Best New York Birthday Celebration

This year I was blessed with a bounty of birthday celebrations.  I appreciate it all so much and now try to express that appreciation in blog form over several posts that I hope you find to be enjoyable.

For reference, my birthday is April 30th.  That was last Saturday.

But my birthday celebrations began, lucky me, on Monday, April 25, when Cher took me to dinner at Fatty Cue (which is still fantastic) and gave me this kitten pillow.  Also, Steve Ells, founder of Chipotle was there that night.  I only know who he is because of America's Next Great Restaurant.

Re: Fatty Cue food: If you ever come to visit New York and I don't suggest we eat at Fatty Cue, you can call me a terrible host.  Because it's bonkers how good that place is.  This visit I especially liked the broccoli.

Then on Tuesday, April 26th I had my second annual 96th Street Taco Truck Followed By Hanging Out at My Apartment Birthday Party.

Chaunte and Duane were there.  This was, as far as I'm concerned, Duane's first public appearance since his spectacular wedding celebration.

Also at the truck, Steve, my podcast boss.  What, you haven't listened to our UFO episode yet?

Chris!

Jessie and Kim!

Chateau!

Jeff, of course.

Look at this beautiful cake they had for me!

And all of it's beautiful babies!

Also in attendance: Patricia!  My first New York friend! (that sounds better than "oldest New York friend", right?)

And pretty new New York friends, like Austin and Monica.

And Cher, making her second birthday-related appearance in a row (and she even almost made it to my third birthday party . . . that post is coming up).

Also at the party, but (sadly) not pictured: Jen, Aubrey, Paul, Whitney, Claire, Alpha, and Me Blowing Out Candles (but there's a video of that on Facebook).

For the after party some of us watched Fast and the Furious #1 because I had some plans for the weekend and didn't want to be totally in the dark.  I thought that Fast and the Furious #1 was: Fine.

A big thanks to everyone that partied New York City style with me.  These were grand celebrations.

Best Easter Remainders

So, after taking a million pictures in Provo on Friday I found myself all worn out camerawise for the rest of the Easter weekend.  But I was able to dig deep into my reserve strength a few times to memorialize a few more moments . . .

Like when Owen opened his graduation present at graduation dinner at the Bombay House.

Saturday there was a major gathering of family for my nephew Rocco's blessing.

Okay, I'll admit it, his name isn't really Rocco but that's what I thought Ellie said it was when she called me up to tell me his name so I'm sticking with it.

Requisite post-blessing meal.  I brought the Cheez-Its.  What?  I know better than to show up to a party empty handed.

The Engineer was in charge of punch.

Ellie's got this cousin she's real good friends with.

And a sandwich.

Once people started to leave we had an egg-dyeing after party.

Owen made a watermelon egg.

But I made this out of magnetic beads.

Came back the next day for Easter Dinner.  Look at my baked potato!  Kristen and Cory did something to make them all melty and delicious.

After dinner Cory told a famous story of his.  Can't remember which one, though.

And then I went to Duke and Teresa's house for a second Easter dinner where Andrew, via Skype, helped my cousin David with his ciabatta baking.

And that's all the pictures I've got.  But I also met up with some old college chums for a third Easter Dinner and then flew home Sunday night on that wonderful JetBlue redeye with almost everyone that I flew out with on Thursday night.

Okay.  Easter Trip is done being documented.  Now I can start with birthday posts.  Are you excited?

Best Celebration of the Life Sciences

The highlight of my Provo freetime two weekends ago was my visit to the Bean Museum.  I nearly filled my 4GB memory card while I was there.  Here's some of the "highlights."

I'm not sure every animal in there was real.

But I know the Dik Dik is real.

The Bean is such a weird place but such a treasure.  It truly sets BYU apart as a school quite unlike any other.  Except for the other ones with entire museums built to house donated taxidermy collections.