Heartfelt thanks to everyone who reached out yesterday for my birthday! I finally made it home from Italy and had a wonderful day with Tracie and the girls.

And for dinner, we opened a very special bottle: the 1999 Mouton Rothschild, featuring art by Raymond Savignac (1907-2002).

Wow, what an incredible wine! It was fresh and vibrant on the nose and rich with slightly underripe red fruit on the palate. Tannin was very smooth but this wine could have aged many more years, no doubt. Extraordinary.

The bottle had been given to us earlier this year by the husband of a colleague of Tracie’s with whom we have become close.

When Hurricane Beryl made landfall a week ago, Tracie wrapped this beauty up and took her to her parents’ house in Orange, Texas, where they never lost power.

She then carefully kept it cool but not too cold in a cooler where she had to constantly monitor the ice. It was a heroic effort. We had planned to open it for the holidays with family but after it had traveled under stress, we felt like it was a better bet to open it for my birthday. It was my birthday, after all! I’m so glad we did. Paired beautifully with our favorite Texas BBQ. It had been stored impeccably. It would have been a pity for it to be damaged. But it was glorious! Thank you again, from our hearts, Richard and Elaine! A wine we’ll never forget, a memory we will cherish.

Our neighborhood still looks like a war zone, with fences blown out, felled vegetation lining the streets, and main stop light still out of order seven days after the storm. Nearly 260k people without power still.

Coming home to the girls on my birthday after an arduous journey (stuck overnight at Dulles!) was so sweet for me. For all the challenges we face, it feels pretty good to be 57. I’m so proud of the girls and love them and Tracie so much. So much about our life now heals my soul. Too many blessings to count. Poo poo poo!

Thanks again for all the wishes. And G-d bless former president Trump and his family. I’m glad he’s okay. Maybe this terrible episode will help us all to to tone down the rhetoric.

Stay tuned for notes from my trip. Thanks again! It was a very special birthday for me.