Since I moved to New York, I’ve ignored New Year’s Eve more often than not, because it’s pretty rare that there’s something going on that doesn’t involve interacting with jackasses in any way. You pretty much cannot go anywhere in Manhattan or to any bar in any borough on December 31st without finding yourself in the midst of a jackass convention, in fact. So I often end up getting takeout and watching movies (or one year an Iron Chef marathon) and avoiding the outside world entirely. This year, though, my partner in crime and I went to a small gathering at the lair of the Darklord in Queens, which ended up being the perfect mix of social interaction and jackass avoidance. Delicious adult beverages and tasty snacks were in abundance, ridiculous photos were taken, and I got paper streamers in my beer. Pretty much the perfect start to 2011.

The rest of the New Year weekend was similarly satisfying. We slept in on Saturday and then avoided slushing through the melting muck outside at all, and instead holed up at my place, ordering brunch from a local diner and settling in for a day of gaming and reading and utter laziness. It’s possible there was also grandma pizza. Have you ever had a grandma pie? My gentleman caller had not, and I was pleased to introduce him to this delicacy. Should you find yourself in my part of Brooklyn, I’m happy to note that Bay Ridge Pizzeria and Grandma’s Original are both safe bets.

On Sunday, we ventured into the outside world so that I could see Tron finally. I shan’t spoil it for the two of you who haven’t seen it yet and still plan to, but I think I successfully lowered my expectations to the point where I was able to appreciate it as a (mostly) brainless piece of beautiful design that came with a sweet Daft Punk soundtrack. CGI Jeff Bridges was fucking creepy as hell, though.

We finished up the evening with a great meal at Schnitzel Haus (also in Bay Ridge) and some Dominion. It sucks that my winter break had to end, but I can at least say that I squeezed every drop of goodness out of my last couple of days off.

As you may have guessed, December just couldn’t let me get away without the return of my Annual Winter Diseasefest. The bulk of it was just an unpleasant but undramatic sort of chest cold, which meant a lot of evenings spent at home working my way through library books and eating delicious spicy chicken soup, homemade for me by my favorite partner-in-crime.

I was just beginning to get over the cold when it was time to head north to my frozen homeland, where pampering duties were taken over by my one and only mom, and festive preparations were begun in earnest.

Though we managed to wrap all the presents and bake all the cookies with time to spare, we did not anticipate the sudden arrival of a particularly virulent stomach bug that made its rapid and unwelcome way through most of the family, starting on Christmas Eve.

Yeah, it was about as much fun as you’d expect. So my Christmas this year was one full of gingerale and fever sleep and, eventually, cautious nibbling of plain rice and toast. Probably not one for the holiday hall of fame, I’m thinking, but hey — my cold is gone, at least. And the blizzard had little effect on me, since I was lying miserably in bed until it was over anyway.

But let’s not dwell on that. Instead here is an adorable photo of my niece, who can now walk and say my name. Well, she said it once. Mostly I am called “Muh,” which is an acceptable substitute. I always thought “Emma” was too long and unwieldy, myself.

Setting aside the bits where I coughed a lot and threw up, I have to say that 2010 was a pretty goddamn great year. Maybe the best year ever. I do not make such a claim lightly! But looking back, nearly the entire thing was spent enjoying the company of my fabulous friends and family, and having really quite a bit more fun than any person ought to expect to be able to pack into a mere twelve months. The bar for 2011 is pretty high at this point, but here’s hoping it’s even better.

It’s sort of hard for me to believe that Thanksgiving has already come and gone, much less that December starts tomorrow. It still feels like Halloween was last weekend, and I’m still refusing to switch from hoodie to winter coat. That means it’s still fall, right?

