Baltimore: Part Two

Not to be disappointed with our luck at the National Ballroom Dancing event, we walked over to Camden Yards to watch the Baltimore Orioles play. There weren't too many folks there so $15 dollars a ticket afforded us some pretty good seats, right down the 3rd base line about even with the left fielder.

Here's a video from the night:

I hadn't been to a baseball game in a number of years, and while I didn't really care who won, Baltimore or Seattle, it was still a lot of fun. One of the best parts about it was that Tiff had never been to a baseball game. Her reaction as we were getting tickets - after the game had already begun - to the swell of the crowd reacting to a play was classic, just like any 5 year old's with bulging eyes and true sense of awe.

It was with that same sense of awe that Tiff repeatedly asked what to do if the ball was hit directly at us. While I'm sure my early responses were something along the lines of both "Catch it" and "Get out of the way," they quickly turned to "If you get hit, we're sure to get on TV." It's not that I want to see my new wife beamed by a foul ball, it's that she seemed so worried about it for soooo long that I ran out of things to say.

That was Dave and Kim that we're with. They're way-cool. For some reason, here's another video just one out after the first one:

And here's the last video we took, one more out later - I do say a bad word here:

Yes, holy shit, I caught a foul ball.

Just to clarify, I didn't actually catch it. I saw it coming and admittedly, "Catch it" was never a thought so I ducked out of the way. Tiff, with literally no time to spare, did the same and the ball crashed into the seat next to hers. It literally would have knocked her out had she not moved at the last second. The ball bounced up a couple of empty rows, Dave throws his beer behind him and lunges over several rows, sprawled out across the seats, only to have a swarm of people do the same hing, but land on him instead of the seats. The ball, meanwhile, slowly rolled towards me and I picked it up.

With that in mind, perhaps my level of jubilation was a little bit extreme, but it's not going to stop from me saying that I caught a foul ball. It will stop me from talking though, as I woke up the next day unable to make any sound whatsoever.

Baltimore: Part One

This weekend I found myself in Baltimore. My way-cool friend, Dave, and his way-cool girlfriend, Kim, had a way-cool hotel room right at the Inner Harbor. Tiff and I went up for a night.

The hotel that we were staying in was hosting a National Ballroom Dancing competition. While Dave dismissed the event off-hand, the rest of us, myself included, were eager to see the dance-off. We waded through countless men with numbers on their back and women decked out in some funny looking dresses that connect to the wrist and enough make-up to make me want to become an Avon lady, to learn that it's by invite only.

While many of them were surprisingly young, as young as 12 or 13 maybe, it was clear that there were several big names in dancing. In fact, in a cramped elevator, a short Asian man with apparently limited English skills, turned to one of the passengers and asked, "Are you, John, Johnny, Jonathon? You dance this weekend?"

John, Johnny, Jonathon smiled with his slicked back hair and coolly said, "No, not this weekend. I'm just a spectator this weekend," just like I'm sure any big name celebrity would do. He then led his lady friend by the arm off the elevator, taking long graceful strides, all the while pointing his toe.

Baseball

I mentioned recently that I was "prepared to give up baseball." I said this as I was annoyed by basketball and all the hubbub around March Madness. Plus, while the steroids issue should probably put a dark cloud over all sports, right now it's just hovering over baseball. And on top of that, those guys get paid too much. They really do.

Anyways, with the start of the baseball season under way, I find myself checking the scores and reading all the stats in my late-night boredom every night, just as I have for the past few years... and I still get excited about it. A seven run 8th inning, wow!

I am frustrated though with the media coverage of the sports world. On Sunday, for instance, I watched the local news hoping to see a few clips of the soccer game from the night before, DC's season opener, a 2-0 loss. They spent nearly the whole newscast - not just the sports - talking about the baseball season opener. Now, Ben Olsen, one of the few guys whose name I know, has to have ankle surgery and I don't know what happened or how long he's out, or anything. The news won't tell me. Yahoo sports won't tell me. Wikipedia won't tell me. DC United's website won't even tell me!

I guess soccer's time hasn't quite come yet. While I will watch the soccer that I can, I'll be hoping for a few more seven run 8th innings too.

My Cat

Because I don't want to shortchange our cat...

We started having her sit in response to a clip of Vanna White trying to make her cat sit for treats.

Oh... and next on my list of things to do: get a haircut.

Skin Test

I'm allergic to cockroaches.

