On Monday night around 11pm, I got a text from Gurj that her good friend Fran was in town from the UK and they were at 2nd on 2nd singing karaoke and that my presence was requested. ˆ fran ˆ jeet ˆ karaoke ˆ

I immediately hopped on my bike and arrived in the midst of a Fran & Gurj duet. (Love this photo!) ˆ fran ˆ jeet ˆ best ˆ karaoke ˆ

Rest of the crew already in attendance! ˆ fran ˆ nick snow ˆ sarah ˆ

Hahaha. What's more adorable than this little midget singing UB40's Red Red Wine... ˆ sarah ˆ karaoke ˆ

...in her little stripey dress and super-short bangs that look like she let a little kid cut her hair. ˆ sarah ˆ karaoke ˆ

But in a good way, right? Sarah Wilson was in town with her fiance Tim, and she came to sing after Tim's band (Cursive!) finished playing a show. ˆ sarah ˆ sarah wilson ˆ

Gurj and Cara. ˆ cara ˆ jeet ˆ duet ˆ karaoke ˆ

Nick Snow (looking like a Dr. Seuss drawing in this pic)! ˆ nick snow ˆ karaoke ˆ

Nick returning the mic. ˆ nick snow ˆ karaoke booth ˆ

Sarah Flagpole-Sitting, of course. ˆ sarah ˆ karaoke ˆ

Sarah and Sarah sung a duet. I don't remember what it was and my flash is whiting out the lyrics on the screen. ˆ sarah ˆ sarah wilson ˆ duet ˆ karaoke ˆ

Looks like it was a dancey number, though. ˆ sarah ˆ sarah wilson ˆ duet ˆ karaoke ˆ

And it apparently inspired us to take this photo in the middle of it. ˆ cara ˆ me ˆ

A little after 1am Tim showed up and did Gen X's Dancing With Myself. ˆ tim kasher ˆ karaoke ˆ sorta famous ˆ

It you're wondering if it was as awesome as you're imagining it was...it was. ˆ tim kasher ˆ karaoke ˆ sorta famous ˆ

Sarah and Sarah and another girl! Is another girl drunk? She looks drunk! That's it! I'm tagging this photo with "drunk!" ˆ sarah ˆ sarah wilson ˆ drunk ˆ karaoke ˆ

"Oh." Yep, she's drunk! ;-) ˆ sarah ˆ drunk ˆ duet ˆ karaoke ˆ

I think it's safe to say we're all getting a little drunk at this point. ˆ me ˆ sarah wilson ˆ crazy ˆ drunk ˆ tongue ˆ

Hahaha. ˆ duet ˆ karaoke ˆ

I don't know this gentleman, but his karaoke game (he's singing a jam from Phantom of the Opera) and his karaoke-face were both so strong, I had no choice but to take photos. ˆ karaoke ˆ strangers ˆ

And for the very last song of the night, Tim & Sarah closed it out with a duet of Summer Lovin'. ˆ sarah wilson ˆ tim kasher ˆ duet ˆ karaoke ˆ sorta famous ˆ

The Farewell Party. ˆ sarah wilson ˆ tim kasher ˆ duet ˆ karaoke ˆ

Pics or it didn't happen. ˆ sarah ˆ camera ˆ

On Tuesday night, I went to the UCB Theater to see Benjamin Apple's improv group perform. ˆ benjamin ˆ improv ˆ ucb ˆ

Yodle's old offices were on 8th Ave and 40th Street and one side of our office windows faced the New York Times Building. We were working in the late afternoon when the relative quiet was disturbed by all sorts of sirens. We looked outside and saw a huge crowd and a bunch of fire and police vehicles gathering at the base of the building. ˆ buildings ˆ nyc ˆ nyt building ˆ street ˆ

See the "Z" about halfway up the left-hand side of the building that's facing the camera? If you look just to the left of the "Z" you'll see a tiny white pixel. Do you know what that is? ˆ buildings ˆ nyc ˆ nyt building ˆ

How about I zoom in a little bit? ˆ best ˆ buildings ˆ climb ˆ nyc ˆ nyt building ˆ

A little more zoom... ˆ buildings ˆ climb ˆ crazy ˆ nyc ˆ nyt building ˆ

...all the way zoomed in and...HEY WAIT A MINUTE! IS THAT A FUCKING GUY CLIMBING UP THE SIDE OF THE GOD-DAMN BUILDING? ˆ buildings ˆ climb ˆ crazy ˆ nyc ˆ nyt building ˆ

Apparently, unbeknown to us, earlier in the day, someone had climbed the other side of the NYT building and this was the SECOND free-climber to scale the same building in a several-hour span! ˆ best ˆ buildings ˆ crazy ˆ crowd ˆ nyc ˆ nyt building ˆ

