anatomy of a perfect valentine's day

we had a fabulous valentine's day for two important reasons.

one. valentine's day marked the end of our most recent sugar fast. which sounded too depressing so we called it a sugar-free adventure. but it was actually still sort of depressing either way. the end was welcome. we marked it with a whole batch of great-grandma's ginger snaps.

two. AWD has become a master of surprise, and whisked me away for a valentine's day weekend getaway. we ensconced ourselves at the black horse inn, a charming civil war-era building turned into a bed and breakfast in the heart of virginia farm and horse country. we had breakfast made for us every morning, and our room had a jacuzzi and a fireplace.

i'll leave it at that.

we explored the little town of warrenton (old houses and the old jail museum, plus loads of delicious food), and spent a day at the dulles extension of the air and space museum learning all about the discovery space shuttle and other wonders.

the only bad thing was that it ended.

anatomy of a perfect weekend

start with chinese takeout on a rainy friday night. crab meat wontons are a must.

watch we are marshall, which you thought would be lame, but which is actually pretty good. warning: it will make you miss coach taylor and the dillon panthers really bad.

on a rainy saturday morning, sleep in. eat breakfast in bed. take a nap. listen to car talk. eat lunch in bed. take another nap.

clean the house (way more fun with two of you!), hit the grocery store (way more fun with two of you!) and then head to the movies. sadly, not even bruce willis can save a good day to die hard.

on a sunny sunday, have lunch with friends, bake a big cake and watch the oscars.

the only bad thing about this weekend was that it ended.

from the heart of my bottom

one thing i loved about japan was that any western thing japanese people tried to do was always a little bit, well, off. like signs on people's doors that said "sweet home sweet" and signs in shop windows that said things like, "thank you our customers, from the heart of our bottom."

so this valentine's day equivalent ritual of men screaming things they love about their wives from a stage in a parking lot is, well, perfect.

read the article here.

and watch the whole spectacle below. even if you can't understand what they're saying, it's pretty awesome.




the universal favorite seems to be: i'm sorry i've gained so much weight over the last seven years, but that's because the meals you cook are so delicious.

i can see that line being shouted in my not-so-distant future, too.

we can cry about it, or we can dance about it

there have been a lot of gray and rainy days around here lately. my routine on gray and rainy days is to get up, go to work, come home, get in bed with all my clothes on and wait for AWD to come home. and when he gets home i say, i hope you want to make your own dinner or go out, 'cause i got nothin'. or some variation on that general theme.

but today, the sun was shining and it was warm and pretty much nothing could shake the good mood i was in. aren't those days so wonderful? and they probably wouldn't be as wonderful without the gray and rainy, so i guess i'll say i am grateful for those days, too.

which is good news because the pernicious "wintery mix" is in the forecast for tomorrow.

also, if you are looking for something besides sunshine to put you in an intractably good mood, i also recommend this pep talk from kid president. it was all over facebook a week or so ago so you've probably already seen it. but, if not, enjoy! (and if so, enjoy!)

welcome back

let's just say january was nothing to write home about.

it was cold. we were sick. we watched the inauguration on tv. we watched downton abbey online. we gave up sugar (again). and we spent every saturday house hunting with our realtor, until what can only be described as a psychotic break(down) (mine) led us to conclude that a break from that particular project might be in order. i tell you what, nothing will make you feel more broke and hopeless than searching for a house in northern virginia. but now we sleep in on saturdays, so i am much happier camper.

and february has been off to a pretty good start. i won $500 in a drawing at work. we are still watching downton abbey. the end of our sugar-free adventure is in sight. and so is valentine's day, which AWD always does up in romantic style. plus, the days are already getting longer and sometimes it's light when i leave the office. what joy!

so, i think it's safe to say i'm back. and glad about it.