Back Story: Gong hey fat choy!

Tomorrow is the Chinese New Year. This evening, we will be enjoying a traditional New Year dinner at the Sunflower in Columbus. The Sunflower is probably the best dim sum restaurant in Ohio. We have formed that opinion after having eaten in dozens of Chinese restaurants in Dayton, Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. There are others that are very good, but the Sunflower, located on Sawmill Road up near the Columbus Zoo, is the best we have found. We are pretty picky when it comes to dim sum.

Tonight we will not be having dim sum, but instead a special New Year's prix fixe dinner of about 10 dishes. We have invited as much family as we have in the area, our kids and our daughter's in-laws. But, since everyone is going, we are faced with the problem of "who's going to watch the dog?" The plan we came up with was to be to send her to our daughter May's house in Fairborn and leave her with her cousin dog Rhesus - a bit iffy, but probably okay. Best laid plans...

So, our dog gets sick last night. I had caught her chewing on a black walnut she found in our back yard yesterday morning. I suspect that to be the cause, but it took about 12 hours to take effect. She started vomiting about 8:30 last night and threw up a couple times until we put her to bed around 11:00. At 6:15 this morning, she was at it again and then again at 8:30. Have you ever noticed how these things always happen on a weekend, when it is difficult to get help?

It's hard to get a straight answer whenever you ask a Chinese person the literal meaning of "gong hey fat choy." The vague translation is good luck with making money in the new year, something the 99% may be able to identify with, as in "Good luck with that." In any event, such a materialistic approached to ringing in the new year doesn't seem to provide for wishing one good health. So instead of "gong hey fat choy," today I am telling Suki "sun tee chien kong," good health in the new year, my little fire-breather.