Oct 062009
 

I’ve been up to the house of my friends Phil and Karen several times this summer. They have a home that sits on the Hudson River between the Bear Mountain Bridge and West Point.

Phil and Karen have a butterfly bush: every time a butterfly stops by their house, it cannot resist stopping at this bush.
Butterfly

Phil and Karen let a friend moor his boat off their dock. Occasionally, we go out for a ride on the Hudson. West Point looks very nice at sunset.
West Point

The train ride leaves from Grand Central and runs along the Hudson–it’s a beautiful trip.
Sunset

 Posted by at 2:19 pm
Oct 062009
 

My friend Peter turned 40 in August. His significant other, Valerie, threw him a surprise birthday party at Stella, a restaurant in the South Street Seaport.
Peter

Cake
Peter works in the wine industry, so my friend Patti made a wine bottle cake. To celebrate the birthdays of my friends Anne and Mike, she added a wine “bible” (also made of cake), written by them.

Pig
Darrin, the chef at Stella, roasted a small pig.

 Posted by at 2:13 pm
Oct 062009
 

I meant to post these photos a while ago. In summer, I took a trip to the Bronx Zoo. One of my favorite places in the zoo is the Butterfly Garden. I love visiting the zoo and don’t go there enough. When you enter the garden, you are given a sheet showing all of the butterflies–it’s fun to figure out if you have seen them all.

Butterflies from the Bronx Zoo
Butterflies from the Bronx Zoo
Butterflies from the Bronx Zoo

 Posted by at 2:07 pm
Sep 282009
 

Last Monday, I threw on my suit and tie and made my way over to Chelsea Piers for the sixth annual “A Second Helping of Life,” a benefit to fight cancer for Share. The food was great; I got to meet a ton of famous chefs; the benefit raised a good amount of money.

From L to R: Rebecca Charles, Patricia Williams, Kim Rothrock, Patti Jackson
Chefs at Share

From L to R: Amanda Freitag, Alex Guarnaschelli
Chefs at Share

 Posted by at 1:39 pm
Sep 282009
 

I’m in San Francisco now on vacation. I was last here a few months ago for work. The day I left, I dashed over to Lombard Street, the most twisty street in the Bay Area. While I took a taxi to Lombard Street from the hotel downtown, I walked back over two or three very large hills.
Lombard Street
Lombard Street

From the top of one of the hills, I was able to see Alcatraz in the distance.
Alcatraz

 Posted by at 1:07 pm