Hawleyblog

We Did a Lot of Fun Things This Past Week

Last Thursday, Tony, Joyce, Missy, Nate, and I had dinner at Rosa Mexicano in Union Square before catching Now. Here. This., the new, off-Broadway musical from the [title of show] crew that's playing at the Vineyard Theatre.

RM had a kosher-for-Passover menu, and the offerings were so tempting, I chose one for my entree even though I'm not one of the Chosen People. I got the Pulled Beef Brisket Tacos, which were described in the menu thusly: " Beef brisket studded with jicama and carrots, cooked in habanero, charred red torpedo onions and pomegranate. Served with pimento, toasted almonds, grilled baby leeks and matzoh meal tortillas." They were out of this world!

And I didn't exactly have to choke down my two La Piñela pineapple juice–and–silver tequila cocktails either.

I enjoyed the show. It had a lot more to do with funny and/or touching stories from the four principals' past than with the spiritual advice of Thomas Merton. But I mostly enjoyed those stories—written by Hunter Bell and Susan Blackwell—and the songs of Jeff Bowen, presented by the three of them and Heidi Blickenstaff.

I found myself most interested in the parts of the show about Bowen. He seems to be the most introverted of the four performers, and I was surprised to learn he made himself over as a class clown when he was young as a way of deflecting negative, homophobic attention from himself. He did some rather good impersonations, including Ed Grimley.

On Saturday, Paul and Dan took the train into the city, in anticipation of the four of us going to see another show the next day. Both P&D and I had bought a package of tickets from Roundabout Theatre Company. Before those guys go to Cape May for the season, we wanted to catch one of our shows from this year: Don't Dress for Dinner. They ended up getting tickets for the 15th, and so I did likewise.

We had already made plans that evening to go to a birthday dinner for candle-blowing Game Party host Mark thrown by his sweetie, Hanif. So I gave P&D my keys, and we went our separate ways until late that night.

Hanif lives in Parkchester. Because of weird things going on with the trains, Tony and I took a combo of the 4, 5, and 6 to the Bronx, meeting up with Jack along the way at the 59th Street station. We made it to Metropolitan Oval only a few minutes later than our expected 6 o'clock arrival time. Mark, Hanif, and fellow Game Party attendee George and his partner, Alex, were there. The park was beautiful, with a captivating fountain sculpture called Fantasia at its center.

Hanif served a variety of hors d'oeuvres and, for the main course, delicious chicken, chick peas, and rice.

Mark led us through a fun new game, Buzzword, and Tony did very well at it, even though he says he's not much of a fan of word games.

Because Mark doesn't like to accummulate possessions, I brought him an edible gift: Tangelo Sherbet. Everyone enjoyed it. That's George on the left, and Mark on the right.

And there's Jack.

And Hanif.

The next morning, I made scrambled wild turkey eggs and roasted potatoes for the three guys. We took the High Line north on our way to the theater. Here are some lovely cyclamens I snapped.

And here are my three lovely fellows.

We enjoyed the play, which featured some great physical comedy. And it was fun to see Jennifer Tilly on stage.

UPDATE ON MAY 23: Here's a photo MIssy took of Tony, Susan, me, and Hunter after Now. Here. This. It would have been perfect if Tony hadn't been looking over at, I think, Joyce. And if I hadn't had bad red eye that I edited out, making my eyes seem black instead of brown.

Aladd-twins

Last Sunday, Tony and I went to Franklin Lakes to see Mike and Matt in Aladdin Jr., their final middle school musical.

I couldn't help but be rather disappointed that the guys didn't get the bigger parts they had tried out for. There was a new director this year, and he said at the beginning of the audition process that 8th graders weren't guaranteed the parts they wanted just because they were 8th graders. I don't necessarily think that should be the case either, but it sucked that last year, Matt wanted a bigger role in Once Upon a Mattress and he was told to wait until he was an 8th grader to get one of the big parts. And the kid who played that role was terrible and so not into being that character at all. Sigh.

This year, Mike wanted to be Iago, and I know he would have been terrific. But a 6th grader got the part instead, and Mike was a guard. Matt tried out for the role of the Sultan and instead got Narrator #3. At least he had a good number of lines.

Overall, the play wasn't anywhere near as enjoyable as last year. Or the year before. Some of the actors were good, but the show didn't seem as polished as in previous years. And when the director spoke after the play was over, he commented on how many kids had gotten hurt during the production! He talked about the injuries in the context of how proud he was of the kids for "playing hurt." But if several members of your cast are requiring first aid or a hospital visit on your watch, you're probably doing something wrong! Tony and I should catch him in one of his cabaret shows and heckle the crap out of him. "Bitter, party of two ... uncles." Ha!

I'm proud of the guys for persevering and being part of the play in nonstarring roles. Here's a photo of them onstage after the show:

Here's Matt's headshot on the hallway wall:

And here's Mike's:

My sister's birthday was the day before we visited. I brought her some homemade coffee ice cream, which she'd requested. Here she is posing with some flowers we didn't buy her:

I can't have a post about a Gerber visit without a photo of Mollzy Girl:

Before we went to dinner with David at GAO Thai Kitchen, where we'd eaten on the day after Thanksgiving, Matt, Mike, Tracey, Tony, and I played Muggins, the game of luck and paying attention. Matt won, Mike came in second, Tony came in third, Tracey came in fourth, and I came in last, with one card left. M&M thought it was funny that the two people who had been playing since they were kids did the worst.

