amanda and i had a decadent dinner at a wine and tapas bar in elmwood called toro. we were celebrating my “salary adjustment”, although having decadent dinners will use it up very quickly. the food and wine were very good, if perhaps too expensive. i like the restaurant, but unfortunately it is very loud and a bit too smoky. the smoking ban in restaurants in all of new york state cannot take effect quickly enough for me. there also seem to be too many weird mating rituals happening at the bar.
erika came by and shared some tapas with us. she had some type of upper respiratory sickness, undoubtly from some random hospital bug or sick kid… the hazards of being a pediatrician. she had a vodka cranberry to try to kill the bugs in her throat. i hope it worked; she seemed in better spirits (and was able to talk) for the rest of the evening.
karen was able to get into her apartment again after the fire, and was able to clean up the smoke damage enough to stay at home tonight. hopefully, her stuff wasn’t too messed up.