The Morimoto Swirl

The girls are a little subdued this morning following a bit of a swirl last night, but it was fun while it lasted. We had a craving for some good sushi, so the concierge in his infinite wisdom sent us to Morimoto in the meat-packing district and we couldn't have been happier.

We're pretty sure the food was amazing, but it may have been enhanced by the cocktail and champagne we drank before dinner. By then, we were pretty happy to eat anything, although I was still sober enough to know excellent Japanese cuisine when it is presented to me. Our waitress was fantastic and zeroed in on what she figured we would like and every plate that arrived looked and tasted better than the last. The place had a very lively atmosphere that became even livelier with the arrival of Food Network star Guy Fieri and his posse. They seated the host of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives directly across from us, so we couldn't help but notice him and his bleached blonde hair.

Peg's husband Bob had just recently eaten dinner in his Santa Rosa restaurant, so she figured that entitled her to go over and chat with him and ask to take his photo, which he kindly obliged. That of course was after she tried to discreetly shoot one with her Blackberry from where we sat. The unfortunate blurry result shown above may have had more to do with the third drink, but we'll never know for sure. Back in the day, 3 drinks would have been a "start", now they were more likely to finish us off. So instead of calling it quits there, I came back from the ladies room to find she had ordered a fourth. That's when I knew I was in trouble.

Our waitress, noticing how much fun we were having, suggested we hit a club called the Standard afterward and for a brief illogical moment we actually considered it. Then some of our remaining brain cells kicked in and we poured ourselves into a taxi and headed back to the hotel where we snuck in the back door lest anyone in management see her (us) staggering toward the elevator.

It was the perfect ending to a pretty perfect day. Not sure we are feeling so perfect this morning, but we still managed to hit Central Park for our morning walk, so we can't be hurting too bad. They are filming a scene for 30-Rock this morning outside the back door of the hotel - so we may get lucky and catch a glimpse of Alec Baldwin or Tina Fey and since we both love that show, that would be a great memory to take away from this week as well. So far all we have seen is the crew and the spread set out by the catering services - seems those stars eat a lot!

We will continue the day with lunch at Barney's covering off the third B and a private tour of the 4300 square foot penthouse suite here at the hotel. Tonight, we are heading to The Spice Market for the "birthday dinner" and our final "swirl". Will tell you all about it tomorrow.

If I survive.....