A Note About Dave's Blog

At the beginning of the year I (Dave) had started my own blog. It was meant to be a site where a few invited friends of mine could visit and discuss certain topics. I thought I took steps to keep it private, but somehow I missed the fact it showed up under Shelley's list of blogs. Within the past two weeks I have had a few people tell me they read my blog, which was a surprise until I learned how easy it was to access! I debated whether to shift the site's purpose to being open to anyone to read and decided I would try it. My first post after making this decision was written Friday, the 28th. The posts before that date were odds and ends left over from discussions before I was aware of its general availability. I tend to be a somewhat cerebral guy when I write and so if that is your sort of thing I hope you enjoy reading it. www.davidcapener.blogspot.com

Mamma Mia, here I come!

I had lunch with a friend, and fellow Zumba instructor last week and she and I decided we would should have a girls trip to Broadway one of these days to see a show together. We also talked about how I really like ABBA...she has seen the musical Mamma Mia, based on the songs of ABBA and LOVED it so we decided we would see that together some time. Long story short, we're going THIS Sunday to the matinee performance. That's the nice thing about having husbands who work in the City. They can just swing by the box office and get good deals on good seats and save $$ over buying on-line tickets. Anyhoo, so I am very excited about that. I really don't know anything about this show but I figure how can you NOT have fun at a show where people look like this.
In addition to the show, we decided to go into the City early to attend a Zumba class given by another fellow instructor and friend, Ben Byrd. It will be at the world famous Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. So now I'll be able to say I "shaked my groove thang' at the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. Who knows, maybe they'll ask me to join their dance company and tour the world to share my expertise and unbridled talent. ;o) Hey, I'm sure that could happen...
p.s. Even though we "saved" money on our tickets, I'm still counting on certain people to send me birthday money to help cover the costs...hint, hint. You know who you are.

Tide Talking Stain

Hopefully you already saw my favorite Super Bowl commercial from this earlier post. I had way too much free time on the computer today and decided to do this:

Great use of spare time, eh?!

One more...

I just found one more random sampling:
I found these tags on the floor of the garage yesterday as I was digging through boxes looking for Easter baskets, etc. Somehow they had fallen out of the trash can. They are from last Fall when Dave "processed" John Mayer's watch at work. His particular watch costs around $250,000. It looks like this, if you're interested. No, just kidding; it really looks like this. And it really does cost that much.

Random Sampler

This post is full of random stuff, daily drivel, nothing important really. Just some things I keep forgetting to blog about.
Last weekend, over dinner, we were discussing Dave's upcoming trip to Switzerland. He will be gone for a month. I am very anxious about this as I do not do well as a single mom, much less a single working mom with no family and few friends nearby. But I digress...
We've been talking openly about this trip for awhile but for some reason, just this past Saturday, it finally sunk in with Peter. We were eating dinner and talking about the trip and that little light bulb went off over Peter's head and he said to Dave, "You're leaving for a whole month?!?!" Then things spiraled downward from there. You see, when Peter gets sad, truly sad, it is a most pathetic sight. It makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time. First his eyes become HUGE and the lower edges brim with tears. Then, I swear, his entire face slides slowly south. It's like his whole face collapses with sadness, in slow motion, and then the alligator tears start flowing. It's the saddest thing to watch so you feel like crying, too, but you have to laugh to keep from crying and also because it's so darn cute. Then he thinks you're laughing AT him and he buries his face in his hands and sobs harder which makes you feel like a total heel. Anyway, enough about me. Here's Peter AFTER he was done with his crying jag. He actually removed himself from the dinner table and I sat on the couch and held him for awhile.
Here's Dave trying to finish his dinner and feeling like a heel:

I forgot to mention what Peter said right after, "You're leaving for a whole month?!?!" He said, "But who's going to help me play Zelda?!" Zelda, as many of you know, is a video game and Dave "helps" Peter with the difficult parts. I certainly can't do it. I know nothing about video games. I can't even watch them because I get motion sick when I do. We're hoping Sam and Caleb will be able to help Peter with Zelda next month...