Matt paying attention:

And Tony laughing, which isn't supposed to be part of the game. :-) :

Paula had sent the guys a book about TItanic, which, along with the Statue of Liberty, is an obsession of hers. She had also included a card with an image painted by Keith Jansz:

Here's an art project Mike did in school:

And, finally, here's my dinner at GAO: panang curry:

The day after the play, Tony e-mailed me this photo with the message "I was looking out the window just now and saw this!" Hee hee:

Christmas 2011 and New Year's 2011–2012, Part III

Granny had gotten out the Tangoes set of tangrams that I had bought for Pop many years ago.

Tony and I and Matt and Mike tried to solve a few of them.

And because I realize there were no people in the photos from the last post:

Mike (in green) and Matt unwrapping a present

Dad and Jean checking out the wine Tony and I gave them

Rob excited to see that he's unwrapped a telescope

Tony and M&M at the Green Olive. We all went there for breakfast on Monday morning. So it was an official Souf Jersey visit.

The next weekend, we had two parties for New Year's. Because we had invited people fairly late, we decided to have guests over on both the 30th and the 31st, in case they'd already made plans for New Year's Eve.

John R. and his girlfriend Keiko stayed with us Thursday night. We went to dinner at Slice.

The next evening, before our first party, we had the Schultieses over for dinner. Tony made stir-fried chicken for Bob, Abbe, and me and stir-fried shrimp for Zane, Jen, and himself. I made a salad for a starter. And for dessert, flourless peanut butter cookies that I'll definitely make again. I made Tony three of them without chocolate chips and the rest with chips for those of us who can eat chocolate that may contain traces of dairy product.

Zane and Jen. Behind them, you can see part of the row of dwarf Alberta spruces we had a landscape designer plant behind the greenhouse so that we could have some lit-up (but otherwise unadorned) Christmas trees. That's all we've asked Amber to do for now, but this spring, with her guidance, we're going to start growing some more plants and get some furniture out on the deck so we can really enjoy the space in warmer weather.

Abbe and me

And my dinner

Mark M. and José and Andy were our only party guests later that night after John and Keiko took the train to hang out with John's friend John G. in Jersey. It turned out that most of our friends were still available to come to our party the next night, Saturday night. I fell down on the picture-taking front, so I don't have any new photos of MJ&A from that Friday night. We had lots of fun, chatting mostly about the theater and other forms of pop culture.

Thanksgiving and the Day After and the Day After That 2011

Tony and I hosted Thanksgiving this year for the Gerbers and Tony's friend Rich, who ate with us last year, and his boyfriend, Vince. Tony took the lead on the turkey, and he made two different kinds of homemade cranberry sauce, one with onions and balsamic vinegar that I wasn't crazy about but Vince, Rich, and Mike really enjoyed and the other with Cointreau and Mathilde Framboise Liqueur that Matt and I thought was fantastic. (I wrote about Tony's and my visit to Astor Wines & Spirits, where we got the framboise liqueur, last weekend over at Queer New York.)

Tony also made three kinds of roasted nuts, including walnuts with maple syrup and almonds with cocoa, to serve as appetizers. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the third kind better than even the chocolaty ones: cashews with rosemary, which he made using an Ina Garten recipe that was inspired by a Union Square Cafe snack, only he used oil instead of butter. Tony bought a cute little dome-lidded tray the other day from Pier 1 to serve them in.

We did a whole turkey, and David was happy to get a leg to chew on. We Hawleys prefer white meat, so there's usually only turkey breast at our family gatherings.

Tony had gotten a Martha Stewart–branded fresh turkey, and it was quite good, even though the chunk of plastic that had been stuffed inside to help it retain its shape gave Tony fits when he tried to remove it. Tony shoved fresh herbs under the skin and, with a halved lemon, inside the cavity. And we put olive oil and salt and cracked pepper on the skin. 

Rich, who doesn't do much cooking, made stuffing using my sister's recipe, which was really awesome of him. Tony had wanted the Gerbers to have some of the foods they were used to having. Because they went to see the parade before coming here, we asked them to bring something easily transportable: wine. I liked both of the wines Tracey had picked out after having tried them at a wine tasting: a California pinot noir and a California blend of chenin blanc and viognier.

I contributed garlicky roasted cauliflower and romanesco and roasted butternut squash that the 'phews helped me spice up with ground pumpkin spices. I had made both of those dishes for M&M, with Mike's help, when they came to visit Tony and me two weekends ago; I'll write about that visit in my next post.

Tony's dessert was a big hit: dairyless but completely rich and satisfying chocolate mousse. He had made it for me before, and I would have sworn I'd blogged about it at some point but I couldn't find a mention of it when I searched just now. He gave an extra-big ramekin of it to chocoholic David, who made a game effort but couldn't polish it off.

My dessert didn't turn out so well. I made Pumpkin Spice Latte Ice Cream, but the contents of only one of my two ice cream makers solidified enough to bother with putting it in the freezer to completely harden. And that batch of the ice cream wasn't aerated enough to make the texture satisfying. But the flavor was quite good. I made another double batch of the base yesterday and am processing it in the ice cream makers now as I finish this post so I can take the ice cream to the Game Party this afternoon. It's turning out fine. I think part of the problem with my first attempt was that I had inadvertently left the freezer door open a bit when I removed the coffee beans I'd been storing in there, and so the chemical in the canisters I use in my ice cream makers wasn't supercold like it needed to be to do its magic. The base itself also probably wasn't cold enough. Because our fridge was so full, I relied on the air in our greenhouse to cool the base down after cooking it and it wasn't as thick as it usually is after chilling in the fridge for a few hours.

