Klammed.

Didn't see this coming. Naturally, posted immediately.




I'll refrain from comment, but feel free. Gads.

Face Melting at the Frog

The band debuted on Thursday, 12 songs, 50 minutes, full house. Good times, haven't played out since the wedding, so felt pretty good to get back on the horse. Beav made it, had hoped my riffage would pop the baby right out, no such luck.

Hawes ran the P.A. and the Bryce-Buster faction rounded out the cheer section. Shot of the room before the we took the floor.


The rhythm section crushed it. I sang the lead on "Keep on Lovin' You", terrifying.

Post-show band shot.

A very professional Miss Margaret, with a glowing Redlener in the rear ground.

5 days to go people! #1 and #2 fans.....


Happy birthday dad!

The New York Shower

I'm a couple of weeks behind on this one, but I'm just slow at everything these days. Now that I'm a "lady of leisure" (aka, finished with work for now), I'm getting the apartment baby-ready and catching up on all those things I haven't had a chance to do before now.

Some of my New York girlfriends threw me a gorgeous shower at Rina's amazing apartment overlooking Bryant Park. Decor consisted of gender-appropriate Martha Stewart pink puffballs. Rina knows I love that shiz. Chooch is already so spoiled! We came home with some serious loot. I was in good company too, with Michelle, Carey, Henrietta and Rina all smuggling chooches too... Here we are (minus Michelle- she had ducked out already):

As you can see, my belly is getting pretty ridiculous- and that was May 15! Its just gigantic now. I'll have the Klam take one more profile shot before its gone.... Anyway, a gaggle of Austin's aunts also came to the shower, and afterward they deemed it the "Sex & the City Shower", with all the girls in their fabulous outfits and high heels, not to mention the pink Proseco and the terrace overlooking the park. Here's Donna, Lee and Colleen in action (Mary Jane somehow eluded the camera):

We also had both Grandmothers in attendance, and it was just a great night all around. Thanks so much to Rina, Sara, Stefanie, Emily and Henrietta for hosting and making delicious food. And thank you to the rest of the girls who came to celebrate with me and shower our baby girl with the most adorable gifts ever. I would add photos of the new Brooklyn nursery, where you can see many of these gifts in action, but Austin took the camera cord with him to work, so I'm out of luck for now. Soon.... In the meantime, here are a few more shots from the party (thanks SJ for the photos):

Finally, on a side note, Mama and Papa Beav were married 41 years ago today. Happy Anniversary you dorks. xo, Winz

My baby's on the level

Two weeks to go....

We saw the doc on Thursday. According to their scientific machines, she's 7 lbs. 13 oz. and 93% sure a girl. Our medical providers seem very casual about the gender. Our wardrobe providers, on the other hand, taking this girlness very seriously. We are locked and loaded in that department.

Nursery also 93% there. Mom did a good job with that one. As my father put it, "you never had it so well". I seem to recall a lot cardboard and cinder blocks in my resting area, though we were trained not to complain.

Went to Buy Buy Baby today and Beav almost went into labor. That place is insane. I think we bought a bunch of crumb catchers and towels. Beav had a list that looked really serious. I don't ever want to go back there, I'd rather our kid wear burlap and drink from empty ice cream cartons.

Heroically, we caught the Raconteurs at Terminal Five on Friday. Band was tremendous, venue the worst. Speaking of bands, ours is debuting on Thursday at the agency. It's a kegger. We haven't practiced in two weeks, I predict an oops, looks like flipped a breaker moment.

Unpacked a ton of boxes, found our wedding pictures, which I'm not sure I've ever seen. They are pretty cool, so I scanned a handful.

Here are a couple of my sixteen groomsmen.

Reg kills me, the donny also has a special package on the way.

Josh and Mary Margaret in the photobooth. They have two dogs named Cocoa and Randy I think. We're all hanging in August down in Sullivan's Island, should be epic.

Mom and dad, making the picture we all have in our sitting rooms:


No K, no T:

Here's a still from our first dance. I'm actually executing the coz here, flawlessly.

Couple of the band, probably somewhere around the bridge in Jailbreak.


The women and children enjoying our labors.


Glamor shot of the newlyweds. Hair was still brownish then.

Totally posed. Apter, if you're reading this, let's have a look at that footage.

On the subject of Apter, little Apter. Moments after this was snapped, Mr. Atticus dove in that bucket bath.


