Valen-times, past and present

I'm sort-of borrowing this idea from Swistle, whom I've just discovered if you can believe that (Swistle, if you find this link, hello! you're neat!). Today is St. Valentine's Day and it means lots of things to lots of people. I wanted to share two of my favorite Valen-times. Bear with me as I fire up the old, rusty memory:

It's senior year in high school (right, larry? or was it junior year? you have to help me with this story!) and neither me nor my best friend is attached to any one guy. Thank goodness, right? Heh. So she came up with a brilliant plan to have a Valentine's Day dinner with two of our favorite guy friends, Mike and Alex. Both of these kids were "eligible" enough -- and by eligible I mean "cute," one moreso than the other -- but we never had the idea that we'd want to date either of them. And they were best buddies, as well. So we invited them over for a completely platonic, completely unromantic dinner at larry's house, which she and I would cook. At the time, she was already on her way to becoming a master chef, and I wasn't much interested in cooking... but we were lab partners in Chem and Physics, so I could follow her directions or read the recipe to her with no problem. :) We made it FANCY, because it was Valentine's Day: Cornish Game Hens with an orange glaze, (some side dish that I don't remember), (probably a salad, and tea), and Chocolate-Kahlua Cheesecake. We sat the boys down at the dining room table, with candles and everything, and they probably thought we were beyond weird for wanting to play happy homemaker for them. I doubt they've ever had a nicer Valentine's meal, even now that they're both happily married. That was a fun one.

This year, Husband decided and announced: "Let's not do the usual flowers for Valentine's. Let's do one of those Couples' Massages at that spa-place you like, okay?" To which I responded, ooooo-kaaaaayyyy... because he's had exactly one massage in his entire life and I didn't think he was that enthralled. But! I'm not one to turn down a dark room and a Swedish guy with big hands! And besides that I think we're going to take a Friday afternoon off to do it, which: ROK ON. I am happy about this gift. I asked DH, "Can we still give each other something small?" because I'd already bought him some chocolate espresso beans. (Extra-generous, I know.) This morning he answered that question by surprising me with a sweet little white-gold-and-diamond right-hand ring, fit to my middle finger, which I'd been wishing for. He is the best Valentine.