Take the #7 Challenge!

So here's the skinny... it's summer and my wife and daughter have just flown off to Hawaii for a week.  Since it's July, we've had lots of opportunities to spend time with friends - enjoying BBQ or beers or Bloody Marys depending on the time of day and the phase of the moon.  Invariably the topic of the pending trip would come up and my wife and daughter would excitedly run through the itinerary, regaling their captive audience with ambitions of fair weather, lazy days on the beach, zip lines through forest canopies, and drinks served with yellow umbrellas and reckless abandon.  My daughter is five.  Her drinks will likely be served with yellow umbrellas and a more mindful form of abandon... barefoot abandon perhaps?  Anyhow, after the basic narrative was over, there would always be a big pause as the audience sat glossy eyed and wistful - and then someone would eventually turn to me and say, "So what are you going to do?"

The mind races... the heart bumps up just a bit in contemplation of the blank slate of potential self-guided hijinks ahead... and then I'd just say, "I dunno... maybe get some yard work done?"  The look of disappointment on their collective faces was immediate, but then followed shortly thereafter with those accusatory sideways glances of "yah... right!"  My friends... just who do they think I am?

So then one time I answered, "I'm going to find THE BEST #7 IN TOWN."  That immediately caught their attention and shut them up.  And now I had an audience of my own in which to regale with tales of grandiose ambition.  Off the cuff, I further elaborated that I would spend seven nights in a row ordering the #7 from random Chinese restaurants that I'd never been to before, and then maybe blog about it or something.  This seemed like a good plan.  I could tell by the way they were looking at me.

As this culinary adventure developed in my skull, I came to a few realizations:  1)  I'd have to start by going to a Chinese restaurant that I'd been to before and order a #7 that I'd already eaten so I could have a benchmark, and  2)  By the end of the week, it's highly likely that my entire diet will have consisted of nothing but, a) whatever comes in the #7s that I order, b) beer, and c) coffee.  That doesn't really sound like such a bad diet to me, but my wife remains skeptical.