Personal Fireworks Display for our Members
SummerShareHouse.com’s Share-a-thon
Seven Seas will be hosting a table at this evening at SummerShareHouse.com’s Share-a-thon. If you have been planning to hit one of our meet ups and would like the opportunity to browse some other houses at the same time, this is your shot! Here are the details:
Tonight: Wed the 28th from 6:30-9:30
Where: Sutton Place, 1015 2nd Ave (btw 53rd & 54th)
Look out for our booth and feel free to stop by. There is a $10 cover, if you hate cover charges, just come to our regular weekly meet up tomorrow for free. See you there!
Summer Midweek Beach House Manager Position
Seven Seas is seeking a person for a live/work position on Fire Island at our beach house.
Duration: Mondays-Fridays from May 25th – September 23rd.
Time Required: Approx 20 hours per week
Duties: General housework and cleaning, ordering and inventory, management tasks.
Compensation: $1,000 / month, plus room and board
Description:
The job consists of looking after two beach houses in the lovely town of Kismet on Fire Island between the weekends when the shares fill the place. A general week would look like this: show up on Sunday night or Monday morning. Do the laundry and cleaning on Monday morning. On Tuesday take stock of what is in the refrigerators and pantries and compare the shopping list, place online orders for grocery deliveries. Hang out at the house during the week and keep the place generally tidy. On Thursday morning, pick up the grocery and booze order from the dock and stock the refrigerators and pantries. Leave any time on Friday and return the following week to repeat.
This is a great gig for someone recently laid off looking for some time on the beach to figure on the next step, or someone with a significant other on the mainland where you can stay on weekends and save money by subletting your apartment for the summer.
Applicants must be responsible, reliable, detail oriented, pleasant and fit enough to perform basic physical work and cleaning tasks such as carrying groceries, light gardening, basic household repair, mopping, sweeping, cleaning, etc.
During the weeks, we will have our share members and others that come in and out each week, so it is important that the applicant fit the general tenor of the group that we cater to, mid 20s to mid 30s in age, pleasant, interesting, social, etc. Please visit http://kismetsevenseas.com first and read thoroughly BEFORE applying to understand the type of business we operate and environment we foster. Applicants who clearly have not taken the time to read this in advance will be rejected out of hand.
Top 5 Kimset Tips and Tricks
When you go to Kismet as many times as we do, you learn a couple tricks. Here’s a few pointers and secrets to make you feel like you own the place!
- TAKE THE EXPRESS TRAIN
- Pick the LIRR train that runs express from Penn Station & that connects with the ferry within 20 minutes or less. Then take the cab from the train station to the ferry dock, its cheap, and makes sure you hit the tight connection. If you take a local train, it costs you another 20 minutes, and if you get there right after a ferry leaves, you’ll wait there too. Nothing worse than seeing you savvy housemate show up right as the ferry is about t o leave having taken a later train and not waited at the dock at all.
- DAY TRIP BY CAR
- We all know that Fire Island doesn’t have any cars, but you can get to the public Robert Moses beach parking lots about a mile and a half down the road past the lighthouse. You can park daylight hours at Field 5 and walk to Kismet for the day. Parking costs about $6. If you have 4 friends with you, you save almost $150 in LIRR and ferry tickets. Rent a ZipCar maybe?
- HIT THE BEACH BEFORE COMING BACK FROM THE BARS
- The night air does something karmic-ly good for preventing hangovers.
- LEARN WHO’S OUT FOR THE SEASON AND WHO’S OUT FOR THE WEEKEND
- Super valuable information for lots of reasons. Both can be a good thing. Meet a group you like hanging out at the Inn? Ask them to show you their house on the way back. The more people in town you know, the more fun it is to pop by and visit and make friends. Someone you’re flirting with is just out here at a friend’s place for the weekend? Nice to know that up front, right?
- LEAVE YOUR CELL PHONE AT THE HOUSE WHEN YOU GO OUT
- Nobody ever picks up. Its in their bag, they can’t hear it at the bar, the reception is bad, etc. There are only a few spots your friends will be and they are all right next to each other. Besides, its not like you need to call a cab or anything, right?
