Another Year Older... Hopefully Wiser Too

Last night my dear fellow and his family in visiting from the Chicago area took me out to dinner here in our new burb at Aozora, a Japanese French spot. I apologize to you now and tell you to turn down the sound if you click on the restaurant link. IT IS LOUD... and the site is super annoying to use.)

We had so many laughs and succeeded in embarrassing the 10 year old at the table to boot!

The Japanese dishes were wonderful... the French dishes were just "eh" aside from the tasty French desserts (See below in the slide show.) Our waiter was AWESOME! Funny, pleasant and on top of it!

Still trying to figure out how to celebrate my birthday with my friends.

Time for some unpacking!!

Surprise!!!

One of the reasons that I came home these for 10 days between trips was to be at this surprise party for Emmanuel's 40th Birthday!

Jo and Karthika planned a wonderful party!

Let me apologize now for the awful photos! I'm still not sure what the setting was that I had my camera on - but these are the BEST of the aweful shots! There are a few good ones - then ???

We rented a room at Japas38 for sushi/drinks/karaoke. Guests rolled in around 7:45pm to decorate and settle in.

I forgot that I had that hat on and wore it almost all night. It wasn't until I was in the restroom and a girl wished me Happy Birthday that I looked in the mirror and saw it still on. Occupational hazard I guess.

Emmanuel and Jo arrived at 8pm. He walked in being shown the room by waitstaff and we all pounced!!!

"Surprise!!"

But wait...There's MORE!!!

Jo had arranged the most lovely surprise!

Emmanuel has lived in NYC around 10 years (I think) and his brother, who still lives in Paris, had yet to be able to visit him. Jo arranged it as a surprise and JP arrived just after the initial surprise.

I don't think I've ever seen Emmanuel run so fast as to greet his brother at the door! Those are his hands out int he right side of the photo above (left.)

Wonderful!

Many of us had met JP in Paris last spring at Jo and Emmanuel's wedding. It was good to see him again.

From there the party rolled for two hours of eating and singing and eating and drinking and singing. No complaints were made by anyone...what would there be to complain about?

When our two hours were up we parted ways with the birthday boy who was going home to his son and to spend time with his unexpected weekend house guest!

Those who were left moved on around the corner to the Gingerman for a few rounds of pints and laughs. What a great group of people. Thanks for a wonderful night all and HAPPY 40th Emmanuel!!!

Sushi, Songs & Sake!!!

Tonight I dashed downtown to meet up with Lisa, Silvia, Chiara, Patrizia and Henrietta and wish Wardell happy travels as he journeys back home to Holland in a few days...a few months earlier than planned.

Lisa, his dear girlfriend, organized a lovely sushi and karaoke evening as they are two of his favorite things. I couldn't believe how much food they included in the package at Japas 27! Yikes! Throw in unlimited sake, wine and water/sodas and you have yourself a party! No WONDER they had us sitting around a table in the private little room -- we were stuffed to the gills!

We sang and sang and sang --- and before we knew it, our two hours were up and they were ushering us out.

While waiting in the bar area for people to finish some things up, I met a few fun folks singing karaoke and got in an other song. Yeah! Hopefull I'll meet up with those folks at another time for some more K. Fun!

From here we were headed to the beauty bar...but needed a quick stop at the dorms at NYU Medical on the LES where both Wardell and Henri live (it's convienent since they work in the building -- and you can't beat the rent!!) Left overs were poped into a fridge...shoes were changed for dancing and we popped downstairs to the game room to wait for everyone to be ready.

Suddenly the foozball table was in action...then ping pong and finally, the pool table.

Food and drinks poured out of doors and before we knew it...it was 3am and we never made it to the beauty bar!!!

We did have a great time though. Thankfully there were cabs out at 3am down in the middle of no where NYC and four of us shared one home that stopped here and there until it ended at my front door. Sleeep. Oooh - so good!

What A FUN Valentine's Day!

After some meetings and work through the day, I popped down to 6th Avenue & Spring Street to volunteer with "God's Love We Deliver®." I'd signed up through OneBrick.org while I was in China so I wouldn't be sitting around alone at home on Valentine's Day. Good choice!

I really enjoyed my few hours there. I frosted 30+ sheet cakes and chopped a ton of celery. There were around 25-30 volunteers there chopping, packing, frosting, cleaning and prepping food to be cooked or delivered tomorrow -- 1600 meals -- to those in need (HIV/AIDS, MS etc -- any debilitating disease.) I may go through training and join the volunteer pool as a regular. It was really well done! Their volunteer coordinator didn't mind that I travel as much as I do either - yeah!!

From here I dashed back uptown to 32nd Street between 5th Avenue & Broadway to join 11 friends (Henri at left and Lisa at right) - both old and new - at TODAI, an all-you-can eat Sushi and Japanese Seafood buffet. (Yes, they had meats too!)
We all stuffed ourselves with the tasty choices and ended with banana & chocolate filled crepes! Yuuuuum!


At $27.95 per person, I thin kit was quite reasonable! (Those who got beers only paid $4.50/beer -- which is CHEAP in NYC!!)
Next - on to Henri's friend's Karaoke party downtown at Bar Bleu/ under Cafe Deville, the restaurant on the corner of 13th and 3rd Avenue. 4 of us joined Henri...all of the men dissapeared for one reason or another. It was a nice way to spend a little time getting to know Patrizia and Chiara, Patrizia having arrived in NYC only a week ago!



The fellow doing the Karaoke DJing, Adam, had quite a good selection (14,000+ songs)...everything from the Rat Pack to Annie Lenox to 70s Funk. We all sang songs -- I even sang one with the DJ at his request. (To bad the arrangement was completely nutty!)
We even squeezed in a spot of dancing!!!

Now it's home to wrap up some notes for tomorrow's morning meeting!

Thanks all for a wonderful Valentine's Day!!! Hmmm...so now what shall we do for President's Day?