I'm still battling hives, and after a week of scratching as I haven't been able to take any medication for my hives, I finally had a skin test done. The way they do a skin test is to write a grid all across your back and stick you with a bunch of different needles - by my count it was about 342 dozen painful pricks or so. The pricks up near the shoulders are relatively pain free. They are nice enough to start you out up there, but as the endless pricking continues, the lower ones hurt a lot and a number of them sent chills all throughout my body.

When your back is completely covered in small nicks of blood, then you have to wait twenty minutes and not scratch, even though almost immediately that is the only thing you want to do. This is when my long battle with hives has come in handy. I've gotten to the point where I usually don't think about scratching when I itch, which is a little messed up. My experience with the skin test yesteday is that the nurse is nice enough to check back in every so often with friendly reminders that you itch all over. "Oh, it looks like you have a few spots that really itch! No scratching! Fifteen more minutes!" I think she enjoys the torture.

My allergies include ragweed, dust mites, some sort of mold, and yes, cockroaches. I've never had seasonal allergies so ragweed was surprising. The dust mites, the doctor's free brochure tells me, are ugly little things that accumulate in my mattress. I first learn this during my brief time selling vacuums and quickly recall that dust mites excrete ten times their own body weight each and every day! Mold and cockroaches I'm sure that I'm around, but I almost never see them.

Anyways, the good doctor concludes that my hives are not an allergic reaction. What this means is that my body is causing the hives and I just have to live with it, for up to fifteen years, at which point it will be 2023 and I'll be comforted by my flying car and robotic housekeeper.

I also have a minor allergy to my cat, which still has no name, but isn't going anywhere.
Or at least that's what my wife says.

More on My Greatness

Building on that last post, I love England. I've tried to write about this before but I don't think I ever did so successfully, so if this is a repeated idea, I apologize.

I love England for it's greatness. And by England, I mean Great Britain. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. But I think if I were English I'd also be free, and I'd have a good chance of being great. I don't know any statistics, but just think about all the British people. The Beatles, Harry Potter, James Bond, the Rolling Stones, The Lord of the Rings guy, Clive Owen, umm... Sir Francis Drake... that's not too mention the English language and the English system of government and maybe some other stuff. I mean the English are great!

I think England's greatness stems from its size. The entire country is about twice the size of my state, or commonwealth, Virginia, albeit it much more populated. If you're English, you're English, whereas if you live in Virginia, you're American. I feel like there is a responsibility to be great if you're English; you have to represent, whereas for me, if I'm not great, I'm sure one of the other 300,000,000 will be. I know they're out there, I watch American Idol.

Furthermore, I just read that Raphael, the artist not the mutant turtle, was born in this tiny town called Urbino, which Wikipedia says is "small but artistically significant." For some reason it makes me want to be an Urbino-eer, Urbino-ite, Urbinese. I want to be from somewhere important and loved. I want to be important and loved.

I'm from Roswell, GA, which was a great place to grow up, but I don't really have a sense of pride about it. I have a hard time imagining what my future biopic would say about the place I grew up in. Maybe I'm saying I want to be surrounded by greatness, that I want greatness to be expected and applauded in all forms wherever it comes from. Maybe I'm just saying that as I realize my own limitations I look to whatever I can to cast my blame.

I am great. But I'm not English great.

My Greatness

As I've mentioned I do have an under-used notebook that is, for the most part, filled with a bunch of gibberish. I'm not sure if it's a journal or a diary as I write in it so little, but the over-riding sentiment throughout it is that of my greatness.

USA Today recently had an article about how the current generation of twenty-somethings is a drifting generation that has yet to settle on a lifetime goal or aspiration. The article I believe focused on how upsetting this is to parents, who just want their kids to be happy, but that part wasn't very interesting. As a member of that generation, and with a destiny of greatness, I feel like I should have something to say about this... let's see if I do.

...hmmm... well, when I was a kid I told my folks I wanted to be King of North Carolina. My parents encouraged this.

I guess I should say first that I am newly married and have started saving with the intention of buying a home, one day. However, my lifetime goals? I still have it in my head that one day I'll be a United States Senator, that I'll write the Great American Novel, that one day I'll be a beekeeper or at least own bees, that I will commission a giant skyscraper to be named The Tower of Duffy, that I will further popularize mass transit and be viewed as a savior for my efforts, that I will start my own business of selling bonsais, that I'll be a household name, not unlike Lance Armstrong or Jesse Jackson, that I will buy an entire street of run-down houses and turn them all into prize-winning homes with prize-winning rose gardens, that I'll win a prize, maybe the X-Prize for my extensive work on the human genome, that I will own a major sports team, that I will travel the world, learning seven languages in the process and finding beauty wherever beauty is to be found, AND that I will do all of this before I turn thirty... better make that thirty-five.

