An Update

So after many phone calls, unpleasant conversations, and throwing around the idea of lawsuits, we have an apartment. Alas, it is not the one we lost when the tenants threatened to not move, and then said they would move. It is a different apartment, but just as nice, if not nicer, although there is an electric stove- the kind w/individual coils- blech. The best piece of advice I can give you about all of this is to avoid our realtor (the one we used the second time around- I would highly recommend our original realtor).

So life goes on, and the past few days have been dedicated to packing, helping people get furniture out of our house, and just generally stressing about moving. The upside is that we have made a tidy sum of money by selling most of our furniture. Amen to Craigslist.

Back to the grind. On an unrelated note, the NY Times book review this week is dedicated to books about food- cookbooks, memoirs and the like. Bill Buford's book is reviewed - he quit his job as fiction editor of the New Yorker to try and become a chef under Mario Batali. It was supposed to be a story, but then became a full-time endeavor. He also apprenticed under a Dante-quoting butcher in Tuscany. The book review is very good. And we had a wonderful meal the other night in the hip and trendy section of our town. We had been meaning to try this particular restaurant, but never seemed to be in the mood. Well, when the wait at our original restaurant of choice was 45 minutes (at 9pm!), it became the right mood. We had sauteed shrimp in garlic and cherry, and Elle had Tuna Tartar while I had an excellent skirt stake with a cilantro - garlic sauce. Light, but hearty. It ended up being just what we were in the mood for, and the restaurant itself is very well-decorated. We took away some ideas for our own new apartment, so can't wait to see what you guys think. We enjoyed an excellent 2003 Cotes Du Rhone from an importer Elle's dad told us about, and it really rounded out the meal. We discussed dessert and after-dinner drinks, but passed. Until a server brought us two small (and funky!) glasses of dessert wine - on the house. Soooooo good. Our waitress came by to ask us how everything was, and asked us if we wanted more dessert wine. Sure! So she brought out the bottle and gave us a refill. Doesn't it always work out that you discover hidden gems just as you're about to leave the mine? At least we had the chance to eat there.

Back to the packing grind. Possibly one of my least favorite activities.