Happy Valentine’s day! OFS Audio is up.
Written by: Ilona Andrews
Narrated by: Renee Raudman
Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
Series: Innkeeper Chronicles, Book 3
Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date:02-14-17
Publisher: Nancy Yost Literary Agency
Buy links: Audible | Amazon | iTunes
Ta-da! Much thanks to Renee Raudmann for another outstanding performance.
Gordon and I aren’t doing much for Valentine Day. To me, it’s a little like Mother’s Day, otherwise known to some people as the only day they are nice to their mother. If today is the only day he would buy me flowers, we’d have to rethink our relationship. I like flowers. When I was a little girl, my family turned every inch of our small yard into a garden. We had roses, tulips, peonies, chrysanthemums, dahlias… Now I successfully grow cactus in our back yard. 🙁 Actually, I think the extra rain we got might have killed our aloe. Grrr, Texas. But back to the topic at hand, it’s a crappy, rainy day. I know we are supposed to go out for valentine Dinner, because that’s what you do, but unless it clears up, I’m not sure I can muster enough willpower to go out.
What are your plans for the Valentine’s Day?
No plans for V-day, but I did want to mention, just in case you missed it while traveling, that One Fell Sweep was on Sunday Morning, CBS, vis-a-via a discussion on romance literature.
I spent the evening watching the taped CBS Sunday morning, very nice to see OFS shown off twice. Viewers who discover Ilona Andrews from that story are in for a true treat. Happy Valentines day everyone.
Don’t HAVE to go out if you don’t want to – either agree to put it off or order delivery of something you would not normally have. Best thing to do is to just enjoy being together
Hurray for another audiobook by Renee!!
The tradition in my house has become: order in Thai food and watch a funny movie. Neither the hubby or I take Valentine’s Day too seriously and we prefer staying in to going out anyway. (Although I think half the time we even forget it’s a holiday until the night of.)
We have a similar tradition, because restaurants are ridiculously overcrowded on Valentine’s Day. We order delivery of his favorite food and watch a movie of my choice. 🙂
That’s an awesome tradition.
We celebrate Valentine’s Day EVERY day.
Seriously, I hate to go out on the 14th because someone told me this is the day to celebrate love.
We usually do something the week before or the week after thus avoiding crowds and commercialism.
Today, I’m getting a mammogram before I go to work!
Have a fun day working together 🙂
My Valentine Day: at home, in my jammies, eating cheap chocolates and watching a gaming live-stream. lol Yeah being single! 😛
This sounds lovely!
We watch Pedator and eat lasagna every Valentine’s Day. We started dating in high school and that was what we could afford to do. Nothing says “I love you” like telling each other to “Get to the Choppa!”
My husband and I (I sound like the Queen!) totally ignore Valentine’s Day. It’s such a manufactured thing. The flowers, small gifts and thoughtful things we do for each other during the year mean 100 times as much as a duty card and gift. And yes, I give my husband flowers – he loves them.
We normally don’t do anything for Valentine’s day. I hate long waits in restaurants and like you said, if Valentine’s is the only day we could show our love for each other it wouldn’t be much of a relationship. I like the little things that occur just because. We prefer to save our money to put toward doing something bigger on our anniversary in a couple months.
Just got back from getting some thick steaks! I cleared off the bbq and back porch (we had about 1 ft of snow over the weekend), so I’ll be having a nice dinner with my husband and kids.
My first Valentine’s Day since I lost my favorite roommate (after 47 years together). No fun without him. I am planning on staying in with the new kittens.
Also, the hail just quit. Not a great day out and about in Houston…
“Not a great day out and about in Houston…”
Could be worse. There could be a snot-nosed spoiled brat trying to level downtown Houston with his pyrokinesis. 😛
Sorry for your loss.
I am sorry for your loss. No day is easy after losing someone but some are harder. Glad you have kittens to cuddle with. When their motors get going you can’t help but smile.
We don’t normally go out – too busy everywhere. We tend to just buy small treats for each other and a fancy dessert for two after a nice dinner at home. Until this year our teenage children have been single so they would be home as well. Which is why it is dessert for two.
This year our daughter went out with her girlfriend over the weekend so she has decided to cook chicken parmesan for the family (she came into our family 2 years ago and she wants to share her love of being part of our family).
