WHAT A GREAT DAY!

This may come as a shock to many of you, but I happen to enjoy attention. At least the positive kind. (I stopped barking in public in the third grade.) So it will not surprise you to learn that I thoroughly enjoy Father's Day. It's the one day of the year I get to be king -- the whole day is planned around my whims and fancies. Oh, were that EVERY day were Father's Day.

Today was an exceptionally good Father's Day.

Myfanwe and I were up at 6:30 -- not exactly sleeping in, but an hour later than we usually rise. Myfanwe and I drank our coffee and read the Sunday paper on the back porch, which, after yesterdays oppressive heat seemed positively decadent. Plus mornings like this feel kind of romantic to me...they remind me of when were were first together and would spend lazy mornings reading the paper, drinking coffee, and listening to NPR. (To this day, the Weekend Edition music makes me randy!)

When Norbert rose I made myself scarce -- Myfanwe clued me in that Norbert wanted to make a light breakfast. So I spent 20 minutes resting up from my strenuous paper reading while he and Myfanwe scrambled eggs, made toast, and cut up a delicious mango/pineapple/banana fruit salad. (And sitting there, next to my plate was a big present! A whole bunch of badly needed summer clothes! In sizes that fit!)

After breakfast I knit a little on the lace shawl...actually I un-knit the two rows I managed to squeeze into yesterday's tight schedule, corrected a mistake, then knit the same two rows again correctly. I then put a lifeline in place and viola! It was time to leave for lunch!

On Father's Day I get to choose what I want, and I chose dim sum. So we went to the New Furama on the (far) south end of Chicago's Chinatown. I meant to take the camera so I could blog the food, but I forgot, so you'll have to settle for a description.

We started out with a big plate of Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, steamed tangerine meatballs, and an order of curried squid. (The squid was sublime!) we added to that crispy corn and "meat" dumplings, roast duck, pickled cucumber, beef fun, fried noodles, and fresh silken tofu with a sweet syrup. I can't tell you how much I love dim sum.

The only drawback to the meal was that our server didn't give us a choice of tea. I wanted to try pu ehr, which I have read is good with rich foods, but instead she just brought us jasmine. But, if that is the worst thing that happened, I guess I'm pretty lucky.

After lunch we took a walk around Chinatown, which was exceptionally busy, to give the food time to digest and make room for dessert! Norbert had a cream cake, Myfanwe had a coconut bun (warm from the oven) and I had a coconut tart. Ummmm. Coconut.

The we came home and I had a luxurious hour knitting on the lace shawl while Myfanwe worked on packing Norbert's bags for camp.

All in all a really, really great day. We should do this again sometime.