in with the new

Extended Birthday Celebration

As you know, my actual birthday was over a week ago. As you also previously read, the celebration was scheduled to continue for another week! I like to get as much out of a birthday as possible. I'm not talking gifts (though they are welcome!) I'm just talking about celebrating ME.

Sunday June 6...
On the actual birthday day, it was too rainy for a bike ride. Will and I went to the movies and saw The Day After Tomorrow. It was SO funny and ridiculous. I'm glad I knew that going in, or I would have been very disappointed in the movie. And it had Jake Gyllenhall, who is way hotter onscreen than in magazines. Then we went to a GREAT restaurant in Long Beach, Josie's.

Tuesday, June 8...
The celebration continued at work. With ice cream cake.

Wednesday, June 9...
Shannon took me out! We started at Bar Jamon. It's a teeny tiny tapas bar owned by Mario Batali. We had wine, olives and manchego cheese. It was really good. Then we walked up Park and ended up at Flute for dessert. It's such a romantic place! We each had a flight of champagne and some excellent chocolates. Thanks, Shannon!

Friday, June 11...
Friday, ten of us went to see Kid Rock. Six of us took a chauffeured van there. That's the way to go to a concert, I tell you! When we got in, we found out there is no beer in there anywhere but the VIP tent. (There must be a LOT of fights there for them to give up that much revenue for beer and alcohol.) Will SNUCK IN to the VIP. He pretended like he was lost, and the guy never saw him slip by! The rest of us paid $15 for VIP tickets, and went in to have beer. Even I drank beer, just to commemorate the evening. The concert was GREAT. He even had the Joe C. rap play, and they displayed a huge picture of the little guy. Aw, my poor fallen homey. Pictures are here. Then almost everyone who was at the concert slept over. We had nine people sleep at our house! NINE!

Saturday, June 12...
Saturday was my BBQ party. It was nice and leisurely. People went to the beach, if they wanted. Most people went, which gave me a chance to organize and set things up. I made ribs (Nicole, that recipe was GREAT! Thanks!), 2 pasta salads and SIX batches of pomegranate champagne sangria. That's all I drank ALL DAY! I did not drink ONE non-alcoholic beverage! Yikes! We went through NINE bottles of champagne with that! Melissa got me a Carvel cake (TWO ice cream cakes in a week! I felt SO lucky and special!) and Josh and Luciana brought me a cake from Veniero's, an East Village GOOD bakery. That's right, TWO birthday cakes at once! Pictures are here.

There are some cute dog pictures from that day here and here. They were EXHAUSTED on Saturday night and Sunday!

Sunday, June 13...
Not really a celebration, but a relaxing day. I went to the beach with Will, Tim and Melissa. I napped there. I napped on the couch. We barbecued dinner. It was the best way to wrap up the celebration.

Thanks to Will and my friends for making my celebrating so extended and so special!

Go Me, It's My Birthday!

I'm 32 today! I like to have my birthday celebration last for as loooong as possible. This one will be no exception to that "rule". It started last night, with a great dinner at our friends' club. There was cake at the end, and people sang the birthday song to me. My favorite song. And then there was drinking. Today is the official birthday day. It will be quiet and relaxing. Maybe there will be a bike ride on the boardwalk. Maybe another festive meal. Tomorrow they might have cake for me at work. If not tomorrow, then Tuesday. Wednesday, BFF Shannon is taking me out for birthday dinner. Then Friday there are ten of us going to see Kid Rock at Jones Beach. While this isn't officially an "Erika's Birthday" event, it leads into Saturday, which will be another celebration of me with all the concert goers who are staying in our house. A week of my birthday. Awesome.

I've been thinking that it's time to change the comic icon on my front page. Not to a picture of me, but another comic character. The Catwoman I love is Selena Kyle from the comic book. That's going to get lost in translation once that awful looking Halle Berry movie comes out. I don't want to associate with the movie or the crazy actress. I heard a rumor that she said that playing Catwoman empowered her to divorce her lying, cheating husband. Couldn't she have rented a DVD of X-Men or Die Another Day to empower herself?

I'm going to change my icon to a drawing by Phil Noto. He is my favorite comic artist. I buy tons of comics just because he has drawn the cover. (Thank goodness he picks good comics to draw covers for, or I'd own a bunch of crap!) He draws people so pretty. His drawings are unique and instantly identifiable. I love the hair on his characters. It's going to be Beautiful Killer, though I'd like it to be a rotating picture of all of the Danger Girls.

In case you were wondering, "who is Erika's SECOND favorite comic book artist?" Because I know you were! It's Ted Naifeh. His comic How Loathsome drew me in. (Beware, it's for mature readers!) He also has a really unique drawing style. And Will emailed him about comic writing advice, and Mr. Naifeh was SO nice to him!

So if I could have rotating pictures over there in the upper left corner, they'd be of Beautiful Killer, the Danger Girls and the How Loathsome characters. But I'm lazy, so I choose Beautiful Killer.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Today is my mom's birthday. I think she's 34, or something. She had me when she was 2. Ew and hee. Here's a photo I've posted before in honor of your day, Mommy!