I was very pleased with the Pumpkin Spice Latte Syrup I created. I've been drinking it in my coffee with whole milk the past few days, and I think it's terrific. I'll add the recipe after some more photos and before the "day after" part of the post. I added a cup of the syrup to my regular coffee ice cream base (made using two cups of coffee beans and the usual three pints of half-and-half) to make the PSLIC base.

Tony, Rich, and Vince posing for me after dinner

The bird just before it went into the oven

And my favorite photo of the day: Tracey making gravy with a glass of red wine in her hand, with Tony at the sink behind her

Pumpkin Spice Latte Syrup

One 15-ounce can of organic pumpkin
Two canfuls (almost 4 cups) of water
1 cup brown sugar
6 whole cloves
7 allspice berries
One 2-inch piece of ginger, skinned and cut into coin-sized pieces
1 nutmeg, hit with a hammer
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons salt

Combine all of the ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Lower the temperature and simmer for a half hour, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool slightly, strain, and chill.

The amounts and types of spices could be tweaked, of course. Next time, I would use more allspice, ginger, and nutmeg and less cinnamon. I would ideally use a short stick of cinnamon, which was the only whole spice we didn't have on hand.

***

On Friday, Tony and I visited the Gerbers. It's become a tradition for me to go out there on Black Friday to help them decorate their Christmas tree. This year, they got a live one.

After Tracey, Mike, and Matt picked us up at the train station, we got lunch at Pizza Fusion, where Tracey got that big-ass salad back in March, before the boys' play.

At their home, before we went to pick out the tree, Mike, Matt, and I played Donkey Kong's Jungle, one of three board games based on the Mario Party video games that Mike had made up. It was a lot of fun. Mike said the most time-consuming part was making all of the game pieces, which can be used with all three of the boards.

I failed to get a picture of the tree after we'd decorated it. But I did get a picture of the guys posing with the wreaths Tracey bought at the same place where we got the tree, a nicely rounded fir.

We all had dinner at GAO Thai Kitchen in Ramsey. Tony enjoyed the chicken larb he got for his main course. And he enjoyed saying larb. I had the pleasingly hot-and-spicy Red Curry Chicken.

***

And speaking of pleasingly hot-and-spicy, Tony cooked a second turkey—one he'd bought frozen—last night that he had seasoned liberally with cajun spices. Man, was it ever good. Tony had intended to cook it on Wednesday evening so the Gerbers would have leftovers to take home with them on Thursday, but it wasn't thawed in time.

A Height-of-Summer 'Phews Visit, Part I

Matt and Mike came for a 'phews visit this past weekend.

On Friday evening, Mike, Matt, Tony, and I had dinner at Piccolo Angolo, the terrific Italian restaurant where Dad and I ate around this time last summer. Tony had had a large and late lunch with a friend, so he had said it would be OK to go to a place where he could get just a salad and not worry about whether there were suitable entrees for him. As it turns out, our waitress (who I believe is the owner's daughter) said PA offers gluten-free pasta. He ended up getting mixed vegetables sauteed in olive oil and garlic because he wasn't all that hungry, as he'd expected.

Later, Tony and I discussed whether he'd be up for trying the gluten-free pasta there some other time. He liked that the woman had been so nice (she lives in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, not far from the Gerbers, and we talked about Van Saun Park, among other things; she made it clear that she much prefers the 'burbs to the city, but I won't hold that against her :-) ) and that the restaurant cared enough to offer GF pasta, but he was concerned about cross-contamination given the high volume of non-GF dishes the kitchen turns out. Maybe we'll go there for an early dinner when PA first opens up and the kitchen staff isn't likely to be frazzled.

The boys helped me eat my large house salad of mixed greens, and the three of us attacked the delicious garlic bread that came in the basket of bread (along with some plain Italian bread that we ignored). Tony and I shared a bottle of French rosé after one of the guys who worked there said he preferred it to either of the Italian ones on the wine list. I ordered chicken parmigiana that turned out to be veal parmigiana. The guy who'd recommended the wine noticed the mistake after I'd taken a bite (I bet I would have figured it out too) and said he would replace it with the chicken, unless I wanted the veal for the price of the chicken. I initially said to exchange it but then decided it was better to eat the veal than to let it go to waste. The guys split a portion of pumpkin ravioli, and I was pleased with the bite I had of Mike's.

M&M and I went to bed pretty early, and they slept like rocks, with the help of Rudy, who nosed his way into the bedroom and lay at/on their feet after I was asleep. The guys were aware of his presence and enjoyed that he was hanging out with them. Rudy makes everyone sleep better because his enthusiasm for rest is contagious. :-)

The next morning, I cooked a breakfast I'd warned M&M I was going to make them try: scrambled turkey eggs. They thought they were terrific. And they also wolfed down the side of fried potatoes and the little bowl of black raspberries I gave to each of us. Because I wanted them to experience the turkey eggs without a lot of ornamentation, I seasoned them with only salt and pepper. And because I'm their Foodie Uncle Bill, I took a chance and spiced up the potatoes with grains of paradise and paprika. They raved about everything, which made me very happy.

Then we went off to the farmers market, where we bought lots of fruit, some flowers to cheer me up during the difficult workweek to come, and most of the ingredients for Chocolate Mint Stracciatella Ice Cream. I had talked with the guys about making either Stracciatella Ice Cream with a vanilla ice cream base or more of the Spearmint Stracciatella, with Keith's Farm's Kentucky Colonel Spearmint. The KC mint looked pretty wilted, and the chocolate mint looked much perkier and smelled great, so I bought that.

