My favorite day of the year. Today is the first day of summer, the Summer Solstice, the day with the most daylight hours of the year.

Which means tomorrow is my least favorite day of the year. I dislike tomorrow because it is a traitor to the warmth and sunlight and plants. It starts us on that slippery slope to winter, all by ticking just one minute of daylight from our quota. It feels like we just got to the good stuff and we have to start thinking about shovels and coats and gloves.

[Well maybe not quite yet.]

Gary drove Katie back home yesterday and then stopped by the house and the condo to make sure we had everything out of there. I went over after work and we drove back down to the shore and went to dinner at a place in Margate called "Steve and Cookie's". Given our recent dining out experiences, we were not anticipating much and were pleasantly suprised.

The host led us to a table inside near the bar. A bit dark, but OK. As we began to sit, he said, "Oh, there's a table near the window that just opened up. Would you prefer to sit there?" We said yes and ended up with a great view of the marina across the road.

While we were driving to the restaurant, Gary commented that so few restaurants serve half bottles of wine, which would be great for two people for dinner. A whole bottle is too much and the wines by the glass are generally not that great. We looked at the wine list and there was a section with about twenty nice half bottles, included an excellent Robert Sinskey Meritage, which we ordered.

I had a great house salad with gorgonzola, walnuts and dried cranberries to start, with bouillabaisse as my entree. Gary had steamed clams and a terrific (huge) "cowboy" steak. All were very good. We even had dessert - a warm brownie pie.

[We'll be back.]

Uncle Dick's service will be on Saturday morning. Mom and Dad have decided to fly back for the funeral. I think they land tomorrow morning sometime. Gary and I fly out on Friday afternoon. I got us a hotel in LA for Friday night. We'll go to the service and Debbie's house afterwards, and hopefully will get a chance to visit Aunt Mur before our red-eye flight back to Philly.

[Quick trip.]

This is a cool story:

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Police say three lions rescued a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage, chasing off her abductors and guarding her until police and relatives tracked her down in a remote corner of Ethiopia.

The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions chased them away and guarded her for half a day before her family and police found her, Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo said Tuesday by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, some 560 kilometers (348 miles) west of the capital, Addis Ababa.

"They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Wondimu said, adding he did not know whether the lions were male or female.

"Everyone ... thinks this is some kind of miracle, because normally the lions would attack people," Wondimu said.

Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert with the rural development ministry, said that it was likely that the young girl was saved because she was crying from the trauma of her attack.

"A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they (the lions) didn't eat her," Williams said. "Otherwise they probably would have done."

[Who needs tigers and bears?]

Quote du jour:

"Fear an ignorant man more than a lion."

-- Turkish proverb

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