Nevertheless, my Thanksgiving week was wholly satisfying. On Tuesday, I met up with my partner-in-crime and we headed to Williamsburg for a kickass pre-concert dinner at Pies ‘n Thighs. I had the same chicken biscuit I raved about a few weeks back when they were available from a booth at Mad Sq Mark’t, plus some excellent hot sauced mac 'n cheese. Incidentally, if I’ve finally convinced you to investigate this chicken biscuit for yourself but you are afraid to go to Brooklyn, I understand they will be available starting tomorrow at the holiday market in Columbus Circle. You should also acquire and consume their bourbon pecan pie, as it is made of happiness and magic.

Stuffed with goodness, we waddled over to the Knitting Factory, where we met up with nearly everyone I know for Schaffer’s triumphant homecoming appearance. Our Darklord really tore it up on stage, and successfully lured to the dark side a few of my friends who had not seen him perform before. As is my custom, I have a couple of videos from his set over on Vimeo, but only two, as I spent most of my time rocking out.

MC Lars and YTCracker were also on the bill. It was my first time seeing them live, and I heartily enjoyed it; they know how to put on a show, for sure. I always love when an artist I’m not especially familiar with kills it in a live set and then I get to go home and buy all their albums.

The evening was nearly soured by an almost breathtakingly douchey temper tantrum thrown, on stage and mid-set, by MC Chris. At first we thought he was doing some sort of Andy Kaufman-style comedy bit, but it turns out that it actually is possible for a nerdcore rapper to be that much of a tool. So my crew and I departed rather abruptly, but in the end we just moved the party to the front bar, where we ate celebratory cupcakes in honor of Schaffer and continued to have a pretty awesome time. I think it’s safe to say, though, that I won’t be tossing any more ticket or merch dollars to the performer I now think of as DJ Jazzy Jackass until such time as he removes his head from his ass.

Wednesday was a blissfully short work day followed by Indian food with my favorite nerd before heading to Littlefield for The Talent Show. This is a monthly event that I’ve been meaning to get to for some time, but the scheduling has never quite worked out until this month, which was their Cranksgiving show. There was an abundance of hilarious cantankerousness, but the highlights for me were Mike Birbiglia, John Hodgman, and Dave Hill. Littlefield is also a pretty good venue; they hosted the mighty Protomen about a month ago and make some totally decent cocktails. Try the Stormy Weather.

After the show was a really impressively long public transit trip to Jersey — and by long I mean Warriors-caliber. But it was worth it, because this epic journey was followed by nearly three solid days of sleeping in, cooking, eating, playing with cats, watching movies, and generally unwinding in truly luxurious fashion. I got to see the newly restored Blu-Ray edition of Metropolis, which was incredible, and learned a new recipe for deviled eggs which is good enough that I think it will completely replace my old method. If you would also like to eat these eggs, you can do so! Just prepare deviled eggs as usual but add to the yolk/mayo mixture the items listed below, and top the eggs with crispy bacon, paprika, and a dash of hot sauce.

• Diced sweet gherkins
• Diced jalapeno (or any other pepper you like)
• Mustard (we used a Sierra Nevada honey spice pale ale mustard)
• Ground coriander
• Ground cayenne pepper
• Ground black pepper

That’s right. Bacon-topped spicy deviled eggs. You’re welcome.

I don’t think of myself as an especially busy person, normally, but once in a while I’ll get a block of a few weeks on my calendar where my free nights can be counted on one hand. I’m in the middle of that right now, and it happens to coincide with some pretty heavy deadlines at work as well, so I’m running a little low on sleep and a little high on caffeine. I apologize if your event happens to be one of the ones I simply can’t get to because I have fallen asleep forever.

It already seems like ages ago, but last weekend was MoCCA Fest at the Lexington Avenue Armory, and I stopped by on Saturday. Fewer people I know had tables this year, but I still ended up seeing a bunch of friends and picking up some delightful artifacts, like the beard poster from Wondermark. I also rerceived a free hoho name.

After MoCCA I met up with one of my fancy lady friends to devour delicious pizza at Motorino and pure insanity at Momofuku Milk Bar. I was pleased to discover that they’ve got their own version of my beloved coffee milk, and that it compares favorably with the Ronnybrook variety I usually get. Ronnybrook’s is definitely creamier, but Momofuku’s tastes more strongly of coffee and is not decaffeinated, which in my opinion is a strong advantage.

