I gotta admit, I put alot of work into this Valentine's Day.  Weeks ahead of time I planned all the dishes for a special Polish dinner for us (No, we're not Polish, but last time we had Polish it was great!).  I researched all the recipes, went on a special shopping trip for good ingredients.  Then yesterday I  cooked nonstop from 10:30am to 7pm, but I did it!  Dan, Eddy and I feasted over candlelight on Pierogies, Golumpkies, boiled potatoes with Dill, and the best Polish pound cake you've never seen! =)

By the end of the day, the end of the meal, the end of dessert, I was beginning to wonder whether Danny had anything in store for me at all.  Right when my anxiety began to rise noticeably, Danny disappeared upstairs and came back with a very large flat package wrapped in brown paper.  "Don't wreck the front," he said.  It was A foot-and-a-half wide and 3 FEET tall.  I carefully removed the paper to reveal a particle board artist's painting of a caricatured blues trumpet player! (pictures to come)

He said when he visited New Orleans on his way home from buying our car, he ran across a whole bunch of artists in progress on very New Orleans style pieces.  This artist sold his paintings for less because he put them on less expensive materials, such as particle board.  But they were just as good or better than half the other paintings for sale!  Wow!  With this, and my uncle's blues painting, I have the makings of the perfect music room!  My husband sure knows what I like!  A perfect surprise for a perfect Valentine's.

I hope your Valentine's was just as special.  Tell me about it!

, I recently got home from a road trip of reunions with the long lost, the distant, the loved, the missed, the in-law, and the long-distant.  It was a whirlwind of emotion and brief happinesses followed by contemplation and memories.  But I came home hungry again for my regular relationships.  I dove right in.