after dinner sneeze

“Time’s the king of men; he’s both their parent, and he is their grave, and gives them what he will, not what they crave.”

t says: Yes, it has been a while. Months. Years. Where has the time gone? Have we truly not eaten anything worth blogging? I assure you we have, but I guess we were a bit busy? (… which is a terrible excuse). In hindsight, I realize that San Francisco was absolutely merciless in occupying our time, what with all the “hiking” and “eating” and “vineyard visiting” and “working” and “more working” and “family-starting” and “living in the moment” … Could we have posted some pictures? I suppose – but I felt that I could not provide the level of content that you, our tens of thousands of readers, expect! After all:

“If a task has once begun, never leave it till it’s done. Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.”

But now things are different yet again. In mid-2019, we left San Francisco with [most of] our stuff and [all of] our small family, and are now settling in a new, very different city: Washington, DC. And while we are no less busy than we used to be, g and I had a “moment” a few days ago that inspired me to log into wordpress after all this time (especially because they’ve been charging me those yearly fees!). Picture this: g & t, back in Philly, eating at Fond, and seeing the Pork Belly on the menu, and pulling up old adsz posts … like the one from our first visit, and this one, and this one, and that one time we went to Fond after that other restaurant we still couldn’t remember. As our time machine jumped, hopped, and skipped over 9 years of memories, g and I had smiles on our faces as we revisited all the great meals with all our great friends. That’s what the blog was started for! Capturing the moments! And while we know we had a wonderful time in SF, as our iPhones are full of photos to prove it, they lack the narrative, which I am concerned will fade over time. (Fortunately, g has a memory like a vise … while I’ve been known to forget a few “minor” details … like person, place, and time …)

So is it time to come crawling back to adsz? I don’t know! Even now as I type this post in the few moments of down-time that I have on New Year’s Eve, I am uncertain of my words. Is there room for an “old-fashioned” blog anymore in 2020? With facebook, twitter, youtube, instagram, twitch, netflix, hulu, disney+, and appletv, I just don’t think that anyone jacked into a computer has the time to read whole paragraphs anymore … But then I’m reminded: it’s not for you, anyways! It’s for us! So I’m going to try! To all past and current readers of the blog, welcome back to the sneeze.

So here we go … we’re starting off 2020 with a babysitter and a resolution:
“We will enjoy 20 bottles of wine* and go out to 20 dinners over the course of 2020, with blog posts to prove it.”
There. I wrote it. As it is typed, so shall it be done tried. Our first reservation has been booked (in one week!). But pacing will be important – so we’re going to need some help; if you know us personally, make some contact and help us with this goal, damnit! For the sake of the blog!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, while it doesn’t “count” in our “20&20 in 2020” challenge, Fond was frickin’ amazing. Lee Styer is nothing short of a superhero. The foie gras was the best I’ve ever had (supplanting Bibou’s which had just supplanted his). The pork belly is as good as it always was. Go there and be as happy as we.

*These bottles of wine must be wines that are beyond the “usual” weekday wines for us. They don’t necessarily need to be at a restaurant, but they do require a bit of ceremony: decanting, fancy glasses, swirling, sniffing, etc.