My next ice cream will probably be vanilla with something in it because I cleaned out my pantry cabinet the other day and discovered I had four vanilla beans in glass jars that I'd completely forgotten about.

I also couldn't resist these sandita cukes, which ended up tasting like most any other cucumber but were 10 times cuter.

When we got home, I gave the woofers a quick walk before we headed right back out again to meet outdoorsy Game Party host Mark for lunch and a walk along the High Line, whose second section officially opened on June 8, increasing the park's length to one mile.

M&M and I got on the High Line at Gansevoort and walked up to 15th Street. That's where The Porch, the only restaurant on the High Line itself, is located. Mark got a plate of herb paté with lavash. I ordered another one of those for us to share, and the boys and I also got cucumber and butter sandwiches. I was bummed that TP was out of its lemon verbena beverage. That meant the only drink options were water, beer, or wine. So we all had water.

They don't call Mark the Game Master for nothing. He brought some Password cards and readers, and we played a quick game. Matt and I were one team, and Mike and Mark were the other one. Matt and I got to five correct passwords first, so we won. The best clue-and-answer combo for us was when Matt correctly said "mud" when I said "slop."

I wanted to get ice cream sandwiches for dessert at the Melt Bakery cart, but I was outvoted, so we ended up at the People's Pops cart instead. I got a strawberry-rhubarb pop, Mark got an apricot lavender pop, and the boys both got sour cherry ices. The guy who made the ices used a cool scraper on a large block of crystal-clear ice.

The second section of the High Line is, not surprisingly, very impressive. Among the highlights for me were a grassy area with lots of sunbathers, a narrow path between trees, and two sculptures/giant bird feeders. (I'll post a bunch of photos at the end of part II.)

Mike took a bunch of cool 3-D photos with the boys' Nintendo 3DS.

After we got to the end of the line, Mark found us a shady spot on a long bench and we had a Password rematch. This time, Mike and Mark won.

Here are the three M's at lunch:

And here's the end of the High Line. For now:

Memorial Day Weekend 2011, Part I

The nephews are so busy with going to bar/bat mitzvahs and first communions and other such things that there wasn't a full weekend in May when they could come to visit. So in lieu of a proper, action-packed, two-day visit with Uncle Bill, Tracey, Tony, the guys, and I started off Memorial Day weekend by eating out last Friday night at L'Artusi.

Matt and Mike ate all of their pasta dishes, which were pretty adventurous choices: Matt's had ramps, chiles, and radicchio, and Mike's came with pancetta and pecorino cheese. Mike's had a tomato-based sauce, but Matt's didn't. They didn't get anything for their first course, though they tried and enjoyed the things the rest of us got. I ordered the Butter Lettuce Salad that Lou had gotten last time, only with the gorgonzola left off. Tony got a side dish of chile-spiced and minted sugar snap peas cooked in olive oil instead of butter; they were mighty tasty. And Tracey got a delicious farrotto that had some asparagus and, I believe, parmesan in it. The dinner menu on the website isn't up-to-date; the farrotto in the list of contorni on the website has butternut squash and parmesan in it. And it's spelled with one r, which I think is wrong. And I think the waiter was wrong when he told us that the farrotto was made from barley; it's more likely that it was made from farro. Otherwise, why call it farrotto, right?

Tony was disappointed in his entree: The Branzino was well cooked, but it was plated on a huge pile of olives and pieces of lemon peel with the white pith intact. My Sug Boy enjoys olives, but they overwhelmed the fish, and the lemon didn't contribute anything but bitterness. I got the Tagliatelle with Bolognese Blanco, which—I'm reminded by my linked post in the first paragraph—I also had when Tony, Lou and I went there. Tracey got the Hanger Steak, which she ordered medium well but turned out to be well done. It came with Crispy Potatoes; I totally fell down on the job and didn't snag even one to try.

Tracey had a glass of red, and Tony, a glass of rosé. I don't recall the labels, and the wine list isn't updated either. If it were, I'd be able to figure out which ones they were. Anyhow, I got a L'Artusi Gimlet, which consists of gin, St-Germain, and lime juice. I had intended to get a glass of wine with my dinner, but the service was inattentive on this visit and no one followed up with us except for once, right after our entrees were dropped off. There was a big party at a long table in the back of the second floor, in front of the wine vault, and the waitstaff seemed distracted by that group.

I tried re-creating the gimlets for Tony and me Saturday night. I need to work on the formula; they were too limey.

So all in all, it wasn't a terrific meal out, but it was fun to see the boys enjoy the food so much. And I still want to take Dad there sometime.

We didn't get dessert at the restaurant because I had homemade Peppermint Stracciatella Ice Cream at home. When I made it the previous weekend, with black peppermint from Berried Treasures, I got the bright idea to incorporate the shavings from a grated bar of dark chocolate to replicate the experience of (but not the same technique used for) stracciatella gelato instead of the usual chocolate chips. It was awesome. And the boys agreed.

Before I dipped up the mint ice cream, Tracey tried to bust my chops about never having gotten to try my Coffee Ice Cream even though I've been making it for years. But I told her I still had some left from the batch I made a little while ago, so she would finally get her chance after all. She enjoyed the mint but she liked the coffee even better and said it was the best coffee ice cream she'd ever had. Woot! Up yours, Breyer's! :-)

Before dinner, the Gerbers and I had walked around the neighborhood a little bit. We stopped at Milk & Cookies, an adorable little bakery over on Commerce Street just off 7th Avenue that I had stumbled across the weekend before. Tracey and the boys went inside and got us some sweets to have for later while Rudy and I waited outside. Then I took a photo of everyone on the bench in front of the store window.

