Happy Valentine's Day Contest

photo/graphic credit: xkcd:http://xkcd.com/223/

Happy Valentine's Day! Yup, the day of love, amour, smooches, roses, winks, nudges and chocolate filled I-love-yous.

PC and I celebrated all weekend, starting off Friday night with dinner with my nephew, my "other" Valentine. He's 2 and he's awesome. Saturday morning, a trip to Dunkin' (a tradition in our house and how awesome is it that we can WALK to a Dunks?) means someone has to walk past our favorite florist. They were happy to see him. So was the shop dog, Benny. These two ladies at Busy Bee love PC... y'see, he's always buying me flowers. He likes how happy they make me and he likes the smell of fresh flowers in the house. Win-Win. Saturday, I went shopping and ran some errands while he watched soccer and kept an eye on the couch. Saturday night was dinner for two at Atasca.

Let's start with a few things about Atasca. 1) it's always gotten good reviews, until recently. and 2) it was on my Boston/Cambridge to-dine list. Well, Saturday night was a flop. The food was so-so, the service was okay (once she realized we wanted a full meal experience: start with a drink, appetizer...she was more friendly) but s-l-o-w. The owner had friends in the restaurant (seated next to us) and instead of perhaps, hustling along the service or checking on customers (I overheard a few complaints that were going unnoticed), he was too busy sitting and chatting.

In addition, I have determined that people do not know how to behave in public anymore. I must be getting old... a woman (about my age) was there with her husband and friends: she was getting drunk and we pretty much heard the entire conversation. And, then there were the people with the cameras. I do not come from a generation that photo-documents everything from their morning pee to the application of night cream.

On the way to the car, we decided we might need a do-over.

Sunday was a trip to the Fiber Loft (first time!) to see the Berroco trunk show and meeting Andra Asras, a designer hosting a tea. I walked out $120 poorer, but with 7 buttons, 2 skeins of coordinating yarn for a project you'll see on Wednesday, and some baby yarns for baby shower gifts, as well as sock yarn for my PC.... who'd like the "next pair to be a bit higher." Funny, a few years ago, he was anti-handknit socks. Oh, and one of those Cha-Cha scarves. Yup. I said it. I'm going to knit with a novelty yarn. I haven't done it since the fun fur hat project. It's wool (mostly) and it'll look cute on my mom. Enough said.

Sunday night was dinner at "our place" : Legal Seafoods. We love the Chestnut Hill location and they didn't disappoint last night: clam chowder & caesar salad for me, seafood casserole & butternut squash for him. A few things to know about Legal: there are secrets, items not on the menu that you can get, if you know to ask. It's fun, like a secret club. If you can name 1 thing that you can get at Legal that is not on the menu (or a secret item at any other restaurant, to be fair), post it in the comments. Wednesday, i'll hand out prizes.