NCAA- ACC Semifinals in Brooklyn 2018

UVa buddies Lukas, Nick, Brady, Briggs, and Kevin went to the ACC Tournament semifinals in Barclays Center in Brooklyn. They sawy the UVa-Clemson game and the UNC-Duke game. UVa is going into the NCAA as #1.

(Lukas, sort of), Nick, Brady, Kevin, and Briggs

Nick and Lukas

Kevin's 38th Birthday 2018

For Kevin's birthday this year, he wanted to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibit on David Hockney. We made a day of it and also went to a good Vietnamese restaurant for lunch and tried a brewery he'd herd good things about in Brooklyn.

David Hockney exhibition

Lots of people at the exhibit

iPad art!

Outside in the regular exhibits

Dark like my mood

Near the Temple of Dendur, an Egyptian temple from 10 B.C.

We actually went to lunch before the museum, but it's my blog, and no one reads it anyway, and I liked the pictures in this order better.

Vietnamese coffee

Everything here is so delicious

After lunch and the museum, we drove out to Other Half Brewing Company in Brooklyn. The crowd was really different than our last brewery, Trillium. Haha. I felt a little-- but not quite too -- old. 

The brewery was completely packed and loud 

The beer was sublime

ACC Tournament: Pittsburgh v. Virginia 2017

On Wednesday, Kevin, Nick, and Briggs went to the UVA game against Pittsburgh at the Barclay Center last night. It went late- almost to midnight!- but UVA was victorious!

ACC Tournament

Basket!

Sadly, UVA lost the next night to Notre Dame, ending their tournament in NYC.

Michele Visits NYC 2016

Michele visited New York last weekend! Happiness! I met her in Karen in Chinatown where they were already 2/3rds way through a dumpling crawl. We went to Joe's Shanghai for a few soup dumplings.

Karen, Michele, me inside

Karen and Michele outside Joe's Shanghai

Then we decided to get foot massages, but there was a little bit of a wait so we went for a hot chocolate and coffee. There's not a lot of coffee shops in Chinatown so write down the location of this one!

Cheers at Little Canal cafe, 26 Canal Street

Finally, it was foot massage time! It was my first massage and Karen's foot massage. Why have we been waiting? Amazing. I didn't take photos inside but this is what it felt like:

Renew Day Spa, 42 Bowery

Seriously, they'd rub something on my feet and then it would start to feel like a pleasant burning. And then all the sudden I'd feel it on my ear lobe or something. Crazy.

Then it was time to head to Williamsburg to celebrate Karen's birthday! Michele and I got there a little early and had drinks at Sugarburg. Then we were risking being late so we ran to the restaurant. Everything at Mesa Coyocan was delicious and the drinks were amazing. Karen's friends from grad school and home were awesome and fun, and the whole evening was well worth it. 

David, Nate, Hannah, Nada, Sarah, Karen, Michele


We mixed and matched (the hard way)

Birthday desserts!

Happy birthday, Karen! 

Apple shooters!

Sunday, Michele and I met Ash for brunch at The Breslin in Midtown. Brunch was delicious, it was great to all be together, and I forced everyone to take many many photobooth photos which I haven't scanned yet but will update this post to include later. Perfect visit!

 

I saw these pretty pumpkins on the way- so selfie!

Ash and Michele at The Breslin

Michele + lamb burger + amazing fries + tea = happiness

Midtown selfie: me, Ash, Michele

Michele Visits- June 2015

Michele came to visit again! This because 1) she can't stay away from NYC, 2) she loves me too much, 3) Nina made her, because she's getting married.

Michele! In a beautiful dress!

We had a Monday to go adventuring. Sadly it turns out New York does sleep- all freaking Monday. Everything was closed, particularly the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. So we decided to go for a short walk in Prospect Park. We actually walked over to Prospect Park, then got lost, checked a map and chose a "short cut" back which turned out to be longer than the long way around, and long story long, we ended up going on about a 10-mile walk. The walk will surely grow longer every time I tell this story.

Selfie in the park...

Starting to lose it.

We've lived in this park for so long now, we know other people that can take our picture

We got out!!!

Praying to the gods of hydration.

Finally, finally, finally, we ate lunch at Koto, reviving our old tradition of eating sushi every time we saw each other. We also had the best mochi ever- so good it actually converted Michele into liking mochi. Then, just to up the torture quotient a little we jogged to the train (but really so I didn't miss it).

I miss you already Michele!