***

After the Gerbers left to go back to Jersey, Tony and I stopped at Sea Grape for a bottle of chilled riesling. After hanging out on his deck for a while, we retired to the living room so he could teach me how to play backgammon. Tony plays the game online with an old friend of his, and I thought it would be fun to get a backgammon set for us. I ordered it from a vintage products store in Albuquerque, New Mexico, called The Two Sparrows, via Etsy. I liked the boids on the board.

We didn't use the doubling cube in the game and so weren't worried about the stakes or keeping track of points. The boy got a crazy number of doubles in the first match, which he won, but not too handily. He also won the second match, but I came back in the third to avoid a total shutout.

***

On Saturday morning, I went to the South Street Seaport TKTS booth to get half-price tickets to that evening's performance of Lucky Guy, the off-Broadway musical that was closing that Sunday. I had meant to catch Leslie Jordan in My Trip Down the Pink Carpet last year but never got off my ass and got tix, so when my buddy Zach posted this show's closing notice on Facebook, I was determined to act fast and not miss out on this show, which co-starred LJ as used-car salesman Big Al Wright, who schemes with a country singer played by Varla Jean Merman to steal a potential hit song from a handsome yokel played by Kyle Dean Massey.

I'm so glad Tony and I got to see this show. It was a big gay musical ball of happiness. The three leads were all fantastic; I had no idea VJM was such a terrific singer.

There was a funny unscripted moment when KDM—as Billy Ray Jackson—changed shirts onstage, and a queen in the front row audibly gasped at the sight of his bare chiseled torso. He and VJM broke up, and she warned the guy in the audience that KDM was all hers.

The show had terrific sets and costumes. VJM's character, Jeannie Jeannine, lives in a huge, opulently appointed double wide—to prove to her fans that she hasn't lost touch with her trailer-park roots. The living room set featured tall columns that looked like champagne flutes with bubbles in them. And Big Al kept surprising the other characters by popping out of tiny doors in unusual locations.

I'm so sad LG ended after such a short run: 23 previews and 14 performances. One consolation is that an original cast recording has been promised.

A Showless Thanksgiving Spent Mostly in New Jersey

I met the Gerbers in Manhattan on Thanksgiving after they left the Macy's parade. They had planned to watch the parade at the apartment of friends who live along the parade route, as they'd done in years past, but they didn't consider that the hotel they'd stayed in overnight was on the other side of the parade from their friends' place. So they got stuck on that side of the street and couldn't get to their indoor viewing spot. So they had to watch it outside. They were also on the other side of the parade route from our rendezvous location, outside the McDonald's at 71st and Amsterdam, so I had to wait for them for about 20 minutes after Tracey called to tell me they weren't able to get here from there.

We also had to wait a while to get the car from the nearby parking garage where the Gerbers had left it the day before. So the boys and I started a game of Mario Party DS, and Tracey went to the McDonald's to get something for everyone to nosh on. I said I didn't want anything because I've got an avoid-McDonald's policy. The fries did smell terrific, though. I had a few bites of the chocolate, pretzel-shaped danishes the Gerbers had bought, among other things, to take to their friends' apartment. And when we got to the Gerbers' house, I had some Concord grapes I'd bought, along with some Cameo apples, at the Union Square Greenmarket the night before to bring to the Gerbers'. I'd forgotten that Concords aren't seedless, which is kind of a pain in the butt. They've got terrific flavor, though.

As regular readers of Hawleyblog may recall, the past two years, the Gerbers treated me to a fun show before we had our Thanksgiving dinner. This year, not so much. *sigh* :-)

We played some fun games, though. First, all five of us played Whoonu, which involves giving cards that have the names of various activities and items on them to one player at a time. That player, who doesn't know which player gave him which card, ranks them in order of how much she likes them. The person who gave her the card she ranked as the best gets a token worth 4 points. (In our case, because there were five players.) The person who gave her the card ranked as second best gets a token worth 3 points, and so on down to 1. After everyone has had a turn being the person whom cards are handed to, who's called the Whoozit, the person with the most points wins. We played several rounds of this game, which goes very fast. You have to know about the other players' likes and dislikes, but it's also a lot about luck: Whoever had the card with Malls on it in his four-card hand knew he had a winner when it got to be my sister's turn to collect others' cards. :-) I once drew a card with Spiders on it, and it sat in my hand the whole game.

The second game could be played by only four players, so David sat that one out. It was The Dangerous Book for Boys Game. This one was a rather complex board game that the Gerbers hadn't played before, so we had to read the instructions to figure out what we were doing. I don't think we had everything figured out because there was a swimming area around the main, island part of the game board, and we couldn't find anything in the instructions that explained when you would go to that outer ring. We assumed that one of the challenge cards that we never drew made you go swimming. *shrugs* The idea is to collect pieces of a raft that will allow you to sail off the island before the other players manage to do so. You gain pieces of the raft by successfully completing individual challanges or finishing group challenges before your opponents. We drew a lot of challenges involving putting planets in order from smallest to largest at the beginning, and that got pretty boring. But some of the other challenges were fun, like making a paper airplane and seeing who could throw his creation the farthest. (That would have been me. Ahem.) Along the way around the board, you could collect and retain helpful cards that could aid you in winning a particular challenge. For instance, you might get a card that showed the positions of stars in the constellation Ursa Minor. If someone drew a group-challenge (or you drew an individual-challenge) card that involved putting your star tokens in the layout of Ursa Minor, you were golden.

