Cupid strikes with chocolate

Today, I decided to partake in the Valentine's festivities.

This is remarkable only because I am a cynic, and nothing makes my cynicism surface faster than Valentine's Day.

But today, well, it's just me and SMH on our own out here, so what can I say...I guess my cynicism lost some of its edge. Yes, I hate to admit it: I was feeling a little sentimental, so I celebrated V Day.

Seeing as how the way to the heart is through the stomach, our Valentine's Day pretty much revolved around food.

First, I got up early and made a special ginger pancake breakfast.

Then, I came home from work and made parmesan chicken, one of SMH's favorites.

But before leaving work, I decided what the piece de resistance would be: an over-the-top chocolate dessert. Knowing that I wouldn't have time to bake anything, I stopped at Wagner's, a wonderful German bakery downtown (think Servatii's, but without the pretzels, unfortunately), where I picked up a mouthwatering medley of chocolate treats. It was indeed over the top, but I thought, what the heck—SMH is a chocolate freak—I'd splurge. (OK, I love chocolate too, so, yes, I had ulterior motives.)

SMH arrived home from work with a special Valentine's gift for me: a mouthwatering medley of chocolate brownies, truffles and covered strawberries.

Wow. Lots of chocolate. I guess we're like two peas in a pod. A chocolate pod.

While the two of us have raging sweet teeth, even we couldn't tackle all the chocolate.

We had been thinking of doing a "Red Wine and Chocolate Extravaganza" weekend in Yakima wine country this weekend...but, well, maybe not.


Going back to my cynicism, I don't know why I'm such a curmudgeon about Valentine's, because I have two very fond memories of this day:

1) Not so long ago...Realizing that I had truly found my mate when, for our first Valentine's Day together, SMH gave me a pair of spankin' new Asolo hiking boots.

2) Pretty long time ago...Going to an Ice-T concert at Bogart's for a Valentine's date (pre SMH). This was Ice's OG days, long before his Law & Order debut. He was touring with Body Count, when "Cop Killer" was getting its most controversial media hype. So, we went to the show, had a great time, then came out to find our car had been broken into and everything inside had been stolen.

A cop came to help us out—a really friendly fella—and he asked us with a big smile, "So, where were you kids tonight? Dancing at Cooter's?" And we replied, "No sir, we were at Bogarts." "Oh really, who was playing? Probably nobody I've ever heard of." "Um, Ice T." The smile quickly faded from his face; yep, as it turns out, he had heard of him. But, then he took it in good humor and ended up being right helpful.


Hope everybody had a very un-cynical Happy Valentine's Day, and hope A.B. had a very Happy Birthday.