Birthday Picnic

Last weekend, we had a picnic to celebrate Julia's and Yasaman's birthdays at the newly opened Pier 1 (not the furniture store) at Brooklyn Bridge Park. It was a beautiful day, though a bit chilly there on the water. It felt like coming out of hibernation!





I'm not sure who took these beautiful shots of Rowena and Amyjoy playing on the grass (Angelique?), but I love them!


After it got too chilly, we repaired to a local bar to keep the birthday fun going for a couple more hours!



We don't need much to have fun. Just a hat!

Spring is kinda sprung!

The weather has finally allowed for the first few outdoor outings of the season! Thrilling. Chronicled: Three weekends ago, a picnic in the waterside park in Williamsburg. With fixings from Tops plus a mega pricey but extremely delicious fresh-baked loaf of bread bought off the street from the owners of that new-ish pizzeria in Bushwick (either Roberta's or Fortunata's, can't remember which). It was slightly too chilly for just sitting around, but we persevered through our meal and then played an invigorating (and spastic! I ain't too proud to admit) game of frisbee.



The weekend after that, a few of us embarked on a bike ride up to Pleasantville. We started at Van Cortland Park (my last visit likely being during the 1994 x-c boro champs meet!)--about 20 miles along what Nim thinks is some sort of repaved former railway line. Gorgeous day. We stopped for food at a cafe in Pleasantville, and then most of us rode back through muddy non-paved roads, in the dark--the best part of the ride! The least best part? The low-speed collision between me and Dominic, resulting in a bloody lip and hand for me, plus a few massive bruises. Still, all in all a very fabulous excursion.





And this past weekend, a hike up at Breakneck Ridge, right near the Bear Mountain Bridge. We took a zipcar, which between five of us came to only $24 per person! Again, perfectly crisp weather, and a supremely invigorating scramble up massive boulders for the first 1.5 miles of the trail.

Gov Island Jazz Picnic

Me and Tekla (she made this silk dress!)The halfies represented!!


Some of my Monday-night swing dance buddies pose in front of my instructor's (far right) 1929 vintage car.

Stripes! Gretchen (left) also made her dress and hat!!

More swing dancing cuties from my dance studio.

Summer Days, Summer Nights II

We picnicked out in Central Park for Shakespeare tickets last month. Waiting for standby tickets was a *much* better deal than waiting out all night for tickets at the Public!




























There was only one lady ahead of us in line, although some of us ended up sitting all the way back in row W for the first half. Check out the "Who's your daddy" healdline in the ad in this picture of me.













Our neighbors in line, kickin' back.




Mina celebrated her birthday at the Soft Spot on June 16th.






Look at how happy Mina is for cupcakes!













Look at how happy I am for cupcakes.
I'm only posting this because Mina said it would make her happy (I find it a bit unflattering, go figure, although of course, it was my idea completely to pose this way). This one's for you Mina!





Later in the month, Julia and I got dressed up for Constance's going away party. As the invite suggested, we showed our love by dressing up as something beginning with "C." Constance was a canary, and there were cops, a cloud, Truman Capote and Coco Chanel, and my personal favorite, a compost heap. You may or may not recognized from Halloweens past:









Coyote
























and Cat.







At least, that's how we started out the evening. By the end of a *very* fun night of drinking, dancing, and general merrymaking, we looked like this:



To see how we got this way, check this out (you'll have to scroll down for pictures of us getting sweaty on the dance floor and Eric Forman completely in mid-air).








The next day, I went to Prospect Park to meeet Mina, Tara, Bichthu and others for a picnic and a game of croquet. We wore white, of course, but what you can't see is my horrible hangover!!