Duck! Always ordered duck if it was on the menu. He also loved salmon, turkey burgers, and the dessert cart at Le Bec Fin (where you could have as much as you liked!) - and he was especially happy if they had the "floating island" (some kind of meringue in grand marnier sauce), though chocolate mousse cake was his favorite on any dessert menu.

My dad was bipolar, and he fought as hard as he could against it every single day. It ultimately beat him, despite having a dedicated family and other resources at his disposal. I am devastated that my smart, strong, loving father was constantly eclipsed by these demons, and our family often felt helpless in the face of it. He alienated friends, was erratic in dealing with his affairs, and vacillated between the highest of highs and lowest of lows - at times hourly - but at the heart of it, my dad was still my dad, and as powerless as I often felt in getting through to him, sometimes, I did, and it was important to me that he never felt alone. Mental illness is complex, frustrating, distressing, exhausting - for the person suffering, and for those trying to be there as a support structure. He took his own life, with no warning or cry for help, and I will always question whether I could have done more, how I could have prevented this, why he chose this path, even though I know there are no answers that will give me peace.

His family. The stock market. Reading books. Debating politics. Throwing parties. Golf!

* When I was little, asking to go "flying," and he would lay down and pick me up over his chest and spin me back and forth like a windshield wiper while saying, "Flying, Flying!"
* Having Santa Claus come to our house every Christmas Eve when we were little to let him know our last-minute Christmas wishes.
*Making pancakes for him one weekend when I was little, and trying to be fancy flipping them onto his plate - and flipping them onto the floor. I started crying, so he ate them anyway to make me feel better.
*Summers at the Greenbrier.
*Getting really dressed up as a family and going to eat at Monte Carlo Living Room in Philly on Saturday nights.
*Picking Bobby and me up in Haddonfield on Wednesdays and taking us to TCBY for an after-school snack - and for that snack, he would order a Belgian waffle with two different kinds of yogurt and all sorts of toppings (I remember wondering if anyone else in the TCBY franchise ever ordered that menu item!!).
*Throwing me a surprise Sweet 16 birthday party under the auspices that it was a surprise birthday party for his mother - he really got me!!!
*Teaching me to drive stick shift when I was 16 - and making me sit through a million green lights getting honked at as I couldn't get out of first gear - I kept crying and begging him to get me out of the intersection, and he refused (one of the few times in my life he refused me :) )
*Working at his office every Saturday morning - I HATED getting up so early (6am!) AND cleaning the x-ray processor (ugh!), but loved having that time with him - and going to get ice cream afterwards most weeks, where I would usually get orange sherbet, and he would get some crazy ass flavor combination in a waffle cone.
*Being there through boyfriend troubles and breakups through high school; and flying down to UNC to be with me after a particularly nasty one.
*Throwing me a blow-out birthday party every year in college.
*Going to see the Tar Heels play basketball at the Dean Dome (and coming down to a game once and being ok NOT going because I wanted to study!).
*His first time in Paris, and I found a restaurant on top of a building with beautiful views, where their specialty was duck! You got to keep a tag with the duck's number and origin info - he loved that experience so much.
*Throwing me birthday parties even after I graduated college - and always getting a terrible comedian or mentalist. He LOVED mentalists and comedians.
*Hosting my fairytale wedding weekend with multiple events over four days. Of course, we had to have a comedian at the golf tournament he organized :)
*Surprising him with a Crystal Cruise to Alaska for their 25th wedding anniversary with all of the savings I had from babysitting and teaching spinning in college
*Going to Miami with my mom, dad, and Nick for my birthday, and my dad ordering such a nice bottle of wine that the manager came over and kicked our waiter off our table to serve it! My dad then had the waiter come back to share a glass with us while the manager watched (not to be a jerk, but because he was that kind of guy, our waiter was really nice, and my dad loved sharing great wine with anyone around him who treated him kindly).
*Going to Disney World with my parents when my kids were little - I loved going to Disney with my parents as a kid. My dad's first time going to Disney was after he and my mom got married, and I remember him telling me how excited he was to finally be able to afford to go. I am really glad we got to have that time and that trip together.
*Chasing my kids around my house when they were toddlers - they would all laugh so much.
*Being at our house a few Christmases ago, and being really thirsty in the morning, and helping himself to a bottle of water in the fridge. When Nick and I came into the kitchen, he commented that our water tasted really strange. Nick and I looked at each other and then asked, "What water?" He said, "The water in the door of the fridge." We didn't have any bottled water in the fridge - he had chugged half a bottle of sake! At 7am!

Being my best friend and strongest supporter, and truly believing I could do anything. I miss him.

Generous. Sensitive. Fun-Loving. Charismatic. Smart. Hard-Working.

Beets. Waiting in line (or waiting, period). Laziness.

That everything is going to be fine - we could have figured everything out - I wish you had given us more time.

Traveling (he loved cruises), working out (especially spinning), golfing (when he was playing well), driving sports cars, going to fancy restaurants for dinner, drinking Scotch, talking on the phone with his family and friends (for hours on end!).

His favorite song was "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. He loved Carly Simon's music too.

His favorite movies were "It's a Wonderful Life," "Night Shift," and "Animal House" (he laughed so hard the first time he saw it he fell off his bed onto the floor!).

He was a voracious reader, and loved to read both fiction and non-fiction (especially historical non-fiction about world leaders). He was really into "Game of Thrones" (the TV show and the books).

Our first "date" when I was a little girl was to see "Fox and the Hound" (which is why we named our dog Copper).