Kismet or Ocean Beach?
Which is right for you?
Lots of people thinking about joining our house are faced with options in Kismet and in Ocean beach. If you’ve never been to Fire Island, it can be hard to know what the difference is. Kismet and Ocean Beach are both popular towns for sharehouses and offer healthy nightlife. If you’re looking for a weekend share on Fire Island and you are social, either town could be a good bet for you. Understanding what is similar and different is key to ending up somewhere that you are happy.
Here are a couple of key facts to keep in mind:
- Both Kismet and Ocean Beach are primarily filled with straight people. The predominantly gay communities are much further east.
- Ocean Beach is bigger than Kismet, there are more bars and restaurants and more houses; however, it is much more crowded as well. Both towns have upscale restaurants, bars with dancing and live music, pizza parlors, ice cream shops and grocery stores. Only Ocean Beach has clothing stores and other trinket shops.
- For singles or young people without kids: Ocean Beach leans more in the low 20’s age group with lots of groups of college kids or very recent post-grads (think ACE bar), whereas Kismet has a more mid 20’s – 30’s average age group.
- Since Ocean Beach is bigger and more crowded, it also has many more rules. Often called the “Land of No” rules include: no riding bikes, no drinking outside, no food or water allowed on the beach, no throwing games or kite flying on the beach, and you must wear shoes in town. For a full list of Ocean Beaches rules, see the code itself.
- Kismet is much more laid back and uncrowded, you will know everyone by the end of the summer. Great if you want to feel connected, not as good if you’re looking for anonymity
The last thing that is often overlooked by first-time Fire Islanders is the water taxi. Water Taxis are high speed boats the ferry you up and down the island from town to town. Getting to between Ocean Beach and Kismet costs $8 one-way and takes about 10 minutes. Taxis stop at the dock roughly every 20-30 minutes until around 1AM. It is not at all uncommon to hop on one and head to the other town to hit some bars or go to a restaurant. Every weekend there are groups that come from Ocean Beach and other communities to Kismet to have a great meal followed by dancing at the Kismet Surf’s Out, or hear a jazz or rock cover band play at the Inn.
2010 Season Recruiting Meet Up on Thursday
We are pleased to announce that recruiting for the 2010 season is officially underway. Here is the info on the next meet up:
Seven Seas 2010 Summer Meet Up
Thursday, March 11th starting at 7:00 PM
Bar 82 – 82 2nd Ave between 9th and St. Marks
Come meet our current members and see if you are a fit for our group!
The bar where we'll be meeting, Bar 82, 82 Second Ave, New York, NY
We are really looking forward to our first meet up both to see all of you from last summer and get a chance to meet some of the new prospects. Just like last year, the same principals apply: the sooner you sign up, the better chance you have at getting the series you want and spots for your guests to come out on your weekends.
See you on Thursday!
Luau Party Marks Momentous 30th Birthday
Red skies at night, sailor's delight!
What a great weekend! The weather was spectacular, starting with a massive lightning display on the ferry on the way over that features chain strikes that sometimes spanned 135° or more. Luckily, the storm passed us over completely for the most part leaving fiery red skies out on the deck as David and Lauren hooked us up with a long marinated batch of grilled deliciousness. After the meal, we got to drinking as usual and after the bars, there was a round of midnight Frisbee on the beach with Lauren’s glow in the dark disc.
Beach day
The old adage proved true and “red skies at night” welcomed in one of the most gorgeous days in memory on Fire Island. We broke out the surfboards and were able to catch a few rides with the long boards at a sandbar that has been forming up between Kismet and Saltaire. The breeze was really light and we all were happy to spend time on the beach under the sun. Aaron kept us well supplied with a cooler full of drinks. Steve set up in the studio again and this time, we have tunes down there.
Party Planner
Around 3:00 Krista confidently marshaled a crew to get ready for the main event, the Luau. We made a lot of improvements even before the decorations, such as replacing that crappy alarm-clock radio excuse for a stereo with a real receiver and a pair of rich sounding JBLs mounted on the walls. The decorations were a lot of fun and they were very complete too. Great care was taken in decorating everything from the railings (Tyler was waiting for an excuse to use a staple gun) to the cupcakes (special thanks to Alison and Christa for their great topping idea and surgical application thereof). Even a coconut bra came into play.
