This May Have Been a Family Reunion

Two weekends ago I flew out to Utah to hear my dad speak at BYU as a Distinguished Graduate being honored at Homecoming. For me it was an exciting opportunity to finally learn what my dad does at his job!

It was a weekend rife with VIP treatment

Ah, BYU!

Grandma telling her "How do you who likes you more, your dog or your wife?" joke

Mother of the speaker

You know you're arrived when BYU rolls out the donuts for you

Preppin' the Powerpoint

Waiting for the intro

Here we go!

It wasn't JUST about his job, there were some life-items in there, too

Here's Dad saying "That's why I'm glad I live in Chicago" (you had to be there)

Jeff and Jamar came!

Mom is always glad for an update on Dakota

Grandma wins for having stolen the sign about Dad

Grandma eyes the contraband

Then we went to a lunch where all the honorees were honored

Daughter-in-Law duties

Somehow I wound up at the table with all Kristen and Cory's kids and they were over there with like aunts and uncles and stuff

Can you guess what's grossing out Rachel? It's rye bread!

The honoring. There's the president of BYU over there

Looking up to Dad. Literally and figuratively.

Spying on Dad being interviewed by BYU Magazine.

And waiting for that interview to end

Family stretching at the BYU Guest House

Later that night: A family-only celebration dinner at Bombay House

Assorted Snacks: favorite appetizer since 1999

Never forget: when you ask Bombay House to make it spicy, they make it SPICY

Friday: Early morning show of Shaun the Sheep in Spanish Fork

And then lunch for everyone at Don Joaquin's

Preppin' those tripas for the big day ahead

Then Friday night: Everyone heads to the Marriott Center for the big BYU Homecoming Spectacular

Right over there: Elder Christopherson. Also the new presiding bishop. And a couple of rows down from us? Gary Crittendon. 

The big deal about this spectacular was David Archuleta was there. Singing.

Then it was back once more to the BYU guest house.

It's like a fancy Utah house, but each bedroom is a hotel room. 

AND there's a coffee maker (with coffee) in the kitchen.

Saturday Morning: Niece and Nephew soccer games.

Soccer games are for sticks

And then, Saturday night, I'm reunited with Matt after, I don't know, seven years?

He's back in Utah and he's got all his paintings with him!

We had dinner at El Morelense

With Andrew

AND Celeste

Me again

Sunday: Didn't take many pictures. But here's Ellie dressed up for church. Everyone else: You're not dressing fancy enough for church.

For dinner we made gnocchi (not pictured) and caesar salad (not pictured) and played D&D (not pictured) but Owen made barbecued carrots and here they are!

2207 Stover Hall Forever

Oh Man, What a Nice Weekend!

I had the whole weekend off and even got out early on Friday so I really tried to make the most of it and I don't think I did a bad job.

Friday evening I met up with Kim and Alexia and Levi at El Cortez in Bushwick, a Tex-Mex Tiki Bar. The food was good (check out my chimichanga below) and the decor was epic--check out this Eater post full of pictures of the interior, you will dig it and want to visit. As you probably know, I don't drink, but if I drank, I think I'd love drinking at El Cortez. What higher praise could I give?!

Bushwick sights

After dinner we headed to Bedford where they were giving out free cones at Davey's. I had the "Whop'corn" (Whoppers and Popcorn). 

Neighborhood's neon tree

Saturday. Big Day. Started with a neighborhood and Soho stroll on my way to breakfast lunch.

Have you seen one of these? They are EVERYWHERE now.

Dork Knate? I don't get it.

Carol was in town and I met up with her and Ryan at Mission Cantina. They're always changing the menu over there and currently the menu is: Choice of Two Burritos. On the left: chile relleno burrito. On the right: fried chicken burrito. You might be leaning towards the chicken one on principle, but let me tell you: that chile relleno one is the burrito you really want.

Also got ceviche tostadas and guacamole. Had to try to fill that table.

Post Cantina? Morgenstern's, of course.

There's this peach ice cream now that everyone is saying you gotta get.

Had an hour or two of freetime...

Before standing in the Red Hook ferry line with Lauri and Carol. It's a big line, you watch a lot of ferries come and go as you wonder which ferry you'll finally fit onto.

I was going to go with them to Hometown Barbecue but ferries were getting so delayed and I needed to be at Lincoln Square before 7 so I sent Lauri and Carol off to Brooklyn like I was seeing them off at the airport and stayed behind in the city.

Street model with tourists.

I'm probably the last person on earth to take some pictures inside the new Fulton subway interchange.

But it's highly photographable.

Having missed out on Brooklyn barbecue, I met up with Chaunte at the Mighty Quinn's in the West Village for a little Manhattan barbecue. I tried their new smoked and fried spicy chicken sandwich. Spicy chicken sandwiches: so hot right now.

And then, get this, we went up to Lincoln Center for a 25th anniversary screening of Metropolitan, my favorite movie that I forget to list when listing my favorite movies.

FOLLOWED by a Q&A with director Whit Stilman and nearly the whole cast! Like they were only 2 people short of the whole cast, it was great.

Everyone's crazy about Chaunte's summertime pants.

All the attention gets embarrassing.

Finished up Saturday night with Ty's birthday party. No pictures, though. It was dark and there were lots of people to talk to.

Sunday Emily surprised everyone by showing up at church with her 12 year old niece. No pictures of that because we were in church.

But here's what new friends do right after they meet: go onto a phone to figure out if they've met before.

Walking home from Prince street. Hanksy strikes again.

Seamore, a new fish restaurant up the street from me, is packing them in.

Genuine Superette a little less packing them in.

The Lion of Little Italy

So, yeah. Very nice weekend. Now I'm home a little early on a Sunday night, reading books and writing blog posts and feeling ready to do the law more tomorrow. Here I come, law! Rested and ready!

Best Dipping Back into the Archives

I've been working a lot, it cuts into my blogging time but it also cuts into my "things to blog about" time, so there's not much to catch you up on. But going through my pictures, I found things to share starting from the end of May running up to now.

One last trip out to the Loews Jersey theater before it closed for the summer. 

The WTC PATH station has been all future'd

One Sunday morning this plane was awful low

Work lunch with Pearl

I'm a worker!

Sometimes I slip outside during my break and take pictures in my work neighborhood

No one likes a show off

Here's Aubrey...

She hooked Christian and I up with tickets to the NBA Draft.

I couldn't believe that Christian knew who all those college kids were. It was exciting to share all the life changing moments with them. Nice to see all the families dressed up and excited.

My own neighborhood by night

Friend and co-worker Marco, with whom I've worked off and on for four years now, got himself a Leica so we took it on an inaugural run one night last week.

Listen. Sometimes this new blog is going to be kind of edgy. 

Working near Times Square is photographically beneficial

Get that money, Olaf

Look closely. Can you see a guy on the outside of his apartment?

Cab rides home

When I get a minute I'll still cook if I can, here's broccoli

Made tostadas de tinga

And turned tostada leftovers into taquitos

One night I tried the nice new burger at Rose's. It was good but gone in seconds.

One Saturday morning, weeks ago, not too many people at the Love and Mercy early show.

Top floor of the 3rd avenue AMC. How long could someone live up here before anyone noticed?

And one Saturday night, work dinner at Sapporo in midtown. I'm Ok with Ok ramen. This place has been in New York in the 70's, one of the first ramen places in the city. It defies all the present ramen pretenses and trends.

And has got fun t-shirts.