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Picture to come from Berna

A goodbye dinner for Megan in the East Village! It was also the first time I'd seen her in the city. We ended up at the Back Fence (I am a broken record with that place). The score is already Jeff: 1, Megan: 0.

Restaurant of the day: Sea (east village)

Miles left: 441.25

211

America!!

Jesse took me out to Raoul's tonight, where we sat a few tables down from Mayor Bloomberg! In typical Sproulie fashion, I had no idea he was there until Jesse pointed out that there were four men in dark suits and eat pieces standing at the end of the bar. The steak was awesome. The company was better (Jesse, not Bloomie).

Restaurant of the day: Raoul's (soho)

Miles left: 441.25

210

Taken on the walk home from work. Turns out New York can be nice on the eyes!

Restaurant of the day: Baluchi's (greenwich village)

Miles left: 444.25

209

As it turns out, Pige has not been making a good name for himself in New York. To be placed with the likes of Rat is not good for the Pige brand. As if the needles on the tops of ledges weren't bad enough, he now needs to deal with the irate lectures of village residents who have nothing better to do with their time than incite anti-pigeon discrimination.

Mike M. is the only person who can save Pige now. He is the captain of our ships, our hearts, and the fate of pigeons everywhere.

Restaurant of the day: Arturo's

Miles left: 444.25

208

Dinner out with Bessie! We were supposed to talk about MBA programs and instead spent all our time talking about boys and love.

Restaurant of the day: The new cafeteria at work.

Miles left: 447.25

207

The happy couple!

Here's a word of advice. When you decide to stay up late at a wedding and you have an early flight, it is never a good thing to convince yourself that your internal clock is capable of waking you up in time for your flight ("no alarm clock? you can sleep! don't worry!"). Because let me tell you, it's not. Especially if you pulled an all-nighter two nights earlier and you are jetlagged and your internal clock is convinced it's 5 hours earlier. Should you find yourself in this unenviable position, you had better hope that someone you just met a day earlier is around at the airport, having also missed the same flight, and is able to call his childhood nanny to drive you around to 3 of the x greater London airports. Let me assure you that this advice comes from the rational side of my brain and not because I learned it the hard way.

Restaurant of the day: Bagel Street Cafe (Heathrow Airport)

Miles left: 447.25

206

Another day filled with touring, this time on a little more than 20min of sleep. We explored Glen May and Niarbyl, and skipped stones while looking for the elusive basking sharks - and then we actually saw one!! I returned to the Sefton to get dressed and ready to find Dan sitting outside, a lonely figure, with the rest of the hotel that had been evacuated for a fire that no one ever found. The wedding was set at Malew Church, where Jura's parents had been married, and where we found a grave whose resident had been buried alive after being accused of witchcraft. When Jura and Piers stood at the front for the first time, a beam of sunlight illuminated them and later blinded Jura. Afterwards, the reception was held at Mr. Cullen's high school (i.e. the location of his 9 year incarceration). There was pick-up cricket, and even Jura took a swing, followed by a three course meal, dancing to old 80s music and 90s pop, and a bonfire on the beach. Little did I know I would regret staying up by the fireside as late as I did...

Restaurant of the day: Niarbyl Cafe (Isle of Man)

Miles left: 447.25

205

I'll pretend like this felt like a completely different day than Thursday but it clearly did not. In puddle hopping transit to the Isle of Man, I met Jura's friends and coordinated a day of touring around the island. Before we met up, I went for a run by myself along the seaside and took in the salt air and abandoned execution site. We then hopped in Hannah's car and explored the island, which it turns out only takes about an hour or two to drive top to tail. I told Hannah and Sarah that I wanted to have a "british lunch" so we went to to a cafe in Peel that overlooked the abandoned castle and ate Battered Cod and Chips and scones with clotted cream and jam. In the evening, Jura and Piers hosted us at Castle Rushen, another abandoned but superbly maintained castle in Castletown. The highlight of the evening was the waxwork people that were placed throughout the castle in various life-sized dioramas. One man's eyes followed my every move like the Mona Lisa - creepy. The night was rounded out quite nicely with a trip to the Castle Arms (formerly known as the Glue Pot) for boat races and packing 12 people in an 8 person cab/van, two of whom lept into the car as it drove down the road.

Restaurant of the day: Silverdale Cafe and Restaurant (Isle of Man)

Miles left: 450.25

204

My roommate's note to herself... those Brits are always kind and thoughtful of the elderly.

