From the lows of being at UCSF hospital in San Francisco to devouring the pasta tasting menu at Rezdora, March 2024 had a little bit of everything. Can you believe we’re going to be parents in a few months?

Jake continued his week-long visit at the start of March using Jenn’s office in Lincoln Center during the day and hanging with us in the afternoon. I arrived home from work on Friday the first and met Jake at Common Address before walking over to Somm Cellars our favorite wine store. That evening we had dinner at Layla a great little Mediterranean restaurant in the UWS. We had quite the feast and lucked out and got happy hour. The next morning we had brunch at Bad Roman and ordered the bellini tower which consists of 12 glasses of not great bellini. That didn’t stop us from drinking every last drop of it.

That evening Jake flew home and I was off to Paris for work. I had my Sunday afternoon free and did my normal long walk from the Eiffel Tower to Montmartre. I find that it’s helpful for me to stay outside and try to adjust to the time difference. That evening I had a very nice dinner at Didon right next to the kitchen. I had a beautiful three-course meal with a couple of glasses of wine. Work started bright and early the next day, I did have my evening free and went for a walk through the park and had dinner at my favorite restaurant in Paris, Colvert. Tuesday morning I was off to London via the Eurostar for the rest of the week before flying home first thing Friday morning. On my last night in London, I did get to try out the very popular Manteca. I got a seat on the chef’s counter and had a fantastic meal.

We only had the weekend back together before Jenn was meant to fly out for her last work trip before Elle’s arrival. She was feeling great and we had a wonderful weekend together. From a long walk with Frasier to going to see Jonah on Broadway we had a fantastic weekend. It all culminated on Sunday with our annual Oscar’s watch with our ballots. Watching on the East Coast is never easy but we stayed up to watch Oppenheimer win best picture. The good news was that I won this year’s ballot easily and it felt great to be back in the victory circle. It was a fun show.

The next morning Jenn was meant to head to San Francisco. She woke up tired so we switched her flight to the afternoon. She had a good flight over and arrived at the 1 Hotel San Francisco without issue. Unfortunately, after checking in she noticed she was bleeding and after a call with her doctor rushed to the best hospital near her, UCSF. She rushed there and was immediately taken back and for the next 12 hours we remained on the phone together listening to both very positive and very scary updates from the team at UCSF. Jenn’s Dad was nice enough to fly up to San Francisco that evening and was there with her at 2 AM. We weren’t sure if Jenn was going to deliver very early or not. Fortunately by the time I dropped Frasier off at Camp Canine and I boarded a Delta flight to SF things had started to get better. I arrived there a little after lunch and Jenn’s dad flew home. We spent the next few days in the Bay Area letting Jenn recover. The good news was that both Jenn and Elle were doing perfectly. After being released from the hospital we stayed in the hotel. It wasn’t until the afternoon of our last day that we went to go see Dune Part II in theaters just to get Jenn out. We flew home together on a Delta flight and were so grateful to pick up Frasier and to be home together as a family again. That wasn’t the end to Jenn’s work travel that we were hoping for but we’re grateful it wasn’t worse.

The rest of March was completely focused on getting our apartment Elle & Jenn ready. We spent a lot of the month selling old furniture, moving things around, and getting our lives set up to add her in the next couple of months. Many of our weekends have been focused on checking off all the “newborn” must-haves and getting everything ready. Jenn has officially entered the “nesting” phase and it’s been expensive but worth it. Our 2-bedroom New York apartment is being completely revamped and as of this writing is almost done. When we weren’t updating the apartment we had a few great date nights. One at Tasca a Spanish tapas restaurant in the UWS that was fine, and another at Rezdora one of our favorite places in the city where we devoured their pasta-tasting menu. We even went to the Affordable Art Fair and for the second time, we came out empty-handed. If anyone thought that pregnancy would slow Jenn down at work, you’d be wrong. I’ll never forget her hosting an APAC discussion at 10 PM on a Wednesday and killing it.

March ended with an early Easter. We took Frasier for his long walk along Riverside Park, had a champagne-less brunch, and watched Mariners. We spent our Easter afternoon continuing to put the finishing touches on Elle’s nursery. Frasier thinks a lot of her stuff is for him so it’s fun to watch him sniff around and see what he can get away with. Can you believe she’s due to join us in 10 weeks? I sure can’t.

TV WE WATCHED

Our big TV-watching experience of March was the new Prime Video show Mr. & Mrs. Smith. A new modern TV take of the 1941, 1996, and 2005 versions of the concept. This latest with Donald Glover and Maya Erskine was phenomenal. I loved every episode. It is just brimming with “cool” which is what you want from a spy show. I loved it and it will easily be one of my year-end favorites this year.

Outside of that we continued watching the solid last season of Curb Your Enthusiasm and started Shogun after I finished the very, very long book.

BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)

I need to read more epic novels. I am always hesitant to start a 1,000+ page book given the commitment but I’ve very rarely read one that I regretted and Shogun by James Clavell wasn’t one. Although I found the political maneuvering to be taxing the core store and deep dive into Japanese culture was incredible. By the end of Shogun, I was even more excited to start the miniseries on Hulu as the book lent itself so well to an onscreen adaptation. It is a rare book that I might make for a better TV show.

I plowed through Expecting Better (read out of order and read Cribsheet first) and I can see why everyone recommends Emily Oster’s books they are fantastic. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be for the next few months, but once Elle arrives all bets are off.

I finished the month with the beautiful Looking for Alaska about a young boy who goes to boarding school and his life is forever changed by a girl named Alaska. It’s a simple book but powerful. I loved it.

MOVIES WE WATCHED

Ironically after a scary trip to San Francisco, we finished our time in the bay area by going to the movies and watching Dune Part II in a Dolby Cinema. It was just as good, if not better than the first which was my favorite movie of 2021. It's easily one of those movies that’s enhanced by seeing it in a great movie theater. I can’t wait to see Dune Messiah the third and likely final movie in the series.

The other great movie we watched this month was American Fiction. It was up for an Oscar earlier this month (didn’t win) but was a very good movie. It almost felt like a play and felt like a great encapsulation of living in the 2020’s.

THEATER WE SAW

I’ll likely be removing this section of my monthly recaps in a couple of months when Elle arrives. Although we hope to go see the theater once a month, the frequency is going to be far less than it used to be. But we’re trying to see as much theater as we can before she arrives. We were fortunate enough to go see Jonah, a small intimate coming-of-age story that ultimately was a bit sad and not very memorable. I remember when we left the theater I told Jenn it’s the type of play that I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to buy tickets for but as part of the Roundabout season, it’s perfect.

GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING

When Jake was here this month we played a lot of EA Sports PGA Tour, NBA 2K24, and UFC 5. When he left I switched over to the new MLB The Show 24 where I continue to play season after season of “Road to October” which is the perfect mode for someone who has 15-20 minutes to play a game at a time. I do need to get back and play Spider-Man 2 at some point.