Tracey and I had some red wine while we were playing the games. At first, I had said I didn't want any wine because so far that day, all I'd consumed were a sweet muffin and coffee from Sweet Melissa, another coffee in Manhattan while I was waiting for the Gerbers to arrive, that chocolatey danish, and some grapes: nothing but sugar and caffeine. But pretty much all Tracey had to do to get me to drink with her was say "C'mon!" like Edna Krabappel.* I felt a little bit woozy that afternoon, but I managed to keep it together until dinner.

After the board and card games, the boys and I had a little time left to play some video games on the Wii. I'd gotten the boys Boom Blox for their birthday in August, and Thursday was the first time I'd tried it out. It's a lot of fun. We mostly played short games in which you have to knock down your opponents' structures before they knock down yours.

Dinner was great. We went to the Preakness Hills Country Club, where we've gone for Father's Day the past two years. I loaded up my plate with turkey and gravy, whipped sweet potatoes (I avoided the marshmallow topping because I'd had a ton of sugar already and I knew I'd be hitting the dessert table), roasted butternut squash with apples (and, I think, celery root, though the little sign didn't mention that), stuffing, and cranberry sauce. After I took the photo above, one of the boys asked me whether I take a picture of everything I eat. Only the unusual stuff or a particularly good meal that I made for myself or got at a restaurant, I said. I mean, come on, who would take a picture of everything he ate and expect someone to want to read about it?

After a pretty lengthy break, I went back to try the mashed potatoes with goat cheese and figs, which I was a little afraid of the first time I went up to the buffet. I had no reason to fear. I might have preferred more traditional mashed taters, but these were good, with a nice tang from the goat cheese. I couldn't detect the presence of figs.

I had a fine glass of pinot noir with dinner, but I have no idea who the producer was. And I drank green tea with a half piece of pumpkin pie (Matt had already taken the other half) and a bite of my sister's chocolate chip cookie for dessert.

The past few times I've seen the boys, I've corrected them whenever they've said "much" when they've meant "many." On Thursday, while we were playing the Wii, I told one of the guys—I think it was Mike—that I didn't understand what he was saying when he asked me a question using "much" when he meant "many." And I think it was in the car during the ride home from Manhattan that one of them used "much" incorrectly, and I told the guys: "You have to get it right. Otherwise, you'll be sitting in the Harvard admissions officer's office and you'll start to ask, 'How much classes ... ' and he'll cut you off and tell you there's no way he's going to let you into Harvard if you don't know the difference between 'much' and 'many.'" On the way to the train station, one of them screwed it up again, and I said, "Here's how you remember the difference: You'd ask, 'How much does Daddy stink before he takes a shower?' but you'd ask, 'How many glasses of wine did Mommy and Uncle Bill drink today?'" I think they've got it now!

The boys had some fun with the Koi Pond application I bought for my iPhone for 99 cents the other day. It's a cute little time waster that lets you splash your fingers around in a customizable ... wait for it ... koi pond. When you shake the iPhone, you sprinkle food into the water. And if you hold your finger still on the screen, the koi will seem to nibble at it as the phone vibrates. For now, there's a "holiday mode" in which some of the koi have reindeer antlers and red noses and holly replaces the lily pads. And when you shake the phone, you hear bells jingling and you feed the fish gingerbread men and candy canes instead of flakes.

We timed our arrival at the Ridgewood train station well enough that I didn't have to run for the train or hang out for a long time. Woo hoo! It had been a nice—though sadly showless :-)—Thanksgiving spent mostly in New Jersey.

And now, to finish this post, a trio of photos:

The hooligans: Mike has his arm around Matt.

David and Tracey

And the turkey carving station. Eat your heart out, Dad.** Hah!

*That's in the Quotes and Scenes Summary section of the page, in the part where Edna and Principal Skinner are on the stage with Ned Flanders, both of them trying to sway the public regarding the teachers' contract demands.

**ARROHK, Dad is particularly fond of Preakness's turkey.

A Fun Weekend in Franklin Lakes

Last Friday, Rudy, Emme, and I took a rental car to Franklin Lakes to hang out with Granny, Dad, and the boys while David and Tracey were in the Cayman Islands. (Emme drove because Rudy suffers from narcolepsy.) David was no doubt helping his company dodge taxes while Tracey was catching rays. Hah!

Mike, Matt, and I played lots of Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii. I had bought a copy for myself the previous Wednesday, but in an awesome display of self-control, I didn't open it up until I returned home on Sunday. I had meant to use last week as an opportunity to straighten up the apartment and sort through a bunch of old papers and such, and I actually did it! I figured I could hold off on playing until I went to Jersey. Of course, I've been playing just about every day since I got back. :)

M&M said their Mom and Dad thought SSBB looked pointless. All you do is beat up on other player's characters using your character. Who's possibly a giant chicken* who's wielding a big mallet (if you choose King Dedede). The game may not have much of a point, but let me repeat: You get to beat up the other players. With a mallet. As a giant chicken! Or as a peanut-shooting monkey (Diddy Kong). Or a laser gun–toting bounty hunter (Samus). Or one of many other classic Nintendo characters. I'll write a review of the game after I've had a chance to play it some more.

We had a nice dinner on Saturday at La Piazza Bistro Italiano in Ridgewood after walking around town for a little while. I bought a shirt at the Lucky Brand Jeans store, which, in retrospect, was silly because it was a long-sleeved one and would undoubtedly be going on sale soon. The store is a favorite of my sister's, thanks to me. One time when we were walking around Ridgewood, I suggested she look in the store because I'd recently bought some cool clothes at a Lucky in SoHo. She liked what she saw and has been a Lucky fan ever since.