Sibling Night Out- May 2015

David and I thought it would be fun to meet up for happy hour since he works in Brooklyn now. At the same time, I kind of predicted it would be a little disasterous for either us or Brooklyn generally because we're both kind of light-weights, have a poor sense of direction, and ignore both.

Oh boy. We went to Livingston Manor where the bartenders were super nice and made extra delicious drinks. Happy hour turned into about 5 hours, I missed my train, and when I did catch the next train an hour and half later I barely managed to get off at my stop. I had to get Kevin to unlock the door for me at 1 am. Worth it? Totally!

Fun bonding, bad selfie.

Thanks to Kevin and Melanie for rescuing us from ourselves. Next time David promises to cut me off.

Michele Visits- April 2015

Michele made a quick trip to New York, and even though we just saw each other at Clou-a-rama I, we still had loads to discuss. We took the party back to Brooklyn, old-school. We thought we were going to the Brooklyn Museum, but it quickly turned into a choose-your-adventure type of day. We tried to choose a perfect mojito but it didn't choose us back so we ended up in a hot chocolate and marshmallow hot tub, as evidenced by this picture:

Michele and me at Chocolate Room

After our giant marshmallows, obviously we needed tiny beers. We met Michele's good friend Nina at Strong and ordered all the tiny beers that our waitress would tolerate. To punish us, she took away all our plates forcing us to eat our cheese plate like animals.

Nina and Michele at Strong Place- Michele with tiny beer

In other words, super fun, just like any time I hang out with Michele!

New York Transit Museum 2015

On Saturday we went to the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn because everyone says it's a kid-favorite. It was pretty reasonably priced, and it was very kid friendly in that there was a lot of space where kids could run around and there were multiple buses and subways to play on so that sharing was not a huge issue.

Don't let the pigeon drive the bus!

Now boarding!

Kevin teaching him to pump gas!

The concept is pretty cool: the entire museum is housed inside an old subway stop. Be warned though, there's no coat check so if show up with ten million layers you'll be stuck carrying them. You also don't want to deal with stroller on the subway steps.

So many model trains!

Wrong lesson here.

Outside an old subway train.

Inside an old-timey subway train.

Going for a pretend ride underground.

Out with Christina- December 2014

Oh look I left the house! This is hard because of Miranda


Christina and I tearing it up in Brooklyn

• Last time I went out for real- Jackie's Birthday- November 2014
• Last Girls' Night- Atlanta! October 2014
• Last time I saw Christina- August 2014
• Last time I was in Brooklyn- June 2014

Brooklyn Book Festival 2014

Last year when we went to the Brooklyn Book Festival together, Kevin already knew his book would published with Black Balloon so we spent some time at their table talking to the editor Buz, publicist Jen, and and some of the other authors. So going back this year with his book on the table was realizing the dream. Kevin talked to people buying his book and signed copies through the afternoon.

Kevin and We Were Flying to Chicago at the Brooklyn Book Festival!

The 9th Annual Brooklyn Book Festival at Borough Hall!

Kevin got to meet Mike Meginnis who wrote Fat Man and Little Boy, and whom Kevin was to spend many days with during their Midwest Book Tour together. (More on that soon.) He also met Sean Manning, author of Come Here Often?

Mike Meginnis, Kevin, and Michelle and Freddie from Black Balloon Publishing

• Kevin's most recent book event, Fall for the Book at GMU 2014
• Kevin's reading at BookCourt in Brooklyn, June 2014
• The 8th Annual Brooklyn Book Festival 2013

WWFTC Reading at BookCourt 2014

On Wednesday, Kevin read from his short story collection, We Were Flying to Chicago, at Brooklyn BookCourt as part of the The Sackett Street Writers’ Series along with Julia Fierro, Cristina Henriquez, and Bret Anthony Johnston.

Reading "I Know Who You Are" from the collection

Brooklyn BookCourt

We couldn't get a babysitter for a Wednesday so we bravely/foolishly brought both kids. Luckily Michele and Allison were in town from Virginia and Maine, respectively, and they helped me the entire time. I was glad to hear Kevin read in New York, and it was actually really cute to see James watch his father read. He clapped for him and everything.

The four Clous at the reading!

Michele meeting Miri

Jon and Briggs chilling before the reading

Allison meeting Miri

Thank you guys for being super awesome! Kevin's next reading is at Epoch on Cape Cod.

Because I LOVE group shots!

Kevin's biggest fans!