TOB, craig, mario, surprises flight changes

it's the tournament of books time at the morning news. it's the literary version of march madness. see here for what the game looks like.

 

last year the TOB's winner happened to also win a pulitzer prize. so it's a tourney to keep your eyes on, for sure.

 

my friend craig is cooking some absolute gorgeous stuff, peek at it here.

 

i kind of loved this.

 

and oh my god is this college humor shit CRAZY.

 

my friend erika's birthday dinner was last night. we went to otto, which is one of my favorite places in the city for the pure cheapness of it all. and by cheap i don't mean kitschy. i mean, literally, entrees are $10. it's the best bang for your buck as far as italian goes, bar none. one of erika's close friends is mario's assistant. which basically means anyone who is anyone in the restaurant industry knows her. restaurant staff came over to greet us all evening. most the meal was comped. we went to spotted pig (another mario-owned venture) and had mor free alcohol brought to us. the only thing better than being mario's assistant is getting to eat out with mario's assistant.

 

at the pig were anne burrell and also dan abrams and dave zinczenko.

 

am cooking up a bit of a surprise party for justy's 30th birthday. can't give details here in case he stops by (he never does) but just in case, i don't want to ruin it.

 

let me re-iterate what a fan i am of the tenet: you'll never get what you want unless you ask.

 

not only was that how i got my lovely iphone, but american airlines just cut a leg out of a three-leg trip back from a wedding in turks and caicos that i have to be at in may. i'd bought the ticket with miles so you're pretty much stuck with whatever they give you as far as redeeming points goes. i got a direct flight there but was stuck with a crazy PLS-MIA-DFW-JFK trip back. FAIL. then i got a "change in your reservation" e-mail. SCORE! that means i can call, be dissatisfied with the change (which gets me in 1.5 hours later) and then toss in a "is there any way you can just cut out that MIA to DFW leg?" while i'm at it. and TA-DA! worked like a charm. "even though you got it with miles and there are no remaining award seats on the MIA to LGA flight, i put in a request and it was approved so you'll get a new confirmation by e-mail in an hour or so" fucking brilliant. life is good.

 

there's a bunch of other write-upable stuff over the last week but i'm literally too tired to recall it right now. or at least describe it. i went to this. emily had a birthday party. i met a new gay best friend. i confirmed a booze cruise ticket for key west at the end of march. The end.