At 5pm, the wedding party all met up so that we could head down to the beach together and do a quick run through of the ceremony! Here's Brett and Amy with the officiant.
Later that night a bunch of my brother's friends came by the apartment and we had a mega hang! Right after midnight, we went to Mr. Yogato, a totally awesome frozen yogurt shop that's right down the street from their apartment.
Brett had asked me to be his best man and I needed to get a suit that would match the one he'd be wearing. Here's me and Brett with the two soon-to-be Mrs. Battjers!
Also found a bunch of fantastic old photo albums. I snapped a couple of pics of my favorite pics. Here me with my parents and brother. I think this was from my 5th birthday - which would make it August 1981.
Before hitting the rides, my little brother and me decided to warm up first by playing a little Dance Dance Revolution (which was a bold choice on our part considering it was daylight and the machine was outside). Check out my little dancin' dino arm!
Oh, what? You didn't think that we'd actually leave Rockband in New York, did you? Look at the guitar neck sticking out of the box! Haha. The guitar came in pieces and needed to be snapped together. But once snapped, you can't take it apart again so this was Brett's solution to "making it fit in the box again." (I love the proud expression on his face.)
After, oh, I don't know....THREE STRAIGHT HOURS OF ROCKBAND...we finally had to take a break for food. Hello there, tasty delicious breakfast at the Dynasty (pronounced Dy-NASTY) Diner.
And in no time flat the two soon-to-be-Battjer-ladies came out into the living room to see what all the commotion was about - and ended up being in our first band.
...meaningful-video-game-release-date! In this case, ladies and gentleman, the game in question was ROCKBAND! My brother and I are huge Guitar Hero fans and we'd been waiting on it for months!
I took Tuesday off from work. Early Tuesday morning, my brother Brett and his fiance (now wife!) came back into NYC! After dropping off suitcases, my brother and I headed out to do some shopping. Two Battjer boys going shopping? On a day off from work? That can only mean one thing...
The Silvermans were worried about getting stuck in Sunday Night Jersey Shore traffic, so after we got back from the boat ride, they decided to pack it up and drive home. I decided to take Monday off from work and hang out with my family at the shore another day. Brett and Amy.
My Uncle Bruce is a gadget guy - he always has the latest toys! He'd recently gotten a new plasma flatscreen so my dad was only too happy to take Bruce's older HDTV off his hands...and Brett and I were the lucky ones who got to carry the 300lb monster down the stairs...
Another holiday dinner! Clockwise from left: My cousin Chris, mom, Amy, Brett, Amanda, my cousin Steve and Mer. (If I remember correctly, this is right before we all got into a big discussion about global warming - because my cousin Chris, who is a consultant for oil companies, doesn't believe it's real. Or that if it is, it's just part of a natural cycle and has nothing to do with humans burning pretty much the ENTIRE oil supply that took x years to develop in just the last 100-odd years. Hmmm....)
The next day a bunch of relatives came to our house for Christmas dinner. Clockwise from bottom left: Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Wayne, mom, Aunt Elaine, Amy and Brett. Meredith and I = TOTALLY CROPPED OUT! Thanks, dad! Haha.
Then it was time to head to the living room and open some presents! (It's a long-standing tradition in my house that we open presents that night before Christmas - it was a tradition born when my parents realized that this was a better alternative than my brother and I waking them up at 5am in order to unwrap our loot!).
On Saturday afternoon, Meredith and I took the train out to my parents house in NJ so that we could spend Christmas with my fam! I brought along the Wii so that the whole family could play (which we ended up doing for hours on end). Here's my mom and brother getting ready to square off in tennis. But before they played, we decided that we all needed to...
And then it was on like Donkey Kong! My mom's real-world tennis skills gave her an early advantage - but after two or three games, Brett's video-tennis skills kicked in and he dominated!
We got her Oprah's 20th Anniversary DVD collection (which was actually released on the day of her birthday!). Look how happy my mom is! (And check out my brother's magnificent "Get a load of Oprah") Hahah. Happy Birthday, mom! We love you!
On Tuesday I met up with my brother, who was temporarily living in NYC for a few months while on a consulting gig, and our parents to go see The Producers on Broadway. It was AWESOME! (Thanks, Mom & Dad!).
On Monday, Una, Meredith's friend, and my little brother (who lives in DC but was working in NYC for a couple of months) came down to Meredith's to hang.
On Sunday I took the train down to south Jersey to hang out with my family down at my parent's little shore house in Mannasqaun. Here's my brother and his lady Amy and my parents about to get their lunch on.
Something was wrong the can opener and my dad ended up having an epic battle against this can of cranberry sauce. Check my brother pointing at the mangled-ass shape the can was in when Pappi finally managed to get it open.