The coconut bro
We all started early sitting around in our leis and drinking extra fruity drinks while rounds of finger foods came out. Some of the big hits included: bacon-wrapped scallops with cream sauce, (Birthday girl’s fav) grilled sweet corn on the cob with a butter and pepper, and mini pulled pork sandwiches with grilled pineapple that were finger lickin good! A few things that you may not know about our shares as fun facts: Tyler makes a mean piña colada and Aaron really pulls off a coconut bra with surprising confidence.
Dave Warton's crew
The guests arrived in waves starting around 7:45 and included Chance House upfront, Blue View Terrace accompanied by party-goers from one or more previous engagements that evening who were kind enough to bring the smorgasbord with them, Cozy-A, and finally Dave Warton’s crew who stirred up the dancing until late. Wherever there is dancing, there is Steve and vis-a-versa –so there was dancing. Hip hop, salsa, even some flamenco moves!
A hawaiian wind blows
Just around midnight, on Cat’s actual birthday we all circled up to wish Cat well and watch her blow out the candles. We followed it up with a champagne toast and then headed out to the bars. The next day was another stunning beach day and the hangover was taken care of first thing by Cat and Lauren with some spicy Bloody Marys of which almost everyone had two. Later that afternoon Tyler stepped it up again with margaritas on the rocks and an original rendition, which I think was his best, the Black Cherry Margarita. yum.
Fruit skewers
By dinner time it became clear that we hadn’t left enough time to cook before the last ferry so we headed to the Surf’s Out for dinner. We sat outside and the proprietor was nice enough to drag every heat lamp over to the table until he found one that worked for us. In the meantime, some lady at another table filled with some sauced middle aged women fell backward off her bench and was knocked out cold. Lesson for you, if you’re gonna drink on benches at Fire Island, be sure you take Cat’s Pilates classes to stay upright. (This lady did not look like a Pilates enthusiast).
Opening her gift
Just before we headed back to the house to pick up the dog ad catch the ferry. Cat opened her birthday present and received a set of pearls she’d coveted on a vacation last year. Here’s the happy lady modeling them! All in all a great weekend. Special thanks to Krista for taking the helm on party planning and set up and to all of you who pitched in to make this the best 30th birthday party [yet]!
See you in Kismet!
Lady in pearls
Sunset
Bacon wrapped scallops
Birthday toast
Birthday girl
Party dancers
Grass skirts
Chair-dance action
NOW its a luau
Boys clean + make drinks
new bikini
Cat, Jamie and John B
Hey B Team!
Cupcake masters
Mark and Aaron
Sunbathers
Hula-la!
Jamie and Tyler
Luau ladies
Check Cat's face...
Birthday girl
Returning from a swim
Vince & Alison
On the beach
Fritatta artists
The A Team Returns – 6/19
Toga Classic
Big fun last weekend, kids! It all started out with a big bang on Friday night with the toga party at the Surf’s Out. On the way over the ferry was full of folks in all kinds of greco-roman attire and thanks to our many white bedsheets, getting the whole crew geared up was no problem. Of course the Out doesn’t get kicking until around 11:00 – 12:00 so Cat started us off putting gas in the tank by hand frying tortillas for a delicous meal of chewy nachos that got completely wiped out by the gang.
At the bar
The toga party ran late into the night with shares getting back to wind down at all hours. Steve cut the rug so hard at the Surf’s out that the tiles were melting under the floor! At the end of the night, we even had a very sweet and horribly lost dude walk out onto the balcony thinking he was at Brown Sugar until he closed the door to the deck behind him. Spencer was kind enough to give Teddy a big red cup full of water and send him in the direction of his house.