Moving on, see how unhappy I look in this picture?
I am unhappy because my Schick Quattro for women (razor) fell in the shower the other day and broke so I had to buy a new one. No, just kidding, that is not why I'm unhappy. I'm unhappy because WHY WHY WHY do they package these things so that you can't get the darn thing OPEN?!?!? I can't tell you how long it took me to get that razor out of the package. And I'm a smart person. And strong too. I kept looking at the package thinking maybe there were instructions somewhere that I was missing. Surely I missed something somewhere; it surely can't be THIS hard. Alas, YES, it IS this hard. A few weeks ago I was trying to open a package of batteries and I just about had to get a blow torch to get a one stupid battery out. And don't even get me started on children's toys. How they twist-tie every single component into the box..."Merry Christmas kids! You can play with your new toy in about 2 hours when we finally get it out of the package!"...ugh...

Moving on...Sam had to do a report on Alabama recently. He had to make a poster which he, unfortunately, put off until the night before it was due. Here he is at 10:30pm:I was really torn with wanting to help him with it or let him suffer the full consequences of procrastinating and just go to bed. I figured he's in 5th grade, this might be a good time to learn this. To his credit, he never once complained, whined, or asked for help. Unfortunately, this made me want to help him more. I did stay up to show him how to try to make his lettering evenly-spaced and straight, but he didn't let me help him color or anything at all. When I offered, he said "Well, we're really supposed to do all the work ourselves." SO, I went to bed. I heard him go to bed finally at midnight. The next morning I thought I'd be dragging a tired, cranky 5th grader out of bed but he got himself up and ready fo school as usual. Then I asked to see his poster. I half-expected a sloppy job but then he showed me this:

I was really impressed! I thought he did a great job and can hardly believe he stayed up to color every inch of that darn thing. Hopefully his teacher will agree...

All the kids have chores to do around the house. One of Peter's is to take the disinfectant wipes and wipe down the bathroom counters and sink. I think he actually only cleans the faucet so we are still working on the rest...anyway, the other day as he was cleaning the faucet he said to me, "You know Mom, if we used CLOROX wipes, we'd have a streak-free shine on the faucet. See how there are streaks left on the faucet? See? With CLOROX wipes there aren't any streaks."
So here's a picture of the non-Clorox/generic brand wipes we use from Wal-Mart. Warning: these disinfectant wipes have been known to leave streaks on faucets.
I'm thinking I let them watch way too much television...or at least too many commercials...
Speaking of Peter, this morning I was making breakfast and he shuffled into the kitchen looking sad and forlorn. I think he even sniffled. I asked him what was wrong and he gestured towards the window and pointed outside.
"THIS" he said.
I quickly looked out he window but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
"Um, what?" I said.
"LOOK!" he exclaimed.
I looked outside again. I thought maybe there was some kind of catastrophe going on that I somehow missed. I still didn't see anything. I tentatively asked again,
"What is it, honey? What's wrong?"
As his eyes filled with tears and his face slowly slid south (oh no!) he waved his arm towards the window again and finally wailed,
"THIS IS SPRING?!?!"
Then the light bulb went off over MY head and I realized he was referring to the weather. The cold weather, that is. Plus it is very windy today which makes it feel much colder.
So apparently they've been learning, in Kindergarten, all about Spring and the first day of Spring, etc., and what that entails. I think he honestly thought he would wake up this morning and put on a t-shirt and shorts...all the flowers would be blooming and butterflies would gaily fly by his window. Then we'd go outside and bask in the warm sunlight as we blew bubbles and played hopscotch with sidewalk chalk. Uh, yeah, NOT in New Jersey. Poor kid. I felt really bad for him. Somehow I was able to distract him with breakfast. I, myself, am easily distracted by food so it works for now.

One last random funny:

Is it Spring?

Although they are talking snow for tonight, we enjoyed 50 degree weather yesterday. The kids actually played outside a lot and they weren't even wearing coats! We came across this lonely little crocus smack-dab in the middle of our yard. I'm not sure how it ended up there and I'm even more amazed that it hasn't been stepped on or picked. I'm hoping it's a sign that Spring will actually arrive soon. Maybe even on March 21st?Can you find me?

Frozen in Grand Central Station

I thought this was a really cool "prank" in Grand Central Station. A very simple idea, but probably took some planning to pull off. Wish I had been there when it happened.

