Weekend Review

Sorry it's a little tardy this week.

Old college roommate and all-around great friend and good dude Dave was in town last weekend. His lovely bride of nearly 10 years Allison also was aboard. They lived here some years back, in fact pretty close to where I live now on the Upper East Side.

We had plans to hit the Guggenheim for First Friday. I've made a decent contact there this year who's been sweet to put my name on the media list, but something always comes up. This time, it was Dave's and Allison's nap.

Not to worry, as I met them at Becco, a pretty hot Italian joint near the Midtown West area. I think it's better to say "near Midtown West," than to say, "the West Side near Times Square." Yuck.

Eighteen months up in this piece and I'm already a New York snob.

After dinner there, we rolled back over to the East Side for a couple of beers at my new fave bar, P.J. Clarke's. If I hear correctly, this bar used to be a hangout for 1970s mobsters.

Saturday was just another day at Blondie's, watching the Bucks improve to 10-0.

But Sunday, typically an uneventful day for me, proved to be outstanding. Old dude Troy had Knicks floor seats for their home opener against Minnesota. We sat in the second row behind the basket, right behind two New York Rangers -- goalie Henrik Lundqvist and winger Sean Avery (pictured, right here above) -- and their dates, one of whom was hot. The other gal looked more like someone I'd see walking to Wal-Mart in the far east suburbs of Cincinnati -- or the south end of Louisville (lest I forget to offend all my Midwest peoples) -- not next to a millionaire stud NHL player. The tattoo right above her ass crack said "Lola," but it just as easily could have read, "Cracked-out Euro ho."

Steve Schirripa (way up there, top left), better known as Bobby Baclava from "The Sopranos," wasn't too far from us, and Chris Rock, seated down the sideline next to David Duchovny, covered his face when I tried to take a picture of him from about 30 yards away.

After the game, Troy and I walked back to O'Reilly's Pub, where we'd had a beer before the game. On the way there, Troy and I struck up a conversation with some gal walking next to us. She said something rude to Troy, so I said something rude to her. Then she made a face, looked at me and said, "Oh my God, dude, you're so southern." I think she meant that as an insult, but a minute later, Troy and I had a beer in front of us, so we talked to the darling hostess for a half hour and then booked.

Pretty rare for me to be out on a schoolnight like that, but I did it again on Monday. New friend Kristen was in town on business, and we planned for me to meet her after I got out of work at 2 p.m. at Capital Grille. I figured this would be a one-drink afternoon and some good conversation, but the next thing I know, I'm calling it a night at 11ish -- correct, no nap on Monday! -- after we'd also found our way to Tonic and P.J. Clarke's again, before sushi at Haru.