As for flowers I prefer tulips and lilacs which my hubby does buy for me as well as other flowers throughout the year. However I always thought it was awesome that my Dad bought my Mom a dozen roses every Valentine’s for over 60 years until he passed away last year.
What a lovely memory of your Dad. I am sorry for your loss.
Who wants to go someplace crowded, order from a limited set menu of “Valentine specials” at 50% mark-up, deal with parking and overblown expectations? Wow, I sound jaded! I guess over time, it’s become more important to just spend quality “happy” time together with your loved ones – for us, that’s ordering in Indian (nothing says love like shared curry breath, tandoori chicken and lentils), maybe popping in a movie (second best exotic marigold hotel for atmosphere) and just kicking back after a long day at work. Ahhhh … oh, and some real hot chocolate to finish it off!
However you all choose to spend the day, wishing you all the best!
One of our favorite restaurants for fancy dining runs a special during the week of Valentine’s Day – if you eat there that week, they give you a buy-one-get-one-free coupon. So we traditionally go there some day that is not actually Valentine’s Day (we went last night this year), gorge on meat on a stick, and score a coupon. Because nothing says love like coupons, apparently.
If it doesn’t have a coupon, it is a rip off. Yay for coupons!
Mine will involve unpacking boxes, Chinese food, and in general making order from chaos. I will probably visit my sisters, but last time I did that, one was sleeping and the other was talking to imaginary friends, siblings, and children.
Though my parents just gave each other cards and candy, and saved the dinner out and flowers for the next week, which was their anniversary.
“If today is the only day he would buy me flowers, we’d have to rethink our relationship. I like flowers.”
This reminds me of my family so much! Growing up, my Dad bought my Mom flowers every week because he knew how much she loved having fresh flowers in the house. On Valentine’s Days and birthdays, he would wake up extra early, run to the store and make sure both she and I had flowers in our cars before we went to work/school. Now my husband buys me flowers every week.
As for traditions, my husband and I cook dinner together, then put on our pajamas and relax.
David and I have celebrated Valentine’s Day for 46 years and don’t plan to stop anytime soon! Sometimes we stay in, sometimes we go out, but we always exchange cards. I like to make mine and David always find the cutest one. My favorite was the year we both choose a variation of Truly, Madly, Deeply.
This year it’s pizza and champagne, yeah!!
Truthfully, I always feel sorry for people who shun Valentines Day. If you want your relationship to survive you can’t have too much laughter and love.
Going out to dinner and then going to see Wicked with my man and my bestie! So excited – it’ll be the 3rd time I’ve seen it, but it’s my favorite show. I’ve been listening to the CD all day today. 🙂
Are you still house-hunting in Florida?
Happy Valentine’s Day!
I agree with the “play it cool on the commercial holiday” philosophy. My husband of 30+ years does not need to go out and spend a fortune on flowers that cost half as much just last week just to prove that he is a good mate. Nor do I need to go out and buy him chocolate to enhance his waist line. Instead, we fix ourselves a “good” dinner and relax and remember some good moments of our past.
On another note, Audible has already delivered my copy of “One Fell Sweep.” As soon as the morning routine settles, I will get out my iPod and enjoy.
I’ve had proof-of-love for the past two weeks. Had surgery on both arms;in compression corset;sleeping sitting up in recliner on first floor with phone as intercom; needing hoicks into and out of chairs; blanketing and repillowing every time I moved; food made; and help with showers, dressing, wound and critters care. My husband unbitching through it all, even when I am waving forearms madly, like a grey-haired T-Rex.
Oh, wow. That is love, indeed. I am so happy for you.
Whenever I start to think, “good man,” is an oxymoron, I hear something that soothes my soul.
Thank you for sharing.
I’m getting fillings and a crown this afternoon – yay, dental work! – so my evening is probably going to contain soup.
I usually bake cookies for my coworkers but last night was a total battle with the spawn that ended with her in bed before 7 pm, screaming at the top of her lungs that she didn’t want to, and also she didn’t like me, while I huddled on the couch with a hard cider. So, yeah, cookies were totally beyond me.
May go to Bo’s Bistro. We take home enough for 3 more meals. We don’t normally have much planned. She teaches Geometry and this year started Statistics at the nearby high school so that means she can get home real late (after 10:30 yesterday), or work real late getting ready for class.
On the Sweep side, I may have to interrupt Vlad and Leila’s story so I can hear how Renee did the fart scenes.
