Brian and I are now back and recovering from a wonderful, long weekend in New York. Brooklyn specifically, since we only spent a couple of hours in Manhattan. I must say, we did a fantastic job of seeing everyone and balancing culture with brunches and partying. The good Dr. Science beat me to the descriptions of Annie's party and our evening at the Brooklyn Museum. He did a better (and more thoughtful!) job of describing it than I could, so I suggest checking it out here and here. The sculpture by Ron Mueck? Blew. Me. Away. It seemed to have a similar effect on everyone else there too, apparently, since volunteers and security guards kept asking people to stay back and not get so close to the artwork. It was just so hard not to want to examine every hair follicle and vein on these astoundingly lifelike (and giant and miniature) sculptures. Go check it--and the other current exhibits--out at the Brooklyn Museum if you're in the area.

I got to spend lovely time with my sister and her nanny charges...three tiny little fashionable Manhattanites who live in an absurd townshouse on the Upper East Side (someday I will do a blog reflection on how that kind of upbringing must be). We saw a sketch comedy show, partied with Abbey, Brendan, Zack, and the Grahams, and had sushi with Andrew. My only regret is that I picked a weekend when my hetero-life partner was only in town for a short while...Susie and Josh went to a wedding in DC, so we had to resort to staying alone in their apartment, hugging their teddy bears. Sniff.

And upon our return, we were given a classic Chicago welcome of snow, ice, and wind chills of 0 degrees. The good news is that I got a new coat and hat, and also it turns out that our apartment is particularly cozy when we can look out at the snow-covered roofs of the neighborhood. The bad new is, it's snowy and icy and the wind chill is zero.

Time for some hot chocolate and clementines.