I'm not sure how to handle this day, because it ended up lasting 36 hours. Took an evening flight out of JFK and sat next to a Dutch woman who I ended up talking to all night about education, food in New York, and American capitalism. We were overserved by the nice people at British Airways (love them), and I didn't sleep a wink. Should make for an interesting Manx weekend?

Restaurant of the day: Balducci's (JFK airport)

Miles left: 453.25

203

My dream came true. Apparently there are restaurants where you can eat only hummus for your entire meal. Not a joke. Went to Nanoosh on the upper west side with my mom and did just that.

Pictured above is my favorite place in New York City.

Restaurant of the day: Nanoosh

Miles left: 453.25

202

A dinner out with my first roommate (my mom), my current roommate, and my college roommate at Malatesta. We talked about boys for 95% of the time, dresses for 4%, and careers for 1%. Pretty standard.

Restaurant of the day: Malatesta

Miles left: 459.25

201

My mom and I reveled in our steak frites, sancerre wine, and a late night walk in the summer air. I enjoy eclectic birthday presents, and today was no different. Nicki will come home to a bit of a surprise tonight!

Website of the day: http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/time-wastes-too-fast/

Restaurant of the day: Pastis (meatpacking district)

Miles left: 465.25

200

After a PG-rated 18 holes of putt-putt (PG-rated in a scary way... like creepy weird people hanging from nets and loud noises that made me yelp), we meandered over to the carnival on the boardwalk. I got sufficiently carsick but loved the process. Jong was the only one who would go on all the rides with me.

Restaurant of the day: The food court along the boardwalk (Ocean City, NJ)

Miles left: 467

199

Started off with a shopping trip to the Wawa. We spent the same dollar amount that we normally spend for brunch in the city, but bought enough food to last us the entire weekend. Sat on the beach all day and it was everything we thought it would be. Minimal burning and maximum people watching. Finished with a crab dinner at Obediah's, where we met this fine man by the name of Dan. Dan the man received a 25% tip and was the worst/best salesman of all time. We tried to order, and he told us we were doing it all wrong (stupid city people) and saved us $50. Well done, Dan.

Restaurant of the day: Obediah's (Ocean City, NJ)

Miles left: 472

198

A long day at work was rewarded with an entertaining car ride and final destination in relaxing Ocean City, NJ.

Restaurant of the day: Toasties (home of the midtown east hotties)

Miles left: 477

197

Apparently Nicki is now the star of the Starbucks scene, as she's seen here sipping her delicious Strawberry Frappaccino.

I had dinner tonight at Leela Lounge with my cousin and cousin-in-law! We had a great time trading Gaga stories.

Restaurant of the day: Leela Lounge

Miles left: 480

196

After a late night at work, Kelly, Nicki, and I ate out at Rare and followed the delicious truffle fries up with a late night of talking. When did I stop going to bed at 11?

Restaurant of the day: Kenn's Broom Street Bar (SoHo)

Miles left: 482

195

This dog had an underbite and his tongue stuck out of his mouth. I almost stole him.

Quote of the day - Nicki on reading blogs: "Sometimes I just ctrl-F for 'boyfriend.'"

Restaurant of the day: Pommes Frites (east village)

Miles left: 482

194

This is Pige. Pige lives outside our window. Incidentally, that window is broken and is now permanently open. Every morning I wake up and am convinced that Pige, who is cooing loudly outside my room, has finally snuck into our apartment and is nesting in our pink fluffy chair. He's friends with the cockroach that Nicki trapped under the garbage can 3 days ago (we have yet to muster the courage to deal with...that) and we believe he's planning some kind of covert operation to set him free.

Restaurant of the day: Haru Sushi (midtown or something)

Miles left: 485.25

193

What you are seeing here has never been captured on film, and until now its existence was thought to be an urban legend. It is Mike engaging in light PDA with lady friend. No the photo wasn't photoshopped, and no he wasn't paid to do this. This picture is like the bigfoot of the west village - years from now, generations of jaded adolescents will wonder if it was ever even possible.

Restaurant of the day: S.P.Q.R. (little italy)

Miles left: 485.25

192

While walking around the west village, Nicki and I came across this rag-tag group of aspiring cha-cha artists. Other than the overweight labrador puppy we saw 10 minutes before this, these people might be the cutest thing on planet earth.

