catching up again

and why has it been so much trouble for two adults of above-average abilities to put a few things in a small suitcase? Because, dear friends, when you're only going to be in a place for a short time, you don't want to spend a whole day, or even more, tracking down comfortable shoes of a certain width, or toothpaste that doesn't taste like licorice, or -- you get the picture. The most recent genius idea was to buy a small 22-watt hairdryer in Paris a few years ago, thus assuring self it would work, would not fry hair, would not require converter, and would minimize use of plug adapters (which tend either to get lost or to melt themselves on to the outlet).

So now that most of that's been addressed, on to happier thoughts. Dinner the other night at Jean-Georges, just glorious, we'd been hesitant to go back because the menu is rarely updated, but then the Diner found himself in the mood for young garlic soup with frogs' legs, and off we went.



Guess what - Jean Georges' menu was updated! They still have that most wondrous of soups, but only as part of a tasting menu of JG's classics. We would have done the tasting, but our guests balked (ever so politely but still). And the captain informed us that, sadly, a dish from the tasting menu could not be ordered à la carte. Three-star restaurants all over France will accommodate this kind of request, but not on Central Park West. Not that we suffered. No, no, no.