The boys tried to convince me that the Ridgewood store had closed, but I didn't believe 'em because I knew they were only trying to avoid having to tag along while I shopped for clothes. They weren't fooling me. That time. They did get me to run after some guy down Chestnut Street who they said was Jake. It wasn't! It turns out it was this guy. You little stinkers! I'll get you for that! :)

Dad and I bought some wine at Wine Seller, which doesn't seem to have a Web site. And we made poor Gran walk to Bookends, which was farther out Ridgewood Avenue than I recalled.

The boys didn't buy anything because they'd gotten Webkinz pencil boxes earlier that day at a store in a strip mall in Wayne. I had to take Mike's back because it really was defective, unlike that book. The magnetic closing mechanism was ill fitting right out of the plastic wrapping, and it didn't take long for it to fall apart. The guy at the store didn't give me any crap about exchanging it, and I said as much when I got back in the car. But then, to make it more interesting, I made up a story about how the guy gave me a bunch of smack talk and I leapt over the counter, etc.

I think I did a good job of keeping the boys entertained throughout the weekend. They get all bent out of shape whenever their parents go away, especially their Mommy. They'll seem OK, even upbeat, and the next thing you know, one of them will be tearing up. That happened at the restaurant. Everything had seemed fine when I went to the men's room. When I got back, Michael asked me whether we could switch seats so he could sit next to his brother because Matt was upset. I looked over at Matt, and he was all boo-boo faced. "What's the matter, Matt?" "I miss Mommy." Oy. I tried to convince them that you don't need Mommy when you've got the coolest uncle in the world right in front of you. They weren't buying it.

I cracked a lot of jokes and told silly stories. I told them I'd come up with a great idea for a toy called Monkey Britches. There's a battery-powered, plastic monkey that wriggles all over the place, and you have to try to put pants on him!** Hah!

I had fun while talking with my sister over the weekend. (The boys insisted on talking to T&D twice a day on the phone.) I'd say things like "Everything's been fine since we got Matt and Mike out of the ditch." and, pretending to yell at the boys, "Hey, get out of the pool!"

We got in a hand of Muggins Saturday evening before a television show the boys wanted to watch came on. Granny told me she'd played Flinch many years ago when she was babysitting. I remarked to Dad that he was never much of a game player when Tracey and I were little. He said he believes it was because he saw his megacompetitive (but otherwise mostly sweet) grandmother (Pop Pop's mother) go nuts over card games because she had to win.*** I didn't have to win, but I did. In your faces, two 9-year-olds and two senior citizens! :)

On Sunday, we went to the Purim Carnival at the Gerbers' temple. The boys had a good time. They both played the games well, but I was particularly impressed with Matt's arm. To the right is a photo of him celebrating after doing the seemingly impossible and getting an inflated banana with velcro on one side to stick to a velcro patch on a big inflated monkey.

Earlier that morning, the Easter Bunny had brought them their Easter baskets, which contained a little plastic cow and a little plastic sheep that pooped out cola- and butterscotch-flavored jelly beans when you pressed them on their backs. I didn't speak to Tracey after the boys checked out their Easter baskets. If I had, I would have said, "Guys, stop pressing on Rudy's back. He's not going to poop out candy." Hah!

Speaking of Rudy, he had a ball chasing after Molly and sniffing at her butt. Who am I to judge, though? If I'd spent the weekend with Ron, I might have done, er, similar things. At right, Rudy is nuzzling Molly's other end.

The boys also went on an Easter egg hunt in the front yard that morning. Tracey had sent the Easter bunny a message to not hide the eggs in the backyard because of the doggy doo doo. Although, I must say, I did a stellar job of picking up after the three dogs all weekend; I didn't want Tracey to have to deal with Rudy's massive shitpiles when she got back.

Here are the boys counting their eggs. Dad and I, of course, had no idea how many eggs the Easter bunny had left. *cough* So we encouraged the boys to stop looking after they'd reached a reasonable even number and hadn't seen anymore for a while.

I left not too long after lunch because Dad and Gran were going to take M&M to see Horton Hears a Who! and I didn't want to get started back to Brooklyn as late as I'd have had to if I went along. (And after having seen the live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas, I wasn't too jazzed about seeing Hollywood's take on another Dr. Seuss classic. It has gotten mostly positive reviews, though.)

And now let's commence with the inevitable cavalcade of photos:

That's the gang at the Purim Carnival.

Dad pets the bassets while Emme lurks under the table, undoubtedly looking for crumbs from the last meal eaten there.

That's a photo of Matt that Mike took with my iPhone. On Matt's shirt, SpongeBob is saying, "Can you repeat the part after 'listen carefully?'"

Molly in extreme close-up. She's such a good girl. And even though she often mistrusts and barks at strangers, she's always liked her Uncle Bill since the day she met me.

All three dogs together. Molly is doing a downward-facing dog yoga pose. Emme and Rudy do that one pretty often, too. I can't get them to do crow, though.

You couldn't possibly have gotten enough dog photos, so here's another one, of an old- and dejected-looking Rudy, with Molly's sheep toy.

Mike took that photo of Dad at dinner. I like the flashes of light. The boys are getting to be pretty good photographers.