Restaurant of the day: Spotted Pig (west village)

Miles left: 489

191

Sutton introduced us to a novel concept for a chinese food restaurant on the upper west side - they serve free Franzia with dinner and while you waited for your table. Other parties at the restaurant included a birthday party of 21 year old girls and their one guy friend who was dressed like Spiderman. Nicki read about the restaurant on Yelp and there were 50 posts about how ridiculous the place was and one post that said the beef and walnuts were excellent. We think that guy missed the point.

Restaurant of the day: Silk Road Palace (upper west side)

Miles left: 493

190

In our run through the west side of the city, Nicki and I passed the halfway mark to 1,000 miles. In celebration, I spelled out 500 in the cobblestone "boob" park in the meatpacking district. Later, too much wine and Truffled Egg Toast at Ino made for a perfect NYC night.

Restaurant of the day: Ino (west village)

Websites of the day:

http://petswhowanttokillthemselves.com/

http://www.dontevenreply.com/

Miles left: 498.25

189

While trying to work, Nicki and I got bored and instead did impersonations of the vermin that are invading our humble NYC abode. Pictured above is Nicki as "mouse". I did a version of "cockroach playing dead" but it was deemed to be inappropriate even by this blog's standards.

As the nerds that we are, both Anna and I recognised that 12:34.56 7/8/09 happened today.

Restaurant of the day: Kool Bloo (gramercy)

Miles left: 501.75

188

A picture from "the boob park" by Hotel Gansevoort, Nicki's favorite park in the city.

Momism of the day:

Mom: So my friend Fran thinks I would look awesome in a new Mercedes

Anna: Who's Fran?

Mom: The Mercedes dealer...

Restaurant of the day: Moonstruck Diner

Miles left: 508

187

This is where I would have rather been today. In an effort not to be sad about sitting in an office while the Long Island sound is out there, I'll make a list of my favorite things in New York so far:

- The man playing Moon River on the subway

- The fact that Nicole loves this place as much as she does

- The Boat Adventure

- Plain frozen yogurt

- Westville's Cobb Salad

- The view of the Statue of Liberty at dusk when running on the West Side Highway

- Suhey's description of Corgis as told by my British roommate

- Furry cockroaches and their relatives

- The complete lack of poisonous spiders

- Copious hair products in my shower and bathroom

- Rory's comment that "children are creepy when out of context"

- Lax runs through Central Park

- Walking

- Reading Love in the Time of Cholera on the subway to work

- The fact that the soda man at work knows that I take a straw with my can of Diet Dr. Pepper

Restaurant of the day: Eskimix (west village)

Miles left: 508

186

Day three on the boat and we nearly lost Jeff to some unknown sun related lethargy. We all slept a good part of the day, including yours truly who accidentally fell asleep in the sun... oops. We sailed the Long Island Sound back to land and all crawled back to our respective homes dehydrated and fully satisfied by a weekend of relaxing, laughing in the sun, and eating chips chips chips and more chips.

Restaurant of the day: Max Brenner's Chocolate by the Bald Man (east village)

Miles left: 513

185

Day two on the boat started far earlier than I ever want to wake up again, ever. The sun rose... about 40 minutes after we started sailing. It was gorgeous. Miranda barked orders at the minions and then very appropriately dressed like a pirate. We referred to him as Captain Ron, Sam as Private, me as Joey, and Dawson as Lucas because once British boarded, she insisted he looked like a Lucas. We all took a severe beating by the sun, and then anchored the boat to watch the fireworks around us on Long Island and Connecticut.

Restaurant of the day: Wave (at Danford's in Port Jefferson, NY)

Miles left: 513

184

Today started the great boat adventure. I met Jeff's friend Dawson and immediately informed him that he could call me Joey, and that even though we would fall in love over the course of the weekend, I would eventually leave him heartbroken for his best (though debatably less awesome) best friend. Apparently he gets Dawson's Creek jokes a lot and didn't find it as funny as I did. Miranda flew in on 12 hours notice to be our skipper. We cooked dinner, watched the stars, and fell asleep early to prepare for a 5am departure for Port Jefferson. I brought my swim trunks, and my flippy floppies...

Restaurant of the day: Two Boots (midtown east, in grand central station)

Miles left: 513

183

Two of my donkey ex-roommates and I had dinner together. We shared stories about recent trips to the hospital and reminisced about the times when we were ridiculous.

Restaurant of the day: Dos Caminos (midtown east)

Miles left: 513

182

Victoria and Sterling came to visit! We listened to Michael Jackson hits and Sterling told me about how he discovered MGMT. I delivered beauty products to an overly excited Victoria. I miss them both already.

Restaurant of the day: Bo's Noodles

Miles left: 515.25