Groomsmen- Bennett Lipscomb

Starting at "Best Man" is none other then Bennett Hughes Lipscomb.

Bennett went to Durham Academy and was a classmate of Anna and mine. If I remember correctly we began our friendship during our Senior Challenge in the mountains of North Carolina, where the guys had to take turns carrying the girls over-packed bags, which were probably full of make up and high heels. I'm not sure if Bennett has even seen this picture before, but I'm pretty sure it's the first picture we took together. Is that weird? Some may ask, "Do I even have the first picture Anna and I took together"? The answer to that question is, "I think so". Anyway, I digress...we have to do some "before and after" pictures of Bennett because I swear the kid looked like he was 12 senior year in high school (1998).

Bennett currently lives in Washington, DC but because of his obsession with Duke athletics (much like my obsession with Duke athletics but with a tad bit more crazy involved), he spends around 10 weekends a year down in Durham drinking his way through Duke football games and being kind enough to take the extra basketball tickets which my parents are so kind of give.

Due to his girlfriend's obsession with food, he's also a regular contributor on the food blog Endless Simmer, where he posts "artsy pictures" of food and booze.

I hope that everyone is supportive of Bennett during the wedding because this is his first time being a best man and he's really nervous about giving a toast. Please make sure to heckle and taunt him during the rehearsal dinner.

I will leave you with some Bennett pictures from the past 10 years (please contact for additional pictures that may or may not embarrass Bennett):

Bennett and I on Senior Challenge in 1997. I haven't grown much since then, but I'm pretty sure Bennett was around 5'8" at that point in his life. He now stands 6 feet or so.

Bennett and our high school buddy Jason Ko the summer after we graduated, 2002. Note the transformation from 5 years prior, but he still looks like he's in HS. Also, note the sheer quantity of empty beer bottles on the table.

And to cap it all off, this is Bennett at a Duke-Florida State football game in the fall of 2005. As you can see, the tough streets of Washington DC have put a few years on Mr. Lipscomb's 25 year old face.

My Boy Graydon got Hitched!

For my loyal readers...I apologize for being away for so long. I've just recovered from a helluva wedding weekend in New York City for the "Impossible Body", Geoff Graydon who as I type this, is on a plane to Italy for two weeks with his Bride Suzy.

Anna and I were fortunate enough to spend a long weekend with some of my really good friends from college, eat some amazing food and see the Yankees beat the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays at the historic Yankees Stadium.

From Right to left: Sal, Jonathan, Joe, Geoff, me, Cooper, Dave, Chris

Since Anna and I haven't set the menu for either the Rehearsal Dinner or the Reception, we were very much obsessed with the food and the specialty drinks at the reception. First off, the amount of food served over the course of the day was enormous. They started with a raw bar, including oysters and shrimp in conjunction with a buffet style meal including lamb, pastrami, ravioli, fish, chicken, grits (yes GRITS in New York). That wasn't all...as we were eating this, there were servers coming around with all sorts of finger food, too many to even start to list here. Needless to say, it gave us tons of ideas for our own appetizers.

Now most would think, "that's it". However, very few of you know Geoff Graydon, let alone his love for food. The group of around 120 was then escorted upstairs to the actual reception, where we had an open bar and a 4 course sit down dinner.

I wasn't kidding when I said we had a lot of food.