Nick's blog

Thanksgiving came and went, I had a blast with Leigh Ann and Dede in town. Be sure to check out our Dr. Seuss style Christmas tree. It's the tree I always wanted as a kid but couldn't have because, well I'll admit, its a bit over the top - 180 ft. of lights on a 6 foot tree is a little much...




Guess what! Yes we are.



Most enthusiastic gutter ball in recorded history:

We were so serious about bowling that night - The Gutter Bar in Brooklyn, combination hipster bar and retro bowling alley - for the Pitchfork 500 book signing party.

Me and the founder of Pitchforkmedia.com, he actually signed my book - "To Nick F@#$$n' Leonards"





At the top of Rockefeller Center - we took pictures of ourselves being ridiculous. There was also this cool interactive light room at the top the building....


Fact: Leigh Ann is a nerd. Trying to do the best Dwight Shrute she could muster - In the NBC gift shop.






Times Square, St. Pat's, Radio City, and the Underground bar...







Trying to lay down to get the whole lighthouse in the frame - Lighthouse at Fire Island.







We saw some great exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art... Henry VIII's armor was there, I could spend days...







Straight out of the door from the Met we walked directly across Central Park, stopped a a deli for a beer, and wallowed with the masses to get a look at the Macy's parade balloons being inflated. Don't even get me started on what was going on between Hello Kitty and Ronald McDonald...





And because it was on an episode of "Sex and the City..." We stopped in at the Russian Tea Room. A posch restaurant that used to cater to Russian dignitaries back in the day. Now it's open to the public, we actually got a private mini-tour of the upstairs that's usually only for upscale events costing 10's - 100's of thousands of dollars. Yes, that is a Faberge Egg tree and a life-sized glass Grizzly Bear filled with exotic fish...






The next morning at 6 a.m. with unbelievable headaches, we boarded the train with my buddy Steve and went to meet my friend Stephen, his wife Kelly, and his dad on 68th and Central Park West. The crowds were horrible on the side streets and more than once we lost people. But we finally found a nice little spot and we were all together, it was a great morning. The most exciting thing is how rowdy the the spectators get when it looks like a balloon is going to get snagged on a tree - and by spectators I mean me, Stephen, and his dad. After that, I had made reservations at a nice little place called Nocello in the theater district for Thanksgiving dinner, the food was great, and the prices were fair too. I recommend it.








We took the subway to the WTC site and popped up the stairs. Only to hear "Nick?" Sure enough Kelly and Stephen just happened to be walking by at the exact same time and place, small world. We walked through Battery Park, Leigh Ann found a squirrel and fed it candy, and we hopped on the Staten Island Ferry (fo frEE.) to get a look at Lady Liberty. Oh yeah, there was a one legged bird in the Ferry terminal, it was heart warming seeing him try to make it on his own with the other birds rather than exploit his disability by begging for bread crumbs on the street.






You could tell how much help I was...


The last day we went to an indie crafts market in Brooklyn and went and ate at Di Fara's pizza, which by many sources (Zagat, Food and Wine magazine, etc.) is considered to be the best pizza in NYC. The place was grimey, in a bad neighborhood and there was a single old man (who's been there for 40 years) making all of the pizzas with some other family member taking orders and cutting the vegetables. He even reaches into the oven with his bare hands to get the pizzas out! The place was slammed, shoulder to shoulder, and we waited over 2 hours to get our pizza. It was great food, but I can't lie, not worth the 3 hours we spent there. That night we decided since I wasn't coming home for Christmas, I at least needed a proper tree, so, on a whim, we went to Target and stocked up like we were 6 year olds without a budget. What a great time.









I've been told by someone I'm "hard to shop for." All I really want is a drum kit and a 62" Samsung LCD TV, jeeze, whats so tough about that... Really, the only thing I REALLY want is to be home for Christmas :(

Here's my under $20 wishlist, I limited to $20 because, well, I haven't been that good this year. There's no way I'm getting that Red Rider BB gun... double :(

Asakusa rice field and torinomachi festival poster



Great Wave at Kanagawa poster




Red plastic Chinese restaurant Coca-Cola tumblers, couldn't find a picture but I swear I've seen them!


http://www.nickczap.com/industries/
This guy is cool beyond words...



http://www.enamelwareonline.co.uk/Signs.html
Every man's bathroom needs one of these.


This is something I'll end up buying for myself eventually - Sigma 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 DC OS Zoom Lens or the Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-105mm F3.5-5.6G ED VR