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Deep fried, of course.

This year’s Hunter College Pre-Health Post-Bacc club End-of-Year party was something else. No bar, no skee-ball, no me cooking everything … our very own Derrick hosted, and he hosted a Fry Party. Basically, we all brought what we wanted to see put into boiling hot oil, and he did the honors.

In no particular order, we had: Jamaican beef patties (yum), pickles, okra (cool), pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, a big cupcake from Crumbs (effing awesome), a breadbowl pasta deal from Domino’s, Twix bars (the tastiest), Reese’s peanut butter cups (not bad) … and more. All deep-fried and served up hot, of course. Michela and I didn’t stay for the whole thing; I’m sure someone put John’s playlist in there before the night was over. =P

Oh yeah. Then there’s the sweatshirt (see left). See, people were hatin’ John’s playlist a bit, and Derrick convinced John that he could remain in charge of the music as long as he wore this big kitteh sweatshirt. Now, I’m not judging, but (a) John looked super-cute in this, and (b) I have to question why Derrick owns this particular article of clothing.

So a super fun night, and as this may have been my last chance to hang with some of these post-bacc kids, some good memories. Have a great summer everyone, and good luck getting in when it’s your turn! All of the pics (including plenty more with the kitteh shirt) are up here.

I’m a big fan of this one:

… and with it, a full recharging of the “all is right with the world” batteries. This was the sixth annual AngelRide CT (and the 4th one I’ve done), in which 250 or so bicyclists rode from Norfolk CT to Mystic CT over two days. As charity rides go, it was pretty easy — just an 80 mile day and a 60 mile day), but there are some nifty hills in there to keep them cyclists honest.

I was on the motorcycle safety crew again, and it was a real pleasure to spend three days on the best bike in the world (the 1998 Honda VFR, of course). And it was great to see some old friends and make some new. We brought in a great handful of new moto recruits, who I’m sure will be back in 2010. They did an awesome job wrangling the wayward bicyclists and keeping them self (though we had one of our motos go down in some gravel — he’s okay though).

This ride raises money for the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a legacy of Paul Newman. The Camp allows kids with cancer and other terminal or just-plain-tough diseases to be regular kids for a week or two, and play like regular kids — without sacrificing medical care. So we all helped some kids be kids, kids who normally had to worry about WBC counts, rad therapy, or being to weak to swim in a lake. It’s a very good cause, and I’m thrilled I got to help out again.

So, as always, pics are up on Flickr, here … enjoy!

On a serious note … on Monday, Michela and I had to say goodbye to Mezzanotte, the sweetest little purry furball that we’ve ever seen. He’d been lethargic for a week, with an obvious temperature, and when she took him to the vet they diagnosed him with Feline Infectious Peritonitis. It’s invariably fatal, and rather than put him through more pain and misery and have him slowly get weaker and die, we made the hard choice. Hard for us, but the right choice for him.

We miss him dearly.

Mezza was bright and sunny (if a little dim, but hey, he was a silly boy kitteh, and spoke in LOLz), supremely affectionate, curious and playful, and very loving towards his family (including his sister, Lani, who remains a comfort to Michela). He would hop into bed and cuddle unabashedly with his people, and poke his face into whatever we were eating at the table, again, without shame.

In short, he was a cat. He was the best of cats. And he was with us far for far too short a time. We gave him lots of love, and we know he had a happy little life, but it still killed us to hold him at the vet as he slipped away. 

Mezza, rest in peace, little buddy. We love you and miss you.

If you’d like to see pics of his happy little self with his kitten pals, check out here and here.