Pre-Valentine Shenanigins

I guess we didn’t really have any shenanigans,  at least none worthy of the word, but we did have a pleasant evening.

I did not get Steven a Valentine’s Day present.  YET.  I still have time. But Steven set the standard and got me one.

Please excuse the busy background.

The wine box was from our Christmas present from my sister, Diane. The dinosaur is one we have had for a while.  I put him in the bag I bring to work yesterday, just for the amusement of the security guard that has to look in it.  This morning I left the house before Steven got out of bed, so I put the dinosaur by the coffee maker, to greet him.  So Steven thought it would look nice near my present.

A great name for rum!  The dinosaur likes it too!

I have been noticing this bottle in Valley Wine and Liquor in Herkimer for a while now.  I told Steven we needed it.  It will probably last us a long time, because we are more into wine than liquor, but what an appropriate bottle for Steve and Cindy Q.

After admiring the rum (but not sampling it yet), we went to Salvatore’s in Herkimer for dinner.  Steven won a large cheese pizza on a Facebook contest, so we got that.  We also got a shrimp appetizer from their special Valentine’s Day menu.  After looking at the entrees on that menu, I am seriously considering going back to Salvatore’s tomorrow.

My WordPress timestamp probably says it is Valentine’s Day already.  That is OK with me.  Dinosaur, present, dinner… I am feeling quite romantic already!

 

 

Is It Romantic?

Happy Valentine’s Day from Mohawk Valley Girl.  I am tired and wanting to watch 20/20 on OWN, so I am going to give a brief overview of our Valentine’s Day activities, hit Publish and move on.  I find that appropriate for Non-Sequitur Thursday.

I was late getting home, never mind why, I’ll tell you later, if I remember to, no promises.  I had to email my article and pictures for the March issue to Mohawk Valley Living magazine.  I hope they like it.  I had mentioned to Steven that there was a Korbel tasting at Valley Wine and Liquor at five.  He did not remember my mentioning it but was amenable to attending such a thing.

After I got my submissions taken care of, I showered and put on a Valentine outfit.  I tried to take a picture of it, but I am incapable of taking a decent selfie, so never mind.  Just take my word for it that I looked good.  We went to taste some champagne.  We liked it and bought a bottle of Rose Brut.  Or was it Brut Rose?  I cannot be bothered to go out to the kitchen to look at the bottle or find the little notebook I took my tasting notes in.

We continued our evening with dinner at Salvatore’s in Herkimer.  Yum!  I could do entire blog posts about the tasting or the dinner, and I do not rule that out.  In the meantime, I repeat, Happy Valentine’s Day, and Happy Non-Sequitur Thursday to one and all!

 

Here’s Yesterday’s Post

Yesterday I took a bloggers’ sick day.  It is now 4:27 in the morning and I am going to publish something, as has been my habit at these times.  As I lay in bed earlier this morning, I composed in my head a much better post than what I am now typing.  I can see some of you shaking your fingers or your heads at me, saying, “THAT is why you must always keep a notebook and pen by your bed!”

Frankly, I am not too regretful about it.  For one reason, waking up sufficiently to write something down would have woken me up for the day, and I certainly need my beauty sleep.  For another reason, it was probably only better in my head.  Any time I dream a “perfect” idea for a novel, I find on waking that it made much more sense in the dream.  Anything I thought of in the night, rolled over and wrote down, I later thought, “Why did I bother?”

Be all that as it may, here is what I typed in last night (as Truman Capote once said, “That’s not writing, that’s typing), before I found myself quite incapable of typing another word:

I think this post is going to be time-stamped Valentine’s Day, but as I type this, it is Feb. 13. I just returned from Little Falls, NY.  I went to Huckleberry Letterpress Co.  to purchase a Valentine for Steven.  I felt very fortunate when I saw on their Facebook page that they were open at the beginning of the week for Valentine’s shopping.  Now I feel bad that I did not plug them yesterday, so local readers may have had a chance to go there today.  No matter.  You can go there another day to get a different kind of card.  They have an excellent selection.

I wrote about Huckleberry Letterpress for the February issue of Mohawk Valley Living magazine.  They were also featured on the Sunday Mohawk Valley Living TV show.

(Back to present time): I decided to share those paragraphs, because, you know, waste not, want not (ooh, I do remember thinking, “waste not, want not” earlier, that was worth remembering).  Also, I had linked to the shop and the magazine.

After I typed in what I could, I felt really bad for not doing more for Valentine’s Day for my husband (I had declared we would celebrate it on Fat Tuesday, because Steven works later today), so I bestirred myself to go out to the kitchen and bake brownies.  I used a mix and added chocolate chips.  Steven liked them, and he liked the card.

So I guess this is yesterday’s post.  I see it is clocking in over 450 words. Yay me.  Kind of.  Happy Valentine’s Day.

 

My Funky Valentine

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!  I was unable to write a blog post earlier today, so I am doing the thing of finding pictures previously downloaded onto my laptop and writing about them.  The first thing to catch my eye is a not very romantic couple.  Just the sort of thing my twisted outlook would like to think about on Valentine’s Day.

As things turned out, it was not a love story for the ages.

Chester Gilette and Grace Brown were an item in 1906, although he really was not that into her.  He tossed her in the lake, because she was pregnant and he didn’t want to marry her.  It is a famous murder case that was tried in the Herkimer County Courthouse.  Gilette was housed at the 1834 Jail across the street.  I’m not going to write a whole blog post about it; I just thought I’d share the picture.

Also not a great love story, but I believe they were great friends.