I hate cut flowers, personally – they are condemned to death when they are cut, and then I have to watch them slowly die in front of me while worrying about trying to keep them fresh as long as I can, weeding out the ones that droop or are brown, and keeping the water clean. Hubby will be 600 miles away today. I will miss him, but we’ve already spoken on the phone once & will speak again of love & other inanities before the day ends. I do like to wear pink or red. I do decorate a bit. I think dinner tonight is Chik Fil a and maybe a splurge with milkshake. Keep happy, everyone!
I don’t like store bought cut-flowers, but I love to cut roses and sweet peas and put them around the house, they smell so good. When we lived in Seattle I had tons of lilacs, peonies and dahlias to cut, I really miss them living in SoCal. My boys have always given me things to plant on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. We have tons of roses and lavenders in the garden.
Hubby and I exchange cards – cute / funny ones. He gives me a dark chocolate bar (mmm chocolate). We argue about who loves the other more. He is working on his Masters Degree and has a class tonight so we went to our favorite pizza place last night. Spending a bunch of money on presents and overpriced “V Day” dinners is not our thing – we save it towards a vacation instead.
I had forgotten is was V Day LOL Obviously we don’t make a big deal out of it.
YAYAYAY! on One Fell Sweep in audio. Moving it to Ipod now
Good point on the reasoning of Valentine’s Day activity/stuff. HP and I never seem to manage anything on the day itself (And he has never grasped the idea of making a reservation for when we have). This year I plan to raid with my guild in WoW, maybe chat with HP over the phone some, and hopefully reattach all the stuff I pulled off the walls to paint. Since HP is in a different state, romantical things are just going to have to wait till I see him this weekend 🙂
We don’t celebrate the commercial holiday, either. Well, we buy chocolate dipped strawberries because they are in the store this time of year…. but they usually don’t last long (can’t have them going bad…). I will be making calzones tonight. I recently discovered it is much easier than I thought, you just have to have about an hour (with Austin humidity) for the dough to rise… Mmmm… chicken and spinach calzones…..
I also don’t like cut flowers for the same reason someone else mentioned. If my husband is going to get me flowers, they should be alive and growing (i.e. a houseplant). But I don’t have anymore place to put a plant.
Ilona, try passion vines and cross vines… once they start growing, they are hard to kill (especially the passion vines). And they bring in butterflies, the gulf flitteraries (sp?). They are climbers. Although, if you are moving to Florida, you probably don’t want to add plants to the yard. In late spring / early summer we have hanging baskets of purslane and porluntaca (sp?), so I get my blooming flowers.
I love passionvines! The flowers are very exotic looking. The gulf fritillary butterflies will often eat ALL the leaves off the just establishing vine-but it will (almost always) come back gangbusters next season.
Share the chicken & spinach calzone recipe, and I’ll share my authentic Hooper nasty recipe, large pastry and all!
This is the best V-Day present! My poor husband lives in this world while I walk around in another world listening to these fantastic books and laughing out loud. Thank you to you and Renee!!
For Valentine’s day we… helped each-other out with our respective careers.
My partner read over an exercise I’m doing for a job interview and corrected for grammar and clarity, and afterwards he walked me through the problems he’s having with entity relationship design and I helped him clear them up.
This was all done to accompaniment of a pair of brightly coloured Spanish maracas which have inexplicably become “reading maracas”.
Not exactly living the high life but I wouldn’t have traded it for an evening at a snazzy restarant .
We don’t really do much. I made Jake’s favorite chocolate flan cake last night– it has to chill overnight, so it’s a V-day treat. But, I also booked a massage for myself this afternoon. 🙂
O.M.G. Pleeeeze post the recipe or give us a link! Chocolate flan cake??? I think I’ll die happy ….
I’m a rebel, I prefer acts of kindness and a card on this day. My kids are picky eaters so I’m treating them to Brinner, Breakfast for dinner. My husband though is a traditionalist so he is taking me out for a concert dinner on Thursday for a belated Valentines Woo who! HAPPY Valentine’s day to you and Gordon
This year it is just three here, only our youngest is in the house. I am making pork chops and mashed potatoes for my husband and daughter and roasted carrots for me. We are usually pretty low key about Valentine’s Day.
