Happy Heart Day

Happy Valentine's Day, a few minutes late.  What did you do?  Lauren & I baked heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink sprinkles & cream cheese frosting and made cards.  I got the recipe from "How to Read A French Fry" and after I tried one, and realized I've never made sugar cookies before in my life, and that maybe I should have gotten a recipe from a friend (I'm sure I remember Kate making some delicious ones) or at least a well-reviewed web site.  They weren't that good plain, so I had to turn to "The Joy of Cooking" for the icing recipe.  Live and learn.  Other recipes I've made from HTRAFF have come out really well.  

We got takeout from Natalee Thai and enjoyed that.  Lauren got her favorite "rice, rice, please please, rice, Mama!" and the rest of us had noodles.  

Ryan surprised me with a big gift bag full of different kinds of dark chocolate, and a potted rose plant.  (I told him I would be mad if he wasted money on cut roses, they were $79.95 at Vons!  Crazy!)  I also got my KitchenAid food processor which is sort of a late Christmas/early birthday gift but arrived in time for Valentine's.  I haven't gotten it out of the box yet.  As Lauren would say, "I 'fraid".  There are lots of warnings about not cutting yourself, and specific instructions for how to take the pieces out an assemble them. 

We are going to my parents' house for the long weekend and as we water the plants and get ready to leave, I really hope I remember to feed the fish or else we will find Pacoo floating face up when we get back.  My dear friends Greg & Kara have a betta fish and travel frequently and they told me theirs doesn't eat for 3 day stretches, frequently, and is fine.  They also don't change the water once a week as I had been instructed to do.  The first week, my mother-in-law happened to be here, so I had her do it to show me how.  The second week, in the morning I tried for about 5 minutes to catch the little bugger with the fish net but gave up.   Then my little 9 year old friend came over and I had him do it.  Tomorrow will be one week since the last cleaning and I'll give it the old college try but if I don't succeed, then Pacoo will have to be in 'tinky water on top of being hungry.  If he's floating belly up then, we'll know it was a suicide.