Happy Valentine's Day.

Ugh. I know, I know...a day late, a dollar short, yada, yada.

Today (I'm writing this at 12:05 a.m., so I'm talking about Feb. 14, not the five minutes of the 15th, although, so far, it's not cracking up to be much either) was a bust. Got a call from the realtor making sure we were still on for today. Um, you have to actually TELL ME if someone makes an appointment to come see the house! So I rushed around and ended up getting the kids and dogs loaded up five minutes into their one hour time period, then I shoveled the driveway and walk, and they still didn't show up. I left and when I came back all the lights were still on, so I think they may have bailed. Again. These people were supposed to come by last week but cancelled. I really don't think most people have any inkling how much they're inconveniencing people when they look at a house they're not serious about buying. ESPECIALLY IF THEY DON'T EVEN BOTHER SHOWING UP.

Anyhoo, I went on to Krogers then and bought all the fixings for a nice Valentine's dinner for Chris: bacon-wrapped filet mignon, large sweet potatoes, spinach salad with Gorgonzola and almonds...and it sucked. I followed the package directions for the steaks, and apparently, that was for rare steaks, so Chris ended up taking them, slicing them up, and recooking them. The sweet potatoes I cooked for 50 minutes...not done. So we eat the broccoli w/cheese sauce (that ended up being lumpy) and the bread and then we recook the steak, and I put the potatoes back in the oven for another 30 minutes. They still weren't done, so I popped them into the microwave for five minutes. That worked, but because of Izzy acting like a maniac jerk we forgot about them. They are currently in a baggie in the fridge to be forgotten about again, and thrown away in a few days. The steak ended up being pretty good.

Izzy wouldn't eat a single bite of his dinner, so we ended up taking turns putting him in his room, coming back to eat cold broccoli, negotiating with our pint-sized terrorist, then putting him back in his room again when he started screaming, "I'm not going to eat this stupid dinner!" But I have to admit that I had to stifle a giggle when I said to Chris in great exasperation, "This dinner is just terrible all around!," and Izzy shakes his head up and down, vigorously agreeing with me and says, "I know! This broccoli is stinky!" But trust me - the kid loves broccoli, he was just being a jerk because he wanted one of the homemade double chip cookies that I'm made for a special Valentine's dessert. I had little foil heart-shapes that I'd got for Sophie's love-themed birthday party last year and never used. I found them when I was looking for the mixer for the cookies, which I couldn't find in all of those boxes downstairs that we'd packed for the move-that-never-happened, so I used an immersion blender. Living in flux sux.

Long story a little shorter, Izzy goes to bed not only without dinner, but also without his special heart-shaped cookie AND his Valentine's present. That makes me so sad. But we are trying to stay consistent with him, even when it sucks worse for us than for him.

That's my Valentine's Day. Oh, and to make it just perfect, Chris brings me home a box of chocolates, that he'd had a coworker (who lives next to the chocolate shop) pick up for him. Normally, I would be so appreciative. But imagine my surprise when I decide to go in and have one a few minutes ago and I open the box to see not a box full of marzipan, my favorite variety from Holl's Chocolates, but a box full of hazelnut. Tastes fine, but I'm not a big enough fan of chocolate to eat much of it unless I love it. To tell you the truth, though, I'm kind of glad that Chris's gift didn't pan out either. Makes me feel a little better about the crappy dinner.

Happy day-after-Valentine's-Day everyone.