Guess Who is Back from China?
Wrong! 
But for Cici it is the next best thing. Her Chinese classmate who will be off to college this fall came back from China two days ago. She caught up on her sleep and the time change, then contacted Cici this evening. The girls are planning a big weekend together, which I think includes a sleepover here at our home. Quick, somebody hide that ice cream and any soft drinks that might be lurking around.
Actually that won't do any good. I can hear Cici already. Papa, she will say after her friend has been here a while but long before bedtime, can you drive us to the food market? How do I know this? Because she asks me this any time one or more of her girl friends come to visit. They will push the grocery cart - right down those unhealthy aisles - loading up on bags of chips, soft drinks, and ice cream.
When we come home they will snack and snack, talk and talk, watch Japanese and Korean movies on the Internet, laugh and laugh, and fall asleep in the wee hours of the morning just a few hours before I will get out of bed to make coffee and read the newspaper. They will sleep until early afternoon and wake up ravenous.
But guess who is in the kitchen right now washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen, and I never have to ask her to do this. I made a surprise hit for dinner after we ate some watermelon earlier. I had a taste for chili and did the best I could on the spur of the moment. I opened a can of chili with beans (yes, one of those cans that we bought as emergency rations before the hurricane hit us last fall), added some catsup, garlic, chili powder, and chopped onions until the taste was more respectable. Then I served up a chili dog for Cici on a toasted whole grain bun.
Cici always tells me that she doesn't eat beans, but she devoured the chili dog, beans and all, and then used some of the brown rice I had cooked earlier and topped it with chili and beans and ate all of that dish. Now she is cleaning up the kitchen for us. Maybe it is a question of who is spoiling who around here.
But for Cici it is the next best thing. Her Chinese classmate who will be off to college this fall came back from China two days ago. She caught up on her sleep and the time change, then contacted Cici this evening. The girls are planning a big weekend together, which I think includes a sleepover here at our home. Quick, somebody hide that ice cream and any soft drinks that might be lurking around.
Actually that won't do any good. I can hear Cici already. Papa, she will say after her friend has been here a while but long before bedtime, can you drive us to the food market? How do I know this? Because she asks me this any time one or more of her girl friends come to visit. They will push the grocery cart - right down those unhealthy aisles - loading up on bags of chips, soft drinks, and ice cream.
When we come home they will snack and snack, talk and talk, watch Japanese and Korean movies on the Internet, laugh and laugh, and fall asleep in the wee hours of the morning just a few hours before I will get out of bed to make coffee and read the newspaper. They will sleep until early afternoon and wake up ravenous.
But guess who is in the kitchen right now washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen, and I never have to ask her to do this. I made a surprise hit for dinner after we ate some watermelon earlier. I had a taste for chili and did the best I could on the spur of the moment. I opened a can of chili with beans (yes, one of those cans that we bought as emergency rations before the hurricane hit us last fall), added some catsup, garlic, chili powder, and chopped onions until the taste was more respectable. Then I served up a chili dog for Cici on a toasted whole grain bun.
Cici always tells me that she doesn't eat beans, but she devoured the chili dog, beans and all, and then used some of the brown rice I had cooked earlier and topped it with chili and beans and ate all of that dish. Now she is cleaning up the kitchen for us. Maybe it is a question of who is spoiling who around here.
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