One important aspect of trying to live a more well-balanced and thoughtful life is being sure to make time for good friends. No, the cocktails are not my good friends (ok, they ARE, but I'm referring to living, breathing friends). I occasionally have to work in the City and usually I'm just dying to get back to the train so I can get home after a long day. But on Friday I put my foot down - there was no reason to run back to Albany on a beautiful spring day in NYC. So I went to Jersey.

I caught up with a good friend for drinks in Hoboken. I'm not typically a fancy drink kind of girl - give me a beer, a glass of wine, gin and tonic, scotch, or a margarita and I'm happy. Every once in a while I go crazy and have an old fashioned or a Hendrick's Lemonade (thank you New World Bistro Bar).

But last night I was tempted by pretty and sake based. I should have snapped a shot of our first round, where my drink involved sake and plum wine and my friend had something technicolor. I switched to some sake plus cucumber concoction for this shot and am seriously rethinking the lack of cukes in my garden.