On Saturday evening, we went up to the Upper East Side and had dinner with Meredith's parents to celebrate Meredith's birthday! ˆ meredith ˆ birthday ˆ cake ˆ candles ˆ

On Saturday night I went to Williamsburg... ˆ brooklyn ˆ street ˆ

...to this guy's place for a late night projection-screening of The Shining. ˆ siege ˆ

I went to pee in the middle of the movie and this is what someone did in the bathroom. Hahaha. ˆ bathroom ˆ mirror ˆ

On Monday night I went over to Angels & Kings for a karaoke competition that was being held to celebrate the release of Sarah Lewitinn's SECOND BOOK, Pocket Karaoke. ! Here's Karen with our beloved author! Congrats again, Sarah! TWO BOOKS? We're so proud of you! ˆ karen ˆ sarah ˆ

Check out the crowd. Madness! ˆ crowd ˆ

One of the first competitors was the ONE AND ONLY Kevin Myers. ˆ kevin myers ˆ karaoke ˆ

Here he is doing his signature jam: Prince's Pussy Control. ˆ goldteeth ˆ kevin myers ˆ karaoke ˆ

The fact that Sarah was a judge didn't stop her from getting up on the stage and getting down! ˆ kevin myers ˆ sarah ˆ karaoke ˆ

Hahaha. ˆ kevin myers ˆ sarah ˆ karaoke ˆ

Mr. Matt Rubano was also there as a judge! Kevin blew him away - here he is getting ready to hand out a 9! ˆ matt ˆ judges ˆ karaoke ˆ

High Scores All Around! ˆ karen ˆ meredith ˆ sarah ˆ judges ˆ

A couple of contestants later and there was another familiar face... ˆ josh m ˆ lisa graham ˆ karaoke ˆ

...that's right! Dennis Crowley was there kicking his signature jam: Jovi's Wanted Dead of Alive. ˆ dens ˆ karaoke ˆ

Feelin' the Jov'. ˆ dens ˆ goldteeth ˆ karaoke ˆ

Next up was our friend Mr. Casey Squyres, who was visiting from out of town. After spending a little bit of time establishing cred with the crowd... ˆ casey squyres ˆ goldteeth ˆ crowd ˆ karaoke ˆ

...he moved right on to trying to make a personal connection with the judges. Mr. Rubano in particular. ˆ casey squyres ˆ matt ˆ karaoke ˆ

We was flipping his hair around, show-boating on the high notes... ˆ casey squyres ˆ karaoke ˆ

...everyone knows that Rubano is a sucker for that shit. Matt fell heart over heels before the song was even finished. ˆ matt ˆ smitten ˆ

Hahaha. ˆ casey squyres ˆ matt ˆ hug ˆ

Aw, what a wife-sneak! I had no idea Mer was doing this. It's like the nice version of the surreptitious "get a load of this guy" finger-point. ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ judges ˆ

Later on this girl went. She was only memorable for how completely off-key she managed to be for the entire song. Check out the DJ's face to her right. Hahah. ˆ karaoke ˆ

The judges gave ones only because there weren't any zeroes provided. ˆ judges ˆ

The next girl was wearing a teeny, tiny denim mini-skirt and what she lacked in vocal talent, she more than made up for with her expert "show the judges my crotch for an entire three minutes" skills. Hey, there's more than one way to win a karaoke competition! Nicely done! ˆ karaoke ˆ panties ˆ

After the last contestant sang, the judges went off to confer on the winner and I headed away from the stage to a little nook in the front corner of the bar to see what Brooke, Casey and Ryan were up to. ˆ brooke ˆ casey squyres ˆ leroy ˆ ryan heil ˆ dogs ˆ

Turns out they were rocking the fuck out with Leroy... ˆ brooke ˆ casey squyres ˆ leroy ˆ dogs ˆ

...and had just started working on a second fifth of OLD CROW straight from the bottle. Hoo-ah. ˆ ryan heil ˆ drink from the bottle ˆ

This is how Brooke rolls: Tiny dog in one hand, Old Crow in the other. ˆ brooke ˆ casey squyres ˆ leroy ˆ drink from the bottle ˆ