Anyways, while I'll admit that I have my work cut out for me, I'd hardly label myself a drifter. I'm more of a dreamer. I dream of my own greatness. I want to be great but am well aware of the reality and I would be happier unknown in a quiet place than in the spotlight. As I wrote once in my notebook, it's not that I have delusions of grandeur, it's that I have delusions of delusions. And who knows, maybe my parent's should be worried about that.

I'm an NCAA Loser

Just a quick update: after the first two rounds of March Madness, my bracket is completely busted and I don't stand a chance. With so many upsets this year, I would be surprised if anyone will win the $5 million prize from Yahoo to someone who gets them all right.

Oh well, bring on the baseball season... and soccer.

NCAA Bracket

Okay, so Tiff is gearing up for the big dance and started a Tournament Pick 'Em group if anybody wants to sign up. I think you might need a yahoo email account, but otherwise it's free. And, if you get the picks all right you have the chance to win 5 million dollars. It's a small chance, but it's cheaper than playing the lottery. While I haven't paid any attention this year to who's who, I'll be rooting for Clemson, who lost in the one game I did watch this year, the ACC Championship.

The Madness of Sports

It's March and I am not happy. Believe it or not it has been March for awhile now, but the Madness that comes with March is just about to arrive. That's right the NCAA Tournament is gearing up and looks to be as exciting as always.

I'm not happy because I have unofficially sworn off basketball and this time of year it is hard not to follow along with the festivities. I am prepared to give up baseball as well. For baseball, the departure of Andruw Jones from the Atlanta Braves sealed its fate in my eyes, but I am also determined to get into soccer this year and I didn't want conflicting sports. I also believe soccer to be the next great sport in the US.

My home team is DC United. They are undoubtedly one of the best in MLS, and with a little luck, hopefully they can prove it this year. They've started out right, advancing yesterday to the semis of a pre-season tournament.

It is admittedly hard to get into soccer though, mainly because of the lack of media coverage. One game a week on ESPN2 is about all you get. For this reason too, it's hard to avoid baseball and basketball without giving up on all sports. Baseball's season hasn't even begun and already they've captured many of the headlines. The games aren't even that exciting, and last season I followed along mainly by reading about the games, and if there were any great plays mentioned I'd look to see if they made it onto YouTube. Basketball is a little easier to avoid for me for whatever reason, but this March Madness thing is everywhere.

Basketball has it's advantages though as it's the only sport that Tiffany will sit and watch with me for an extended amount of time. And without any questions too! What I'm getting at here is that they are exciting to watch. Most sports are. That's why most people watch them. That's why there are entire channels devoted to them. So why not enjoy them. Why not join the madness that is March Madness and root for the underdog.

Bees!

Bees are dying off. It's a fact. There aren't nearly as many bees around today as there was just a few years ago. It seems like everyone is so caught up with the fate of polar bears, that this whole bee issue has gotten a bum deal. "Everyone" being anyone who cares about that sort of save the world stuff, of which I proudly stand.

Don't get me wrong, the polar bear thing raises huge concerns and we, as a society, should be worried about the big furry beasts. However, I believe the decline of the tiny buzzing beasts is much more concerning. Plus, with polar bears, we know what's happening. For whatever reason, the ice caps are melting, which is problematic for these bears. With bees though, there's no reason for the die-off. There isn't even a good guess, or at least not a frontrunner. My guess is it has to do something with the all the meds in the water... or MTV.

While bees can be seen as a frightening nuisance - a dead one has rested in peace in the back of my car for over a year now in part because I don't want to get stung by it - they are an important part of agriculture. They help flowers bloom, apples grow, and let's not forget their sweet, sweet pee... I mean, honey. When you get right down to it, they are pretty miraculous little animals, bees are.

Anyways, all this bee-talk is to lead up to a news story about a flatbed truck that flipped over in California. It was carrying some 30,000 bees, which if I'm doing the math right, translates into a whole bunch of bee stings during the clean-up. Luckily, "several beekeepers driving by the accident stopped to assist in the bee wrangling." It's good to hear that the beekeeper population hasn't taken a hit. I mean if several beekeepers are just passing by this turned over truck and stop to help out, I have to wonder just how many beekeepers are there in California?