Lauren's yoga class
On Saturday, Lauren helped the shares realign their alcohol soaked bodies and minds with a relaxing morning yoga session in the studio. Ben finished up with the outdoor speakers so we now have stereo sound out on the upper deck and by about 11:30, Steve had transformed the studio into a relaxing massage room. About 6 of us got a full massage and most of us that did needed a quick nap thereafter to fully enjoy the loosness. When we woke up, Spencer helped us revive with Gouda-smothered hotdogs, one of the most delicous things ever.
Cocktail party
That evening, some of our friends in town came over for an impromtu cocktail party that turned out to be a lot of fun. The Polaroid camera donated by Paul (C weekends) was a big hit and we took tons of fun snapshots for the bulliten board. Tammy Lee, of Chance, made extra efforts to win the affection of Prozac, which (not surpisingly) were well recieved. Steve and Joe made sure that martinis with a lemon twist were readily availible and Seven Seas loaned out beach umbreallas so that party-goers could make it home dry since it started to rain while we were all hanging out.
Karen shows her chops
Once the crown subsided, Karen was quick to start handing out her mushroom crostinis and searing the honey glazed porkchops. The dinner was fantastic and the porkchops were sweet and tender. For dessert, sweetened peaches in red wine were served as the share helped clear up the dishes. Spencer and Kate got the medal of honor Saturday night for valliance in cleaning, knuckling down and leaving the kitchen completely spotless – 100% clean for the next morning. Ben and Steve pounded the drumheads for a while to fiery music and by the end of it., the team was ready to hit the bars again.
Sunday Scrabble
Sunday was a recovery day for the most part. Hearing of Seven Seas legendary Scrabble players, John Blesso headed over to challenge Spencer and Kat in a threeway duel that ended very closely in a victory for Spencer Beggs. With this victory, it seems that Spencer now has top billing over Blesso and O’Leary and is the one to beat for bragging rights.
After the 8:00 boat, only Gabe and Steve were left at the house and Lauren reported a clean kitchen on her arrival on Monday so way to go Gabe and Steve! Thanks for heloing her out! Cat’s Birthday party is coming up next weekend so get ready for the Big Kahuna! See you all next week in Kismet!
Aaron at the table
Tricia
Drum line
Toga chic
Ben, Spencer and John
Cocktail party
'Toga'-lates pays off, wow!
Steve, Tammy, dry martini
Gabe entertains
Mushroom crostini
Cocktail party guests
Karen, Tricia
Prepping the 'shrooms
K'OB and pal
Steve gets some love
Prozac relaxes
Gouda dogs!
Goofing off
Toga dancer
Toga dancer for real!
Lovely ladies
Tammy wins Prozac's affection
Toga on the deck
The silly shot
Cat, Yujin, Tricia & Kat
‘D’ Series Delivers on 6/13
Boy, did it! Friday night, Johnny started out the evening with a gold star for communal effort by single-handedly shepherding a cooler and two backpacks filled with frozen meat and produce from the passenger ferry to the house’s nearly-depleted fridges and freezers. Meanwhile, Ben and Cat ran some errands in Bay Shore, speeding around to procure us another keg and picking up the remaining ingredients for Baja-style fish tacos and grilled corn on the cob!
Ryan and Sing at the table
We had made exactly the right amount of food because when the last surviving peanut butter pie was found in the freezer, it was made short work of, even by the few who proclaimed “not to like peanut butter,” if such a thing is possible. That evening Michael R. revealed his inner bartender, demonstrating remarkable versatility and precision in creating everything from picture perfect Manhattans to fruity sweet concoctions to accompany the warm night.
After music (and a second load of dishes) the gang all headed to the Kismet Inn for drinks and company. As the night proceeded, shots started coming out and inner teenagers were released. Folks trickled back to their beds into the late hours with only Ben J. and Johnny accidentally walking into some other house, where fortunately there was also a party in action.
British food
On Saturday morning, the team was up and about for egg breakfasts and up just in time to greet our Saturday guest arrivals. The sun came out around noon. That afternoon, the deck proved most popular, as a steady stream of snacks flowed from the kitchen. Ben J. added his culinary contribution of corn chips with sour cream and peanut M&M’s –and you thought British food was bland! Michael, of course, treated bystanders to hot dogs at lunch.