Lost in NYC

Last Saturday I went into the City for more all-day training at New York Sports Club. The training itself was somewhat uneventful. Actually it went really great because only 3 of us showed up (out of 10) so we got lots of 1:1 instruction and were able to finish earlier than the eight hours we were scheduled to be there. In case you're wondering what the heck I was doing there, I was finishing up my pilates reformer training as I will start teaching my own reformer classes at NYSC starting next week. It's kinda like pilates personal training on a machine/contraption that looks like a torturing device. I love it! The best part about teaching it is that I don't have to DO it; so it is not tiring or hard on my knee, obviously.
Anyhoo, I took the bus into the City and then had to walk a few blocks through Times Square to get to the right subway line. I wasn't sure how many blocks I needed to go so I was actually just standing at a corner wondering to myself, "Where is that darn subway? Where, oh where, could it be? It's got to be around here somewhere. Surely it's close by. Maybe I should check my map..." when I finally just looked up and saw this right in front of me:
Yeah...doesn't get much more obvious than THAT. At least I hadn't stooped so low as to ask someone for help. I would've marked myself as a tourist and instantly alerted every pick-pocket within a two block radius of my presence.

Later, after my training ended early, I decided to run a few errands. I'm a pro at the subway now (with the exception of finding it, apparently) so I was all set to jet about the City, by subway, to all my various destinations. There's one problem with going into the City on a weekend, though. They frig with the subway system. Any and all repairs are done during nights and weekends so service can unexpectedly interrupted, thus confusing us New Jersians to no end. Here's a picture of this weekends "service changes":OK, so did you catch all that? Have you figured out, yet, how to get from downtown to the West Village? No?! I know it's hard because you need a #1 red-line train to get there and there are NO #1 trains south of 14th St. on the weekends now. The #1 red-line is the ONLY train that goes to the West Village. (It's very uppity that way). So now you have to catch another train and go north to 14th St. and then go back south on a red-line #2 or #3 until you get remotely close to where you need to go and then you just have to hoof it. (In the pouring rain, by the way). Oh, but wait, as you're going south on the red-line #3 train an announcement is made over the train's P.A. system. It sounds like the teacher on Charlie Brown with a lot of extra static thrown in for good measure. ::static::mwa mwa mwa mwa service change mwa mwa F train mwa mwa the village mwa mwa mwa mwa::more static.
This didn't actually alarm me 'cause I figured I already knew all I needed to know about service changes for that weekend. No #1 train south of 14th street, blah blah blah. I should have been concerned, however, when everyone got off at the next stop except for me and this guy:Instead I was thinking about how thirsty I was and wondering if he would share some of that Gatorade. At the next stop I figured out what was happening as we were no longer even ON the red-line anymore. We were now on an orange line headed East towards Queens. What the-? Are they allowed to do that? What are the people in Queens going to think when a train pulls up with a red #3 on it instead of an orange F? They're gonna think they died and went to heaven 'cause they're not in Queens anymore. There's no red trains in Queens.
Anyway, I said to myself, forget this, I'm outta here. So I jumped off (after one final swig of Gatorade) and decided I would just walk...in the pouring rain with my broken umbrella. I was smack dab in the middle of Greenwich Village (I knew because I was surrounded by all things gay...including, but not limited to The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center with it's rainbow flag and then a terrific shoe store).
But I digress. So I'm in Greenwich Village and I need to get to the West Village so which direction do I need to go? In addition to having difficulty finding obvious subway stations, I am apparently impaired in the ability to know which direction I am facing once I ascend out from the underground subway. I can't tell you how many blocks East I walked, but it was A LOT. (Did I mention the pouring rain or the broken umbrella yet)? I tried to very inconspicuously turn around and head West without anyone noticing what a ditzo I was. I tried to make it look totally natural. I almost considered asking for directions as I suddenly pictured my children at home quietly whimpering and praying, "Please, please help Mummy find her way home..."
Then I walked many many many blocks West (passing all things gay again) to the West Village where I finally reached my destination. I'm sure you're wondering by n0w "WHY did she need to go to the West Village SO badly? WHAT could possibly be SO important? WHY WHY WHY?" If you really know me, you'll already know the answer. I'll give you a hint. One word: chocolate.
For those of you who can't quite make out the picture, it says Jacques Torres Chocolate. It's a delightful place and I strongly encourage you to check it out if you're ever in the Village and all the subway trains are running. My friend, Nichole, introduced me to it last Fall. YEA, Nichole! I burned an extra gazillion calories trying to get to that darned store so I figured I'd better indulge a little extra, right?

My navigation back to Times Square was remarkably uneventful, thank heaven, and I took a couple pictures of the military recruiting center that was bombed just a few days before. As you can see, it was no worse off than before. I don't think that place has every been photographed so much!
Note: I hope I don't offend anyone by the statement: all things gay. It was not meant to offend or be derisive in any way. On the contrary, I really liked being in that area. I was surrounded by great looking guys and terrific shoe stores! Also, I would never, ever, steal a homeless person's Gatorade...or would I...?