One of the boys took that photo of Dad in the wine store. I don't know who had the iPhone at the time. I also don't know how they got ahold of that open bottle of cheap Beaujolais. But they sure had fun with that, too. :)

And last but not least, that's me and the monkeys not long before I headed back to the city. I love you, guys! Thanks for putting up with me during a fun weekend in Franklin Lakes.

*Or a penguin or whatever he's supposed to be.

**Consider this fair warning, Hasbro: If you steal this idea, I'll so have so many lawyers on you, you'll feel like a small jungle rodent covered in army ants. :)

***There's a bit more to the story that makes certain Hawleys—in particular, Dad's grandmother—look like asses. I won't go into all that, mainly because I don't think Granny or Pop Pop would want me to. It's amazing to me, though, how I've managed to become such an amazing human being given my ancestry, on both sides. :) I also won't go into why my mother is on everyone's shit list right now, but I will say it involves the boys and a certain holiday rabbit.

UPDATE on March 29: The boys are still calling me Uncle Billy Bob Joe, like they did in Puerto Rico. That gives me lots of opportunities to pretend I'm a hick from Appalachia (as opposed to what I really am, a hick from South Jersey) and say things like "Rudy's my basset—and my cousin. And he teaches math down to the local community college."

A Visit From the Gerbers, With No Bubbles

As I mentioned in my last post, Tracey and the boys were supposed to have come to Brooklyn on Friday for an overnight stay, but because of the winter weather, we changed it to a Sunday-afternoon-into-the-evening stay. We had discussed possibly seeing the Gazillion Bubble Show Friday night. That's been put on hold until next month or so.

Instead, we did a little shopping on 7th and 5th avenues here in the Slope. I wanted Tracey to see a hot air balloon tchotchke you hang from the ceiling that I saw at Sterling Place but not on SP's Web site. Tracey's dining room has a hot air balloon theme, and I thought the hanging balloon would be a fun addition to the room. It's got a pretty formal look, though, and I wasn't sure whether Tracey would see the balloon as a good match. There were actually two different versions of the balloon, one of which had a little French flag on it. (Tracey is a Francophile and former French teacher.) She thought the balloons were cute, but she didn't think either would fit in the dining room. SP also had some plates with hot air balloons on them, but Tracey thought they were too expensive for their size. (And I agreed.)

Prior to hitting Sterling Place, we went to Be Crafty!, the fairly new crafts store on 3rd Street near 7th Ave. Tracey bought each of the boys a sketch book with lots of suggestions on things to draw. Mike's had an art theme, and Matt's had a zoo theme.

Tracey did a little clothes shopping, and we both picked up a couple bottles of wine.

Instead of eating my delicious Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars for a snack, we went to Sweet Melissa when the Gerbers first arrived. They had had a late breakfast but no lunch, so they needed a little something to tide them over until dinner. M&M split a mini banana cream pie, Tracey had a croissant, and she and I got our caffeine fix.

After we were done shopping, we came back to my place, and I walked Emme and Rudy. Then we gathered around my coffee table for a game of Muggins.

I'd come across my set of Flinch cards with the psychedelically dressed family on the box a little while ago and figured I'd break them out when T, M & M visited. The box contains 10 sets of cards numbered 1 to 15. Flinch is obviously the main game the cards are intended for, but we were always partial to the Muggins variation growing up. As in Flinch, the object is to get rid of all of your cards. The dealer deals out all 150 cards. The person to his left draws a card from the bottom of the pile of cards he was dealt. If he has a 1, he places it in the middle of the table. If he draws something other than a 1, he places it face up in front of him in his discard pile. Play continues with 1s always starting new piles in the middle. If a player has a 2, she can put it on top of one of the 1s, and so forth. Cards are placed in the center piles only in increasing value: 3 on top of 2, 4 on top of 3, etc., up to 15. You can also place a card on the top of an opponent's discard pile if your card is either one number higher or lower than his top, face-up card. If he's got an 8 showing, you can throw a 7 or 9 on his pile. Whenever it's your turn, you must play the face-up card on top of your discard pile first if there's a place for it to go. And you must place it on one of the piles in the center of the table before placing it on an opponent's pile. If there's no place to play your top card, you draw a card from the bottom of your dealt-card pile. If you fail to follow the rules, the other players can yell "Muggins!" You then have to take back your misplayed card and take a card from the opponent who said "Muggins" first. It's really a game about paying attention. Luck also plays a role. If you've been dealt a whole bunch of 15s, you're much less likely to win than someone who's been dealt only a couple.

We had fun. Matt got mugged a couple times in a row for misplaying the same card. That'll learn him! (And Rudy had fun licking Mike on the back of his head as I was dealing out the cards.) Late in the game, Tracey was talking like we should quit and count our remaining cards to see who had the fewest left so we could get to dinner around 5. We decided she should go one more time and then I, the dealer, should go one more time, and then we'd count our cards. But she ended up unloading the rest of her cards, maybe 15 or so, on her turn, winning the game outright. She always was the luckiest at games growing up.

For dinner, we went to Sotte Voce. As much as I love that place, I wish my family would be up for something different on occasion. I realize they don't have too many opportunities to eat there, but I'm always going there when they come for a visit. I got one of my usuals, Fusilli Al Salmone. I got both of the boys to try a bite of the smoked salmon, and they both liked it. Score! I always bug the boys to try fish if I get a fish dish out, and they'd always refused me.

Here's a picture of Tracey, taken by, I think, me with the iPhone:

Here's a picture of me taken by Matt. I told him to be sure to get my good side.

Here's Mike taken by Matt.

And here's Matt, who wouldn't allow me to take a serious picture.