I did help my daughter make some easy Valentine’s for her friends at school. She decided that since she was a senior that she wanted to hand some out to her friends. We took Peeps in heart shapes and stuck them on lollipop sticks and dipped them in chocolate. It brought back memories from when my kids were little as we had made them for their class celebrations.
The kids bought me a card. ? I am going to fill fluids in the cars, bring in the horses and try to make myself sit down and do taxes.
I have a problem with cut flowers. Pot plants, seedlings and the rest are always welcome but cut flowers? To me, cut flowers say, “I’ve screwed up so badly, I’m giving you this amazing sacrifice of the sex organs of another species, so you’ll let me keep mine.”
Many people tell me it’s an odd view of life, but still its mine.
My husband got his yearly card, Double Decker and Cadbury’s cream egg. Then he took me out for a Valentine’s lunch at our local favourite Chinese restaurant – mainly because he felt a bit guilty that he had forgotten to get me anything.
Lunch was wonderful as it always is from there – I had fish fillets in sweetcorn sauce with a huge pot of Jasmine tea. He had their salt and pepper tofu which is to die for – it’s like eating little fluffy clouds.
Tonight I will make scrambled eggs on toasted cheese muffins and we will sit and watch some more of Star Trek: Next Gen. We bought ourselves the HD Widescreen version for christmas and are nearly to the end of season one which I am glad about. I had forgotten how ropey and bad the first season was at the start.
My husband refuses utterly to go out for dinner on Valentine’s Day. He prefers to wait for a less-crowded opportunity. We have to do that this year anyway, because he has to be on the opposite coast all week. My daughter, however, brought me chocolate-covered strawberries this weekend, and I am treating myself to crab cakes and a new book (john Scalzi, THE GHOST BRIGADES) today. Do whatever makes it a good day for the two of you.
Let’s see…PJ party at daycare, first grade sugar overload done already. I came home in the pouring rain and read a sappy romance novel instead of studying (mostly to procrastinate, not because of the day). Maybe a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy’s or whatever I can dig out of the freezer later for dinner as I refuse to go out on Valentine’s or Mother’s day as they are the absolute worst days for restaurants. Tomorrow I plan to go and buy half price flowers for the house, nothing beats the after V-day sales on chocolate and flowers. 🙂
My aloe also died in vast numbers after that weird cold snap we had, good luck and hopefully some will survive.
Nah, go out for dinner some night when you want that ISN’T V-day. The service will be better because they aren’t swamped, you won’t be offered a limited menu (that is created to help the kitchen cope with the influx of diners), and it’ll be a more pleasant environment :-). Of course, we’re also of the “why just one day to talk about love” school of thought, so there’s that ;-). We actually went out on Saturday and it was very nice and we could actually hear each other to converse!
We also do nothing on Valentines day in terms of going out. Too crowded, too annoying. Early on in our marriage my husband tried to make me dinner and ended up with some kind of inedible pasty attempt at a risotto. I told him it was terrible and he apologized and asked what he could do to make up for it and I just told him I could go for a grilled cheese sandwich. He was good at making grilled cheese sandwiches, so it turned out great. Ever since then, that’s what I get – a grilled cheese sandwich on Valentines day.
What am I doing this Valentines Day? Going to bed early to listen to my new book! Best day in ages ! Have fun whatever you decide to do xx
My thesis and I have a date. In all seriousness, usually I spend valentine day playing in a chess tournament but this year i’m feverishly prepping a presentation. I might go out to dinner with some friends but usually i try to never go out to dinner for valentine day
The perfect thing to do on this Valentine’s Day is watch the final night of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. It is on one of the Fox Sports channels and is always very entertaining.
A Facebook friend referred to tomorrow as “Half-price Chocolate day.” The celebration that keeps on going!
My day started out great taking Valentines for all the kids into daycare. My little girl and I will have dinner and a fun evening.
Actually you can get half priced chocolate today at Walgreens
We pretty much just exchange cards and he gives me flowers. I don’t need expensive, fancy flowers, so the ones from the supermarket are fine with me. i also like to go out for dinner, but we usually choose some hole-in-the-wall place where we can sit and eat quietly and not spend a ton of money. Usually it’s a Chinese restaurant, but all our usual haunts have closed, so we’re looking. We may end up at the diner this year, which is also fine with me. It’s the doing something special together, not the money spent that makes me happy on Valentine’s Day.
Had a colonoscopy. All’s well that comes out that end…..
