It’s about 10:30 a.m., and we are supposed to be on our way to Rockville, to a title company, to sign the documents to sell a condo we own (and that Michelle used to live in). But two days ago, the buyer announced that he was defaulting (something about the conditions his lender put on his loan), so we are home instead. Hopefully, there will not be a delay in getting his good faith deposit released to us (after all, “good faith”, right?), and it will help us cover condo fees and taxes while we remarket. Want a nice, roomy 9th floor one bedroom in Grosvenor III just outside the Beltway? Let me know.

But this will give me a chance to see Israeli President Herzog address the U.S. Congress at 11. I have been a fan of Herzog for a long time – he is bright, reasonable, and easy going. His father, Chaim Herzog, was a high ranking Israeli official for years (and also a former Israeli president) and his grandfather was the Chief Rabbi of Ireland. Yes, Ireland. The Israeli presidency is largely ceremonial, but Herzog has been trying to strengthen the role of that office by acting as a mediator in the dispute between the Israeli right wing (now in power) and the Israeli center and left (now demonstrating in the streets). He has had some, but not enough, success in this role, and it will be interesting to hear what he has today this morning.

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about working from home vs. working back at the office. The Journal reports (and it isn’t really surprising, I guess) that bosses might want their work force back in the office, but that they want to continue working from home (or from the beach or the mountains, I guess). No surprise there.

And Russia? Russia is again cutting off Ukraine’s ability to export grain, which not only hurts the Ukrainian economy, but the large part of the world (including much of Africa) that depends on Ukrainian grain. And, Russia is bombing Odessa, the port from which most of the grain leaves the country.

And this brings up the old question. What is the end game of Ukraine and NATO? Russia can continue to do what they are doing for years, can’t they? And Ukraine still has one (at least one) arm tied behind its back, as NATO is afraid (reasonably enough) to get into a war with nuclear powered Russia. And as to the other nuclear powers, like China and North Korea and Pakistan and India – who knows where they really stand? And Putin is no Roseanne Roseannadanna. He is not going to pull out with a “nevermind” [Nevazhno in Russian]. So what is the end game? How much in money and weaponry can be sent to Kiev? And how will the west reconcile to a war end that has part of historic (well, not really) Ukraine inside the Russian Federation?

Back to the mundane. Last evening, we picked up both of our grandchildren (ages 2 and 8) from their day camps and drove them home. This is quite a venture – it’s a little over a mile to our first stop, then almost seven miles to our second, another 8 miles to their house and another 6 back to ours. That’s a 22 mile urban, rush hour drive. So it’s not surprising that we have (once a week, more or less – actually, it hasn’t been more) decided to stop for dinner on the way home. We thought it would be a relaxing break (it is) and, as I have said before, the only rule is that we select restaurants which are new to us.

Actually, there’s a second rule. There has to be parking close by, and sometimes it’s the parking, not the restaurant itself, that controls our choice. Last night, we wound up in Adams Morgan, where we found a very nice parking space waiting for us on 18th street, on a block just south of the main stretch of commercial 18th where there are two restaurants, neither of which we knew anything about.

The first one is called The Green Zone (named after the section of Baghdad which, during the American occupation, housed the Iraqi and American governments, as well as many embassies of other countries, and was deemed to be safe (until it wasn’t) in the chaos that was Baghdad. The Green Zone sign is in English and Arabic, and there is a large outdoor eating space, which was pretty well filled. We walked to the door, where we were greeted by a young woman who did not look like she worked there, but in fact did, who said to us: “I need to check your IDs.” She told us that was restaurant policy. The young man who came up to the door right behind us rolled his eyes, but wasn’t at all surprised when I told him it happened to me everywhere we went. The door lady told us that inside was first come, first served, and outside there were no tables; in fact, the next free table outside would be available at 9 p.m. It was about 7 at the time. I went inside and found thousands of people (average age 21 years, 3 days) milling around the bar and only two (filled) tables. I went upstairs and found thousands of people (average age 21 years, 3 days) milling around the bar and only two (filled) tables. It was clear this very crowded, under-chaired and under-tabled facility was not for us. It also looked like for someone 21 years and 3 days old, it was just the place. So we thanked our ID-checker and left.

Looking later at its menu, I see that the Green Door specializes in drinks with colorful names (such as the F–k Trump, consisting of rum, mezcal, vimto and lemon and describes it self as a “furious Asian-Mexican resistance fusion” and comes with the sobriquet “May he disappear from history and never return”), and that its Middle Eastern food menu is secondary at best.

The restaurant Soussi next door to the Green Rome looked a bit different – i.e., it looked pretty empty. It was dark inside with a bar and few tables (also seemed to have a second floor), and had a large covered patio – the corner of 18th and Kalorama Streets. Without even looking at the menu or the place very carefully, we went in and were escorted to an outside table. There were at the time only two other tables with customers. One had a couple and their relatively large and relatively unattractive dog, and the other a single man. Strangely, for a restaurant anywhere these days, the lone man was sitting with his food, his laptop and a cigarette.

Another couple came onto the patio, sat down and then, again to my surprise, I saw the waiter come onto the patio and give the couple a hookah. We had stepped not into a normal restaurant, but into a restaurant/hookah bar. We then looked at the menu and saw we had entered into a Moroccan restaurant/hookah bar. A few other people wandered onto the patio. One other hookah was brought out.

We are not fans of hookah bars, or any other form of smoking, to say the least, so we wondered if once again we were to become the wandering Jews of Adams Morgan. But lo and behold, the smoke from both of the hookah bars, blew out on to the street away from us. Accident, or the way the ceiling fans were set up? We weren’t sure. But we were safe.

So we ordered dinner – I got a simple meal of chicken and green and red peppers on two skewers (“with Moroccan spices”) and rice, and Edie got vegetable couscous. Our expectations were, oh so low. But surprise!! The food was quite good. Actually, more like quite good plus. And, with a drink each (no, not a “F–k Trump”), the bill was about $40.

OK, that’s all for today. Pres. Herzog is about to speak.