Fun goings on

Corinne was here over the weekend and we had a splendid time! She arrived amidst the snow/wintry mix on Friday evening (no problems for her on the road, thank goodness) and we headed straight to Stout, a mid-town bar we've been to before. As it turns out, Stout is also a big hang-out for Knicks fans (those who still exist, that is), and the place was packed before the game. Around 7:30, the crowd petered out, but we stayed for a while with Mark and Danny, who joined us later. Abstaining from alcohol for obvious reasons, I chugged-a-lugged seltzer and sprite, but *managed* to have fun, buzzed or no. :-)

On Saturday, we slept in and enjoyed a leisurely meal at our new favorite brunch place, Turning Point. It's no greasy spoon a la The Sweet Life (our go-to breakfast joint on Christopher Street), but they definitely serve up some sweet pancakes, omelets, and eggs. Mark and I have been there for the last three Saturdays and hope to become regulars soon (though I doubt they'll notice us among the throngs of Hobokenites who frequent TP just as much as we do!).

After a brief shopping excursion and some games of Guitar Hero, we hopped on the bus and made our way to Broadway for another meal: This time, it was dinner at Brazil Brazil with newly-engaged Danny and Ang. I saw Ang's pretty ring and heard about all of their wedding plans. The food at BB is delish and everyone agreed that the sangria is yummy, too, but again, no sips for me.

Following dinner, we dashed over to the Richard Rodgers theatre, currently housing In the Heights, and slid into our nose-bleed seats. It's still in previews, so I bought tix online for $20. We actually had an unobstructed arial view of the stage, so being in the dead-last row worked out. The show was very entertaining: Funny, charming, witty, and, at times, sad. I have no idea how it'll fare with the hard-to-impress theatre folk, but our audience seemed to eat it up. We'll see when it opens up next month.

Later that night, we retired back to 'Boken and watched Eastern Promises with Viggo Mortenson (nominated for an Oscar for his role) and Naomi Watts. A VERY intriguing movie. There's one particularly riveting scene where Viggo's character fights with two scary, knife-wielding Russian mobsters in a steam room. Totally naked. It's completely realistic--down to the blood that seeps from the Russian's eyeballs and organs. I've never seen anything like it and kind of wished he won the Oscar for that part alone.

Finally, on Sunday, Corinne rose early with me and together we headed over to CP for the Urban Run. She held down the fort in the office while I took the (very small) group out for our four-miler. Following that, we hit up Empire Diner in Chelsea for another fun brunch and then mozied around midtown a bit before she got back on her bus. She's such a fun guest to have, and I missed her the second she left!

After seeing her off, I zipped home to start thinking about dinner. I had Nandita and Meaghan over for some Oscar-watching and made a great Martha recipe: Chicken with olives and raisins over spinach rice. It had a mediteranean flare to it, so we served it with Olive bread and fresh veggies and hummus for apps. Meg brought over a selection of sweet treats for dessert, so we gulped those down as we watched the red carpet and ensuing Oscars.

A busy but fun weekend...and while I was so happy to hang out with my friends, I didn't get any work done! I'm backed up this week and trying to bang out five columns and two features by Friday. Speaking of which, I better get back to it...