Last Sunday was an altogether more laid back kind of day. I met up with my partner in crime for Italian food, several hours of Arkham Horror, a visit to Good Beer NYC, and a stop at Crif Dogs on our way home. All of these things were wonderful.

On Monday I had my first actual drum lesson in quite some time. I’ve been practicing on my own for the past couple of months, but I’m the type who learns best when actually taught by someone, so it feels good to be in lessons again. Since my lessons are in Williamsburg, it’s also a good excuse to hit up Pies n Thighs with some of my Brooklyn friends. Really, I will take any excuse possible to go eat one of their chicken biscuits.

Wednesday was Thai food and drinks with a pair of lovely former coworkers, where I also tried fried ice cream for the first time and found it to be everything I’d hoped for.

On Thursday I’d planned to hit up Meatball Shop with muffins for some of their kickass meatballs (of course) and also ice cream sandwiches, but as they had a 2.5 hour wait, we went to Snack Dragon for tacos instead and got our chipwiches to go instead. Snack Dragon was weirdly empty, if you consider the fact that it’s right near the always-packed Meatball Shop and sells pretty inexpensive and very tasty tacos. Maybe it gets packed later at night? In any event, after that my chiptune companions headed to Brooklyn to catch Nullsleep while I headed farther east for 609 Burlesque at Parkside Lounge, which was great. The acts were awesome, of course, and I won the raffle.

My dear friend Leendaloo had surgery last week and required supplies, so I accepted this quest and showed up at her place on Friday night with necessary items (including Chex Mix), and we settled in to watch some Harry Potter, which made for a satisfyingly laid back evening. I’d planned to hit up a birthday party the following day, but ended up at home on the couch with an upset tummy and a brand new copy of The Pale King. I spent most of the weekend buried in that book, in fact, when I wasn’t actually doing my taxes (appropriately enough). I will tell you more about it when I have finished it, perhaps.

Last week was, again, pretty nuts work-wise. I worked a little over 17 hours on Monday, and by Wednesday I was losing my mind a little bit, so on Thursday I took a little break and went out for fancy infused-vodka cocktails at Pravda followed by my first visit to DessertTruck Works, where the hot chocolate is so thick and delicious it’s like drinking pudding. Also, the salted caramel macaron was great. All in all a pleasant evening, though we were overcharged at Pravda for the second time in six months. Surprising for a place that otherwise seems to have its shit together.

On Friday it was time again for my monthly boardgame night, where I tried out a newly-reprinted edition Cosmic Encounter and had a pretty great time despite being mercilessly slaughtered. I drowned my sorrows in a slice of caramel pecan pie and then headed to Arlene’s Grocery to see Mancie, a kick-ass rock band featuring Mark Feldman, my kick-ass drum teacher. Please to enjoy:

Finished up the night with hot dogs, beer, and incredible war stories at Katz’s before hopping in a cab with a creepy driver that wanted to marry me.

Saturday was my friend Jason’s birthday, which we celebrated with an extravagant bacon & champagne brunch. You know, the kind of brunch that starts at noon and doesn’t end until it’s been dark for a couple of hours. My contribution to this bacchanal consisted of a batch of my double chocolate bourbon brownies and — wait for it — a Bacon Explosion. Yeah, that insane creation you probably saw on the Internet about a year ago. It was delicious. There were also three kinds of regular bacon, bacon-wrapped steak tips, sausage balls, the best ginger snaps I’ve eaten in years, enough champagne to drown a roomful of twentysomethings, and bacon-topped red velvet cupcakes made with bacon grease. Best Saturday ever? I think so.

I went straight from drunken brunching to Khoo’s ramen Indian dinner fest in midtown, where I ran into many nerds I already know and some I got to meet for the first time, and got my ass handed to me at Bananagrams. “Trepidates,” indeed.