Also in severe decline in recent years is the bat population, which are just ugly animals all around, so they're not quite as important.

Sanbai Kaeshi

Happy White Day, everybody. Is it wrong that I feel politically incorrect saying that?

White Day is a Japanese holiday celebrated one month after Valentine's Day where women generally give candy to men. The idea behind it is that you give back thrice the value of what you got. In Japanese this is called sanbai kaeshi, or "thrice the return", which like all Japanese terms, I have fun saying. This year, according to sanbai kaeshi and thanks to the savings challenge, I won't expect too much.

For some reason though, women are suppose to be wearing white today, two months before Memorial Day... the horror! On a side note, white is also the color adorned by those who have completed the Shikoku pilgrimage, which admittedly I want to do in part because I want to be able to use the word Shikoku in normal conversation.

In America, while white is not part of the deal, I have heard of a similar celebration of sorts with a much cruder name. If the creators of this holiday weren't quite so blunt with their name giving, it might have actually caught on.

By the way, it seems strange to me that Japan celebrates St. Valentine's Day. I guess Japan falls victim to crazy marketers just as much as the US does... I'm expecting to see Mother's Day decorations at Wal-Mart any day now.

Captivate and Inspire

Along the same lines as the previous post: (this is old news by now)

I love seeing movies in the movie theater; nothing beats a great movie theater experience. Recently, Tiff and I saw Juno, which was great, and the movie we saw before that was Transformers. It's been kind of a slow year for movies. Nothing really looks good to me anymore.

Anyways, the Oscars happened. Juno won one. Another movie I like a lot - I didn't hear about it until it was pretty much out of the theaters - is Once, which also won one, for best original song. It's a good category for it to win as it's about singer-songwriters and stars singer-songwriters. Here's the song, one of several great ones from the movie:

The old news is the story of Marketa Irglova, one of the two winners for Once, who was brought back on stage to give her speech. Turned out to be a pretty good one as acceptance speeches go:

"Hi everyone. I just want to thank you so much. This is such a big deal, not only for us, but for all other independent musicians and artists that spend most of their time struggling, and this, the fact that we're standing here tonight, the fact that we're able to hold this, it's just to prove no matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible. And, you know, fair play to those who dare to dream and don't give up. And this song was written from a perspective of hope, and hope at the end of the day connects us all, no matter how different we are. And so thank you so much, who helped us along way. Thank you."

How the story relates to the previous post is that I, however, really, really like the closing words of the other winner, Glen Hansard, who spoke before the music ushered them off prematurely.

"This is amazing. Make art. Make art. Thanks."

Make art. Captivate and inspire.

Art Museum

Last weekend, waiting for the U2 movie showtime, I went to the Hirshhorn sculpture museum. A great part about DC is that most of the museums are free and therefore, it makes sense to visit them this way, almost as a time filler.

I've been to the Hirshhorn museum a few times. It's permanent exhibits aren't all too exciting, but the section that changes every few months is definitely cool. Right now, they have a collection about dreams all done with film. It's pretty crazy, as most of it is not too exciting, but two or three pieces were incredibly interesting.

I was afraid that the doll hanging on the wall with some maniacal guy's face projected onto it would give me bad dreams - it didn't - and I wish I could revisit the lights in the cloudy room. The one that I keep thinking about, however, was a movie of a typewriter in the snow. There was no sound, no real action, just a typewriter slowly getting covered in snow. I have no idea what it means, but I like it.

(This is the cloudy room with the light. In writing a post about art I feel I needed pictures. This is the only picture I could find on the internet from the exhibit.)

I'll admit that I don't really understand art. I don't know what separates good art from bad art or if there even is bad art. It has something to do with emotions and beauty and meaning, but in the end, it seems it just needs to captivate and inspire, something U2 did easily.

After the Hirshhorn, we went to the Natural History Museum where we saw a nature photography exhibit. Pretty amazing pictures, each and every one of them. My favorite, the one that captivated and inspired me, was of a rowboat in the fog. It was taken by a thirteen year-old.

(Again, I couldn't find the one I'm talking about. I must not be a very good blogger. I like this one though. It's somehow patriotic. Here are some others.)

Starbucks

I own stock in Starbucks, a little more than 1.9 shares. I bought it a while ago, after seeing, the Starbucks produced, Akeelah and the Bee on opening night and joining in on the only standing ovation I've ever seen at a movie theater. Different cultures are so cool.

