Kathleen McGivney

Grand Opening of the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop

Over the weekend, Atom and I had the pleasure of documenting the grand opening of the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop. We've been going to the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck for a couple of years, and not only are their treats delicious, but they are really freakin' nice people (and they love unicorns). We like them so much that I arranged for them to cater Atom's birthday party last month. We were, of course, excited when they announced that they'd be opening a shop in the East Village, so we headed over there on Saturday to photograph and shoot video of the opening ceremonies.

And quite a ceremony it was! There was a sassy drag queen keeping the crowd entertained as they waited for the doors to open. There was a contrabassoon band playing outside the shop. And to top it off, the ever-so-holy Father Anthony Bourdain gave a benediction to open the shop. (See Atom's photoblog for some additional photos of the celebration and my video of the benediction and opening remarks).

You can get more info and photos at GrubStreet NY and The Village Voice, and a discussion at Towleroad.

Happy New Year

My husband and I are in Florida right now, getting ready to depart on JoCoCruiseCrazy. I have to say, I've never been remotely interested in going on a cruise, and the only reason I chose to go on it is because some of our really good friends are going and convinced us to join them. Now that it's almost time to get on the ship, I'm actually pretty excited about it. There are lots of geeky and fun activities to keep us occupied, and this is the first vacation I've taken in 10+ years that I haven't brought my work laptop with me. I'll be kind of forced to relax, which is awesome. To top it off, I get to spend the whole trip with my amazing husband and some of my favorite people in the world, which makes me very happy.

We kicked our vacation and new year off with dinner on New Year's Eve with our friends, which was notable mainly because we rushed back to our hotel just before midnight so we could ring in the New Year together with some champagne by the pool. Despite the best efforts of Ft. Lauderdale's interminable traffic light wait times, we managed to make it back to the hotel, run through the lobby, and land poolside with champagne poured in our extra-classy plastic cups with about 2 minutes to spare. It was hilariously perfect.

I wish you all a fun and happy year surrounded by the people you love.

Remembering JSH

One year ago today, I lost a friend and colleague, Jonathan Sir Hendrey, to a sudden illness. It still shocks me that he is gone - I can't imagine anything that could take away that amazing spirit. I can still remember his funny stories and his quirks, his brilliance at explaining the most dry, complex technical problems in entertaining ways, his willingness to try new things.

Last year, on the day he died, I posted a story about JSH, which is one of my favorites because it illustrated how much fun he'd have just doing a mundane thing like buying a car. This year, I am going to remember how he was the last time I saw him, in August of last year. We sat in the lobby of a hotel during a conference and caught up on how our lives were going. We talked about work a little bit, but mostly about how happy we both were with the developments in our personal lives and relationships. He was so happy and content and I'm glad we were able to share that little moment together.

I still miss him very much and I know many of my friends and colleagues do too. We're all thinking about him today. I hope we can all get together and share memories and stories about him soon.

Blogmonkey strikes again

iMonkey, originally uploaded by kmcgivney.

Those of you familiar with my other blog, Susan Bulloch's blog, or Paul Mooney's blog will probably recognize the blogmonkey. He was born in a small bucket in a Lotus Stuff Store at a Lotusphere conference a few years back, and ever since then has traveled the world, usually with Susan but sometimes with Paul or me when Susan has to stay home. He's been involved in many adventures, most of which involve him getting extremely drunk or stealing tech gadgets. This time, he tried to steal my husband's new iPhone while we were at dinner with Susan last night. Fortunately, we caught him in the act and were able to distract him with food and sake.

The blogmonkey is in Boston right now with Susan at a conference, and I'm sure he's getting into more trouble as we speak. Hopefully Susan will catch him in the act a few times, because if there aren't photos, it didn't happen.