Check out the gridlocked insanity on 8th Ave. Looks like they're filming a Hollywood disaster movie or something. ˆ buildings ˆ climb ˆ crazy ˆ nyc ˆ nyt building ˆ

Later that night, Meredith and I went to the Bitter End on Bleecker to see Caitlin Krisco sing. ˆ caitlin ˆ band ˆ

She's an AMAZING singer. She and her band are getting ready to go out on tour this summer. Check out her bands' site - if they're coming near you, you should definitely check them out! ˆ caitlin ˆ band ˆ

And then on the way home, we stopped off at Otto's Shrunken Head because Scott Treude was playing drums in a rock and heavy metal karaoke band. Mike Blancaflor on the mic! ˆ mike blancaflor ˆ scott treude ˆ live band karaoke ˆ

On Saturday evening, Mer and I had a light sushi dinner (and Meredith put chopsticks up her nose!)... ˆ meredith ˆ chopsticks ˆ

...and then we went to the roof party of someone she went to college with down on Ludlow. ˆ party ˆ roof ˆ

The view north up Ludlow from the roof. ˆ nyc ˆ roof ˆ street ˆ

A little after midnight, Mer was ready to call it a night, so I bid farewell to her... ˆ meredith ˆ

...and headed downtown to meet up with Nina and check out a new party the MisShapes were doing at Santos Party Haus. ˆ me ˆ nina ˆ

The place was fucking PACKED. After wading through the crowd all the way to the back of the venue... ˆ crowd ˆ dance ˆ santos ˆ

...we found this little elf who ushered us up into a little private area where Leigh poured us sneaky drinks OUT OF HER PURSE. Hahaha. ˆ leigh ˆ nina ˆ santos ˆ vodka ˆ

The view of the dance floor from the DJ booth. Ooof! ˆ best ˆ crowd ˆ dance ˆ santos ˆ

The next morning, Nina and I got up super-early and took the A train out to Far Rockaway. ˆ me ˆ nina ˆ beach ˆ far rockaway ˆ sunglasses ˆ

It was completely and totally deserted and it was AWESOME. Crazy that this is beach is a 45-minute, $2-dollar subway ride away from Manhattan, right? ˆ beach ˆ far rockaway ˆ

Meredith had spend the afternoon uptown at her parent's house. After I got back from the beach, I went to meet Meredith at their apartment... ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ us ˆ

...because my parents had also come into town and both of our parents wanted to all get together and congratulate us on our recent engagement! Check out the cake! ˆ cake ˆ

Check out our dads (Chuck and Brian Senior!) helping light 'er up! ˆ dad ˆ meredith ˆ mr silverman ˆ

Future Mrs. Battjer! ˆ meredith ˆ cake ˆ candles ˆ

Chuck took this great photo of the rest of us. Future in-laws!!! ˆ dad ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ mom ˆ mrs silverman ˆ family ˆ

On Monday evening I was leaving work and it was one of the nights where the sunset was almost aligned with Manhattan's street-grid. Pretty. ˆ nyc ˆ sunset ˆ

On Friday night, Meredith and I went out to see a movie. We got out around 1am, and she decided to call it a night because we had to get up early the next morning to attend her cousin's wedding in Brooklyn. Me, I'm a bit of a night-owl, so I went over to Leigh's house where we did some pre-game drinking and wearing of women's vintage sunglasses from the late 70s. ˆ me ˆ sunglasses ˆ

By the time we finally motivated to leave the apartment, it was 3am (which is pretty much the best time to start your night in our neighborhood because it's the hour when the invading hordes of visitors call it a night and head home!) ˆ leigh ˆ me ˆ sunglasses ˆ

We got to Hanger Bar around 3:30 and it was really nice and mellow. So I ended up playing pool with Nicole. Nicole is the arm-wrestling, shit-talking bartender at Hanger Bar. She totally acts like a big sister that's always trying to boss you around. After having failed to beat her at arm wrestling a few weeks prior (it was a tie!) she told me that she could beat me at pool and so it was on. TRICK SHOTS ONLY! ˆ nicole ˆ hanger bar ˆ pool ˆ

This photo makes me so happy. Hahaha. ˆ nicole ˆ hanger bar ˆ laugh ˆ pool ˆ

Hahaha. TRICK SHOT! I also love how this photo makes her look like she only has one leg. (I'm writing this two years later and she's married with a baby! Congrats, Nicole!) ˆ nicole ˆ best ˆ hanger bar ˆ pool ˆ

