December, 2011

The December Roundup

Friday, December 2nd

Meredith was up bright and early on Friday morning making...

...chocolate-covered pretzels in preparation for Ellen's forthcoming Holiday Feast party!

Maddy's long wienery body stretches her circle bed into an oval. Haha.

I spent the afternoon at Yipit working with Vin & Kristen on the information architecture for the re-launch of Yipit's new website.

Later that evening I watched a documentary about decoding Maya glyphs...

...they kept showing this picture of Soviet linguist, Yuri Knorozov who puts all of our attempts to look tough in photos TO SHAME! Haha. So bad-ass.

Saturday, December 3rd

eric g — On Saturday I met up with Eric to have brunch...

eric g — Afterwards we went back to his apt and worked on Vaultfolio.

Laptop buddies.

Later that afternoon, we had a Grand Central Terminal rendezvous...

...and took the MetroNorth train up to Ellen's to celebrate the holidays with a post-Thanksgiving FEAST!

karen — Karen, you look so kissable.

We arrived at Ellen's to find the most ridiculous spread of food ever!

It filled an entire huge table...

...and even spilled over to the radiator's auxiliary treat-area.

The chimney flue was open, but the chimney was blocked! When the Duraflame log that had just been put on started smoking everyone out of the living room...

...Hans made the executive decision to transport the fire to outside...

...with oven mitts and a turkey tray! Hahah.

Handed it out the window..

...then lept through the window...

...so he could tong the log into a bucket of water piece by piece.

FIRE CRISIS AVERTED. Thanks, Hans!

Squinty Maddy disapproves of fires.

After the smoke cleared out, we were directed by Fire Marshall Ellen to continue the eating!

Tiny Dog Appreciation Club.

The kitchen was packed with people and food as well!

Sarah's face!

Gurj & Cynthia.

Sarah, Jack and Jazzapple.

Ellen saw Catrinel's hat...

...and went and got her vegetarian version.

Which led to some furheadbutting.

And hugging.

Then Ellen's headdress got passed around for some pics!

Hans!

I look like one of the ladies in Gem's band.

Sweaters & Dogs!

So much food!

All those people and we hardly made a dent in the food!

By 11pm, we'd made our way through...

...the cauldron of mulled wine!

And things got kissy.

And silly.

Then we got into marshmallow catching.

Action shot.

DOUBLE CATCH!

catrinel, maddy, meredith — FEATS OF STRENGTH!

Aftermath.

Thanks for having us, Ellen!

Tiny hound is ready for bed.

Sunday, December 4th

On Sunday I took it easy and watched some movies.

Monday, December 5th

fatty, henry, marina — Look what showed up in the mail on Monday! Awwww.

After dinner with Meredith...

alessandro, emilie — ..I went to Lucy's to meet up with Emilie and Alessandro who were in town from LA!

Oh, Lucy's.

We ended up meeting up with her friend Jenna and we went to Lit and danced until the end of the night.

Ooof. Been a while since I'd done that!

Tuesday, December 6th

posh tony — On Tuesday? Spring rolls with this fuggin guy.

Wednesday, December 7th

On Sunday evening, our across-the-hall neighbor Jane dropped off her dog Rico with us for a while. He is adorable.

Meredith was spending a lot of time at the Art Students League taking figure drawing classes.

Close ups.

It was really neat to watch her drawings change week by week.

jagger — Later that night, Caiti came by with Jagger and we had a three-dog party on our hands.

Thursday, December 8th

brother lawrence — On Tuesday night I went to Lawrence's birthday party.

He had a Carvel Cookie Puss ice cream cake!

amanda, david lionmane — Bow fixing.

amanda, david lionmane — Amanda and Lionmane!

On the way home I stopped by Ryan & Leigh's to see their holiday decorations!

Tuesday, December 13th

On Tuesday night Ellen came over with Piper and Zombie and we hung out while the dogs made a sleep-sandwich between us. Hahah.

Thursday, December 15th

On Thursday evening we went to Flatiron to stop by Yipit's....

....Office Holiday Party!

ellen, meredith — Ellen & Meredith were nice to come along with me. I was feeling a little shy because it's weird to go to a holiday party when you're a consultant and don't really work at the place!

Saturday, December 17th

Van tricked out with reindeer antlers and a nose.

Later that evening, we went uptown to celebrate Hanukkah with Meredith's family.

Meredith brought Hanukkah cupcakes!

Sue & Jo.

Duffy & Fred.

Will bring me up for the lamb shank?

Maddy's happiest when she's licking a face.

Back at the homestead, I stayed up way too late...

...playing Assassin's Creed 2 and feeling distracted the whole time like there's something else I should be doing.

Sunday, December 18th

Sunday morning nap buddies.

Later that afternoon, we went out to Queen's to visit...

...an injured Gurj!

Ouch!

We watched Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (which Gurj had never seen!)...

...and then headed over to 3A to have dinner with Quinn & Sarah.

Cozy Teamwork! While Quinn cooked, Sarah weather-proofed the living room windows.

Dinner feast! Mmmmm.

Good times.

Monday, December 19th

On Monday I spent the day cleaning our apartment in preparation for the AirBnB renter who'd be staying there for a week while we were down in Florida for the holidays.

Tuesday, December 20th

leigh, maddy — On Tuesday afternoon, I went over to Leigh's to drop Maddy off. She'd agreed to pooch-sit while we were away for the holidays. Unfortunately for Maddy, holiday-stays with Leigh come along with elf costumes.

maddy — Wait, you're not going to leave me here, right?

Wednesday, December 21st

On Wednesday, I spent the day testing the very first beta release of the iOS version of the experimental Pictimonial app I'd been helping Yodle with.

Looking good! Happy December 2011!