Hahaha. ˆ brooke ˆ casey squyres ˆ leroy ˆ lick ˆ the bird ˆ

Me and Leroy. ˆ leroy ˆ me ˆ dogs ˆ

Giving his round little dino-dome a kiss. ˆ leroy ˆ me ˆ kiss ˆ

A little after 1am, Sarah came out to announce the winner (I don't even remember who it was!), thanked everyone for coming, and handing out some schweet schwag bags! ˆ sarah ˆ judges ˆ karaoke ˆ

Karen and her really nice friend whose name I forgot! Sorry! ˆ karen ˆ

Hahaha. If someone gives you a bottle of free vodka, it's your duty to finish it. ˆ karen ˆ meredith ˆ best ˆ drink from the bottle ˆ drunk ˆ

Even if that means pouring some of it, er, down your pants? ˆ karen ˆ meredith ˆ drunk ˆ

Goodnight, Cleveland! ˆ crowd ˆ

Mer and Matt. ˆ matt ˆ meredith ˆ

Best bathroom graffiti ever. ˆ bathroom ˆ best ˆ gay ˆ graffiti ˆ

Me and Sarah. Congrats again, Beantown! ˆ me ˆ sarah ˆ

On Wednesday night after work, a whole bunch of us headed to Dave & Buster's in Times Square to celebrate... ˆ dave and busters ˆ

...MEREDITH'S 28th BIRTHDAY! ˆ meredith ˆ birthday ˆ gift ˆ

The first people to arrive! Mandy, Hatti, Amber...and.... ˆ amber ˆ hatti ˆ mandy m ˆ

...a random guy that Meredith met on the subway platform on her way to the party. ˆ meredith ˆ strangers ˆ

Presents! ˆ meredith ˆ birthday ˆ gift ˆ

Someone gave her this big fancy box from Sephora... ˆ gift ˆ

...that turned out to have a homemade birthday cake inside! (That ran into some "transportation problems" en route). ˆ birthday ˆ cake ˆ

After food, present and drinks, valuables were tucked into the back of pants... ˆ meredith ˆ wallet ˆ

...and then everyone started working to win some TICKETS!!! Here's Sarah Harrison and Meredith getting their Ski-Ball on. ˆ meredith ˆ sarah h ˆ dave and busters ˆ ski ball ˆ

Cha-ching. ˆ meredith ˆ sarah h ˆ dave and busters ˆ tickets ˆ

Check out the Ice Queen on the HI-ROLLER arcade machine! Saucy! ˆ dave and busters ˆ

Amanda playing air hockey with... ˆ amanda ˆ air hockey ˆ dave and busters ˆ

...Scott. ˆ scott ward ˆ air hockey ˆ dave and busters ˆ

Meredith immersed herself in 1996's vision of virtual reality. ˆ meredith ˆ dave and busters ˆ videogames ˆ

Mr. Benjamin Apple frowning over the trail of tickets awarded to me after I CRUSHED him at some terrible video trivia game. ˆ benjamin ˆ dave and busters ˆ tickets ˆ

Hahaha. The birthday girl celebrating a huge ticket win! ˆ meredith ˆ dave and busters ˆ tickets ˆ

I HAS SO MANY. ˆ meredith ˆ dave and busters ˆ tickets ˆ

Around 11:45pm, we were informed that Dave & Buster's would be closing soon, so we rushed into the TICKET REDEMPTION store to pick out some incredible prizes. ˆ benjamin ˆ meredith ˆ dave and busters ˆ

WANT! ˆ meredith ˆ best ˆ dave and busters ˆ

Benjamin frolicked the NFL Merchandise oversized-kickball OF HIS DREAMS! ˆ benjamin ˆ best ˆ dave and busters ˆ jump ˆ

Before leaving, we spend the last of our Dave & Buster's credits on a reading from MADAM ZOLTAR.... ˆ dave and busters ˆ fortune teller ˆ

...but she refused to turn any of us into 13 year-old kids again. Whatta gyp! (Ha!) ˆ benjamin ˆ

Just because you're getting older... ˆ benjamin ˆ escalator ˆ

...doesn't mean you have to grow up. ˆ benjamin ˆ escalator ˆ

Then when we got home, we opened MOAR PRESENTS! Happy 28th Birthday, Mer. I love you! ˆ meredith ˆ gift ˆ