The day turned into a very nice beach day and everyone was happy to lie out in the sun, frolic in the water, and more. Adam J. won the day’s award for most helpful share member, showing love for our great wood shop on the ground floor. Coming back from a run, he found Ben wandering around with the surfboards that came over on the freight ferry that morning in a confused manner. He proceeded to devise an ingenious system for racking up our boards using only the materials on hand in a safe and aesthetically pleasing manner. This grew into a second project to install our new audio system with outdoor speakers! Now we can have music on the deck too! Three cheers for Adam!
Butterflied Lamb
At 5:00, the whole house headed off to enjoy the great view and cool breeze on Bicycle Bill’s roof top for the 4th annual (KGB) Burger-Off competition, an annual event held to determine who in Kismet makes the most delicious burgers. Although we ate well, it didn’t stop Ben and Andrea from dressing the stuffed butterflied legs of lamb for dinner that night. They were delicious.
Salsa eruption
After dinner, the jam session got into full swing. Kevin had brought his guitar too and we had all the instruments out for a complete tribal sound. The music inspired a reprise of last week’s love chain (completely organically) and the ladies danced away in the living room. Jeremy also wowed us all with his smooth salsa moves that accompanied our instrumentation quite well. Johnny led the charge to the Kismet Surf’s Out face first down the ramp (thankfully, no serious injuries were inflicted) and the rest of the party followed out to the dance floor, where Jeremy and Reena were already well in action!
Sing-sational Scrabble player
On Sunday, the crowd thinned out a bit, but the sun broke through in the afternoon and it got even warmer than Saturday. Ben remained unscathed in a beach Scrabble match with Sing, Jeremy, and Heidi. Meanwhile, Dagmar happily read through our copy of Sharehouse Confidential on the beach. The left over lamb was enough for both people on the 8:05 to grab to-go sandwiches as well as to turn into a great meal with an avocado and tomato salad by Cat and some mushroom au jus prepared by Ben. Barbara came over with a bottle of cabernet, and we had a nice meal in the sunset.
After dinner, there was just enough time for Tom and Kevin to break out in blues guitars with Ben trying to keep up on bass. All in all another perfect weekend out at Seven Seas! Thanks everyone!
Ben J and Jo get wet
Kevin beach lounging
Beach fellows
Ladies prep meat
Chips gang
Summer reading
Fish bowl twins
Sunburned
Ryan peels potatoes
Lady of the house
Dancing, or box out?
We love bubbly
Jam Session
Clean up on Aisle 7
Jam Session 2
Kevin shreds it
The Love Chain Returns!
Fearless leaders
Sunday on the deck
Dagmar and Ryan in the sun
Heidi readies a word
Andrea checks the time
Kevin counts 'em up
C Series Turns Up The Heat
Marinated in magic
Undaunted by perpetual NYC showers, members of C series braved the LIRR and ferry and continued arriving at Seven Seas all the way until the very last boat. Cat and several other of the lovely lady members made it out earlier on Friday, and prepared a feast of ginger-soy marinated sirloin and veggie kabobs, chicken thighs, salad and spicy rice. After dinner, members and their guests mixed and mingled, and despite the loss of our E string, Big Dave, Medium Dave, Lauren and Ben serenaded us as we sipped our after-dinner drinks.
Saturday on the beach
Waking up on Saturday morning, Mother Nature had made a complete 180. It was cloudless, warm, and sunny with a pleasant breeze coming from the west. The bold once again suffered the slings and arrows of Cat’s gut busting Pilates workout. The breakfast that followed consisted of Ben’s banana-choco pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs with cheese and hot sauce and OJ. Ben had to lag behind the beach go-ers to make a few quick upgrades to the accommodations including dimmers on the upstairs lights (thank goodness he survivied the shock), and picking up and assembling our new bikes!
Cheering at the race
Down at the beach, the weather was perfect. Like many first weekends at Fire Island, some folks overlooked the sunscreen, but thanks to our stocked coolers, it didn’t much seem to dampen the mood. Cat and Ben brought a spread of grilled burgers, dogs and other goodies to the beach for lunch before everyone headed home to shower off before the Belmont Stakes.
