After the New Year...

We've returned from a great visit in New York. Getting out of there last night was pretty ugly, since much of the city and Westchester were fogged in. We were delayed two hours and rolled into home around 1:30 last night.

AV and I dropped into NYC on Saturday. We spent about 30 minutes wandering around Midtown (jam-packed, btw) looking for our favorite noodle house. We looked on 46th Street, 47th Street, 48th Street (all between fifth and seventh avenues) and finally found it on 49th street between Fifth and Sixth avenue. We were starving by the time we arrived.

There were a few things on the docket for Saturday. One was to go to MoMA, but--as usual--it was jammed. We didn't stay, and we're still wondering if we will ever find a day when it is pleasant to go and see the insides of the museum. Something to think about. Another thing we wanted to do was to go to Chelsea and check out the Jonas Mekas installation at Maya Stendhal. We should have gotten the hint when walking by Pace Wildenstein (22nd street between 11th and 10th avenues) the doors were locked. Too bad, because a new exhibition by Robert Irwin was inside. There was a sign on the door at Maya Stendhal that said "we're closed until January 3." This information was helpfully not included on their websites. We ended up walking from Chelsea over to the East Village for a stop at Downtown Music Gallery. AV found some good stuff.

We ate dinner at the Chinatown Brasserie (308 Laffayette / at Great Jones Street), which was fantastic. We ate off the dim sum menu and had pork and crabmeat soup dumplings, crispy spring rolls with barbequed duck, pork buns (sweet barbecued pork in a boiled dough), fish skin dumplings, shrimp and Chinese chive dumplings, and tempura shrimp and chilies--kind of a shrimp chile relleno. We also had some interesting drinks there--AV had a bourbon drink with a ginger syrup and lime, I had a cranberry daquiri (cranberry juice with dark rum, crushed mint and lime). They were also good and went well with the dinner.

The Stone was a madhouse. We waited in line to get in to the 8:00 show for about an hour. There was a real jerk behind us, spewing about all of his knowledge of the Zorn catalogue and making digs at mainstream music. He was a total jerk and he talked the whole time. There were so many people that the fire marshall showed up. The show went on, but there were children crying, drunk and high college kids (they were partaking a few spots in line ahead of us) who shared with the group that they really had to go to the bathroom, and people behind us who kept standing up and leaning into the backs of our heads. Not your typical crowd, but it's good to see that so many people came out to pay the rent. I think that might be the last time we venture into the city so close to New Year's Eve.

New Year's Eve was spent at home with the family and good friends of the family who have spent the last 30-some New Year's Eve (only missing twice) with the Vartabedian clan. We played games, ate good food, and rang in the new year in the den with Dick Clark.

Aside from the madness in the city, it was a very refreshing vacation. It was especially nice to get away from the snow. I did not do any reading, other than Michael Pollan (which has started to make me crazy in some unproductive ways), and I knitted quite a bit. A good way to usher in 2007 and kick 2006 to the curb.