Then I started thinking about what I already knew about Starbucks. They have high-priced coffee that is good enough to turn me on to coffee, which I never thought possible. Their everywhere and always have people in them at all hours of the day. And they originated in Seattle, which I've wanted to go to ever since the Real World Seattle, about ten years ago, because it looks cool in a rainy day kinda way and, for no apparent reason, reminds me of this great song, "White Daisies Passing" by this guy from Seattle named Rocky Votolato.
So, when I found out soon there after that they treat their employees decently and the high prices in part allow them to offer benefits to their employees, I decided "what the hay, why not?" and put $64 into the company. My "investment" is now worth about $37. You win some, you lose some.

Anyways, all that is just so I can mention the interesting move the company is making today. They are closing the doors to all their stores today for three and a half hours, 5:30 to 9 this evening, in order to train their baristas how to make the perfect espresso. While the - umm - muted guerrilla in me wishes they were doing it for some grand cause, like closing their doors to raise awareness for - I don't know - freeing Tibet or something, I have to applaud them on this. It's always important to make sure you are doing something right, even if it takes a little longer, or costs a small fortune in sales.

U2 in 3D

I went into DC to see U23D last night at the Natural History Museum. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing. While I enjoy the music of U2, I would not say that I'm a huge fan. This show is insanely good though, and I would highly recommend anyone and everyone to go see it. Plus, it's in 3D! How cool is that!

Tiff's been to a real-life U2 concert, which she says was the greatest show she's ever been to. For someone with my limited concert-going experience to say that would be meaningless, but Tiff has seen them all... The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Cinderella and Poison, and I have to include Slash. Anyways, she also says the movie experience, while nowhere near the same, is still nothing short of genius.

After the show, we were debating if any other band could pull it off. I don't think any other band is good enough to have an entire movie of their concert for the movie going experience, except of course, Hannah Montana. Maybe I'm just a bit U2 intoxicated right now, but every song they have is so meaningful to so many people and so powerful in every way, shape, and form that their concert is unrivaled. The crowd can carry the lyrics throughout the entire show, not just one or two songs and without sounding all garbled together, but then Bono sings and you just feel it. It's hard to explain. Go see the movie.

Another great part is that it's in 3D. This is the first time since I was a wee little lad that I got to wear 3D glasses for something. While at first it was a little strange, it made for a completely different experience, and I definitely will be checking out some more 3D shows in the future. It's a couple extra bucks plus the cost of getting into the city, but it makes for more of an experience and is worth every penny.

Idolizing Nobodies

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I would not be watching American Idol this year. Well, I have a confession to make. I've watched it the past two weeks. It's a sad, sad truth, but they got me when I heard that the contestants could play instruments. Plus, it was the Hollywood week which might be my favorite part of the show.

I do have a lot of least favorite parts of the show. I hate the backstories of the people. I hate the banter between the judges and between Ryan Seacrest and the judges. More than that banter I hate the banter between the contestants and the judges, and I wish they had rule that the contestants couldn't talk when they're being judged. I hate half the contestants and of the half I do like, I actually secretly hate half of them. I hate the songs they make them sing and I wish they could sing whatever they wanted. At this point, all the songs that they sing have been sung already. I hate how they torment the contestants and draw out the show for no apparent reason. I basically hate the show.

Yet... I still watch it. I'm a sad, sad man. I should make a list of good things about the show. Hollywood week, which is where the final audition takes place, but that's already done. There's usually one, maybe two, songs every show that are good, really good. Let's see... I like singing in the shower afterwards. That's about it. Oh, I, unfortunately, usually like the ensemble things they do, even though they're usually the worst performances of all; I just like hearing the different voices all together.

Last year's group sucked, so I had said no more this year. Plus, Tiff and I were watching Biggest Loser, which comes on at the same time, and I was getting into it, but then they changed the rules on that so I got mad and cut it out of my list of shows.

Anyways, I do have my favorites. But once they're out, I'm giving up on American Idol, maybe even before then. The thing is though, what else is on? Another CSI? I really need a television sacrifice. Oh! Dexter's on CBS now... it's the first season, everyone should watch it. At least, everyone older than 18 with a sound mind and twisted sense of humor.

More Local News

I live in Manassas, VA. Manassas is building a giant parking garage right off of main street. It's a much needed addition to the city, as it has an underused commuter train station and an overused highway exit. The crazy part is though that it's five stories tall. All the buildings in Old Town Manassas are three stories by my count. Maybe I'm just adding them up wrong. Let's hope it goes underground.

