<p>DH wants a pint of Kozy Shak Tapioca pudding! I want a dozen chocolate covered strawberries from Wayne’s Market!</p>
<p>CBBB - got my H the Planet Earth DVD’s for Christmas.
He’s probably sending flowers to me at work. I’m cooking good steaks. I made a card on our new color printer - a shot of us in '74 in his college apartment, I’m embroidering flowers on his jeans. He has a huge blond afro. He still makes my heart go pitty-pat.</p>
<p>His present? My present? Paying tuition.
We’ve been married 30+ years, and quit buying V-Day presents some years ago. I did buy myself a beautiful $2 bouquet while grocery shopping after work today.</p>
<p>We don’t really “do” V-Day. H & 15 year old S planned to be in Canada (snowboarding), and I was going to paint a bedroom. Yep, we’ve been married a LONG time! Unfortunately, though, H is in bed with a 102 degree fever. No V-Day or snowboarding, I’m afraid. A few years ago, the ladies in D’s middle school office were horrified when I told them I got a Swiffer for V-Day … but I loved it!!</p>
<p>I bought H some Harry & David truffles & some pistachios, as well as some Hot Tamales candy (the big box). If he had a chance to hit the drug store before he got sick, I will probably get a Whitman’s candy sampler. It’s all good by me!</p>
<p>I got him tickets to a Boston Bruins game and a big foam bear claw to wave at the game. This is the first surprise present I’ve ever managed to get him – usually he manages to guess what I’ve gotten before the holiday.</p>
<p>We tend to do silly presents for Valentine’s Day rather than romantic ones. Last year, my Valentine’s Day present was a plastic giraffe glued to skis (a “ski-raffe”). I fully expect another sports-playing plastic animal this year. :D</p>
<p>We agreed to go out to dinner together sometime this coming weekend rather than tomorrow. Then he threw out his back. So all he’s eating is painkillers. It’s good to be flexible about dates. </p>
<p>So for romance I’ll probably bring him the telephone, tie his shoes, stuff like that.</p>
<p>For anyone reading this who might have lost a love in the past year, I’m also sorry and hope that you have happy memories to hold.</p>
<p>I also got 2 pots of cymbidium, each pot has 8 stems of flowers(pink and white). It will last me for months. I’m sure I will get dozens of red roses as usual. I will make H a nice dinner instead of eat out(can’t stand waiting in line).</p>
<p>I am taking a mid term in soils tommorrow night and my 17 yrold is leaving for Ghana Fri morning ( with a cold) so I am getting my H a box of xmas sale candy I got at the drugstore today when I was picking up my daughters sudafed that is kept behind the counter/ her malaria meds & stuff for when she gets other horrible things ( that then say- stay out of the sun- in ghana?)</p>
<p>( Harriet, most orchids grow in tropical rain forests- however a small number also grow in temperate- they are difficult buggers)</p>
<p>( My H was out hunting for a V-day present today he says- but it isn’t on sale yet-)</p>
<p>[I told him he could pre-order it- but I guess it really wasn’t what he was looking for](<a href=“http://www.apple.com/macbookair/software.html”>http://www.apple.com/macbookair/software.html</a>) ;)</p>
<p>We don’t really do a Valentines day “mushy stuff” anymore. My H gave me an orchid from Trader Joe’s 5 years ago, and it bloomed twice that year, then dried out and almost died. I re-potted it and plunked the pot on my north-facing kitchen windowsill thinking “fat chance”, but it sprouted new leaves and bloomed again around V-Day! It keeps on blooming every February. I forget to water it and barely fertlize it, but it feels fine. I guess its roots catch the nutrients from the smells of cooking food! LOL! Soon I will have pretty purple flowers to look at while I peel potatoes or cut peppers.</p>
<p>Heartfelt Valentine’s Card, courtesy of Hallmark. We actually spend a lot of time searching just for the right card for each special occasion. I will get a Garfield stuffed toy along with mine - long-standing tradition and I now have quite a collection. H gave me a potted plant for our first Valentine (along with a nice gift) but the poor plant died so fast, that was the end of that idea.</p>
<p>We couldn’t get reservations for this weekend, so in a couple weeks we’re spending the weekend at the Polynesian at Disney, eating at Victoria and Alberts and going to Cirque de Soleil. Better late than never.</p>
<p>By NEXT Valentine’s Day, maybe the builders will be out of our house. Talk about dragging on. I’ll make either salmon or shrimp–something pink. We have a French bakery nearby, so I’ll probably get a box full of wonderful little desserts.</p>
<p>Hubby has been hooked on Shiraz since a work stint down under, so I try to find different brands…his birthday was yesterday, had the Great Wall of Chocolate at PF Changs for that…</p>
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<p>I have been to PF Changs twice, but what is the Great Wall of Chocolate? We never looked at their dessert menu.</p>
<p>DH came home yesterday with a beautiful Azalea plant…very pretty. He said “This is so much like the one I got you last Valentine’s day. I thought it was so pretty.” Of course I thanked him…I didn’t have the “heart” to tell him that he bought me the azalea on mother’s day!! Didn’t matter…it’s a very pretty plant. I hope I can keep it alive until all of the snow melts and I can plant it outdoors.</p>
<p>for my absolutely wonderful wife i bought a card, a box of Giardelli chocolate and am making her a cheeseburger with seeded bun and tater tots for dinner. Hey thats what she wants and it is V-day!!! Last nite it was Balti chicken so we do eat health on most occasions.</p>
<p>We don’t really “do” V-day either. We skip on a lot of the “present buying” occasions. But we both have tomorrow off, so we’re heading down the shore tonight for a three day weekend. A walk on the beach will be our present–can’t wait.</p>
<p>For Valentine’s day-weekend I am volunteering to help my husband clean out his “side” of the basement - he’ll be happy to not have to do it by himself and I’ll be happy it’s done!!</p>
<p>We don’t usually exchange gifts, besides maybe a nice cooked dinner or a lunch out …but I do give my kids gifts, cause I love to buy them things!</p>
<p>A heart rate monitor! And a book I’m recommending to everyone: Younger Next Year, about staying fit (or getting fitter after age 45 or so).</p>
<p>I thought this was brilliant, but my teenagers all snickered and asked if it had some kind of alarm that would go off when DH is reclining on the couch and his heart rate dips into the 40’s. Hmph. Everyone wants to borrow it, though, so maybe not such a bad thing.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, this group has so many great ideas!</p>
<p>My husband and I are going out for a nice dinner.</p>
<p>Last week I organized my husband’s wine collection–putting all the cases in one cool, unfinished room in the basement–saying it was an early valentine’s gift. BUT that was really just the beginning of his gift for his birthday next week. He leaves town for a week on Saturday and I am poised to insulate the interior walls of the cool room (60.8 degrees–hoping insulation knocks it down a tad and makes it even more stable), drywall, paint, install two new wine bins, unload and organize the wine into them, move the few already loaded wine racks, and establish a barcode inventory system for him (or at least buy the system and get it started). I may not be posting much next week…</p>
<p>YouDon’tSay, a blood pressure kit is not lame at all. I think it’s practical, thoughtful and it could be fun learning how to use it together!</p>