Does Size Matter?

Last week, I had an unexpected afternoon all to myself so I took full advantage and went to a mall I'd never been to before. It was HUGE. It had four levels and the usual big name department stores. It also had other big name stores like Target, Home Depot, BJ's (a.k.a. Sam's club), a New York Sports Club, and a LOT of restaurants...all in ONE mall. The best part was it even had a post office store so I could buy my stamps!

Anyway, the whole reason I went there was to go to this store called Steve & Barry's. I had never heard of it before but they sell a lot of workout apparel AND occasionally they decide to make everything in the store only $8.98. Clothes, shoes, heavy winter coats, everything is $8.98. Also, they're the only store to carry the new clothing line "Bitten" by Sarah Jessica Parker. (Normal clothes, not workout clothes). SO, I had to go check it out, naturally!

I was a little disappointed because I found almost NO workout clothes at all. They do have a line of clothing by Venus Williams but none of it would work for me and Zumba. They also carry a lot of collegiate apparel so if you need a sweatshirt with your favorite college team, this is the place to go.

Since I needed a new pair of jeans, I decided to check out Sarah Jessica Parker's line. How could I go wrong there, right? So there's this WALL of jeans, all in these cute white cubicles, you know. Each cubicle wasn't labeled but I think they were supposed to be somewhat categorized...in a perfect world. I decided to try to focus on one "style" at a time. There's the boot cut, flare cut, low rise, mid rise, and a new cut to me: the "boyfriend jean". I'm still not sure what that means, I didn't try on the boyfriend jeans. I knew I didn't want anything really low rise and I stuck to boot cut instead of flare because SJP's jeans didn't come in flare. I assumed that that meant that flare was out and boot cut is back.

So now I'm looking through the cubicles for mid-rise boot cut jeans and realize I have no idea what size to get. The jeans I was wearing, which fit snug straight out of the dryer say size 11. But I also have a pair of jean/capris at home that are size 6 and are too loose. I held up a size 10 and it looked like it might be too big. I spent a LOT of time digging through for a size 8. OH, and then I have to find a size 8 regular (length) instead of short or long length. And once I thought I had the right pair, I'd look at it and find something wrong, like it was actually the "boyfriend cut" or they were capris or there were rhinestones on the back pockets. Suddenly my nice relaxing afternoon of shopping is getting very stressful. Long story short: after spending all that time searching for the right style and size, turns out in THIS brand I wear a size four!?!? What?! I haven't worn a size four since...well, I never remember wearing a size four. Ever. I think I skipped right to a 7 in junior high and I'm certainly not thinner now than I was then.

I'm not bringing this all up to brag about being a size four 'cause, seriously folks, I am NOT a size four. Today I'm wearing my 11's. I'm just sayin' that we need to somehow standardize all this sizing nonsense in the U.S. It makes for a very stressful afternoon for me. (The only thing more stressful is bathing suit shopping. Ugh)! And what am I supposed to say when someone asks me what size I wear? Am I supposed to tell them I'm somewhere between a four and an eleven? That sounds ridiculous! I guess I'll just stick with saying, "Medium".

p.s. I DID buy the size four, mid-rise, boot cut in case any of you are wondering. I already have a chocolate stain on one thigh. Sigh...alas, they only cost $8.98 so who cares?!

Favorite SuperBowl commercial

I never watch the Super Bowl. I don't usually even know who's playing in it. This year I knew the Giants were in it because everybody here in NJ seems to claim the Giants as their team...since NJ doesn't actually have a team. Anyway, I actually watched the last 11 minutes of the game this year and if you watched it, you know the last 11 minutes was the best, most exciting part of the whole game! I really turned it on just to watch the commercials. Here's my favorite one. Dave about bust a gut watching this over and over.

