An open invitation:



The sausage world lost two pioneers this month: Bob Evans and Ralph F. Stayer, founder of Johnsonville Sausage. For many of us, particularly those with roots in the
Midwest, these men were not just sausage makers, they were, and are,
icons.

This Saturday, June 30th please join us as we give tribute to both men by grilling up some of the delicious foods they created. Moonshine (www.brooklynmoonshine.com) has graciously offered up their back patio and grills for the event. Starting at 5 PM, we will provide Johnsonville Brats and Bob Evans Sausages as long as supplies last.

Please RSVP to sausagememorial@hotmail.com so we can be sure to have enough food for all. Donations will gladly be accepted to cover costs and any profits will be donated to charity in the name of Bob Evans and Ralph F. Stayer.

It's been a rough week for encased meat.

First Bob Evans, now the founder of Johnsonville Brats (which we incidentally had just grilled up Sunday night).

This weekend I will most definitely be pouring some out for my homies. And by "pouring some out" I mean grilling up some sausage.

I just can't get enough of the dirty jers (New Jersey, that is).

Friday night I took off from work and headed out with Andy & friends to beautiful Red Bank, NJ for the Wilco show.





Following the concert (which was awesome as expected), Andy and I headed further down the NJ Transit line to sunny Point Pleasant, on the shore. Another summer means yet another trip to see Meredith's Grandma Bern and hang out at her aunt and uncle's pool. Gee, my friends sure do come with great perks. Meredith's relatives are always asking why we don't hit up the clubs when we're down there, but the fact of the matter is we'd much rather get tipsy playing board games and then get buck wild on the putt putt circuit. We can go to bars in NYC, but can we go to Castaway Cove? Hells no. We must take advantage of such opportunities. As you can tell by these pictures, we are the epitome of cool.

Nothing cooler than kids playing beach bocce ball...







We went to dinner at this great place called Red's Lobster Pot.



Andy got a lobster roll and some shrimp.



Marta got seasoned clams and a cup of seafood chowder.





Chip & Meredith got a lobster quesadilla and a whole lobster!





I got spicy clams and (mmmm) lobster and corn fritters.





We sat right out on the dock and watched the boats. Ahhhhhhhhh.





That's when things got crunk.

After the BYOB at Red's, we went home and drank some more wine chatting wine Grandma Bern, then headed off to the boardwalk to good ole Castaway Cove...where Marta, Meredith and I bummed cigarettes to apease the pirates (okay really just to prove to the boys how easy it is for girls).





We got a little rowdy on the putt putt course thanks to the pint of Dewars Chip was smuggling. Ah, drunken putt putt.



And yet we look so wholesome.



But not for long...



What was up with this pirate's boobies?



I tried to make mine do that to no avail...



And of course I had to drop by to say hello to my fling from last summer...





Say no to scurvy.



Oh, Blackbeard, you're such a kidder!



Arrrrr-en't we the cutest?



What's a trip to the boardwalk without some soft serve custard from Kohr's? The orange/vanilla twist tastes like a creamsicle!



Sunday afternoon was spent by the pool. No "jumping in the pool" picture series like last year, but a good day never-the-less.





On the way home we stopped at Fairway and capped a lovely weekend off with some grilling on the roof.



New Jersey gave us a farewell treat in some fireworks across the water - Which I tried to capture in the background of this picture with little success. Trust me, they were there.

RIP Bob Evans

My new office is in the garment district and thus interesting lunch options are pretty limited...except for some random cheap-ass "ethnic" lunch stops.

SO, I was excited to finally check out Go! Go! Curry! on Monday before the Apostle of Hustle show at Mercury Lounge. Go! Go! Curry! is this Japanese curry place that just opened around the corner from my office. Go is 5 in Japanese- so the "Go Go" is in tribute to number 55 Hideki Matsui. Every day after he gets a home run you get free toppings.



Steph actually was not a fan, but she's a very selective (aka picky) eater. I got the pork (surprise, surprise).



I thought it was really tasty and will definitely be going back for lunch- especially since it's really affordable. I may have to start taking naps after lunch under my desk, but that's another story.

As for Apostle of Hustle...I had a good time, but I wasn't blown away or anything. The lead singer did have the greatest t-shirt ever though. It had a drawing of Jesus (crown of thorns and all) getting punched in the face on it. Okay, I know that's horrible, but I couldn't look at it without laughing. Yes, I'm a sick, sick soul.

As of last night, we've moved TV night outside to Bryant Park for the summer. The weather's beautiful and sitting outside eating and drinking 3-buck-chuck is way better than watching "Age of Love."

Okay, so I know I spend a lot of time talking about fried food and motocross, but I like cultured stuff too- I swear!

One of my great loves is ballet (well, really dance in general) and I (almost) never miss an ABT season.

Tonight I got to see Alessandra Ferri dance in Manon and it was OUTSTANDING. She is retiring after this season and her last performance ever will be next Saturday as Juliet in Romeo & Juliet. You should seriously try and make it to see her dance. Wowza. Totally breathtaking.

We usually get student rush tickets with our old Columbia IDs - orchestra seats! - but the orchestra was fully booked this evening and we had to be in the nose bleeds... still very worth it.

