The agenda today, like any other day in New York, involves meals with friends and meals with friends. Our delightful friend Mez chose a place very close to us for brunch, which means that we will be going for a short walk into the East Village today.
Community gardens are cool.
As we approach Cafe Mogador we see a particularly affectionate couple in front. I was pretty sure that it is my friend, but even if it was not I would have taken their picture. Turns out it was him, sans goatee. It has been so long since I have seen his face hairless that I literally was not sure of his identity until I got close enough to touch him.
Arguably that shot should be black and white. It is candid.
This picture is right-side-up on the iPhone and on the computer, and then Picasa flips it. One click would fix this, but... you guessed it, I love the happy accident.
I failed to take brunch pics. My bad.
After brunch it was time to head back to Denise's and load our things into a car to head to the Ritz Carlton Central Park. Why the switch? Friends staying down the street from the Ritz and such. But first we must walk back to Denise's, which takes us through the East Village where our unofficial son lives. Certainly we have to pass by his place and say hello to it, even if he happens to be in our home in Los Angeles right now.
Again, the public parks of New York city are plentiful and wonderful. In Los Angeles, all the parks are literally for activity; sports, playgrounds, etc. We do not have parks that are simply there to not be buildings. To sit in and relax. It is quite a deficit, really.
This is where our unofficial son lives! How cool that mere weeks after his joining us in L.A. and becoming part of our family we happen to walk by his home in NYC?
One of the better street signs you will see.
It is time to head to the Ritz Carlton Central Park, and Oreo has watched the suitcases come out of our room and knows what is up. He is trying to make me want to stay, and it is working.
Denise is extremely lucky that I cannot live with a cat due to allergies. Because Oreo would love to live in the better weather of California and have the extra space to roam that our home would provide. Yes. If I was not allergic, there might be a cat-napping. (Do not worry Denise! Your Oreo is safe at home!)
We hopped into a car and soon we were 60 blocks further North than where we had begun.
The view from our new room.
Jodi and Dmitri met us at our hotel, and we went for a short walk for coffee.
They took us to the Momofuku Milk Bar around the corner. Irony has kicked in. The New Yorkers have taken us to the same place that we went to yesterday, only a smaller satellite location with fewer choices. In the largest city in the USA, what are the odds we get taken to the same place by different people?
Dmitri, Jodi, and Barbie enjoying their sweets.
Question: Is something art just because you hang it on a wall? Answer: Kinda. (For the record, I like this piece very much, even if it requires an electrical outlet.)
Yes, there is a compulsion to take pictures of the Apple Store. I wonder how many people are stuck in the past like me and see a great big Power Mac Cube when they look at this sucker?
Our new home, the Ritz Carlton Central Park, is right THERE.
We got back just in time to get ready for dinner. I tell you; eating, walking, eating, cabs, eating and walking. Madness.
We arrived at Sushi of Gari, the fantastic Upper West Side sushi restaurant that Mez introduced us to last November.
Yours truly, Barbie, and Peter. See. I am slowly adapting to this concept of taking pictures of people.
So... at Sushi of Gari we learned from Mez to simply order Chef's Choice and let it roll. Therefore, I never saw anything on any sort of menu that would allow me to tell you what we were eating. But what I did do for you, literally
you, was type into my phone what I heard the waitress say in her broken English as she said it. Perhaps I could have cleaned up the descriptions. As was once said in a Kids In The Hall sketch, that would require an
effort.
Without further adieu, chef's choice tapped into an iPhone:
Tofu & spinach.
Mackerel; Snapper, salad, pine nuts; Seared salmon; Tuna with radish purée.
Sautéed prawn roll; soy sauce snapper; Baby yellowail jalapeño; Tuna creamy tofu.
Salmon steamed tomato; Fluke sweet pepper relish; Bbq toro with Garlic Sauce
Seared foie gras.
Mille crepe.
Banana bread pudding.
And this concludes the meal. Tonight, after ordering dessert, I received texts from two friends about relaxing for a late drink at the hotel. How perfect is that? I honestly cannot recall exactly how things happened before we all become connected by wireless devices. We would have had to actually
plan all of this earlier in the day.
Peter, Barbie, Monique and Rick at The Oak Room, the bar attached to the Plaza Hotel down the block from the Ritz. I nerdily included this to show off how much detail the iPhone's camera picks up even in low light.
The same picture adjusted in Photoshop Mobile on the iPhone. You would believe it was taken with a flash, no? All that detail was there, hidden in the darkness
Outside The Oak Room hung this photograph on the wall. I cannot tell you why, but The Beatles, based on their hair and clothes likely soon after their first appearance on Ed Sullivan, are sitting with Dr. Joyce Brothers in The Oak Room. What the heck? Was Dr. Joyce Brothers on the same episode that The Beatles appeared on?
Up in our room these chocolate covered strawberries awaited us. We did not eat them. We still have not. Their fancy little tuxedoes remain intact.
And...
Well...
Okay.
An hour or so after getting to the room tonight, I did not feel well at all. In fact, my skin started to hurt and my body began to ache. I laid in bed while Barbie worked on her laptop, and I knew what was sure to come. And it did. Food poisoning. Food poisoning to a high degree. And a few hours after my body expelled everything that it could in every direction that it could, Barbie came down with the same thing.
And that was the end of our day. Shivering, aching, skin hurting... if Barbie had not given me a sleeping pill after my body had long been emptied I might have laid there awake and miserable for twelve hours.
And that was that.
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