Hiatus

Last week, my wife and I took possession of this beauty, a 3-story Tudor in Pelham, New York. We haven’t moved yet: the place is badly in need of renovation, which’ll happen a lot more quickly if our stuff isn’t in the way. We still own our NYC co-op, which is in contract, and won’t close until July or August. We intend to get every last day of city living that we can.

But now seems as good a time as any to put the blog on hiatus—a step I’ve been considering for a while. I’ve posted 1,010 restaurant reviews in just over 11 years, which averages out to nearly two reviews per week, for roughly a decade. That’s an awfully long time. In recent months, it has felt more like a burden, and less of the joy it originally was.

Of course, that burden was entirely self-imposed: this blog has never accepted advertising. No one’s livelihood—and certainly not mine—depended on its existence. Yet, having created this tiny franchise in my little corner of the Internet, with a very small but nevertheless appreciative (and appreciated) core of loyal readers, for a long time I felt obliged to keep it going.

But my free time over the next several months will be increasingly taken up with a complex renovation, moving house, getting to know a new neighborhood, and a quite different lifestyle than I’ve been accustomed to. Something needs to be edited out, to make room for all that, and the blog is it.

If our impending move to the suburbs provides a convenient excuse, I might have reached the same decision in any event: the sense that food blogging had run its course (for me) was lingering in my mind even before we started house-hunting, although it certainly intensified after that. I think I’m going to enjoy dining out for its own sake, as it used to be: no more photos, no more “writing the review” in my head as I eat.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the pleasure of dining out, which I love as much as ever. My wife and I intend to keep up our weekly Manhattan “date nights” (usually Wednesdays). I still work in the city, and Pelham isn’t all that far away—one of the reasons we chose it. (Pelham to Grand Central: ~35 minutes. A Train to 42nd Street: ~30 minutes.)

Will the blog return after we’re settled in our new home? Surely not with the frequency it has been, and perhaps not at all. As I write this, I’m feeling like I won’t miss it.

Happy Holidays 2009

Scenes from Thanksgiving 2009

I know it’s terribly un-Web 2.0 to post my Thanksgiving photos five days late. Sorry, but New York Journal took some time off. Here, at last, they are. Appetizers first; then the carved bird.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Easter Food Bounty

Here are the food highlights from last week’s Easter feast.

Hors d’oeuvres

Fresh Tomatoes & Mozzarella; Roast Chicken

Rack of Lamb

Happy Birthday

As of today, New York Journal is 5 years old.

Holiday Cheer

This is cheating, because…

…these photos are from Thanksgiving. No matter. Here they are. Happy New Year.

New York Journal Returns

Sorry about the long absence. Buying a co-op, and the subsequent renovations, moving, and unpacking, have pretty much swallowed all my free time over the last two months.

A number of restaurant reviews have gone unwritten. Several of the next few posts will be rather sketchy, as in some cases I have photos and/or vague recollections, but not enough detail to write a full review.

Now that I’m settled in, reviews should start appearing again at the usual intervals.

Hiatus

My son and I are off to California to visit my brother’s family. After a couple of days there, we’ll take a long drive up the Pacific Coast Highway.

Blog posts will be either scarce or non-existent for the next 10 days.

 So much for that! Our trip started out as a comedy of cancellations.

In the first place, my son was supposed to fly from Tampa to New York on Friday night. Then, we would have flown together from New York to California on Saturday. His trip to New York was cancelled (JetBlue, natch!), so I spent another $280 to fly him on Delta from from Tampa to California direct.

Then, my flight to California on American was cancelled too. Now, here’s the rub: when there are a bunch of cancelled flights during a busy travel period, you’re usually stuck for several days, because all of the later flights are pretty close to fully booked. So, I can’t get out to California till Monday.

Assuming no further snafus, we’ll at least get most of the vacation we planned, although I’ll only have one evening with my brother’s family before we hit the road. 

Divorce Destroys Wealth

“Study Finds That Marriage Builds Wealth.” So says an article I found today on Yahoo! News.

Unfortunately, the corrollary is that divorce destroys wealth:

Marrying for money, it turns out, works. A study by an Ohio State University researcher shows that a person who marries — and stays married — accumulates nearly twice as much personal wealth as a person who is single or divorced.

And for those who divorce, it’s a bit more expensive than giving up half of everything they own. They lose, on average, three-fourths of their personal net worth.

“Getting married for a few years and then getting divorced is clearly not the path to financial independence…”

Boy, oh boy, ain’t it true!