Just last month I wrote about my Dad and how very, very fortunate I am to have a father like him. An amazingly kind, gentle man.

My Dad did not got to a famous university. He had to work. And work he did, doing everything he could to provide the best possible education for his children so that they could do what ever they chose to do in life. From my earliest childhood memories, I remember him teaching me the importance of a good education. I remember being about five and throwing a Dr Seuss book across my room in a nasty snit. My Dad made me pick up the book and apologize to it before I put it back in my bookshelf. Books were knowledge and you absolutely must respect knowledge.

When I was a little girl, my Dad would take out the painted white baseboards in our houses and put in beautiful oak ones he had prepared. He made our coffee table and he made my mother the most elegant jewelery box that I still use every day.

He would spend entire weekends making pickles and canning spaghetti sauces, teaching the importance of natural, whole foods that are not loaded with preservatives.

When he wasn’t working, or in his shop, he’d be out in his garden, sometimes forcing us to join him in pruning, clipping, weeding, mowing. He has finally retired, but he still gardens, growing beautiful flowers and wonderful fruits and vegetables to enjoy.

When my girls were newly born he went out of his way to bring me cases of strawberries and dungeness crab salad from Swann’s in San Francisco.

When he started to travel, he tried to learn French. He mastered ordering frites like a pro but he created quite the stir one evening when he ordered his steak bien cul, instead of bien cuit (he wanted his meat well done, but asked for it to be Good Ass)!

Today is my Dad’s 70th birthday…..

HAPPY

BIRTHDAY

DAD

and a very joyeux anniversaire.

The girls and I adore you and love you very much.