utahtea

We spent Valentine's Day in Yosemite National Park. It was BEAUTIFUL!!!!

We had a picnic lunch of filet mignon steaks and stir fry vegetables.

(we were in our motorhome)

Utahtea

joan

Maggi, you're truly an inspiration...always giving. I'm very glad I got to meet you and Georg on our trip to Hawaii. You can be my valentine any day !!

I spent the night working with my hubby in our seafood restaurant. But that's all right -- paybacks tonight! Going to a fancy schmancy place with fab wine - or maybe champagne this time...

OliveOyl

There are 3 restaurants in my husband's hotel. Two had been sold out since mid January and the 3rd isn't really a place for Valentines--so...DH was going to treat me to a lobster dinner HE prepared. Heehee

First problem was the size pots I own. Only one was big enough and that could only hold one lobster. So...back to the hotel he went, and brought back an enormous commercial pot. Strangely, it was peaked at the bottom so only about an inch of the pot actually sat flat on my burner and the water would never come to a boil. Dumped it out into smaller pots, and brought them all to a boil while he took the commercial pot out back and hammered the bottom flat. Now we live in the hotel but the casita area, and you can imagine the racket hammering that pot made!! LOL Like someone hitting a big gong over and over again. Now the pot was flat. Back on the stove, poured our now boiling water in, and of course it immediately stopped boiling in the cold pot. It sat on that burner another 25 minutes before finally reaching a boil. That did not bode well for it's coming to a boil again after the lobster were in. The 20 minute cooking time starts when the water resumes boiling after the lobster are in....and it never did! Now...do you think I was a little involved in these preparations by this time? You betcha. I theorized because the pot was way bigger than the burner, it wasn't getting sufficient heat. Finally...I just decided to time it, boiling or not, and hope for the best, but clueless as to whether or not we'd cut them open and find translucent raw meat. We ended up eating at 10 PM, and they were done, but we were exhausted!! LOL Next year it'll be a different plan. Maybe Joan's restaurant! gt; (And Joan, you an do ours).

We had a funny Sprint moment during the meal. Had had an email from our son that afternoon saying he and his fiancee had celebrated a day early by going to Cirque de Soleil's, Allegria in Dallas. I'd just told my husband about the email as I cut into the lobster's tail and saw the eggs, indicating I had a pregnant female. So as I finished saying the bit about cirque, the next words out of my mouth were describing the lobster, "I got a *female* and she's pregnant". My husband, mis-hearing in his Sprint Moment, and still thinking cirque, thought I said, "I got an email and she's pregnant". Seeing my calm, nonchalant concentration on the lobster I was attacking rather than the raving crazy I'd most likely have been under those circumstances, he assumed that either he'd misheard, or I had finally totally lost it..LOL.

Anyway...it was a memorable Valentines Day, even if it wasn't the day we learned we'd finally become grandparents! gt;

Patrick

Gee. OO, I'm sure glad your husband is the manager and not a chef!!! Armani's is great, but think I'd pass on the lobster if I relied on his cooking talents. LOL.

Did you have guests complain about the horrible noise, by the way??

Tess

OliveOyl,
You're so funny--I thought we were the only ones to have meals like that. LOL at the pregnancy comment--thanks for the smile!

soccr

Spouse and I take turns regarding Valentine's -- her turn last year (she cooked steak au poivre, wonderful meringue dessert, etc., bought ME flowers!). My turn this year -- can't cook so took her to a favorite tapas restaurant, got her a gardenia bush AND some cut roses, and a SMALL (she accuses me of undermining her resolve to diet) box of candy. She says it's a relief not to have to decide where to go, likes having me make the decision.

I admit, it took us almost 20 years to settle into this arrangement, but I like having every other year "off". (Bird, I suspect your problems have nothing to do with the commercialization of Valentine's Day. You two sound like you really dislike each other.)

cb

soccr - what a great idea! I think I'm going to steal it. We celebrated 22 years of marriage on V'day, went out to dinner with what seemed like 400 of our closest friends, paid too much money for a mediocre meal, and headed home at 9 p.m. Sigh. We planned on dinner & dancing, but somehow the car headed home?!? Maybe next year...

Sherry

I concur, a great idea from soccr. Now if I can get my husband to agree,lol. He is great about cards, flowers, etc, but the planning or surprises are left to me. So far, its worked ok. But perhaps I will make this sugestion.....

CB, thats exactly why we stopped going out on things like Vday, New Years Eve, etc, overpriced and usually the restaurants are not up to their usual standards in either food or service, just too busy. We have enjoyed many a special night at home instead

ilisa

Nah, we didn't do anything. My husband was in Pittsburgh at a soccer tournament. But we are off on a cruise next week which more than makes up for it.

Tango

First Valentine's Day with a baby at home. Very nice. I cooked coq au vin, hubby bought wine and the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." I got him some shirts. We enjoyed our night together...doing NOTHING! A couple of years ago we went out to dinner at 9:00 pm because we could not get a reservation earlier. That night we decided it was just too much effort to go out on V-Day and have stayed home every since.

Anyone else feel sorry for Bird?

mizscarlett

We took the kids to Burger King for Valentine's Day! How exciting is that?

But we made up for it on Sat. Had a fancy, 5-course meal with some friends. It was so lovely to have a night away from the house.