The next mornign we had breakfast with the fam (cinnamon rolls...mmmm) and Grant headed back into town. Meredith decided to stick around a little longer and we...
I got up to help him out and was told that he didn't need any help "figuring out his own camera, Goddamnit!" So I took some photos of everyone waiting. Hahah.
After all getting crunked up at The Barn (uh, except for me Dad, because I was the driver) we headed over to The Roxbury Diner (which we all know is really still called The Victoria Diner) for some late night grub. I like how when everyone started throwing gangsigns, my brother's gangsign is to simultaneously pinch both his titties and look "naughty."
...round up a crew and head to the local townie bar that's called "The Barn!" Believe it or not, The Barn actually used to be a restaurant called Seafood Shack when I was growing up in town! Seafood Shack. A winning name like that and they still went out of business. Shocking, right? Steak Shanty is gone as well. Go figure.) Anyway, over holidays The Barn is the defacto place that everyone I went to high school with goes to catch up with everyone else. Here's Amy (my brother's girlfriend), Grant, Brett and Meredith preparing for their very first Barn Experience!
We got to my parents house in NJ and found my brother all excited after months of (f)unemployment to finally be able to show proof of gainful employment by busting out one of his brand new business cards that announce him as a consultant for Ascenture. (Check out how happy my Mom is! No more hand outs! No more hand outs!) If you've been reading my site for a while, you know that anytime I'm visiting my family in New Jersey for a holiday, there's always one thing that needs to be done...
The next morning we got up and my brother needed a serious breakfast to help him recover from having been hit by THE NIGHT TRAIN! When you're super-hungover you do things like order pancakes...
On the way back towards my place I made them stop and get some slices, hoping it'd help soak up some of the alcohol (and anti-freeze) that was in their systems.
Sid and my brother, crunked out of their tiny minds, kifed a giant, two-litre bottle of Malibu (fucking Malibu!) from the house and sat on the ground passing it back and forth taking swings and cackling. See what happens when you get the Night Train in your blood?
The only thing funnier than the back or Mr. T's head is my brother's totally butt-ass wasted shit-eating grin. Just one bottle of Night Train and he was chortling like a wheezy hobo! Hahaha.
We left the party and by the time we got back out on the street both my brother and Sid had finished their bottles of Night Train. (The next day while we were looking at all these photos my brother got to this one and said "Yep, finishing that bottle of Night Train and posing for this photo is pretty much the last thing I remember." Hahaha. At the next party we met...
On the way over, we stopped in a liquor store where my brother and Sid, despite my repeated warnings, decided to try Night Train Express (the very finest of fortified bum wines) for the very first time. I was like "Yo, Guns N' Roses even wrote a song about how that shit's even too hardcore for them...do you know how hardcore that is?" At first they laughed at me, but then they started to understand that I wasn't joking around when the toothless 60-year old man at the register who had tattoos on his face looked at them increduously and said "Night Train? Are you sure you want to do that, guys? Wow." For a minute I thought they were going to back out - I mean shrugging off Axl Rose's warning is one thing, but to ignore the tattooed-face check-out guy? That's crazy. But in the end, they put their money on the counter. The checkout guy just kept shaking his head as he bagged them up and as we left the he called out "Good luck!" Hahaha.
The only thing that the Halloween Store had left in triplicate were these stoopids hats and grass skirts. Check out my brother's facial response to me saying "Well, I guess that settles it. Looks like we're going to be Hawaiian Hula girls!" Hahaha.
...Halloween costume shopping! The best way to select a costume is wait until like 45 minutes before the Halloween parties all start and then go to the Halloween store...you go through the ravaged shelves and try to put a costume together with what little supplies they have left. (This is the genius method that led to such classic past-Halloween outfits like Magnum P.I. and Sort-of one of The Misfits!). Since my brother, Sid and myself were all going to be going out together, we agreed to try to find costumes that matched.
On Saturday afternoon we met up with Sid, my brother's friend from college who now lives in SF. I took them for sandwiches at Love and Haight and my brother ate his first meal without meat ever. True story. Afterwards we fucked around the city all day and waiting until the last minute possible to do our...
On the way back to my place, we stopped at Whiz Burgers on South Van Ness. Despite being in a sketchy-ass gah-gah-ghetto section of the Mission (that I almost lived a block from), this old skool 60s drivethru burger place puts In N' Out Burger (which I love) to fucking shame. Hot Damn.
Later that night, we had a dinner on my parents porch and my mom brough out a birthday cake for me. She forgot to get birthday candles, so instead she substituted this 18" decorative candle that she found unused in a candlestick on the kitchen table. Hahaha.
On Monday (the day after my birthday) I went down to meet up with my parents and their little shorehouse near Long Beach Island in southern NJ. Here's my mom, brother, dad and Uncle Bruce chilling on the beach at LBI.
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