Sunday was amazing. I am pretty sure it could not have been better, actually. Coffee at Café Grumpy, reprimanded by the security staff at MoMA, a steak the size of my head, my second time seeing The Social Network and my first time seeing it sober, emacs vs vi discussion. (Obviously, I am vi 4 lyfe.) Really, it kind of set the standard against which future Sundays will be judged.

The bar’s pretty high for this week, I think.

While I got ready for work this morning, I heard the telltale hiss from my radiator that means my landlord has turned on the heat in the building for the first time this season. I guess this means it’s officially time to dig out my sweaters and hoodies. This fills me with much glee. I mentioned before that I had a pretty great summer this year, but so far fall is on track to be equally rad.

I caught The Social Network on Friday with a couple of my favorite ladies, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It’s getting awesome reviews, but I still couldn’t quite believe that a movie about Facebook would be good enough to outweigh its implicit dorkiness. It’s true that we were a little more jovial than usual and thus perhaps somewhat easier to please, but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the only factor. It was also really neat hearing the excellent soundtrack in the context of the film itself.

Also, I feel confident in saying that there are few better ways to end a movie night than by stopping for Korean fried chicken at Boka. We ate the hell out of some chicken, I tell you what.

Speaking of films and implicit dorkiness, this past weekend was the 15th anniversary of Hackers. As is only fitting, there was a kick-ass party in Greenpoint to celebrate. I was totally there, along with my friends Muffins and Terry, half of Anamanaguchi, a furry, moot, a shit ton of glowsticks, and a bunch of people I haven’t seen since college. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday night, for sure.

So that was Saturday. On Sunday I hit up the Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park with a whole pack of delightful people. It was really a perfect day for it - maybe 65 degrees and partly cloudy. Large quantities of mead and fried dough were consumed, unicorns were admired, wizards were argued with, and an incompetent falconer was mocked.

And because that just wasn’t quite enough fun packed into Sunday, I headed to Brooklyn for SubCon BEYOND Fest. I met up with the Litany folks at Barcade beforehand for drinks, and we stopped at Wild Ginger for food. I’m a confirmed carnivore (indeed, I have tickets to a bacon festival in a couple of weeks), but even I have to admit that the vegan General Tso’s at Wild Ginger is pretty goddamn good. As for the event itself, there were no furries this time but there were more glowsticks, plus a stage show too awesomely bizarre for me to begin to describe. A long week of little sleep finally caught up with me before the end of the night, but I still had a great time.

This week I’m hoping to spend a lot of time sleeping, working, and practicing drums. CMJ is on the horizon which means another crazy week of shows every night, so I should probably rest up while I can. But it doesn’t seem to work that way, does it?

For some reason, April and May are positively chock-full of birthdays, at least among my circle of friends. In the past week, I’ve been to four birthday-related events, and I have more to come. Thursday of last week was Miss Fancy Elizabeth’s birthday, and we celebrated with a ladies’ lunch at L'Express on Thursday, followed by a party at her adorable apartment on Friday night, where I met a shy cat and many great people and drank maybe a little more vodka than I ought to have.

Saturday was all about testosterone and America, as it consisted of seeing Top Gun in the theater with my gentleman caller, and then visiting the New York International Auto Show, where I was drawn to shiny things and he peered inquisitively at engines. Also there were energy drinks and booth babes and bad music, which made me realize that I have never been to a convention or festival that was not primarily attended by either nerds or hipsters. Auto shows draw a very different crowd, as it turns out!

Sunday was SethCon 2011, the mighty (and hopefully annual) birthday game day hosted by one Mister Seth and his lovely wife. And their lovely cat. There was 3D Settlers of Catan, which was utterly drool-worthy and which I nearly won (but not quite), and a cutthroat 10-person game of Munchkin, and many sandwiches and an amazing fucking dragon cake, complete with an edible treasure horde. Delicious AND terrifying.

