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I realize that it’s Wednesday night, which is slightly late for a weekend update. Strangely, I feel that as I am less busy at work, I post less. It might be because my days are much shorter, and I spend a lot more time talking to my coworkers instead of sitting in front of the computer.

The title is appropriate because not only do I have a few pictures to recap the weekend’s highlights, but much of this weekend was spent in pictures of one type or another.

What is probably our last big snowstorm of the year started on Friday morning and extended until Friday night. It was pretty messy, with at least as many ice pellets as snowflakes. But Saturday morning dawned clear and sunny. On the way to church, I got a snapshot of the snowy sidewalks of the East Village. Wait, who’s the hot girl in the red coat?

Sunday morning, Jannine and I joined Jeremy and Erica for brunch at Alias. As I have written here before, Alias has great dinner food, particularly for their Sunday Supper, which is one of the better restaurant values it the city. The brunch had received similar high reviews.

The brunch received mixed reviews from our panel of foodies. First, the positives. The service was prompt. My cheese grits and collard greens were delicious. And the fruit compote that came with Jannine’s waffles were great.

However, overall, the food seemed fairly average. Jeremy didn’t give rave reviews to the eggs benedict. The Alias brunch has a nice southern twist, but it certainly isn’t on the level of Clinton Street, 9th Street Market or Sarabeth’s.

After brunch, we headed over to Brooklyn’s Stay Gold Gallery for a show called Blowup, featuring photos from Holga, Lomo and other “toy cameras.” It was such a great show — I highly recommend you stop by before the show closes this coming Saturday (March 24). We ended up so entranced by some of the photos that we ended up buying two. We were excited because it was our first gallery purchase.

On the way back, I took this picture out the window of the J, which is elevated in Brooklyn. Yeah, I know, still not ready for a gallery.

From Stay Gold, we went up to the MoMA to see the Jeff Wall photography exhibit they have right now. Wall is largely known for his huge (wall-sized) gelatin-on-glass prints which he puts in light boxes, which really makes them come to life. One of Jannine’s coworkers had recommended the show, and we were glad we went, because there were some great photos. We also decided to join the MoMA. A dual membership is only $120, and at $20 per person admission, we’d only have to go three times over the course of the year to recoup our money. Plus, we can buy up to five $5 guest tickets every time we go, so if any one wants to go see the MoMA with us, just let us know.

After we finished with the Jeff Wall exhibit, we went down to the fifth floor to see the Van Goghs and the Monets. I love the water lilies so much — I could sit and look at the three panels for hours. Here’s a shot of the center panel, which doesn’t even begin to do justice to the scope and the depth of the painting.

Finally, we ended our day with a lovely dinner. But that, dear readers, is a topic for another post.

I tried to get to work early this morning (meaning prior to my typical 10:15 arrival time) but I just couldn’t drag myself out of the house. My motivation level seems to be at an all-time low, which is really saying something. So now it’s 11:00 am and I have two key achievements for this morning:

1.) I went to the cafeteria and got two slices of seven-grain toast (plain) and an apple. Both were delicious, although I bit into the apple and it sprayed all over my desk and my sweater.

2.) I figured out how to change the desktop image on my BlackBerry (yes, I realize that after having it for six months, I am a little slow). But I finally got sick of the clouds floating behind my icons and uploaded one of my Disney Hall pictures and set it as the background. This makes me happy and satisified.

Now, however, I have an indenture to draft. Suffice to say that this makes me neither happy nor satisified.

Although it is now the 16th of February, Valentine’s Day is still close in the rearview mirror. To celebrate, Jannine and made the trek through snow and ice (Wednesday morning brought our first major snow storm of the year, complete with freezing rain, high winds and heavy accumulation) to our new favorite restaurant, Alias.

When I hear “Alias,” I think of Jennifer Garner flying around the world, taking down the bad guys with prejudice. So the name of the restaurant has it off to a good start in my mind. Alias had a great value for a Valentine’s Day five-course pre fixe menu, which is something of a rarity in New York, a city where it seems to be a sport of restaurants to see how much they can jack up their prices for special holiday meals. The food, as expected, was outstanding. Alias specializes in using fresh market ingredients for their food. The combinations are creative, and the dishes are generally seasoned so that the individual tastes of the components can stand out. The highlight was probably a baked acorn squash with wild rice, wild mushrooms, leeks and thin slices of cheese (I want to say it was pecorino, but I don’t really remember).

The one negative of the dinner was the atmosphere. The restaurant wasn’t particularly busy, and the heater didn’t seem able to keep up with the cold winds outside. So we felt too exposed as our extremities slowly froze. Also, Alias didn’t seem prepared to serve a multi-course meal successfully, and kept us waiting for far too long between courses. However, given the quality of the food and the great price, it still comes out as an extremely good value.

As we were walking through the Lower East Side to the restaurant, we passed Clinton Street Baking Company, our favorite brunch place. In celebration of the holiday, they had made a beautiful light display on their front fence.

AMNewYork reports a new study has found that New York City buses run late (an average of 5 minutes, 15 seconds behind the posted schedule).

This study was done by the New York City Transit Riders Council. I sincerely hope they didn’t spend too much money on it, because they could have just gotten on any bus and asked the riders if the buses run late and gotten the same answer.

The one semi-valuable conclusion of the study is that delays are caused by traffic and other conditions outside the control of the MTA. It’s valuable, because at least we know why there are delays. On the other hand, we basically have a study that tells us what we already knew (buses are late) and that there’s nothing that can be done to solve the problem. Thank you NYCTRC!

A couple weeks ago (could be longer — I don’t have a particularly good sense of time anymore), my sister Rachel came into NYC for a quick trip. It was actually part of a much longer trip, as she had been in Arizona and Colorado and Connecticut and was headed back home to Maryland via LaGuardia.

Since she was getting to the airport early, Jannine and I got a Zipcar (a mini!) and drove out there to meet her. We took her to Chinatown in Queens and had a very yummy lunch at a vegetarian Chinese restaurant. Rachel even came bearing Christmas gifts from my family.

Here are some pics.

Today, I met my friend Josh for lunch. Josh, who attends Advent Hope with me, is a corporate finance lawyer who works a few blocks away from me in the Financial District. We went to Cafe Doppio, a nice little soup/sandwich/salad place on Broad and Beaver. I recommend it if you’re in the area for lunch. The food as good and the prices are reasonable for the area. And it’s certainly better than the Hale and Hearty Soups next door.

Anyway, we’re sitting there eating our food, and in walks Tom, another guy who goes to church with us. He comes up to me and says, “Hey Nathan, what are you doing here? Do you work around here?” I said yes and we exchanged our pleasantries.

Josh is trying to catch his eye and give him the whole “hey, I know you too” look. Tom looks at him, sticks out his hand, and says “Hi, I’m Tom. Nice to meet you.”

Josh paused, then said, “Hi, I’m Josh.”

Then there was an awkward silence, and Tom turned to get in line to order his lunch. No, that wasn’t uncomfortable at all.

At least not as uncomfortable as it will be when Tom sees Josh at church.

Got linked to this site called Phat Phree the other day — it is well worth your time to check out their “Hall of Fame“. It’s basically snarky, sarcastic, pretending-to-be-serious humor similar to The Onion.

I can particularly recommend “Look at my Striped Shirt!” and “Seriously, Get This Sweater Off Me”.

So kill a few minutes in your day. Thank me later.