BAD Blogger! NO biscuit! (Uh, not that I would eat a biscuit, but you get the idea...)

[OFFICIAL CATCHING-UP POST FROM LAME BLOGGER BEGINS HERE]

VALENTINE'S DAY was lovely.  As you probably saw, I FINALLY got to open my wonderful gift from Andrew - a new top-whorl Cascade drop spindle (purchased from Spunky Eclectic; please buy from her).  I don't think I knit the rest of that week; I just spun, spun, spun, spun, spun!

First, I played with some sample bits of fiber I had:

After that, I went back to spinning up that huge batch of purple fiber I nearly ruined a while back.  I'm allllmost done with the singles, and then it's on to plying.  As I spun, I watched the "Respect the Spindle" Abby Franquemont video I downloaded ages ago, and it was a great help.  It's definitely worth the money.

As you also probably saw, I made a special breakfast for the family of:  bacon shaped like hearts, X's and O's; scrambled eggs; crescent rolls, half of them filled with Nutella, the other half with peanut butter.  Each person had a gift at the table, too.

Andrew and I had a laid-back dinner at a new-to-us restaurant in San Mateo called Porterhouse.  As you might guess from the name, it's a steak place.  It was exactly our kind of place - excellent food, easy for me to get what I need according to the plan I follow, and you won't be out of place, whether you show up in jeans or in dressy clothes.  Of course, we wore jeans.  After dinner and leisurely lattes at Starbucks, we called it a night since it was a Tuesday.

While we were out, our friend Jen came and hung out with the girls.  I had specifically asked her b/c I didn't want her sitting at home on Valentine's, missing her grandma who recently passed (Jen was her caregiver) and feeling sorry for herself that she was single.  The girls really like Jen, so they were thrilled with the idea.  My take on Valentine babysitting has always been this:  If you're going to babysit on Valentine's so someone else can go out, it should be special, and you should get a good meal out of the deal.  With that in mind, I had great fun laying out a spread for Jen & the girls:




The only part of the dinner Jen actually had to cook was the London Broil b/c that's a last-minute thing.  To go with the meat, I made rice (as a special treat for the girls, WHITE rice, which I haven't bought in 10+ years), roasted asparagus, salad, and a Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.  As you can see, the table was all done up in red, pink, and white.  The week before, I asked Jen what her favorite color was and then knit her a ridged cowl out of two shades of Mmmmmalabrigo.  The girls gave her a funny card, and I also gave her some chocolate yumminess.  My evil scheme efforts worked, and Jen later told me, "I don't feel like I babsat; I feel like had a special evening with a nice dinner."  The three of them had so much fun together, that the girls invited Jen to come over on President's Day to watch Harry Potter movies b/c she hadn't seen the last two.