Elsa Lanchester and Charles Laughton were married when they played a curmudgeonly lawyer recovering from a heart attack and his annoyingly cheerful nurse (um, not respectively) in Witness for the Prosecution, one of my all time favorite movies.  Their relationship is a highlight of the picture, although it was in neither the short story nor the play of that name. Watch the movie.  It is very entertaining.

The 13th was just yesterday, although it was not Friday.

I end with Betsy Palmer and Jason, from Friday the 13th. Full disclosure:  I have never seen that movie.  I don’t know who the actor is, or even if it is a stunt double in the picture.  Steven tried to look it up in one of his Leonard Maltin books, but it was not clear which actor listed played the part.  So much for a well-researched blog post.

In any case, my dinner is ready, and  I have to go early to rehearsal tonight.  I declare this better than a Tired Tuesday post. Hope to see you all on Wuss-out Wednesday.

 

Not Lame, Love!

In lieu of my usual Friday Lame Post, I thought I would share a few photos of the lovely Valentine’s Day decorations my sweetie-pie husband, Steven put up.  Steven has a real talent for decorating.  He does the various seasons at our house.  It brightens up my day.  Here is the mantle over our fireplace:

I decorated the grapevine wreath. I was really into grapevine wreaths and my hot glue gun for a while there. Perhaps I should get back into it.

 

We almost never use our dining room table, although I do have a couple of jigsaw puzzles I’d like to work on at some point.  Usually Steven puts a seasonal table cloth on, but apparently the Valentine one he had got damaged.  I personally like the doily look.

I gave him the roulette wheel in the center for his birthday one year. I found it at a second-hand shop.

 

The buffet is also in the dining room.  Ignore the mural on the wall; that was there when we moved in.  The poster partially blocking it was displayed in the lobby of Ilion Little Theatre during the run of Leading Ladies, the show I directed last spring.

The juke box is out all year. It is one of Steven’s prized possessions.

 

This is the window over our kitchen sink, looking out into our backyard.

I carefully held the Tablet so as not to photograph the dirty dishes in the sink. Um, I mean, there are no dirty dishes in my sink.

 

Now I must start thinking about Valentine’s Day.  What, oh what, can I give my beloved husband?  As you can see, we already have a lot of cutesy little stuffed toys, heart shaped boxes and other Valentine memorabilia.  I’ll try to think of something good.  Then I’ll write a blog post about it.  In the meantime, Happy Friday, everyone!

 

My Local Valentine

Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody.  Somebody on Facebook (really an invaluable source of information) said it was Galentine’s Day, when women can appreciate all their female buddies.  Imagine my disappointment to find out it had nothing to do with my favorite TV show, Galavant.  But I digress.

Digress from what, my inner critic huffs (that is, says in a huffy tone of voice; it’s not like snorting fumes or something),  you haven’t written anything yet.  Too true, too true.  Then again, this is Wrist to Forehead Sunday, is it not?  Yes, my friends, it is.

It is dreadfully cold in the Mohawk Valley today.  We were remarking on it to the fellow at T & J’s Fruits and Vegetables earlier.  It has really been not a bad winter so far.  What I really like about the frigid temperatures is how balmy 20 degrees feels afterward, because perspective is a wonderful thing.

We were at T & J’s at my suggestion to purchase eggplant for a yummy Valentine’s Day dinner, which is currently baking in the oven.  We also got a red and a yellow pepper, some sharp cheddar cheese, a bag of MacIntosh apples and a loaf of bread from  Star Bakery in Utica, NY (see, all kinds of local in today’s post).

In addition to the eggplant and peppers, the dinner features some sausage I purchased two weeks ago at Melrose Market in Frankfort, NY. They have quite a good butcher department.  And, yes, the sausage has been in my freezer since I bought it; I’m not cooking rancid sausage (Sheesh!).  Oh, I also used some garlic purchased at the Mohawk Valley Garlic and Herb Festival in Little Falls NY, last September.

With or after dinner, we will enjoy EITHER a nice champagne we got at a wine tasting at Vintage Spirits in Herkimer OR some Cayuga White from Villa Verona Vineyards, in, of course, nearby Verona, NY.  I got that at Valley Wine and Liquor in Herkimer (I like to spread my alcohol dollar around).

As a matter of fact, I just heard a cork pop.  I think it’s time to start sipping the champagne now. Once again, I wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day.

 

The Problem with Valentines

I finished yesterday’s post saying perhaps I would expound upon Valentine’s Day today. This being Wuss-out Wednesday and still too cold for Mohawk Valley adventures, I will now attempt to do so.

In my sordid past — uh, I mean my ASSORTED past, I spent many years hating Valentine’s Day. Of course there was the build up. The hope that this year would be the one where I would be surprised by… something from… someone. And planning of what I might do to intrigue some particular person who seemed inexplicably unaware of my presence on the planet. Followed by the knowledge that no, this would not be the year, and, yes, anything I might think of to do would not intrigue but on the contrary probably annoy.

Well, it was a made up holiday anyways, perpetuated by greeting card companies, and who wanted a dumb old Valentine, anyways?

Now I have been quite happily married for going on 24 years, and Valentine’s Day is… problematic. In short, he always gets me better things than I get him! OK, in the scheme of things and especially in the context of relationships, there are worse problems to face. But still.

This year, for example, I got my Valentine present early. I came home today to find a lovely vase of flowers and an extremely cute stuffed gorilla sitting in the living room. What a guy! And anybody who is cynically snorting, “Oh, he got you your present early to make sure you got him something on the day,” you can just be quiet. Today was Steven’s day off; this was much more convenient for him and quite frankly it made my day.

As far as my present for Steven, I will either bake him cookies or make him my famous potato soup (which he loves). The advantage of these activities is that I can probably get another blog post out of it.

But I do hope the weather breaks soon, so I can go adventuring again.