Son of a Butch - Father's Day Is Coming & I'll Show Love Wherever I Can

Crandall's been up for a new challenge during this visit home to his parents. How? He's told the kid, Chitunga, you take my car during the day and I'll stay home to work.

I've been working. I've been running. I've been helping out wherever I can. I can't do anything about parental squabbling, aggravation, miscommunication, and frustration. They've had over 50 years of this...

...or can I? Long story short: dinner planned for Country Pizza, but I've been eating too much pizza (because it is a CNY norm). I had dinner plans with an old friend from Sudan and dad was at Chubby's. When he came home, he was hungry and mom wasn't. Chitunga was still at work. Dad wanted to know what was for dinner and I told him he had to wait. He responded, "What?" and I said, "Wait." He then said, "No. I don't like the weight of my hearing aids because they make me itch."

Okay, I'll take that. It was close enough.

But he was hungry and I didn't know how to respond: Option 1 was to have him come to dinner with Marino, Chitunga and I but he would have to wait (WEIGHT!) until 7:45 p.m. - he wasn't having that. I called Cynde wondering if they were still doing pizza, but they opted on McDonald's night because Mike had a toothache and Nikki was going to be late (LEIGHT!). I then asked my father (I'm a Son of a Butch), "If you could have anything for dinner in the world, what would that be?" (I repeated it four times so he could hear me. He responded, "Jesus Christ. She doesn't like anything I like to eat so forget about it."

I pressed further.

"Dad. If you could have your dream dinner, what would it be?"

Like a 3 year old admitting to his secret lollipop-flavor desire, my father looked up with pouted lips and said, "I'd like what you like to eat. Shrimp and scallops over pasta." I do like to eat that, so I said, "I'm on it." Mom responds, "Wait. What? Why?" Chitunga says he doesn't want to go with me, but I head out to Wegman's. For my non-NY readers, Wegman's is basically heaven on earth in the form of a grocery store (those of us who know the store, but who live in non-Wegman's states, understand the joy of going to Wegman's as much as possible).

I drove to Wegman's, went to the fresh Sea Food display and bought $15 worth of fresh shrimp and scallops. I picked up linguini, too. I came home and said, "Chitunga, off the couch. You're learning how to cook, " which he then obliged and we started with how to boil water for pasta. I then sautéed the scallops and shrimp, brought them out to the grill, and barbecued them to go with the linguini.

Note: Water doesn't boil on medium. That's the next lesson for Chitunga.

Once the water was put on high and the pasta cooked, my father received his dinner. He loved every bite. My mom didn't have to cook. We didn't have to hear any bitching. Mom was given a bucket of Magnum ice-cream for her dinner. And the boy and I drove to meet our friend Marino for dinner.

Wola! That's love, Amalfi Drive style.

Two hours later when we returned I asked dad, "Did you like your dinner?" He responded, "What?" A little louder, "Did you like your dinner?" "No, I am not a Chubby's winner. Someone else got the pool."

He then said that he wanted more of the pasta and fish, but I wrapped the rest in Tupperware, so he'd have to eat it for lunch tomorrow.

I'll finger-lick, air-strike this as a win!