Speaking of ONE LEG....ha! The best part about Hanger Bar (which has since closed down after not renewing the lease, noooo!) was that our friends owned it so after it closed at 4am, we'd usually hang around and keep on partying. After closing time, it it came out that John has really small feet, which of course led to him putting on Alana's shoes and showing off his MOVES! (Doing the sprinkler here, obvs). ˆ john f ˆ cross dress ˆ dance ˆ hanger bar ˆ

Hahaha. Alana was stoked, but felt that John needed a little something extra to complete his new "look." ˆ alana jones-mann ˆ john f ˆ coldlamp ˆ hanger bar ˆ

Yep, there we go. Perfect. Hahaha. I love John's expression in this photo so much. ˆ john f ˆ cross dress ˆ hanger bar ˆ

Gate-down after-hours! ˆ karen ˆ leigh ˆ nick m ˆ hanger bar ˆ

Betsy and me. ˆ betsy ˆ me ˆ hanger bar ˆ

Nicole behind the bar and John pouring drinks! ˆ john f ˆ nicole ˆ bartender ˆ hanger bar ˆ

Leigh! ˆ leigh ˆ

John had heard me telling stories about how Nicole's really strong and that NO ONE beats her at arm wrestling and decided to try her on for size! ˆ john f ˆ karen ˆ nicole ˆ arm wrestle ˆ hanger bar ˆ

She is freakishly strong. ˆ john f ˆ karen ˆ nicole ˆ arm wrestle ˆ

The worst part is when you'll be totally trying your hardest to pin her arm and it'll look like she's trying really hard to resist, and then all of a sudden she'll turn and start having a casual conversation with folks at the bar (or worse, start pouring drinks which I've also seen her do). So god-damn funny. ˆ john f ˆ nicole ˆ arm wrestle ˆ hanger bar ˆ

Check out the totally legit interlocking hand-grib on the bar. This ain't no joke, sheeee-it. Also, please note Nicole's expression as she summons the extra bit of power necessary to TAKE HIM OVER THE TOP! UNNNGGGGHHHH! ˆ john f ˆ nicole ˆ arm wrestle ˆ best ˆ hanger bar ˆ

End of the bar. ˆ hanger bar ˆ

Me being a bad lil' smoker. ˆ me ˆ cigarette ˆ hanger bar ˆ

Summer time is the best. ˆ john f ˆ karen ˆ leigh ˆ hanger bar ˆ

By the time we called it a night, it was light out! ˆ afterhours ˆ hanger bar ˆ

Leigh thought Nick was getting fresh but it turned out to be John! Hahahaha. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. ˆ john f ˆ karen ˆ leigh ˆ nick m ˆ hanger bar ˆ

Take two with 200% more glamor from Karen! ˆ john f ˆ karen ˆ leigh ˆ nick m ˆ hanger bar ˆ

Closing 'er down! ˆ john f ˆ karen ˆ leigh ˆ nick m ˆ nicole ˆ afterhours ˆ best ˆ hanger bar ˆ

Check out the truck parked right outside of the bar! I asked Leigh and Karen to strike sexy, slutty-girls-in-an-automotive-calendar poses and this is what they came up with. YES! ˆ karen ˆ leigh ˆ best ˆ truck ˆ

Karen hopped in a cab and headed up to to Union Square, while I kept walking east with Leigh. On the next block we saw one of those tiny Smart cars pulled over to the side of the rode. ˆ passed out ˆ strangers ˆ

As we got closer we noticed two buddies inside totally crashed out and sleeping it off with the windows down! So sleepy! ˆ leigh ˆ best ˆ passed out ˆ strangers ˆ

Awww, nappy-nap time! Nothing is funnier than trying to be really quiet around sleeping people that you're kind of fucking with and after I took this photo we were both laughing hysterically but also trying to be as silent as possible. ˆ leigh ˆ best ˆ passed out ˆ strangers ˆ

Because "silence" is the only necessity when you're playing a new game we invented on the spot called "Let's see how close I can get this camera to the adorably sleepy faces of these strangers sleeping in their tiny car!" ˆ passed out ˆ strangers ˆ

FOR THE WIN! As soon as this image showed up on my camera, we both started chortling and we came dangerously close to awakening our new friends and had to run down the street before our heads exploded with laughter. OMG, I'm crying with laughter right now while I type this. Holy shit, was it funny. (By the way, this is totally the right move in this situation. When I've passed out drunk in a car, I've always made sure to snap a photo of myself before passing out. Hahaha.) ˆ best ˆ passed out ˆ strangers ˆ

Cab ride home. ˆ driving ˆ taxi ˆ

The view up Avenue C on the way home! Yay, summer! ˆ driving ˆ sunrise ˆ