Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  Whether you celebrate the Christian Saint, the cheesy romance, the massacre, or something else, everybody has an opinion.  Enjoy it however you want.

Franny and I both used to hate the day.  Actually, hate is too strong a word.  Apathy is closer.  (I may have mentioned this before, but...)  However, 10 years ago today, we took it back from the monsters in the greeting card industry.  You see, ten Valentine's Days ago, Franny agreed to marry me.  Since we still like each other after all this time, we still like the day.  We don't go overboard, but we do make sure to take the excuse to eat too much chocolate.  (Of course, other things, like rain or Tuesday, are good excuses too.)

My proposal was simple, but effective.  I found several conversation hearts that said "MARRY ME" and decorated a cupcake with them.  (It was one of the sad, mass-produced cupcakes from the grocery store bakery with too much sickly-sweet icing that Franny for some reason, LOVES.)  I was nervous as hell, and my overtired bride-to-be almost ate the snack without looking at the messages, but I slowed her down and the job got done.

For fun this year, I got another bag and dug out all the "MARRY ME" ones again.  Apparently morals have changed in 10 years, as there was a grand total of one.  However, there were several saying "FAX ME".  Perhaps, in 10 more years, they'll add "TEXT ME", you know, to keep up with the times.  There was also one that said "30 GIRL".  Can anyone tell me what that's supposed to mean?

Bad blogger. No soup for you, one year!

OK. So I obviously made it back to to land of easy internet access, but then I got lazy. Apparently, I spent enough time in Hawaii to catch a case of the "paradise paralysis" that afflicts most people who live there. I keep meaning to post something, but then it would be, "Hey, I can always do it later." A week and a half later -- pathetic. I can't say it's the worst problem to have, though, at least not for us poor souls afflicted with it. People who have to deal with us, well...

Anyway, I'm back in the land of normal working and not being sick and toddlers underfoot and whatnot. I have to say that between being ill and the monsoon rains, this wasn't my favorite trip to Hawaii, but it beats having a day job, I guess.

I missed mentioning Valentine's Day too. I remembered it at home, which I guess is the important part. I used to see it as a cheesy Hallmark day, but Franny and I took it back for ourselves the day nine years ago when she said "Yes." It's still cheesy, but now it's our own special brand of cheesy. The Mizz got a valentine from his cousin with a couple stickers in it. He thought that was great, and keeps mentioning that "I got a card from Baby J." (I'm curious how long his cousin, who is less than a year younger, will continue to be "Baby J.") I feel kind of bad that a card didn't go the other way too, but the Mizz is lucky "he" remembered to get his mother a card.

One other Mizz note. He's brilliant. I was gone just long enough to notice a marked improvement in his speech. He's hardly completely clear or anything, but it's noticeably better than when I left. Plus, he now understands the concept of zero. If he has one thing, and you take it away, he knows that he has zero now. In hundreds of years of civilization, the Romans never even figured that one out, although they might have him beat with the roads and aqueducts and empires and such.