2012 – A year of great friends

It’s important to look back on the year to see how things have progressed. With that, the landscape of things here on derryX.com hasn’t really changed all that much. If you look back to the end of last year, derryX dines was runnin’ wild, and, in between, there were some posts about the random things that go shooting across my brain. That’s still how things are going down.

And that’s good. The last thing I want this to be is a blog strictly dedicated to food. I’d like to think that things on this end have a little more personality. It’s really cool to me that people come to read what I have to say. I have pretty specific tastes and sense of humor, and it’s nice to know that people read along and get a chuckle out of some of the stuff that happens.

Because of my contributions to this amorphous thing called “the Internet,” I’ve gotten to know lots of people who would otherwise be total strangers to me. It just so happens that my appreciation for food is usually a pretty convenient ice breaker, and, in 2012, speaking with and getting to know lots of new friends was one of the main highlights.

Rather than give a list of people I met and got to know, I think it would be fun to look back through the year and highlight a few of the events that stood out to me and maybe talk about specific people along the way.

In January, Cassie and I attended the taping of a Gordon Ramsay show called Hotel Hell at the Cambridge Hotel. I have been a fan of Gordon Ramsay for a long time, so this was really significant to me. We went back after the makeover, I thought the hotel and town of Cambridge, NY would make for the perfect venue for a marriage proposal. For the airing of the show, I talked with Chef Everleth, the owner of Wine Bar on Lark and Capital City Gastropub, and he was cool with having a public viewing of the TV show at the Gastropub. He even put together a few amazing signature dishes for the night.

In March, MetalFrog and I unleashed a new face for derryX Dines. This led into the formulation of The Official derryX Dines Map, a resource that people are discovering everyday and that I hear so much great feedback about. When NY State decided to open up their “I heart NY” campaign and take submissions for their tourism ads, all of you came together and did what you needed to do to “Like” or share the drawing of the bearded chef that someone drew for me. Unfortunately, it got so many Likes in such a short period of time (12x the amount that the winning Finger Lakes grapes design got), they pulled our design. But, it was nice of all of you to stand beside me and vote for the bearded chef, even though it didn’t amount to anything. [SIDE NOTE: Wait til you see what’s happening with the bearded chef in 2013…]

In April, we had our first “derryX Dines WITH YOU” event. Turnout was great, and fun times were had. I have intended to plan another since then, but you know how life is.

In June, we took over the Pig Pit. Literally, over 30 people came to celebrate two whole years of the blog.

In July, a lot of stuff happened. I had jury duty for the week leading up to my birthday, and it was shit (the jury duty, not my birthday.). Speaking of birthdays, for my birthday, Albany Cheesecake extraordinaire, Lynn, from Cheesecake Machismo, helped me devise a special derryX themed cheesecake. It was AWESOME, and sold out in the shop within a day. Also in July, I finally met Michelle Hines Abrams in person and our paths have crossed multiple times since then.

In September, I got to help Make-a-Wish by scooping ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. This was lots of fun; I hope to do lots more charity stuff in the future.

Much of October was dedicated to judging pizzas for All Over Albany’s tournament of pizza. I was also the best man at my brother’s wedding.

November was when Russian hackers decided to screw around with derryX.com. They messed with the wrong people. But November was also profound, as I got to know one of the owners from Mingle, and I’m now hooked on their incredible Asian burger and bulgokee.

And this month, you got to see some photos of Cassie and I at the Troy Farmers Market, and I had a fairly enormous spread in the Times Union on page A2. Jersey Shore went off the air for good (thank God), and I sent them off in style and brought back an old friend.

Looking back, it was an insanely interesting year, and that’s basically the major events just from looking at blog post titles!

Another thing that has been going on along side the blog is my own personal fitness, and many strides were made. More on that next week!