Goodness! (I haven’t done that, but I when I had an upper endoscopy last year, I elected to have it without sedation, which was fine but, um, memorable. I’ve head colonoscopies are awesome.)
When I was a freshman in college my roommate and I spent days making valentines with tissue paper, pastels, watered down Elmer’s glue on stiff paper or light cardboard. After they dried we would cut them up willy-nilly and stuff them in paper bags and give them out everywhere we went on Valentine’s Day, it became a tradition even when Jill and I had parted ways. I made them on my own, then with my kids and their friends, now we do a version of it for the children’s ward at the hospital and a “make valentines day” at my local library. It is so much fun! My husband always finds me a gorgeous handmade card and a “new to us” bottle of Rose’, this year it was grenache from Curran vineyards. 🙂 We’ll get pizza and I’ll make a greek salad to go with it and then swim or have a bath depending on the weather. We do the same thing every year, with or without kids.
When I was about a year out of university I went to a party with a friend (I didn’t know the hosts) and one of my valentines was on their fridge, it was a moment I’ll always remember.
Lot’s of love and friendship to you all Happy Valentine’s Day!
It’s one of the days a year I cook what ever my husband wants. He picks and I cook. There is no one worse to be married to than a chef if you want home cooked meals. LOL
I am manning the zendo for Tuesday formal sittings. I’ve recently been bailing on Tuesdays – I have lab meeting Wednesday, and it’s a busy time for me – but of our “staffers”* one couple is off at at the symphony, another is dealing with the further medical problems of her ex husband (more power to her) I think there’s some more valentine’s related stuff and… maybe someone else will show and help.
Otherwise it’s measuring slugmouths, constructing graphs, and corresponding with people I’m citing in one of these papers over twitter. One Fell Sweep is loaded up for when I finish my current audiobook.
I’m not currently involved, and my recent attempts at dating have been comically awful. (I’ve had multiple first dates where men told me that maybe if they hadn’t dropped out of taekwondo – or whatever – in their teens they’d be able to beat me up. Um… okay! This is clearly a big part of my selection criteria for a partner!) Mixing this with V-day just seems like a death wish. (No, I’m not worried about guys beating me up. I’m worried that I’m going to stab myself through the eye with a dessert spoon.) I also dyed my hair in a fit of ennui on Sunday, so I look much more like an anime character than is my usual wont, another reason to stay home tonight. I still haven’t gotten over the trauma of accidentally going on a date with a twenty-two year old. (And then there was the incident at the conference. Anime hair – nothing but trouble. Which would be a lot more fun if that was the trouble I was looking for.)
When I was married, we traded cutesy gifts and usually had some kind of dinner. Not really my style (well, I like to cook) but my husband would pout otherwise. I do remember fondly finding a vintage green silk dressing gown with embroidered dragons for him one year. (Whatever his other faults, he was exquisite, in a Tolkien elf sort of mold.) I think we might have gone to some of the local restaurants that were offering prix fixe menus on Valentine’s day – especially when I was writing about food. I might have even gotten a review out of it. …actually, now that I think about it, I think we went with our girlfriend when we were were part of a triad, which we were for about seven years. (And now I am sad. I don’t miss him – I tried to part amicably, but he hasn’t helped with that – but she died last spring, and I miss her rather a lot.)
* Anyone who’s been around long enough to end up in that role? Well, and I live here.
Commiserations Tylikcat.
Maybe you could go to some Taekwondo Tornaments and see if there’s anyone interesting there ?
Maybe? I still think scientific conferences are one of my better shots (hey, there are a lot of scientists who are also obsessive about their martial arts, or their climbing – or just weird enough to deal. And we’ll have science) but this last one I had a few of inquiries from people at least fifteen years my junior*, and then my most serious attempt to start a delicate flirtation, which I thought was going fairly well, and then suddenly –
“You know, you have such an unusual background. Are you looking for a position? I think you’d be such a good fit-” While I try to restrain myself from beating my head against a wall. Apparently I’m much better at academic flirting than actual flirting.
* I know the convention is to take this as flattery, but… I’m doing something really wrong.
I used to always by children’s Valentines (pack of 20 with temporary tattoos or Harry Potter characters, etc.). I’d try to get the most ridiculous ones or at least with some kind of prize or it could become a finger puppet, because that’s funnier to me. Then I’d write them from people like Genghis Khan or Lisa Simpson and give them out to everyone on my floor at work. Too many people at work these days and not feeling it this year. Maybe next year. Tonight I’m just going to get some take out involving rice and crawl into bed.