I drive past this parking structure construction everyday, so it kinda tickled my noggin and I went looking to learn more about it. So I read the local paper, which was a little interesting, and found a local blog, which is interesting for all the wrong reasons.

The blog is written by a City Councilman, and while it's not a daily read, it's pretty impressive how well he keeps up with it, writing about both political stuff and city stuff. The strange part is, especially coming from an elected official, nowhere on the thing does it say who he is. There is no name. There is no title. I had to read through quite a few posts just to learn he is, in fact, a City Councilman and no, he is not running for Mayor.

Anyways, I'm adding this mystery man's blog to my exclusive list of links, replacing, the much loved but under-appreciated, Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century. If you keep up with it, maybe you can see the completed Manassas Skyline come June of 2008, in all it's parking garage splendor.

Middle School Banking

Going against my usual grain here... This year marks my 10 year high school graduation. I could say I'm getting old, but to be honest, the further away I get from some of those memories the better. Now, next year being ten years since I started college... that's a depressing thought.

I bring it up just to say that it's been awhile since I was in school, let alone middle school, and while I'm sure there have been a lot of necessary and beneficial changes to the schooling environment, I was surprised when I found this in my local paper under the "winners" section:

"Synergy One Federal Credit Union and Gainesville Middle School, which will jointly sponsor a new banking branch at the school with the official opening at 1 p.m. on Tuesday. This is the second middle school branch Synergy One has opened in the last two years and the first in the Gainesville area."

Winner! If I try really hard I could see some reasoning behind putting a bank in a middle school... help teach the kids about the importance of savings or something, but it seems like a pretty big stretch to me. Plus, from the bank's perspective's, who's it attracting? Middle schoolers? New teachers? I'm guessing old teachers already have a bank, as well as parents of middle schoolers. It just doesn't seem to make any sense.

But hey, I don't know much about schools these days, maybe it's all the rage. Maybe it's hip. Maybe it's happening.

My Valentine's Feast

Last year, Tiffany unleashed the greatest Valentine's of all time. This year the onus was on me to, as Bon Jovi says, make a memory. While I stepped up to the plate, ready for the challenge, my home run swing at making the best Valentine's ever fell far short. I could write a thousand li-i-i-i-ines, about what went wrong, but the bottom line is cooking easy is easy, cooking hard is not easy.

With the savings challenge in mind, I vowed to cook something myself for my beautiful wife, who cooks for me almost all the time. Normally, we would be heading to a fancier restaurant than normal and maybe order a bottle of wine. Not going out to eat has been a successful part of our sacrifice, with some new and strange meals. Wednesday night Tiff threw all these odds and ends into the crockpot, the main ingredient being lentils. Both of us looked at it with sour faces as we were dishing it out, but by golly, it was good. It was really good.

So I knew we weren't going anywhere, so I had to make something nice. Tiff likes shrimp and shrimp sounds nice and expensive to me, so I set out to cook shrimp for Tiffany on Valentine's. I think this was my first mistake as I've never cooked shrimp, or any other type of seafood before and has no idea how to go about it. I searched the internet where I found a recipe that looked a little complicated but interesting enough to try.

The morning of I went to the store for ingredients. I bought shrimp, mozzarella cheese, roasted red peppers, pasta, sauce, ice cream, strawberries, and flowers. The recipe also called for prosciutto and pano bread crumbs. In my head, honey baked ham and a loaf of bread would make suitable substitutes. Hindsight is 20/20.

Tiff was determined to snoop when I got home and I ended up ruining, freely and willingly, the surprise of what was for dinner. She questioned it and had a good chuckle at my expense before I ever got started cooking. This kind of irritated me as I was both excited and mainly nervous about my attempts at cooking something new.

Long story short, once I started cooking I new I was in over my head and immediately scrapped my Shrimp Nicholas recipe of wrapped butterflied shrimp, choosing instead to make a mish-mash of flavors to cook the shrimp in. Then I just threw it romanticly over basic pasta, with essentially a jar of red pasta sauce. Mmmm.

Tiff, always the good sport, said she liked it, but she pushed the second half to the side in favor of a salad, and now, hours after the fact, all I can taste is garlic. At least, the flowers look good, but I think I still have a few years of Valentine's Days to catch up with her.

And tonight, I think both of us are very much looking forward to some leftover lentil soup. Happy Valentine's Day.