I don't want to say I'm sick of the heat. There are worse things going on in the world like people losing their homes, The Olympics losing their meaning, starving children and all that... so whining about the heat is just so... whiney. But dude, it's HOT out there. If I actually stand at the curb in the hopes that the Mwhatever bus will splash me with milky road chunder in order to cool off, it's too dang hot. Lotame has the solution for the thick acrid heat - a party at Marquee!

The NBC Experience Store is odd. It is, there's no denying it, even if you work at NBC Universal. There are bobble head dolls, sparkly tanktops, life-size cardboard cutouts of Dwight Shrute, green "Psych" mugs, and "Monk" wet wipes. Hey, that's why it's called the NBC Experience! The real treat is up the silver spiral staircase: the recently opened, ready for action msnbc.com digital café. What could you possibly do in a digital news café? You have no idea.

When I got the invitation to the AR100 + CSR Award Show cocktail reception, I confused them with BlackBook mag and the fun guide I had hand-delivered to me by Associate Publisher Brian Kantor on the infamous Jet Blue JetVegas flight (thanks, Brian!) You can see how that would happen. What I wasn't confused about was whether or not to go. Open event space in Chelsea? Quirky arty types chugging open bar beverages? Pretty things like slickly designed annual reports? Yes, please!

When I hear the phrase "garden party," I cringe. I think of ladies in lace with floppy hats, harrumphing about Felicity's performance at the cotillion, and men in seersucker suits sipping mint juleps gurgling about "the links" and why Bitsy won't let Hoover the schnauzer sleep in the bed. I stuffed my cringing in a sack due to my weirdo nerdy love of other people's office spaces and had to say "oh, indeed" to BrightRoll's garden party invitation for more than two reasons. Read on, and I'll net it out for you.

What do you get when you add coconut shrimp, open bar and a room full of behavioral targeting types? You get a bunch of buzzed cookies, that's what! Ok, so my lame joke was just that, lame. But the post-OMMA Behavioral cocktail reception was anything but. Set high atop the Hotel Nikko, we (well ... okay, I) sipped on vodka and cranberries (which I just found out are called Cape Codders!) and debated the fate of ISP-side BT firms like Phorm and NebuAd.

Have you ever been to 230 Fifth? I hadn't either, mainly because I try to stay away from places where bottle service isn't necessary, but in order to reserve a table and receive priority, it's strongly suggested. Oh, and champagne starts at $125.00 bucks a bottle, with vodka starting at $250.00. Thanks, but if I want to drink a bottle of voddy while sitting outside, I'll get a 40-dollar bottle of Absolut and sit on my stoop. however, I've heard the Empire State Building is mammoth on the garden roofdeck, so I was super-geeked to receive the JumpTap invitation - …

like TV. Analog, digital, DVRd, streaming, whatever. Call it what you want, but I call anything with moving pictures in 30- to 60-minute chunks TV. I have never said "I'm going home to watch that program I DVRd." I also love Detroit. When I was 19, it was 10 minutes from legal drinking in Windsor, Canada. It was also where I learned to drive, which I think everyone should do -- it's why I'm so awesome on the road. It's also where you can find WADL TV 38, Detroit's Urban Television Station -- only last night they were in NYC's …

Just to throw you guys for a loop, I like to interrupt the conga line of parties with a little of them that thar learnin'. No, no, not the stuff from books. We're talking a good old sitdown with a panel of people. Remembering the bacon, sausage, fruit, OJ, and scads of dark lovely coffee from the Oxygen rebranding breakfast, I RSVPd "yes please" to the breakfast session with ContextWeb.

Walking towards Room Service, I felt a sense of foreboding. No, it wasn't the heat -- it was a dash of nervousness in case George Lucas actually was a guest balled with a scoop of "I don't want to get struck by lightning" because the sky was green, people. Green! The Room Service Web site has quite a few "coming soon" messages and describes the place as the comfort and relaxation environment of a 5-star spa with individual rooms set up with flat screens, DVDS (uhhhh what kind of DVDs?), and ... room service, I guess. I wondered if the …

On a scale of one to10, one being "oh man, this is so bloody awesome I could die now and die happy" and 10 being "slap me in the face with a dead grouper," how would you rate getting ready for a "dress to impress" cocktail celebration in a non-air-conditioned apartment, incredibly aware of creeping underboob sweat? All grouper talk aside, the tiny hot tubs of salt pooling in my various pits (arms, knees, elbows) did nothing to dissuade me from L-training it to Chelsea for the NYCTV 5th anniversary "if you can't stand the heat, get hotter up here …