I’m in the communications department where I work and on our social media we are promoting SAD — Singles Awareness Day. I kid you not. Just to make those who are single feel really awesome and completely adequate.
http://foodforhealth.kaiserpermanente.org/recipes/eat-your-heart-out-healthier-comfort-foods-for-singles-awareness-day/
Whoa. That’s really, um, well intentioned? I mean, mind you, were I back home, and single* there’s a good chance those of my favorite women who don’t have plans (being not partnered… or, say, who are dating cowboys who live in different countries** or otherwise have complicated relationships, or just hate traditional valentine’s stuff) would get together, and there would be chocolate, and tea (I wish I could say wine, but none of us drink) and we’d laugh our asses off. If it wasn’t v-day there would be sushi, but oh, gods, no.
…though it’s a Tuesday, so maybe we’d all have training plans and then book and bed.
* Let’s just say my chances would be better. But then, v-day, not really my thing.
** Hey, it seems to be going well…
OMG, my plans now include going and downloading the audio RIGHT. NOW.
Hubs and I went out to a last minute dinner at a tiny local farm-to-table restaurant which normally isn’t even open for dinner but which decided to try their hand at a prixe fix Valentine’s menu this year. We scored the last reservation and hoped the menu would be even half as good as it looked (we’ve been burned by these types of things in the past and normally don’t bother going out on V-day). It was astonishing. It was amazing. The wild mushroom soup was the stuff of dreams and the lentil-feta stuffed avocado was a thing of legend (and not anything like as grass-eating hippie as it sounds). Delicious mahi-mahi with sweet potato mash and a chocolate brownie with raspberry sauce paired with local Raspberry Stout left us gasping with our eyes rolled back in our heads, a la When Harry Met Sally.
Now we’re celebrating our dog’s 16th birthday with furry snuggles and wet kisses. 🙂 Best Valentine’s Day yet.
Yum!
I pretty much have said I really don’t want to go out on Valentine’s day. I would rather avoid the lines. But Fannie Mae has a half off sale the day after Valentine’s day, so we always do hat together. I am making haupia to go with a tropical fruit salad for tomorrow. Nothing is in season here locally but hydroponic tomatoes. This is the only time of year I buy fresh fruit that has traveled.
Just finished re-reading Sweep III a few days ago. Now I get to experience it in a new way. Ordering the Audible tonight!
My husband I both wish each other a Happy Valentine’s Day, and that’s it. No balloons, no flowers, no going out to dinner. Just a wish that we have a good day. We like it that way. No rush, no worries, no fuss.
If we did celebrate, I would want Clean Sweep audio to be ready. Ta-Da! I got what I wanted! Thanks Renee, Ilona, and Gordon, for anther great book. Since the book was pre-ordered, it should be here any day.
We spent the day at Fernandina on Amelia Island, FL. Had a nice lunch at a restaurant with a view of the river, walked the shops and took a very pleasant trolley tour around the island. Learned there was an Underground Railroad safe house in town, didn’t know that. No cards, after 34 years he can’t take the pressure of card hunting. wimp. Great day, but that storm is heading our way SOOOOOOOOO bye bye sunshine.
I slept. I’m not a great fan of retail festivals at the best of times, nor do I particularly enjoy ‘giving (or receiving) on demand’. I prefer to see something that speaks to me of the recipient – and to give it in the pure pleasure of the moment. I agree about having to rethink relationships where the only giving occurs on one day of the year.
While my husband of 25-years made it clear while we were dating he did not enjoy being forced to act in a practical way on a forced holiday (Mother’s day being the other forced holiday), we do exchange valentine cards and over the years I have received my share of flowers. But since we had children I make sure like my mother did with me and my sisters growing up, to give my children a card and a small gift. Yes, day gift was a small bag of their favorite candy. I then typically cook an extra special diner for us all. This year beef Wellington with red wine shallot reduction was the feature.
I spent the day driving my husband to the doctor, tucking him back in bed with his stomach virus, then getting his medication from a couple of stores. So, my son and I had leftovers and I spent the night far away from the sickroom….
