Ah… glorious cold season.  What started as a scratchy throat a couple days ago, has  now become a full fledged runny nose, sneezy, stuffy head, juicy cough cold.  Just peachy.  Last week my friend Susan had surgery on her toe and requested the comfort of some of my mom’s homemade chicken soup (which I’ve now adopted as my own).  I made a great big batch of it last Monday and I was planning to bring it to her out in Queens on Wednesday but then that huge snowstorm rolled around and I was left with a lot of soup on my hands.  So – Adam and I ate half of it – and I froze the rest.  However, when one has a cold and there’s a big thing of chicken soup in the freezer… the answer is obvious.   So what was Susan’s loss is now my gain because I ate every last ounce of that chicken soup today and I hope it’s healing me as we speak.   Thank you Susan!  I owe you one!

Now on to photos… it was a great weekend (until I got sick) – with lots of good food and good times with friends.  On Friday night we met up with Dave & Lucy and had dinner at the Mermaid Inn.  I had a Blackboard Eats coupon for 30% off so we saved over $50 on the meal AND got a serving of six delicious oysters on the house!  Love Blackboard Eats!  And love Mermaid Inn! The highlight of the meal for me (other than the oysters) were the baked sea scallops with escargot!  They were super fresh and delicious with a light taste of lemon.  I really enjoyed both the service and the meal!

After dinner we visited at our place for a while.  We had this old Elvis movie on – Blue Hawaii (super CHEESY!!!) and it got Dave all nostalgic for his childhood record collection.  He got all into the music and I took the opportunity to do a nice little photo shoot with my color filters and flash!   Here are a couple of the best shots:

Photo 294 out of 365 – “Foxy Dave”

“Foxy Dave” – Settings: ISO 6400, f/3.2, 1/25 sec, 50mm lens

On Saturday night we had Kelly & Val and their sweet little puppy Lola over for some spaghetti (another great recipe from my mom) and Rummy 500.  Lola is simply the cutest pup ever.  They found her at a shelter and she has a very shy, quiet personality so far… but she got really cozy at our apartment and made herself totally at home.  It was super sweet.  Adam and I are definitely craving a little puppy of our own now, but at this point, I think we’ll settle for babysitting Lola.

Photo 295 out of 365 – “Lola”

"Lola" - Settings: ISO 6400, f/2.8, 1/50 sec, 50mm lens

Then yesterday we had a total chill day.  I started to feel sick so we just stayed at home all day, having a movie marathon and playing Risk.  Nerds. 🙂  We watched a great movie called Damned United, directed by Tom Hooper – the same guy who directed The King’s Speech, which we loved.  Just like The King’s Speech, I found this movie to be visually stunning and fascinating to me from a photographic standpoint.  And the story was great too.  I highly recommend it.  We also watched Precious, which was quite heavy, intense and disturbing… but good with great performances.  And then we watched half of Funny Girl with Barbara Streisand.  We’ll finish that one off tonight.

As I didn’t leave the apartment all day, the photo inspiration was lacking… but I managed to snap this one, while snickering to myself (and then sneezing):

Photo 296 out of 365 – “Breaking the Rules”

"Breaking the Rules" - Settings: ISO 400, f/1.8, 1/100 sec, 50mm lens

So wish me luck… hopefully that Jewish Penicillin theory is for real!