Monday night, after a drum lesson and a slice of sour cherry pie at Pies n Thighs, I headed to Park Slope for still another birthday celebration, this time at Original Cyn. The birthday boys were Nelson Lugo and Joe the Shark, and the cake featured a shark eating Batman. There was also shark pie, and Peter Aguero read us a story, and there were pretty ladies. Apathy Angel did a Silence of the Lambs act to this (perfect) song, and Nelson rubbed lotion in my hair. These are all the signs of a quality Monday night, by the way.

And last night? Last night I watched Adventure Time and then slept for nine motherfucking hours, and it was glorious.

We’ve reached the dark pit of existential horror that is New York City in February. It’s cold, it’s windy, there’s “wintry mix” every other goddamn day, and the trains are never fucking working right because somehow the MTA has not yet learned how to deal with liquid falling from the sky. So what better time to hole up at a cozy warm apartment to drink beers and play boardgames?

I’ve been doing a fair amount of gaming lately, in fact, but one of the recent highlights last week was an evening of Arkham Horror with a pack of delightful misfits in Queens. There were maniacs, there were motorcycles, there were gates to terrifying other worlds, and in the end the players prevailed and got a little bit drunk, which is as it should be. Also, I was able to buy a large helper-man for the reasonable price of… whiskey. What more could you want in a game, really?

On Thursday, I met up with my partner in crime and the usual suspects to take in Storybook Burlesque’s Dr Seuss show at Galapagos, a lovely venue in scenic DUMBO. The show was hosted by my BFF and featured a flock of fabulous ladies I’m quite fond of, and we all had a grand time. I’ve embedded a couple of my favorite videos below, but you can find a couple more over on Vimeo, plus additional photos on Flickr.

On Friday it was time for celebratory project completion drinks with some of my coworkers, followed by a laid back evening of nerding out at boardgame night. I got to try out a 5-player game of Agricola using the full ruleset for the first time, and found it overwhelming but fun. I need to play some more to really get a sense of it, but I suspect the sweet spot for that game will end up being three players using the full ruleset, or perhaps four using the family game. But all in all, a really satisfyingly meaty way to spend a couple of hours over a couple of drinks on a Friday night.

My gentleman caller and I decided to spend the weekend in his distant homeland, where we were able to sample the local cuisine and really just be lazy as all hell for a while. If a chilly February day and a Star Trek movie marathon on SciFi isn’t an excuse to spend a Sunday in jammies on the couch, then I really don’t know what is.

Monday was, of course, Valentine’s Day. While I’m not really one for red roses and teddy bears (the Shit Bitch Bear being a notable exception), I was pleased to receive a Squishable Cthulhu from my own Valentine. Also, I was happy to gorge upon a variety of bite-sized delights covered in dark chocolate at the Chocolate Fountain Feast that occurred at my place of business. And then, to counteract all the chocolate and pink and red candied treats, my heterosexual lifemate and I decided a romantic steak dinner was in order. Really an ideal day all around.

And wouldn’t you know it, though I nearly always seem to forget the date, the 15th of February marks the anniversary of this here webhomeblogsiteosphere. Twelve long years, in fact, though the archives don’t date back quite that far. I suppose that means my blog is beginning to think about kissing and nail polish and shave gel. My reaction to all of this is conveniently summarized below.

Last week was supposed to be super awesome, but I ended up getting sick AGAIN (I KNOW) and so it was only a little bit awesome.

Most of the awesome occurred on Tuesday night, when I went to the show at the Studio at Webster Hall. I already had the beginnings of my current death-plague, and so perhaps the more practical thing would have been to go home and sleep. But the lineup was pretty badass (George & Jonathan, Fiasco, Starscream) and Webster Hall is near S'Mac, and mac n cheese is good comfort food for sick people, so I went. The show was awesome, and I’m especially glad I went now that I’ve learned George is switching coasts and there aren’t likely to be any more G&J live shows for some time.

The rest of the week was supposed to be filled with gaming and more shows and staying up late and being rowdy, but instead it was filled with pajamas and tissues and hot tea and feeling miserable. My hope is that this week will contain less of that, and more of the fun stuff.