Beautiful Weather Weekends

Friday at work I was sick as a dog. I might be exaggerating, but that's sort of the way it felt. I went to bed early and woke up at a decent hour on Saturday and prepared myself, and the apartment, for the arrival of some college friends, Tom and Abby (aka TomAbby). Tom was unlucky enough to live with me and Tyler senior year and as a result was subjected to all the filth that we senior college dudes could generate. Which was a lot, if you were wondering.

But I cleaned the apartment sufficiently that when Tom and Abby arrived promptly at noon, they weren't thoroughly disgusted. I took that as a compliment. Tyler, Ashley and I led them on a pretty decent walking tour of the Park Slope neighborhood. Abby got us free pizza at a place on 7th Ave. called Roma Pizza which is TERRIFIC because she knew the owner's daughter. After that, we got Gorilla coffee and also some chocolate and beer from a really cool local beer botique.

We watched a bit of baseball on TV and drank the beer at our apartment, then walked over to Prospect Park to play frisbee. We discovered a squirrel who had met his unfortunate end in the middle of a field. Lacking the proper equipment for a formal funeral, I wanted to put him in the garbage but the girls thought that was mean and gross, so we left him there to await his fate.

We got bored with frisbee after a while so Alex climbed a tree. After that we walked home and watched a bit of Die Hard with a Vengeance. In the right situation, i.e. with friends and over beer, that movie can be pretty entertaining.

Eventually we got ourselves out the door and met Tyler's girlfriend and a girl that Alex is dating at a bbq joint in Chelsea called Rub BBQ. After a 40 minute wait we got a table for all 8 of us and feasted on bbq'd pork, beef, and chicken with a healthy dose of cornbread and baked beans. It was terrific, and even with drinks and tip the total was under $25 per person. I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who likes the bbq genre. Even if you're on the fence about it, this place is great.

After dinner we all split up. Ashley and I walked with Tom and Abby all the way up to Grand Central. It took us nearly an hour but it was a pleasant evening and we weren't in a hurry. We talked about a possible group trip to Las Vegas over the July 4th weekend. It might just happen. We dropped the pair off in time for an 11:17 train and retired ourselves for the night.

It was absolutely great to see those two. I've been remiss about visiting them. Tom's got a job in Westchester that puts him within an easy train ride, so I really hope to see him/her/both more often. I'll tell you what, though. Good weather does wonders for my disposition.