Well, dear readers, it is late and I look like I’m pregnant. The latter is because I just ate a rather large meal at a lovely old-fashioned chophouse called the Dal Rae. I had a Caesar salad, a couple of pieces of their incredible garlic cheese toast (very different from The Smoke House) and their special New York pepper steak, along with a baked potato. I am, as they say, stuffed to the gills and yes I finished every morsel and yes I had crème brulee for dessert and yes there was whipped cream on the crème brulee and yes I used oodles of butter on the baked potato, hence I am stuffed to the gills and look like I’m pregnant – not only pregnant, but with triplets. That pepper steak thing was simply brilliant – a perfect New York topped with shallots, garlic, tiny bits of bacon and heaven knows what else. Of course, you must understand that I wanted to literally try everything on the menu and will have to come back. They have Veal Oscar, which I love and which you can’t find many places, they have some really good sounding pasta dishes and fish dishes, too, as well as some really good sounding appetizers.
This was a birthday dinner for Jenna Lea Rosen, much belated, but better late than never. It was a lot of fun – I drove with the Staitmans – mom, dad, Sami, and Sarah. Thankfully, there was no traffic and we got there in about forty-five minutes. We were seated right away and I knew I liked the jernt immediately. Hopefully by the time I arise this hysterical food pregnancy will be gone.
Prior to that gloriously glorious dinner, I’d had to be up early because she of the Evil Eye was coming to clean, then I jogged, then I had two poached eggs and an English muffin to tide me over until our seven o’clock dinner. I came back home at noon o’clock, did some work at the piano, and wrote a little bit of the new book’s beginning, which I like to do prior to actually starting the book. I’m not sure I’m going to open it the way I have – I’m still pondering if it’s the best way or if I should precede it with something. We’ll see how I feel later today but there’s no real rush in deciding, and I may, in fact, write the other opening just to have it, then I can choose when I actually begin writing on January 1. After that, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday I watched a motion picture on the Flix of Net entitled The Best Offer, a film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore (director of Cinema Paradiso), starring Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, and Donald Sutherland. I like Mr. Tornatore, but his filmography is so hit and miss that I kind of gave up on him. Well, we can put this one firmly in the hit column. It’s a wonderfully done film from top to bottom. Directed with simplicity and beauty, wonderful photography, and terrific performances, especially by Mr. Rush, who should have been nominated for an Oscar, but of course wasn’t. The broad strokes have to do with an auctioneer, a wildly successful one, getting a call to come to a villa to sell a huge number of antiques – furniture, paintings, and all sorts of rarities. But he’s continually frustrated by the young woman he has to deal with, who is an agoraphobic and won’t actually speak to him except from behind closed doors. I would suggest you do NOT go to Wikipedia to look up the film, as apparently the ASSES who put up stuff there have never heard of spoilers and basically ruin everything for anyone who likes to come to films without knowing more than the basics. I have a good mind to go and edit the page myself. There is a wonderful Ennio Morricone score, and this is highly recommended by the likes of me. It was released two years ago, and it’s not a film that seems to be on anyone’s radar much.
Then I just relaxed until it was time to go to the Dal Rae. So, it was mostly a relaxing day with a huge, but wonderful dinner, which has resulted in my being pregnant with triplets.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep, then I have a work session for the Kritzerland show, and then I have another birthday meal to have, this one at The Smoke House, where I will be a VERY good boy. I’ll probably jog, too.
And then we begin the Kritzerland rehearsals, and I also have a plethora of meetings and meals, I need really strong excellent vibes and xylophones for the part two miracle, then we don’t have our stumble-through until Sunday and we don’t actually do the show until the following Wednesday, and by that time I shall be even older than I am now.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, have a work session, eat, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, after which I shall hopefully arise with no signs of pregnancy.