My purse threw up

All right, I've been tagged in this little cyber-game where you have to spill your guts purse and show the world what's in it. 'Cause you all have been DYING to know what I carry in my purse, right? Of course you have.
So Steph tagged me and she was previously tagged by a gal named Carissa. Here's the pictures that they posted of their purse contents.Anyone see anything wrong with these pictures? Are they really being honest with us in our purse voyeurism? I could be wrong, but I think they may have been cheating. Here's what my contents look like:Now THIS is more like it. This is honesty, people...
OK, OK, I think I see their point. There's no way you can see what's in my purse this way. So, after tossing out all the receipts, half used Kleenexes, and empty gum wrappers we now have this:

• 13 ballpoint pens, one pencil, one orange highlighter (why?), and one black Sharpie
• my inhaler, which I didn't even know was in there but now I'm comforted to know it's there
• a pack of playing cards, never opened
• a stack of other people's business cards, in case I suddenly need my dentist's phone number
• a NYC subway map
• the to/from NYC bus schedule
• a post-it note with names and addresses of all the NYC stores that I wanted to see their Christmas window displays this past season. More importantly, scrawled on the back is the address of an out-of-the-way parking garage in NYC where you can part ALL day on a Saturday for $15!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's a bargain!
• a ridiculously large calculator
• a coupon holder that has all of 3 coupons in it...all for cereal
• a Kleenex packet that I had no idea I had
• a packet of Wet Ones that I didn't know I had, either
• one stick of gum, one tube of chapstick, one Purell hand sanitizer, Avon hand lotion, vanilla brown sugar scented body mist, one Listerine pocket pack
  
• one loose floating dollar bill
• my wallet, very useful, but very old and very ugly
• a box of thumbtacks (I keep these handy so I can post Zumba class flyers wherever I go)
• one 2008 pocket calendar, never opened
• a Blockbuster movie that needs to be mailed or traded in at the store
• a small bar of glycerin soap handed to me outside a boutique in Soho...last Fall.

So, the thing that surprised me was all the stuff that was in there that I didn't know I had. Like the Kleenexes, the inhaler, the $1 bill. These things would've come in handy on multiple occasions had I'd known they were there. And now I know where all the ballpoint pens in the house have been disappearing to.
Notice there are no keys in my purse. Why? I like the thrill and rush of adrenaline when it's time to go somewhere and I have no idea where my keys are. (Ha). Also, I know some of you girls are going to notice the fact that there are no feminine hygiene products in my purse and will say that I'm cheating because I removed them before I took the picture or something. The answer is NO, I never remember to carry things like that. Ever. No matter the date on the calendar. So you see, I like living life on the edge. ;o)
But most importantly, I found this in my purse:Caleb 'made' this for me awhile ago and I've been carrying it around in my purse, apparently, for ages. I like to think of it as a good-luck charm instead of just a rock.
So now it's YOUR turn! I'm tagging Jessica, Kris, and Amber. NO CHEATING!

p.s. I forgot to mention why I titled this post "my purse threw up". I dumped the contents on the kitchen floor to take a picture and it took me awhile to get around to cleaning it up. I was prepared to tell the kids that my purse threw up on the kitchen floor but strangely they never asked about it. Even though it was in the middle of the floor and they had to step around it to make breakfast, no one ever said anything! I guess I need to brush up on my housekeeping skills?!

Snow Day!

After almost NO snow all winter so far, we woke up to this yesterday morning. The kids already had the whole week off of school for "winter break" so they got to enjoy the snow instead of staring at it from their classroom windows.
I was just about to remove my snowman themed decor from the mailbox and front door since it looked oddly out of place in a winter with no snow. Luckily yesterday's storm saved me from having to do that yet.
Last weekend was a balmy 50 degrees so we actually barbecued in the back yard! Guess we should've put the grill away.
Anyway, it was perfect snow. Perfect for shoveling (not too heavy), perfect for snowballs, snowmen, sledding, you name it. I think we eventually got around 8 inches. The best part is that I had the whole day off and didn't HAVE to go out in it. (Driving, I mean).
I did venture out to take the kids sledding. There's a great sledding hill at the local high school. We had to drive there but by then the roads were cleared. The kids had a BLAST and it was fun to watch them almost kill themselves over and over. I have become much less adventurous post-knee-surgery, but I did go down once. The hill didn't look that big until I was going down, backwards, and I accidentally let out an involuntary squeal and squeezed my eyes shut most of the way down. I didn't want to look like such a wimp, compared to all the little kids, but I definitely fit the part.
They want to go again today, but I think I'll put a time limit on it this time. We were there for over TWO HOURS yesterday and I was frozen solid by then. I don't understand how the kids were impervious to the cold, especially when their snowsuits became soaking wet! Here's a short video clip; I had to take off my gloves to use the camera, so naturally I didn't use the camera much!

The order of sledders: Peter, Caleb, then Sam.

Thank You!

