NYC- Food Lover's Paradise

Lunch at Lupa- one of the many Mario Batali restaurants
Pizza at Grimaldi's- an institution in Brooklyn- Down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass
Chocolate at famed Dessert Circus star Jacque Torres

and finally...

Magnolia of "Lazy Sunday" fame ("two, no, six, no twelve, Bakers Dozen! I told you that I'm crazy 

for those cupcakes cousin!") for some cupcakes and banana pudding... for the record the cupcakes are overrated. We don't love them as much as McAdams loves Gosling...

Special Guests in NYC

After a long day at the US Open, we caught up with old friends Tony and Cindy over dinner in NYC. (Cindy and Jin Sun went to high school together and lived in the same neighborhood)

We dined at Ocean Grill- just the first food stop during our week. More road food in later posts...

We also had drinks with our friends Bryan and Katherine Rose (but we somehow failed to produce a photo) who met us at a fun Wine bar near Canal street. (Jeff and Bryan went to high school together).

Lastly, we had Japanese food at Saka Gura with Jin Sun's friend from high school, Elizabeth Siebert- (again we somehow failed to produce a photo).

Shirtless at the US Open

US Open 2008- I think shirtless is the thing to do at sporting events...

Shout out to loyal reader, Mia for sending us your shirtless pic at an Oakland A's game! Shirtlessness coast to coast.  Check out the guy on the right- sitting in the empty row.

US Open Day 2- I Heart Federer

Look, Roger Federer!

Jin Sun had to be restrained from throwing articles of clothing at the court like it was a Tom Jones concert...

US Open Day 1

US Open Day 1- we saw a doubles twin team chest bump, Andy Murray, and a double stuff Oreo mascot.

Peter Luger's Most Delicious Steakhouse

BTW, we ate the whole thing smothered in steak juices/grease.
If you're ever in Brooklyn, highly recommended. 

Note the side of whipped cream (schlag) with the cheesecake!

Labor Day Logan

Gratuitous New Nephew shots...

I went back to Ohio...

Another run through the Buckeye state...

First stop in Cincinnati was to see the Creed/Boniguts while they're still Ohioans. Big Ups to Jen, Kurt & Della for putting the Nati back into Cincinnati.


Fortunately, Della wasn't too upset that I took one of her juice boxes...




Stop 2 was for chili, obviously. I had read a lot about the Fort Washington Chili parlor, but fell victim to a labor day shut down.








I eventually had to "settle" for Skyline. The 3-way kicked 3 kinds of ass so all was not lost.

Back to B-Town

Back in Bloomington for Frank Shahbahrami's 40th birthday weekend. Frank grew up across the street from Jeff in Bloomington. Frank's wife Carrie organized everything as a surprise. 10 or so guys came in from all over.


A lot of shirtless, middle-aged guys at Lake Monroe having a great time.









The Shahb boys (Paul and Frank).
Are these guys really doctors? They must be because it looks like they wrote themselves prescriptions to HGH to keep in such good shape.











Another Hoosier Acres alum, Steve Bates, helping to model the urinal in Frank's garage.

Auburn Auto Auction

The Balaguras brothers attended the world's largest auto auction in Auburn, IN (home of Auburns, Cords and Duesenbergs) over Labor day weekend. No purchases were made, but there were some near misses. Unfortunately, the '77 Mercedes once owned by George Jones wasn't available.





Lots of T-birds and Corvettes





John with the Batmobile from the TV show









Elvis' former sta-wag










The one that got away...