more at the met

our first stop at the museum today was a tour with a guide named iris who took us to the american wing to view john vanderlyn's "panoramic view of the palace and gardens of versailles." m and c enjoyed talking with her and she pointed out where the artist had painted himself into the picture standing near csar alexander I and the king of prussia.

we then joined a tour of 15th century portraiture. c really like the young intern who was lecturing and said she made the subject interesting even for her. i think everyone else liked the young woman's presentation as well. she had quite a crowd around her. as the girls' dance teacher always says, "it's all in the details," and this lecturer had many details up her sleeve.

we also walked through the greek and roman wing and had to stop for the obligatory fountain shot. m and c also tried to figure out how much money could be sitting in there . .



finally, on the way home we stopped at lionbrand to look at yarn for m. she would like me to make her a shrug out of bamboo. they were so tired that we didn't last long there, though as you can see, m has the brown bamboo tucked under her right arm, just waiting to be checked out on her gift certificate.

walking home from lionbrand, we passed a restaurant on greenwich and west 12th street that i've always wanted to try, jarnac. however, it has closed, along with so many other restaurants in my neighborhood (mama buddha, alfama, mi cocina, valdino west, osteria del sole, hudson corner cafe, and some others whose names i forget as i didn't frequent them). my friend janet and i were reminiscing the other day about the owners of two of these restaurants we liked to eat at. they were very nice, hard working men who took pride in their establishments, and as they struggled to stay open, they became ill and tired looking, and began drinking more. owning a restaurant is such hard work, and if you go under you are left with nothing.