My husband and I stopped going out for dinner on Vday years ago. It’s always overpriced and crowded at the restaurants that day and not that much fun. I’m like you, I always told my husband I’d rather have a husband that thinks of me all year, not just one specific day. He’s a sweetheart and actually does the cooking (I’m cleanup). This year I’m making him a nice dinner we don’t usually have and he’s doing the cleanup. We are self employed (home based) so we are making ourselves take the day off and watch movies together since we don’t actually spend that much time together even though we are in the same house all day.
PS – the reason I’m not talking in past tense is because we bumped our Vday to the 15th.
mfs pregnant first cycle after stopping clomid how exactly does clomid work
Hi Ilona,
My hubby prepared a candlelight dinner with Chinese takeout, tea, followed by a DVD of ‘The Great Race,’ and some cuddle time. Also ice cream (the good stuff!), which chocolate topping. We exchanged Valentine cards. I gave him some gourmet chocolate. Honey and walnut shrimp, mmm.
My husband got me the best gift – time to play video games.
Blizzard is running a thing in Heroes of the Storm through March where you can get a mount for that game and World of Warcraft (which I still play) so he set aside time to play HotS with me over the rest of the week to get me that mount.
This is why I continually tell him he is my favorite husband 😉
You mean “Singles Awareness Day,” don’t you?
We don’t do a lot for Valentine’s Day, either. I took my teenage boys out to see John Wick, Chapter 2. Nothing shows love like gratuitous on-screen stylized violence and mayhem! At least the camera work is nice and clear, so I can see and appreciate the take-downs. Lately in so many action movies all I see is a blur. I’m sure that’s not my age showing … Hmm…
It’s not your age it’s just stupid directors thinking it’s ‘edgy’ to have these dark, gloomy segments where none of us viewers can see a damn thing!
So ‘been done’ stop doing it.
I pay a lot of money to watch a movie so I’d like to actually ‘see’ it – ALL of it – even if the cast are in a tunnel / drain / dark room / night / cave – I want to SEE!
Oh, and I gave up on Valentine’s over 30 years ago when my husband took me to a card shop and told me to pick out any card I liked ….. and he also wanted me to write what I’d like on my own card!!! ❤❤❤
Hello
I was wondering if One Fell Sweep would be sold in a MP3 disk format later, I have the rest of them from Brilliance Audio and would like to get this one one a disk format.
I worked all day, treated myself to chicken at Pollards for supper, and fell asleep halfway through NCIS which is really annoying. I stumbled up to bed and woke up at 3:30 a.m. so it will be a long day today. It is now raining and I have kids thIs afternoon so I need to jump start myself and get out the door. I’d rather make popcorn and watch my library movies, maybe tonight. I made a batch of fudge Monday morning. Yum.
I love peonies. I had some plants from my mom but didn’t bring them when I moved. My sister came and we dug them up and some others from mom and she took them home and shared them with her DILs and daughter. I have no yard right now and the one place I do have is where the termite chemicals are at. I do miss the peonies every year and my lilacs. Oh well, maybe at the next house.
My husband and I exchange cards, and I usually end up writing him a note in it. When I go down to breakfast (he goes to work much earlier than I do) there’s a small box of chocolate covered cherries on the kitchen table, half dark chocolate (for me) and half milk chocolate (for him.)
That’s pretty much it. We save going out to dinner for the weekends.
I will say that my husband is a sweetie pie year-round, so the candy and a card are pretty much all I need.
“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness–and call it love–true love.”
–Robert Fulghaum
I have this sitting on my desk. It’s a present from my husband. It explains a lot about our relationship.
I wrote a post on my botany blog about an aphrodisiac (maca). My husband bought flowers and chocolate for our daughters, and he got us oysters and wine from a bottle instead of Bota Box. Otherwise, a normal day.
I had preordered through Audible, so it downloaded, started listening Monday evening, late. Had a salad for dinner on Vday, spent the evening listening to OFS. 🙂
Nothing as my 44th anniversary is two day after valentines day…lol
I have just finished the audiobook of one feel sweep. It was fabulous!
I was recently reading the free stories on your site. You have a story titled ” Gerard Demille and Helen meet”. In the story Helen already has 2 children, a boy named Charlie and a toddler girl. Are these Dina’s older siblings? In the Innkeeper Chronicles Dina’s two elder siblings are Marge and Klaus.
Just wanted to say thank you for these books. I have read the majority of your work and I think this series is my favorite. Thank you for your work and your willingness to share it with all of us.