AL Fresco Book Club with NYC Theme

My friend, Janice, is in Pennsylvania with her husband who is working there until July 1st. She has always been such an AMAZING friend to me, that I thought I'd surprise her by planting a vegetable garden for her in her absence. It was a lovely idea, but OY, I feel 100 years old after being the Gardening Warrior yesterday! In the span of less than four hours, I turned over about 30 feet of planting beds, then proceeded to plant 4 (green and yellow) zucchini, 4 eggplants (purple and pink), 4 Lacinato (black) kales, 2 Mexican Sour Gherkin Cukes, 9 different kinds of heirloom peppers, 10 different types of heirloom tomatoes, 6 basils (sweet and bush), 3 Mammoth Dills, rosemary, Italian parsley, and--for the win--9 marigolds for aesthetics and pest control. WHEW! Plus, it took two trips to Walmart late that night to find suitable hoses, and I had to water everything in at almost 11pm by the flashlight app on my iPhone. I'm surprised the neighbors didn't call the cops! Anyway, behold the (eventual) fruits of my labors...

After my planting marathon (but before the watering debacle), I took a break and joined some lovely ladies for an al fresco book club meeting. The book was a contemporary thriller called Reconstructing Amelia, the theme was NYC, and we had yummy things like Reuben egg rolls, mini hot dogs with beer cheese sauce, and a pizza with sour cream, lox, and red onion. For dessert, there were ginormous chocolate chip cookies warm from the oven (a la Levain Bakery--my contribution), a lime cheesecake, and mini macarons in apple pie, Manhattan, and Cosmo flavors (from Delish downtown). Great weather, great food, great cocktails (Manhattans and Mojitos), and great discussion!