...See We're Together

Hmm, since wedding planning is over, I guess red can now be the color of family stuff.

On Saturday, Orion had to be at the groomer at 8:30. It was Valentine's Day, so I stopped at Walgreens on the way to pick up a little heart of candy for Mom. There was a larger tin of candy that was round instead of heart-shaped, so I picked that up for the staff at the Grooming Post in Waldwick. They're very nice people, and take good care of Orion, so I wished them all Happy Valentine's Day with some candy.

Next, it was over to Mom's house. Dad and Uncle Jack had gone to the Catskills for the weekend, and taken Indiana with them, so she was home alone with Casey. We hung around the house chatting for an hour or so, then headed over to Andy's Corner in Hawthorne for some breakfast. We were there for a long time, like always, and finally left when we saw people waiting in line for tables. Back at her house, we relaxed at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee for her and some glasses of water for me, then it was time to pick up Orion.

John, the owner of the Grooming Post, and I chatted about business for a while. They seem to be doing pretty well, as an established business that's been in Waldwick since 1989. I remember taking our Springer Spaniel Cindy there way back when, and all of our dogs have gone there since. Mom and Dad stopped using them when they moved out of town, but I've taken Orion and now Haley there continuously. Orion came out looking cute and smelling sweet, and I loaded him into the car and drove home.

Dave was hanging out with Haley on the couch, so I gave him a quick kiss and headed back out the door to pick up Melody for lunch. On the way up route 202 in Suffern, there was an accident that included a car knocking over a telephone pole, and the wires were hanging down over the street. Everyone seemed to be fine, and I stopped traffic to allow the ambulance to get through to treat them. I made note to try and remember to tell Aunt Marsha to avoid 202 if she was headed that way, since the pole would take a long time to fix.

The night before, I had made another batch of cornbread with the last of the buttermilk, figuring Aunt Marsha, Uncle Jack, and Melody might like to try it. Melody was getting ready to leave, so I had a few minutes to chat with Aunt Marsha about food and recipes, which is always fun. She was headed out to see her sister, so we parted ways in the driveway, and Melody & I made our way down to Mahwah for some lunch. Aunt Marsha had suggested Roxanne's, which was a great idea. We ordered a small pizza with smooth tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil, and then some eggplant and zucchini chips with cucumber yogurt dip. Everything was great, but the dip was a little bit salty. I wasn't used to eating all of this greasy food! It was fun chatting with Melody about her internship and life at Aunt Marsha and Uncle Jack's house.

Melody mentioned that she needed some kind of dish to bring for a potluck lunch at work on Tuesday, so after lunch we went back to my house for a quick look through the massive pile of cookbooks that I have. Melody likes our new house; just like everyone else, she says it feels rustic and cozy. I found an Asian noodle recipe that appealed to her in this huge vegetarian cookbook that I have, so we found something to mark the page with, and off we went. On the way back, Melody showed me the route she takes to get to the train station in Ramsey, which is where she parks her car for her commute to NYC every day. We talked about making dinner plans for the near future, and maybe going ice skating at Bear Mountain with Anna next weekend, then I dropped her off.

Dave and I have a tradition for Valentine's Day where we buy each other a DVD, then make dinner at home and just hang out on the couch watching the movie. He had sent me flowers at work the day before, so I stopped at Blockbuster in Tallman to pick out a movie. There were two there that he wanted to see, so I bought them both: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist and Zack & Miri Make a Porno. They also had August Rush, which I had seen the first half of at Mom's house one day, so I picked that one up for myself. Next, I stopped at CVS for a gift bag and a card. They had a great card that talked about how much we love doing things together, including cooking, so I got that one. He was very surprised that I found one that represented us so well.

We were lazy and had both eaten lunch late, so we ended up getting a pizza and bread sticks from Pizza Hut, something that I don't think we'd EVER done before, at around 9pm. It was a full day of greasy junk food! Haha.