Three Beautiful Things 02-14-2025: Six Minutes of Valentine's Day, Puzzle Day, Chicken and Rice in the Wok

1. Have I mentioned that on our first date back in August of 1997, somehow, at a Eugene Emeralds baseball game, the subject of Valentine's Day came up and Debbie and I learned neither of us enjoyed it? We might have said we hated it. 

WOW! 

When we got married on Christmas Eve that year, one of the first things I thought about as we strode out of the Hitching Post Lakeside Chapel in CdA was that as long as Debbie and I were together I could no longer blow it on Valentine's Day, never again suffer the consequences of never being moved or inspired by the Valentine's Day spirit. 

Debbie always put out chocolate or other nice things for the kids on Valentine's Day, but she and I never did anything for each other: no cards, no hearts, no candy, no stuffed animals, no balloons, no flowers, ah!, nothing. 

And so it was today. Debbie was home all day. Our day was normal.

But, Christy did temporarily knock down our Valentine's Day wall! 

Christy loves Valentine's Day and she gave us a bag with chocolates, cherry frosted sugar cookies, and a jar of tomato sauce she recently made. 

We ate the cookies.

We ate almost all the chocolate. 

We'll put the sauce to good use. 

So, I guess you could say that we acknowledged Valentine's Day for about six minutes! 😏 

2. I haven't started reading a new book just yet, but today I did return to word puzzles. In the evening, I completed the Saturday NYTimes puzzle and went online and solved three or four acrostics. My puzzle solving routine each day has grown: no I work on Wordle, Quordle, Waffle, Connections, and Strands in the morning and since the NYTimes makes its daily crossword available the evening before, I've been working those before going to bed. 

3. Debbie asked me to make chicken tenders and rice for dinner and since last night I forgot to add broccoli and green beans to our stir fry, I added those tonight. 

It was another great night cooking with the wok, made even more enjoyable by having a selection of Trader Joe's sauces to choose from -- next time, though, I think I'll mix up homemade sauce. We love what I whip up so we don't always have to rely on Trader Joe's.