Happy Valentine's Day

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I gave Steve movie gift certificates for Valentine's Day. That's real popcorn glued in place.

Steve gave me a Cuddle Blanket. It's a lap-size soft burgundy fleece with a big pocket for your feet at the bottom and a pocket on the front for the remote or a book or something. In spite of being an overweight menopausal woman whose thermostat is stuck on medium high at all times, I do like to sit under an afghan or quilt while reading or watching TV. This is perfect!

This is one of the very few cards I've made for Steve. He's never given me cards (maybe in the very beginning he did, I can't remember 13 years ago to be honest), so I don't think he's a card person. Once I started making cards, he probably became less inclined to give me a card. But I've decided to start making cards for him.

Simon, on the other hand, is an excellent card picker outer. He goes for mushy every time. Nearly always brings a tear to my eye because each card is so appropriate. I keep them all.

In other news, Steve bought us a king-size bed the other day and I bought Simon a full-size bed. Our bed has been giving us both backaches and gets a little crowded when the pets sleep with us (which we love, by the way). Simon has been asking for a bed for well over a year. He's had a futon since we moved here 6 years ago and with the amount of use it's gotten by him and his posse over the years, it's pretty shot too.

Both are being delivered tonight. We put Simon's futon downstairs by the pool table and they will haul our old bed away. I'm sure it's true for everyone, but new mattresses are purchased so infrequently, it's kind of an education, learning about the new "technology". And it's just plain weird to try out the beds in the store. The salesperson told us one really needs to relax on a bed for 15 minutes to let your body get accustomed to it. Uh, no. I feel self-conscious enough, like a turtle on my back, trying to gracefully get out of the comfy softness.

For our bed, we went with the low-profile box springs, hoping that Reggi will still be able to jump up on the bed. The older she gets, the harder time she'll have. Not to mention she's overweight too. (Steve has been eyeing little steps he's seen in catalogs, that we could put by the bed for her.) We took her for walks on Saturday and Sunday this past weekend and after the first one, her little legs must have been tired because she had trouble jumping on the bed or couch, poor thing. She was much better after Sunday's walk. And boy is she a happy dog when she knows she's going for a walk, or even just a ride in the car. I love making her happy.

I love walking Reggi in the morning and recently bought a new reflective vest to wear - but just can't bring myself to walk outside yet. It's pretty cold and dark at 4:30! I can do cold, not wind & snow, but cold - but I need a little light. We've decided to limit our walks to weekends for now. By April we should be walking every morning again.

It's difficult right now too because I've been going in to work early most days. My accounts receivable counterpart is out on medical leave so I'm really overwhelmed with work. We've both been overwhelmed since our third person left last year, but this one person doing the work of three kinda sucks. I'm not complaining, just stating a fact. She covered for me the 3 weeks I was out with the gall bladder stuff and I covered for her for her two previous eye surgeries. We just do what needs to be done. Luckily I'm still hourly so the overtime is terrific.

I noticed my stats were abnormally high for yesterday. Turns out lots of hits were from Google images - people looking for origami hearts. I promise to provide a tutorial on how to make them - soon. First I'll look around online for one so I'm not reinventing the wheel - otherwise, I'll photograph myself making one, step-by-step. I've had several requests - just need to make time to do it.

Happy Valentine's Day!