ain't love grand?

ah yes... valentine's day is alive and well and fairly bursting with lovelovelove in this house. seriously. mommy may have totally screwed up (or did she?) by sending daddy 2 dozen glorious long-stemmed red-roses 4 days early, but daddy is on his game of love! mommy couldn't figure out why in the wide wide world of sports it was taking daddy so long to come to bed last night... but it was clear he was up to romantic do-goodery when she got up this morning. first she was greeted with a lovely, syrupy, oh-my-gosh-how-beautiful card, which daddy had lovingly placed next to her face cream in the bathroom (so she'd be sure to see it right away). then, mommy found the gifts you see to to the right waiting for her when she came into the kitchen.

why do these items represent romance, and, therefore, translate into "love points", for mommy? well, i'll tell you. the first book, the davinci code, is something mommy and daddy have been joking about for the past 2 years, because they realize they are probably the only people in the free-world who have yet to read a single controversial-yet-apparently-riveting page from. now they will finally be able to join in conversations related to the book, and maybe even see the highly anticipated movie of the same title. actually, they love tom hanks, and they are huge fans of films directed by ron howard, so they're pretty sure they'd be seeing the movie anyway, but they're fairly certain their experience will be greatly enhanced after reading the book. (assuming they actually do so before the movie comes out!) shared humor/reading material = very romantic in mommy's book (heh heh...i said book. book? okay... stupid pun-ish play on words, perhaps, and yet, daddy will laugh!)

the other book, manhunt, by james l. swanson, will be especially interesting to mommy because it deals with the lincoln assasination. apparently mommy's been kind of into this period of history lately, since she just finished --and thoroughly enjoyed-- the march, by e.l. doctorow, and is currently attempting to plow through team of rivals, by doris kearns goodwin, which is about abraham lincoln, his presidency and cabinet. clearly, daddy's been paying attention, which, i probably don't need to add, scores major happy/romantic points with mommy.

as for the inxs cd? well, did i not just mention a few weeks ago that mommy and daddy were fans of that stupid show, rockstar inxs? try to keep up... it's silly, but very romantic for daddy to give mommy the cd featuring jd fortune (tho', does anyone think that's his real name?) the vocalist who won the competition for the coveted position of lead singer for the band, inxs (mommy and daddy were hoping marty or susie would win, but that's another story) because the cd is a lovely reminder that mommy and daddy had a lot of fun watching the show over the summer... pathetic, perhaps, but also very romantic, hence, another big score!

of course, for the record, i'd like to point out that daddy has never had a problem scoring romance points with mommy. i've been told that, when they were both working on some tv show in boston, daddy had flowers delivered to mommy's office every single week! and then, when they moved to chicago to work at a tv station there, he did the same thing!!! i don't know what mommy did/does to deserve all this attention. but i do know she adores it! and you thought i was the spoiled brat around here!

mommy has no idea what she ever did to deserve a man like daddy. he's wa-a-ay more thoughtful than she could ever hope to be--which is why, i guess, she loves him sooooo much! don't gag, but these two truly dote on each other (which would be a major problem if they didn't also lavish massive amounts of attention on me!) mommy and daddy are goofy and silly and comfortable and honest and loving and veryvery happy together. yep, theirs is the perfect marriage...a simple truth that is no more evident, to me at least, than on this day of hearts and flowers and love.

You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love; the running across fields into your lover's arms can only come later when you're sure they won't laugh if you trip. ~ Jonathan Carroll (Outside the Dog Museum)