one after dinner drink" quickly turned to five and then six. And then things got ugly. ˆ court ˆ mike montero ˆ best ˆ

If you're out late on a Wednesday night with two married guys who have kids and don't go out that much anymore, there's probably a good chance that you're all going to agree that a couple of neat whiskeys are a good idea. ˆ mike montero ˆ lick ˆ shots ˆ tongue ˆ

Early the next morning, however, you will realize the folly of your ways. This is the picture I took of myself in the elevator on my way to work the next morning because I wanted to see if the massive hangover I was suffering was empirically obvious. The answer? A resounding yes. My head feels like ouchy. ˆ me ˆ hangover ˆ

On Thursday night I went up to the Hotel QT in Times Square to go to Ellen Stagg's 30th birthday pool party! ˆ ellen stagg ˆ pool ˆ thumbs up ˆ

The Siege started showing me his "seduction by swimming" technique and my lens got all fogged up. Happy January! ˆ siege ˆ pool ˆ