Money shot
Right around 6, we all piled into the neighboring Chance House and were treated to Belmont Breezes, the official drink of the Belmont Stakes. Bettors from Chance and several other neighboring sharehouses hoped they’d drawn the right $10 horse. When the dust settled after the exciting race we learned our own Cat and Rachel both had the winning slip, and we walked out of there with everybody else’s money! Ha!
1st course
As soon as we got home, Paul started up on the most complicated Saturday dinner to date- from scratch asparagus ravioli with shrimp alfredo sauce and butter sauteed summer squash. The meal was to consist of 3 courses – a large antipasto round with cheeses, breads, mozzarella, peppers, artichokes, olives and lots of other stuff followed by the main event. The spread was pretty breath-taking. They say presentation is half the battle, and thanks to our many talented sous chefs, the platters had people leaning over the counter getting sneaky hands smacked out of the way right from the start!
Bustin out!
After the main course, we busted out a pot or two of industrial strength coffee which we thought would be the prelude to dessert, but was instead the prelude to bigger things. Once Lauren got up and showed off some of her samba moves, the gauntlet had been thrown down and the whole house joined in a dance party and (despite Milda’s sage advise that lap-dances are best served before cheese platters) some spirited lap-dance performances . That didn’t stop Blakeley from putting the rest of us to shame with her butt dropping hair-flipping combo moves.
Big Dave = Cat/2
The party didn’t stop heating up there though. In classic fashion, we all marched out to the bars and had the warm up round of drinks out on the deck at the Inn. After being there for about an hour, we headed over to the Surf’s Out, which by this time had converted into a full on dance party, and stormed the gates. The Out held a few real prize winner this week. First, Sean from Chance House laid down the law about who the next break dance master in Kismet would be complete with several splits and floor moves while wearing sandals. Matt B and Ben held their own, dropping to the floor with grinders and spins. Of course it was Rachel and Tammy who redefined dirty dancing in an enthusiastic and explosive bout of down low gyrations. Rumors of late night oceanic nudity remain unconfirmed.
Sunday was just as beautiful as the day before. Lauren helped us get back to our centers by starting us out with a yoga class in the studio. She also spearheaded the production of french toast with maple berry butter sauce and bacon. After grabbing some breakfast, the beach was populated pretty early on. It was great to just chill out on the beach, playing cards and joking around. Paul mixed up a Fire Island Iced Tea (which was inexplicably renamed “God Water” at some point later on) that packed a surprisingly solid load of liquid levity. When you looked over and saw that massage chain had gotten going, leaving early was no longer an option. Multiple plans to head out on one ferry or the next were postponed and put off on account of it being so pleasant out.
On the deck
There were 10 of us left when we sat down for a Sunday dinner of Monte Cristos made on the grill with homemade french fries, tomato and baby mozzarella salad in balsamic vinegar and cold keg beer. After we finished, 7 of us left on the 8:05 ferry, leaving only 3 of us for the night. We headed home after a quick stroll to a couple of neighboring houses to have a sunset glass of wine and chat with the other holdovers and to introduce Michael (who was planning a week on the beach) to a few other people who would be around that mid-week. After loading the dishwasher, we busted out the dessert that had been untouched since Saturday and finished off the night with Sambuca. All in all a lovely end to a very, uh, ‘potent’ Fire Island weekend 
Saturday on the beach
Cheering at the race
Money shot
Big Dave = Cat/2
Dave and Ben jamming
Ladies of the Belmont Stakes
Sous chef
Antipasti
Ben and Cat
Homemade ravioli entree
Latin hips
Everybody dance now
Break it down
Breakfast on Saturday
Blakeley in the kitchen
Paul and Elias
B and B's beach R and R
Lunch by the sea
Setting out the spread
Antipasta
Olives and cheese
Chilling on the deck
Prozac finds an open lap
Lady of the house
Dancing fools
Sunbathers
Kara getting a tan
Cards on the beach
'God Water' on the table
Love Dominos
