Frutti del Mar for New Years!!

So last year, Aviva and I did not go out for New Years. We took advantage of the cheapness of lobster and had a lobster/shrimp/scallop extravaganza, drank too much prosecco, watched Kung Fu panda and passed out around 1045 ... although I woke Aviva up at 1155 to watch the ball fall. And thus a tradition was born.

This year, on New Years eve, after work, Aviva went my Stew Leonards and Morton Williams and picked up a pile of seafood, including these two delicious lobsters or the right, as well as crab legs, shrimp and mussels. When I got home around 2 hours later, she had just finished consolidating this fabulous variety of seafood into a large platter of risotto liberally filled with Frutti del Mar ... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. It was kind of incredible, I had a lot of trouble not wolfing it down as soon as I got home, but instead we got the water boiling and got ready to cook up the lobsters. We romanced our lobsters a little bit , you have to treat them nicely if they are going to treat you nicely if they are going to treat you nicely , and then dumped them in the boiling pot to cook them up for our 1st course.




While the lobsters were cooking we put the finishing touches on the table, and when they were done we sat down in our beautiful living room and tore into the sea food extravaganza, spraying lobster bits and mussels all over the table as we devoured the butter soaked, incredibly tender and delicious sea food. After we ate, a process which we savored over about an hour and a half, we retired to the den and watched The Brothers Bloom, a quite bizarre movie, on the computer. Then exhausted and slightly drunk, we brought up Times Square live on the computer, looked at the poor, cold people standing for hours in the freezing rain, and decided we were thrilled not to be there. Then we went to bed around 11, falling asleep at around 1130 and not waking up until 8 or 9 hours into the next year.

Welcome 2010

So last year, Aviva and I did not go out for New Years. We took advantage of the cheapness of lobster and had a lobster/shrimp/scallop extravaganza, drank too much prosecco, watched Kung Fu panda and passed out around 1045 ... although I woke Aviva up at 1155 to watch the ball fall. And thus a tradition was born.

This year, on New Years eve, after work, Aviva went my Stew Leonards and Morton Williams and picked up a pile of seafood, including these two delicious lobsters or the right, as well as crab legs, shrimp and mussels. When I got home around 2 hours later, she had just finished consolidating this fabulous variety of seafood into a large platter of risotto liberally filled with Frutti del Mar ... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. It was kind of incredible, I had a lot of trouble not wolfing it down as soon as I got home, but instead we got the water boiling and got ready to cook up the lobsters. We romanced our lobsters a little bit , you have to treat them nicely if they are going to treat you nicely if they are going to treat you nicely , and then dumped them in the boiling pot to cook them up for our 1st course.



While the lobsters were cooking we put the finishing touches on the table, and when they were done we sat down in our beautiful living room and tore into the sea food extravaganza, spraying lobster bits and mussels all over the table as we devoured the butter soaked, incredibly tender and delicious sea food. After we ate, a process which we savored over about an hour and a half, we retired to the den and watched The Brothers Bloom, a quite bizarre movie, on the computer. Then exhausted and slightly drunk, we brought up Times Square live on the computer, looked at the poor, cold people standing for hours in the freezing rain, and decided we were thrilled not to be there. Then we went to bed around 11, falling asleep at around 1130 and not waking up until 8 or 9 hours into the next year.

New Year (of the Lobster?)

Happy New Year Eveyone!!!!

Yup. Another year. As usual the last few years, today I looked at the date and thought, wow, I am really old. I never imagined that I would see the digits 2-0-0-9 on a calender.

As has become somewhat traditional for me, I did nothing overly exciting on New Years. Instead Aviva and I spent the evening relaxing and laughing, a lot. We drank prosecco and scotch, and made a great meal of lobsters (which are surprisingly cheap these days) with jumbo shrimp and tabouli. Then we watched Kung Fu Panda, snuggled and read waiting for the ball to fall in Times Square.

I have to say, I am a little nostalgic for 2008, despite the dire financial and other global crises, it was a pretty good year for me. First off, I got engaged to an incredible woman who makes me happier than I have ever been at any point in my life ... and the wedding planning and engagement parties and all that stuff has actually been a blast. I got my first independent grant at work and my science has been going very well, hopefully I will have some publication news for you all in the near future. I grew to love my New York family even more and feel like a true part of Aviva's incredible family. And I basically spent the year with great friends, traveling, eating, drinking, hiking and exploring the East Coast, living close to the job I love in a great apartment with the love of my life. So 2008 year was excellent for me, I hope that anyone reading this was also blessed to have a positive year despite the broader crises emerging around us.

Still I am pretty excited about this year, it has the potential to be even better ... after all, 2009 is the year that I am going to get married ...