What We Did This Weekend: Valentines and Presidents

Is there any other time of year when you could potentially have a three-day weekend with two holidays in the mix?

Valentine's Day sneaked up on us this year. As late in the week as Wednesday, Brookie and I were talking about how it didn't really feel like Valentine's Day was closing in. But, as it turns out, our Valentine's Day started Thursday evening.

Hello. My name is Todd, and I'm addicted to ProFlowers.com. After hearing countless radio ads for this company, I decided to order some flowers for Brookie. That was at least four years ago. Since then, I've been hooked. Whenever I need to get flowers for a special occasion, I use ProFlowers. Last year the flowers arrived and looked sickly, which is not normally the case. I emailed them a picture, and they overnighted another dozen roses, free of charge, no questions asked. This year I chose the "I'm flexible" option for shipping, so they were delivered to Brookie's middle school on Thursday. The only trouble was that she was offsite at a meeting when they showed up. When she got home and didn't mention them, I started to get worried. I didn't want to ruin the surprise, but I really didn't want her to find a dozen dead roses in box on her desk Friday morning. So, Thursday night we went back to the school and saved her flowers.

I'm not really a big fan of hanging out in the cramped lobby of a restaurant waiting for a table with dozens of other love-struck Valentine's, so we went out for our Valentine's Dinner Friday night and beat the rush. We ate at Dan's Longbranch Steakhouse, off of 91st and Metcalf in Overland Park. We've been there twice before, and loved it both times. But this was our first visit since the Reynolds' Great Weight Resolution of 2009. I finally decided on their famous chicken fried steak, and Brookie, of course, ordered their tremendous chicken fingers. I couldn't believe my eyes when my food arrived. My chicken fried steak was at least 14 inches long, hanging off both ends of the oblong dinner plate. I cut off a third of the steak and ate that along with half of my mashed potatoes and half of my green beans. In the past I would have eaten the entire thing without a second thought – until a tummy ache eventually reminds me that I had eaten the entire thing. Brookie did well too. She ate one of the five enormous chicken fingers.

After dinner, we went to the Borders across the street to hang out, and to walk off our meals. Later we went home and watched the last two episodes of the third disk of Psych's second season. Only one disk left, and that should come in the mail today.

Saturday was actually Valentine's Day. And, how's this for some good ol' Valentine foreplay... We got up early, went and cleaned the bathrooms at the church, then Brookie stayed for the Young Women's basketball tournament, and I left to help a friend move. I got back to the church just in time to see the end of the girls' last game. Sweet, huh?

That night I made a special dinner for my Valentine. I totally made it up. I had an idea of what I was going for, and while I was picking out the ingredients I was trying to get a good variety of color in the mix. In a nutshell, I sauteed red onions, green bell peppers, yellow, orange, and red mini sweet peppers, portabella mushrooms, olives, and snap peas in some olive oil and lemon juice until the onions and peppers were cooked. I added some basil and tossed in the penne pasta until it was coated. So, not only did Brookie get a special dinner, but she also got to name it: "Pasta Inamorata." We had quite a nice Valentine's feast.

After dinner it was time for gifts. We tend to go overboard in this department. Brookie finally learned what my big plans for that night were when she opened her homemade origami heart-pouch Valentine's Day card: a pair of tickets for a concert at the Folly Theater by Simone Dinnerstein, America's "Piano Sweetheart." So after we cleaned up, we invaded Kansas City's upper-classes and took our seats in the lower balcony. The concert was really good. But there was one part of the whole thing I thought was a little ridiculous. After every movement, she would stand and take a bow. All of us would clap. Then she would walk of the stage. We would still clap. She'd come back and take a bow, then turn around and leave again. We'd stop clapping. She'd come back again, we'd start clapping, she'd bow, then sit back down and start the next movement on the program. Brookie liked to listen with her eyes closed. I, on the other hand, was fascinated by the speed of her hands. Remember that old elementary school illusion of waving a pencil and making it appear to be rubber? Her fingers looked like that at times.

Valentine's Day was a good one.

Sunday we needed to relax after church. So, we watched movies representative of the best and the worst of LDS cinematography. First, we watched Saturday's Warrior. Yeah. It was my Netflix pick. I'd never seen it, but we used to listen to the music every p-day on my mission. It was like watching a low-budget LDS themed episode of Saved by the Bell, starring all of the understudies, none of the actual stars. Then, as we watched the second and third Work and the Glory movies, I mentioned how far LDS film making has come in the past 25 years.

Monday was President's Day. Brookie thought it was Saturday until we ate breakfast, cleaned the house, got back from the gym, sat down for lunch and turned on the TV. She couldn't believe there was no basketball on.

We planned to go to the Crown Center and see the 70 Years of Oz exhibit. But, when we got there we saw that the kids out-numbered the adults and we felt a little silly about walking through without having any kids with us. So we just turned around, did some window shopping, and each got a single scoop of Sheridan's. We went home made some French bread to go with our leftover Pasta Inamorata, and finished off our three-day, two-holiday weekend.

And when I woke up this morning, I had this song stuck in my head. Thanks Lex.