Relatives / father's day

Two cousins and their families (from San Fransisco) called this morning. They were in town and wanted to meet us for lunch. Turns out they've been here for 10 days already, and today was their last day! OK... On father's day, I didn't expect we would be able to eat out last minute. Surprisingly, one of them reserved a table successfully at a nearby restaurant! (Hmm... does this mean fewer people take their dads out for lunch?) So we had dim sum. They said the Chinese food is way better here. Ended up ordering too much and plenty to take home.

I told them about the International Ice-cream Factory that has 108 (actually 218) flavours. With 4 kids and youth in the group, it took no time for them to decide to go. One of my cousins stayed behind to teach mom chi-gung so I was invited to join. (The 7 of them rented a 7-seat van, so unless someone stays behind, no extra seat.) Unfortunately the youngest boy (10) was having a fit and refused to leave the van when we got there. It was my fault. Somehow somewhere the conversation turn to games, and I showed them the stuff from A. Since the cousins treated us for lunch, I felt it was appropriate to offer the whole batch for $50. (The DS itself with a super nice case could fetch $60. Two or three of the games could fetch $25 each. But this is a chance to pass them on, and I need the space.) The boys' eyes lit up and immediately the deal was seal. However, the 2 youngest boys (10 and 15) wanted the same game. And the youngest seemed to want it all for himself...

We spent about 45 minutes at the ice-cream shop because the kids couldn't make up their mind on what flavour to get. (The down side of having too many to choose from.) Came home, and the 10-year old boy left us and stayed in the van. Wow... I though only girls would throw this kind of fits. A few moments later. the 15-year old went after him. Those two stayed in the van and never came back inside.

Their flight was 8 PM so everyone left at around 5:45, and immediately we had to arrange for father's day dinner. Luckily brother had booked a table at M Garden. He's been a regular customer so it wasn't difficult at all (or he booked early, or mom talked to him when I was gone). Eating out twice on the same day, and both Chinese food, was very heavy on the stomach.

To finish off, the usual mini fruit tarts at home. Niece N immediately went for my Pinkys. I had (still have) work-in-progress stuff on the desk and had to keep an eye on her. Meanwhile, told brother and sis-in-law the recent "police incident". I had doubts about our case manager's abilities, but they though the incident might help as it should have left a record. We'll see.