On Thursday night I went out to drinks with Posh Tony. Later on in the night we headed over to the Maritime... ˆ me ˆ posh tony ˆ get a load of this guy ˆ

...to say hi to his lovely girlfriend Cyan, who was bartending at Hiro. ˆ cyan ˆ

The be-masked Italians DJ duo, The Bloody Beetroots were there. ˆ dj ˆ the bloody beetroots ˆ

The crowd. ˆ crowd ˆ

Their set was good, but neither Posh nor I knew a single person in the entire place and it made us feel capital "O" OLD. ˆ dj ˆ the bloody beetroots ˆ

The highlight of my entire night (I mean besides all of the incredible conversation with Posh) was watching this gentleman, the GAYEST MAN OF ALL TIME, dancing alone against the wall in the corner for 45 minutes. I'm 90% convinced that Sascha Baron Cohen saw this man out somewhere and that he inspired the Bruno character. ˆ dance ˆ

On Saturday morning I got up bright and early and took the train out to suburban New Jersey to help my parents clean out the basement. They had recently sold the home that I spent most of my formative years in (in Succasunna, NJ) and were getting ready to move down to Florida! After an early lunch, my dad and I.... ˆ dad ˆ

...headed down into the basement and began an incredibly long day of... ˆ 8 radcliff drive ˆ basement ˆ stairs ˆ

...sorting through tons and tons of boxes of crap that had accumulated over the last 24 years and decided what to little we wanted to rescue from the big garage sale my mom had planned. ˆ 8 radcliff drive ˆ basement ˆ

Check out the my mom and dad in 1975! (Grant, check out my dad wearing BIG BLUE! Big Blue is a ski jacket that I found in my dad's closet and fell in love with and wore it for like 10 years in a row and always caught flack for. Hahah. God, I love that jacket.) ˆ dad ˆ mom ˆ big blue the jacket ˆ meta ˆ

I also found 5 huge boxes of my stuff from college that hadn't been opened since May of 1998 when I deposited them in my parent's basement. Amongst some of the treasures I discovered was a photocopy of the original "TODAY WE LEARNED TO KILL. ME AND BILLY KILLED ALL DAY" drawing John Roche made in 1994! ˆ john roche ˆ drawing ˆ

I also discovered THE CLEARDO! The cleardo was a clear, jelly dildo that we found after a huge house party we had at 111 Redfield Place back in college! My housemates and I used to hide it in each other's rooms any time we knew someone had guests coming over because it was always funny watching someone try to explain to their parents that "It's not MY DILDO, Dad! I swear! It's just a dildo that somehow ended up here during a party and we hide it in each other's rooms as a joke! Get it? Mom, please don't cry. C'mon mom, it's a joke. Seriously." ˆ cleardo ˆ

So yeah, while I was packing up to leave college in May of 1998, one of my roommates must've snuck the cleardo into this box and it spent 10 years in my parents basement and turned a weird, milky tan color. Ew. Other treasures that were discovered along with THE CLEARDO included 30 feet of nylon rope and an audio cassette of Antrax's Persistence of Time. Talk about a PARTY IN A BOX, eh? ˆ anthrax ˆ cleardo ˆ rope ˆ

After an epic day of cleaning, I caught the last train back to NYC. And had my tiny mind blown by NJ Transit's brand new double-decker train cars. We are so living in the future. ˆ train ˆ

Way later that night, I went out to Brooklyn to go to a party at Brad Walsh's apt! ˆ brad walsh ˆ

Eva and Quinn! ˆ eva ˆ quinn ˆ tit squeeze ˆ tongue ˆ

Eva's boobies were in full effect and needed to be celebrated. Hahaha. ˆ eva ˆ quinn ˆ best ˆ tit squeeze ˆ

Eva, Quinn and Renee. ˆ eva ˆ quinn ˆ renee ˆ

Mandy and Karen. ˆ karen ˆ mandy ˆ

More worship of Eva's boobs. People just couldn't keep their hands off 'em that night! ˆ eva ˆ josh adcock ˆ carry ˆ

I don't remember who these girls are, but hi there!

A kiss goodnight from Mandy! Happy first half of March 2008! ˆ mandy ˆ me ˆ kiss ˆ