No...Sleep...til Brooklyn!!

One of our first nights out of the house without Sloan, Kerri and I made our way to the Barclay Center to see Georgia take on Indiana. The Bulldogs hung in there for 35 minutes but eventually fell to the Hoosiers.

Big thank you to Aunt Emily Ramsey for watching Sloan for us and an big thank you to Mike Bilbow (Man on the Inside) for the help with tickets. 

Emptying the Archives...God's Country

If you Google "God's Country" you'll get a whole assortment of results...  Apparently there was an old Western film, U2 once sang a song with that title, and some place in Potter Co. Pennsylvania claims to be it. But I would like to define "God's Country" once and for all:

Damn straight...that's Athens, Georgia.

I suppose if one wants to extend the circle just ever so slightly to include more of the Southeast, I would not argue too emphatically (although I would argue some). Anyway, over Memorial Day weekend Barry and I packed our bags and headed to a friend's wedding in Tuscaloosa, AL. We flew in and out of ATL, so we made a special stop in Athens one night...

It Never Leaves You.

The wedding was for our dear friend Russ and his fiance Lauren. Russ is from Tuscaloosa and they both went to school there, so the location was ideal. I've been to Tuscaloosa several times, but this time was a bit unique because school was out and there was no football game.

It's not a blog post without a few food shots.
City Cafe goodness. 

Waysider breakfast. 

Bryant Denny, empty. 

ZTA house at U of A - an exact replica of the one at UGA. 

Barry and I before the ceremony 

Bridal party waiting for the bride...

The NY crew. L to R: Jay, Richard, Jen, Julie, Huston, David, Barry, Kiley, Courtney, Randy.
Not pictured: Heath who was in the wedding. 

The happy couple's first dance

Reception was at the Tuscaloosa Yacht Club (who knew?), beautiful sunset over the lake. 

Emptying the Archives...Local Adventure

For this installment of Emptying the Archives, let's go on a local adventure...

First up - Smorgasburg!!! New Yorkers are such clever people - take two random words, splice them together and create something totally new, random, and so cool. Thus, Smorgasburg is born. It's a 'smorgasbord' of food vendors in an empty lot in Williamsburg (Brooklyn), thus, Smorgasburg. It's all just so cool...

Homemade S'mores truck menu. 

Cemita - some kind of Mexican sandwich. Pretty delish. 

View across the Hudson 

Jen chowing on what was a massive ice cream sandwich...possibly the best thing we ate the whole day. 

This guy just screams 'Brooklyn' to me. Throwback clothes, crazy hair, 'cool' mustache...

Finished the day at a New Orleans style bar. My virgin drink was the fanciest. 

Our next jaunt takes more than a subway train to get to. Our friend has a place in Bridgehampton, NY and he is gracious enough to let us visit the house often. It's quite a nice respite from the crazy city life. Unless there is a big event (BBQ fest, anyone?) that keeps us in the city over summer weekends, you can find us here:

Richard's house, which I like to call Tuscaloosa North 

trip to Wolffer Estates winery (this was hard to sit through). L to R: Heath, Jen, Barry, Tim, Chao

Cool street we found in East Hampton

I think Barry enjoys our trips 'out East' more than anyone else because he likes to engage in little projects. Among the past ones are hot tub speakers, fixing outdoor lights, hanging chandeliers, and of course the famed fire pit that he and Heath built from scratch last year. I'm pretty sure he was Bob Villa in a past life. This year's first project is a liquor cabinet/bar for Richard's Living Room. 

Hand saws only for this project..

assembling the first corner

The almost-complete frame. I'll post the final product once it is finished! 

 Up next...a trip to God's country.

Emptying the Archives...a walk around the city

I'm starting to think 'Emptying the Archives' should be a common theme on our little blog. I take so many photos on my phone thinking they'll make a fun update, then forget about them until weeks later. This past weekend as I was taking endless pictures of BBQ I realized my Camera Roll was upwards of 200 pictures...so, it's time to empty the archives. Aren't you the lucky reader today... 

First up, scenery photos from around the city...

Ha. Get it? The coffee wasn't cool enough...

Grand Central on the way to Fordham University to watch the Alabama softball team play. Barry's sister-in-law's sister plays 3B for them. They eventually won the National Championship. 

Walk on the High Line on a pretty Spring day. 

NYC: Tolerant of your beliefs but judgmental of your shoes. Touche, Touche...also, misspelled. 

Really brave kids playing in the water fountain at Washington Square Park. Note the kid in orange on the right about to lose his shorts. 

Manhattanhenge! Twice a year, the sun sets directly even with the cross streets, New Yorkers go nuts about it.

Manhattanhenge on 14th St. 

Emptying the archives...Easter

A lot to catch up on lately! We've been a bit behind on posting because of our big news but now it's time to return to the norm... Between our big announcement, Easter and a trip down South for two weddings, April was a busy month! First was a nice little Easter celebration at our apartment. I figure if you can't go home to be with your real family for Easter, you might as well make the best of it with your pseudo-family (in our case, our NYC family). We ended up with about 10-12 people up on the roof for a classic Southern meal of ham, green beans, pink cloud (family tradition!), deviled eggs, pimento cheese, etc. A few pictures from our gathering:

Note the pretty floral arrangement on the table from our friend Jen. The first peonies of the season!!

My contribution was a bunny cake for dessert. It was fun to make and if I don't say so myself, looked (and tasted) pretty delicious!