Here's one of her gazillion bows from this evening:

I'm on a "roll" with these posts! Ha- that's another clever pun, cause guess what? On Saturday night I went bowling!!!

I was extremely excited when Andy told us his Birthday party this year was going to be at Melody Lanes in Sunset Park (36th Street and 4th Avenue, Brooklyn). You see, being a good midwestern gal, I've done a lot of bowling in my day. My parents had bowling league night every Friday when I was a kid, I was on a bowling league after school in 7th grade, and my grandpa even owned a bowling alley when my dad was growing up. It's pretty much in my blood. I was a little nervous at the beginning of my first game, but I came back with like five spares in a row to end up with a 106 (winning score for my team, I might add). Chip beat me in the 2nd round, but I had a strong 120- AND if I weren't cut off in the middle of my third game, I truly think I was well on my way to beating my all time high score of 161. Stupid bowling by time limit, not by number of games. Otherwise, I highly recommend Melody Lanes. For NYC it's the closest you can get to a real bowling experience. They have a snack bar, an awesome bartender, and pitchers of decent beer are 9 bucks. Not bad.

Yeah, I know. I stink.

My last two weeks have been filled with very little sleep and a lot of hockey. Which brings me to the following pictures.

Due to the Red Wings failure to make it to the Stanley Cup finals, my sister had to pay up on a bet with her lawyer friends on the opposite coast...and somehow Lisa and I got "sucked" in. That's supposed to be a clever pun because the punishment of the bet was having to do blow job shots. Hardee har.



Lisa was a pro. However, I quickly realized why neither my sister nor I ever became a sorority girl...



That one's for mom and dad. Didn't you raise some classy daughters? I'm sorry for spitting up all over the table, but when I put my head back all the liquor went up my nose and I choked.

Pluck the ducks.

Did I mention we saw the World's Largest Boot at the Downtown Hoedown?



Yeah, who's the coolest? That's what I thought.

Heather, Lisa and I headed out to Detroit on Saturday for a brief but fun-filled weekend vacation.

What better place to start than Buddy's Pizza?



We took our very full bellies home and hung out on the swing by the lake (Lauren even stopped by for a brief visit!). Lisa said that being at our house was like camping. There was a party going on across the lake with live music. Water carries sound. Therefore, when a drunk dude decided to take over the mic and belt out "Fly Me to the Moon" he didn't just have his friends to be embarassed around the next day, he had shamed himself in front of the entire lake. Awesome.

The next day, we could hardly contain our excitement as we prepared to go to the game.



After a brief visit to the Porta John's at Hart Plaza...



...and a polish sausage or two...





...it was off to pay our respects to Detroit's landmarks. We figured this would bring us good luck for the game. Our first stop was Joe Louis' Iron Fist, which we decided to kiss for good luck:





I actually licked the statue, so I guess it belongs to me now.



Our next stop was the Spirit of Detroit.



Then we went to Greektown hoping to find a fish market where we could buy octopuses to throw on the ice, but no such luck. It was time to head over to The Joe for the game...



Being at the game was unbelievably awesome - especially since our seats were in the 8TH ROW! So so cool.





We were all decked out. I even wore red underwear - and it's a good thing, too, cause my ass was hanging out of my pants!



After the players warmed up...



...there was an awesome pre-game pump up show. Those red lights in the photo on the left are these guys wearing construction helmets with working goal lights on them. Awesome.



The game itself was very exciting, though the outcome was less than thrilling. If you didn't see the game, you should know that the Red Wings played an entirely better game. The stupid Ducks got freaking lucky.

I will post some other time on the greatness of hockey, but for now, here's one reason:



Neither players nor fans are pansies when it comes to hockey, unlike some other sports (ahem, baseball...). We also would NEVER boo our own players (ahem, Yankees) - we CHEER when our players get penalties, cause it means they were socking it to the other team and defending our team's honor.



We DO, however, boo the other team's players. AHEM, Pronger. After his head shot to Holmstrom last week, every time he had posession of the puck, the whole crowd booed. It was fantastic.

Unfortunately, our good luck kisses to Joe Louis' giant fist didn't work. But we still had a great time.



AND went in search of autographs. Even, Steve Yzerman wouldn't sign Heather and Lisa's boobs...



But Lisa did manage to grab a couple on her jersey...



I believe this was Hasek (the goalie) driving away...



You can't possibly fathom the HOT HOT HOT-ness that is hockey players all cleaned up in person. I seriously almost had a heart attack when Lilja drove by, and, whew!, Lidstrom in his Bentley? HOT!!! My heart was racing. RACING! Even Chelios was super good looking up close.

I couldn't help myself, I HAD to buy a Wing Nut hat, it was just too awesome. You can sure as hell bet I'm going to be wearing it at the bar from now on.



The Wing Nut hat was a real hit at the Downtown Hoedown. Yes, folks, Detroit apparently has a free country music festival (since 1983!). I definitely had no idea of that growing up, but it was pretty fun that it happened to be going on this weekend.



...AND a country music festival means two things:

1) SoCo Slushies!



2) Mechanical bull riding!!!







I have obviously always wanted to do that. Done and done.

After a red eye in this morning it was straight to work - which is why I must go to bed immediately so as not to pass out face first on my laptop.

Thank you - Goodnight!