Yom Chi-chi

 When we last left our intrepid hero, he was getting ready for dinner. The choice was "Black Iron" whch serves neither. This is a fanou cy place which is from the Latin root "unnecessary and expensive." The saving grace is that the food is tasty. My appetizer is called Pani Puri or something like that. Little globes of taco shells, full of pulled brisket. Supposedly exotic or ethnic or esoteric or I don't know what. It was served in a bowl of uncooked black beans. I was reassured that I didn't have to eat them. I figure, I paid for 'em so I should be able to take them home. The restauranteurs disagreed. It was tasty but at what price? At. What. Price. I could tell you, actually but I won't.  Let's keep sopme mystery in our relationship, shall we? Suffice to say, "a lot."

Then a steak. They had prime rib, delmonico, Denver, wagyu and like that. They had words from many languages all meaning "dead cow." I bought one. The side (beyond the crystal salt, chimichuri dish and the garlic cloves) was a bowl of the creamiest mashed potatoes ever. There was a pit in the middle filled with gravy -- I initially thought it was a series of pineapple rings. It wasn't. It was good (not an epiphany, but nice). The Aarons ate their steak with lumpy potatoes. Or maybe chunky potatoes. Something unflattering. They were pieces of potato, punched in the face and then cooked a few times in different ways. The end result is potatoes. Huzzah. We shared a bottle Yarden Pinot Grigio 2020. That was nice, even the part Avrum spilled on himself. Actually, that was even nicer! I joke but blame it on the wine, and wine not? The Aarons had a dessert of caramel (parve) ice cream served with some topping and some other topping. Something involved pecans and that was my cue to turn the other check. I live in fear of dessert in this country. Overall, it was a very nice experience and the company was what made it exceptional. Yay Aarons! We caught up and now I know all there is to know so I hope they don't do anything else because then I'll be behaind again.

I slept from 11-1 again and then had the requisite nightmare and stood no chance of falling back asleep for a long while. I signed up for the 5AM to 9AM sleep shift and left it at that. In the morningk I took 3 boys to Sam's Bagels so they could have a tourist for breakfast, or something like that. They got pizza bagel sandwiches which are nothing like pizza bagels. We also bought an extra muffin for David and a bagel and a coffee-slushie for Nava who could not join us. We did arrange to meet her at the shuk so I decided to save myself for Coffee. We weaved ourway through the crowds, mostly tourists who aren't actually doing any cooking for shabbos but need to take pictures of themselves blocking traffic. So very spiritual. We made the handoff and I said my goodbyes to Nava and then across the street to the Power Coffeeworks for some daddy medicine. I ordered 2 decafs (Americano) and sat outside to drink it while the boys played the board games. Eli and Rafi started playing Backgammon by what seemed like Calvinball rules. The games were fast which is the saving grace because backgammon is essentially a dumb game. Yoni invited himself into a chess game and I ignored that because chess is essentially a dumb game. I searched in vain for a Chutes and Ladders board but somehow, they forgot to stock that. We ran in to Gil Tannenbaum! That was unexpected and nice. He split off to play chess as well. We left Yoni there to play while we crossed again to visit the nearest liquor store and buy a six pack of something. There are so many brands but I don't know most and don't want to learn about them. Heinekin it is.

Now back to N+D to start preparing for shabbat. I have to pack up my bags so that I can exit stage left even as soon as Shabbat is over. Yes, that will get me to the airport early but when was that ever a problem for me?

I might have a chance to write at Ben Gurion but I need to start assembling my thoughts in a summative sense. This has been a vacation marked by incredible relaxation, and a nice mix of the familiar and the new. I'm not convinced that spontenaity is really for me, but when you have no reason to be any place, this was a good use of my time. I still have papers to grade but I am relaxed about not having done so. Yay?

Good shabbos all.