I am horribly embarrassed that this post-it note has been stuck to my computer desk for almost 2 months now. It is to remind me to send Christmas thank-you notes to all the grandparents. I actually did send one to Winnie, one of my grandmothers, but the rest, you'll notice haven't been crossed out yet. It's almost March and I'm figuring it's too late and too embarrassing to send a thank you card for presents from last Christmas. Right?!
SO, to Grandpa Capener, Grandma Capener, Granny & Bob, and Pepa and Nana: THANK YOU for the wonderful Christmas presents received by us and the kids! (OK, I'm wondering what Miss Manners is going to say to that. I'm sure she'll agree it doesn't count but it's the best I can do right now and that post-it is losing it's stickiness and will fall somewhere behind the computer desk any day now).
Speaking of post-it notes, I have some new freeware called Stickies. They're like post-it notes for your computer screen desktop. You can make them opaque or not, they can disappear when you open new windows, or not, you can make check lists, to do lists, grocery lists, etc. You can also set them on timers to appear on certain days at certain times to remind you to do something. And you can print them; very handy for the grocery list. They're just pimped out cyber post-it notes, really. You can check them out and download them here for free! Maybe it'll help me be better with thank you cards next year?

Amazing, Bizarre, and a little Nauseating!??

Sick week + Valentine's Day

Peter and Caleb were sick all last weekend. This past Monday night, it was my turn! Shortly after I arrived home from teaching a class, I was puking my guts out and wishing I were dead. I think I only actually threw up 4-5 times but it seemed like an awful lot. I finally resorted to sleeping on the bathroom floor after midnight. Once my stomach was finally empty I stopped throwing up but I felt like walking death for several days. On Wednesday night, the night before Valentine's Day, I found this note outside my door:In case you can't read it, it says: We hope you get well soon! Come into the kitchen for a great surprise! (when you feel like it) And then it's signed by all 3 kids.
I could already smell something sweet and had been hearing them bustling about in the kitchen. I was so nauseous that I was afraid to see whatever it was they had concocted. It wasn't so bad, though. I had some cookie dough in the fridge and Sam had cooked some cookies for me, with a marshmallow on top. Because a marshmallow on top makes everything better, right? The only problem, other than I was gagging at the very smell of anything, was they were a little bit doughy.

Me: "Wow, Sam. Did you cook these all by yourself?"
Sam: "Yep!"
Me: "In the oven?"
Sam: "Yep."
Me: "Ummm, how long did you cook them for?"
Sam: "Well, I cooked them for ten minutes but they didn't look even close to being done so I turned up the heat a little and cooked them for ten more minutes."
--note--these cookies cook for no more than 8 min. at 350.
Me: "What temperature did you cook them at?"
Sam: "I dunno, I just guessed at it."
Me: "Wow, well, you did a great job! I'm just going to save these for later, K?"
::note to self, teach kids importance of preheating oven::

Then Caleb presented me with his creation:

I was already trying not to gag or dry heave in front of them and this one nearly put me over the edge. It's a melted assortment of chocolate chips, marshmallow, and something else I can't remember. Dave said it actually tasted pretty good and the kids all liked it, too. I believe them, I just couldn't bring myself to taste it while battling the stomach flu.
They were so sweet to me the whole time I was sick and so proud of themselves for making "recipes". To my best knowledge, Sam had never cooked anything in the oven before. The most we've had him do is flip pancakes or make ramen soup! So all things considered, it was a success! Just not good timing for me. ;0)

The next morning was Valentine's Day. I was starting to feel a little better and was excited to see that Dave left this for me before he went to work. It was tied up in a pretty red bow and, no, there were no chocolates missing.

I managed to remember to give the kids some sweets in their school lunches, etc. and gave them tickets for Saturday to see the Harlem Magic Masters which is a cheap, low budget version of the GlobeTrotters who were playing in town. They were REALLY excited about the tickets and it was fun to go watch on Saturday. Since I had been so sick all week, I hadn't put much thought into what to get for Dave BUT the battery in my van had died so I surprised him with this:You can just feel the love in the air with this, right?! Nothing says Happy Valentine's Day like a new car battery. Hey, it comes with a big red bow AND a 60 month warranty. You don't get many Valentine's presents nowadays that come with a 60 month warranty. Those truffles Dave got for me are almost gone and it hasn't even been 60 hours! This is a gift that will keep on giving, people. If I had been quicker on my feet, I would've written some cute card about our "electric charging passion" or something but thanks to the stomach flu, it took every ounce of energy for me to just carry the darn thing into the garage. I transferred the red bow from my box of chocolates to the battery and called it good. Oh well, I'll try to do better next year!