I'll be out of town with our district's 9th grade English Honors classes, in NYC to see "Wicked" at the Gershwin Theatre, and have dinner at the Stardust Diner. Woohoo! We got a great package deal, and since I coordinate field trips for our district, I lucked out! My office-mate and I are making the trip...it's chartered buses to and from. What a deal! Friday the 15th, DH and I are going out to dinner for Valentine's Day.

Hi Everyone, Sorry I haven't made it back here until now. Belle, so sorry you have been feeling poorly. Hope it clears up soon. I asked some questions over on your gallery post, but you can disregard them since you answered them here. Your body must be telling you to rest or something--sometimes it goes like that, just one thing after the other! Take care. Punk, glad you had a bit of time to paint again. It is so good that your business is doing so well--and that the new helper is working out too! Anj, so glad you and DH got to have some "personal" Valentine times together. I'm sure that is sort of hard to come by with the young ones and their activities. Here's my latest movie review. We debated between the Valentine Day movie and the new Wolfman movie. DH decided we'd see Wolfman now and wait for the other one to come out on video. Wolfman had really good special effects as you might expect, and I always enjoy Anthony Hopkins--but this pretty much was the same old story we've heard many times before, silver bullets and all! LOL I did love the setting and the mansion and the horse drawn carriages. I probably shouldn't tell you that we've been in the 80's the last couple of days! It's been wonderful, and I managed to get a bit more work done in the yard while it was so nice. Hear we are getting more rain by the weekend, so that will be good too. A friend invited me to join her and a couple other friends for some TS hopping yesterday. I joined them in the afternoon when they got to this area and hit a couple of with them. I got so excited because I found a few painting books at both places--but they are not that great--maybe a project or two that I liked in each one. These may be some that I can soon list on the exchange in case they appeal to the rest of you. ;o) They were only 39 cents each so worth it just for the browsing pleasure! ;o) Punk, I also found a neat leaf dish with acorns on it--you know my "love" of acorns. It's posted over on Holidays if you want to see. Guess it's time to pull out some Spring designs and get some things made for Spring and Easter. Can't wait to see your decorations, so please share any you've made--past or present, okay? TTYL, Luvs

Yes. A day spent with the grand kids is always a great day. I was super tired since I only got a couple hours sleep the night before but we had fun anyway. Grandson and I did puzzles whiles older sister was in preschool. He's really getting good at puzzles. He is doing pieced puzzles now, not just the shape in place ones. Then we all went to pick DGD up and came back to go through her Valentine's Day bag. Lots of candy and cards. :-) We then decorated heart cookies for the "party" that evening. On holidays like Valentines and St. Patrick's etc. DD and DSIL call it a "party". Usually pizza or other kids food's and special treats. I declined the invitation to stay and drug my weary body home and stopped for a tri tip dip for my dinner.

LOL, 2many, I think Sriracha tastes like vinegar and hot peppers, but can't taste any other flavors. I'm a wimp, I like just a little heat but I don't want the enamel on my teeth to bubble. I think if it's so hot I can't enjoy the flavors of the food, it's kind of pointless, but Elery loves heat, the hotter the better. That is one mean looking panty liner, BTW. (grin) Sleevendog, I found a similar potato in my storage: I left it propped up on the counter for Elery to find and he didn't even notice it, LOL. So much for that Valentine's Day thought! Thanks for the sriracha tip on hummus, Elery would love that. I suppose I could just mix it in at the end, so the entire batch isn't "contaminated"? (snicker) AnnT, the steak looks delicious, as always, and although I don't care for very many hot chilies I love peppercorns. It's a different kind of heat. Annie