Drum roll for the big finish. This one is peerless. Panini, eating a panini at the church. We're flying in Uncle Pawel for the delivery.


Saw some comments on that last post. Social media!

PART II

Forgot to mention this last post, but one of us is pretty pregnant at this juncture. Beav's last day at work (for a while) is this Friday. Going to see the doc on Thursday to get the last of the ultrasounds. Should be a wild one.

Anyways, the rest of the weekend was equally active. We had houseguests, the lovely Mike and Laura, and much merriment was made between the painting and moving of boxes.

Sunday night was Rem's birthday / housewarming. Their place is awesome. Rem has a man room that got my wheels turning. You know, a place to put your dungeon miniatures and plaster skulls.

Can't get into specifics here, but we're on Rem's back porch, monitoring some NSFW activity courtesy of a neighbor with a trick towel. Park Slope is way more forward than Greenpoint in this regard.


I guess you kind of had to be there. Here's another angle, Bryce going blue blazer, Chinese flip flops AND Guayabera.


Out hostess...on the weekend of her anniversary.


We had to cut out early, to hit the Marlow for meatballs. Made an appointment for one of these:


I think Mike and I stayed up late and watched a Guy Ritchie recent effort. What has four letters and rhymes with bird?

Monday was all boxes and lower back pain. Pics of the new set up coming over once the finishing touches are up and tools stowed. Monday early evening, however, was all about these:

My eyebrows still smell like I have two hot dogs taped on my forehead. Toby gets the gold shoulder for pulling together another epic backyarder.

The chef and the remains of shoulder one:


I am the official photographer of this young lady. Everything I shoot comes up daisies.

Pig pile.



Good times ladies and gentlemen.

I have baby shower pics courtesy of the James here for you too. Waiting for clearance from the com.

Yaos!

Memorial Daze Weekend PART I

Apologies for the lay-off. A-man has been busy - band gig around the corner, nursery under construction, babies getting showered, cars needed parking, commerce was conducting. Did have the camera in effect all weekend, however, so mighty snaps to follow, in parts.

Kicked off the long weekend with a haircut. Tight and shiny. Had a wedding to attend, so needed the melon to represent.

Wedding, FYI = shit-ton of fun. These guys tied the knot under the Manhattan bridge on Saturday. Ted and E.V. Outfits legendary. Ditto beer consumption by this guy. Our first nuptials of the season, pretty epic view.




The wife and HH. Hoping baby gets those cheekbones. HH's suit rules. Was outgunned sartorially all weekend.



Reception was at the Smack Mellon gallery nearby. Table temples were genius. All these bits came off and could be attached to lapels, trousers or hairnets.

Here's the groom - also crushed his ensemble. Gave a killer toast. Took excellent care of the guests.

Beav and I tried dancing, we just banged bellies. Everyone got sea sick. Biz picked up the slack.


Awwwww. Beav was a great sport. Let me go the distance and make my rounds.

Matt and Beaver thinking coconut cake.



Tony had the right idea, here he's pretending to dance with the centerpiece, as he skillfully leads it to his vehicle trunk.


And the closer. Waited all evening for this one.


Hi octane B&W snaps coming, though locating the scanner at this juncture in the re-lo proving challenging.

Part II also to follow. Highlights may include a dangle, more cocktails, shoulder meat and the ladies of 24 Powers.

Meat Sheets

The girls had their baby shower last night, the boys did a red meat offsite. Genius. Steak for Eight at Diner. HH and I girled our T-bone, but I did find a black pearl in my fried oyster, which was doubly awesome. Evening wrapped at Barcade, over Frogger.

Here's me in a crisp party shirt, partying.



Don't have any pics of the girls yet, but assume they're coming. The Beavers gave me a book called "real pirates don't do diapers". Building consensus.

We broke ground on the nursery on Monday. The guys are supposed to wrap it up on Monday. Pretty sweet little space. Beav is the general contractor, all the way. I do plastic and stay out of the way.

Finally, the microlite Toro arrived, courtesy of the moms. It's a hell of a sled. Hope baby's head is half the size of my pumpkin, gads.


Dinner tonight with the aunts and moms. Big night, plan on banking 10 hours on the back-end. Sleeping late in French is called "grasse matinee", only have a couple more of those left. C'est Dingue.

Thank you boys.