Canoodling, Hall & Oates & the best way to a man's heart

I'm of the "I enjoy Valentine's Day and do not believe that it's an evil corporate holiday" variety. I can't argue with a holiday centered around pink, chocolate and flowers. I like to celebrate, not analyze!

Our VDay plans include a dinner at home and maybe going to the downtown wine/cheese open house event they are having (sounds like a good way to see cool stores and mingle). I'm making a dinner that has some sentimental value.

I've never professed to be a good cook - I think I'm in the learning stages. P & I share a love of going to new restaurants, grocery shopping and cooking together. In the early stages of our love, I tried to impress him with my Rachel Ray cooking and sometimes it turned out (a few times...not so much!). Anyhoo, P is a man with a man's appetite. Which I like because I have a generous appetite and I'm not so sure I could have married someone who eats less than me. Ok, back to the food! I think it was for VDay, I made this "peasant pasta" recipe. It was a creamy tomato sauce with fresh basil, Parmesan and Italian sausage. P thought he had died and gone to heaven. He absolutely loved it and requested it many times after. Score! I finally understood the meaning of "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach." He definitely looked at me differently after that (or maybe he was just thinking of the sausage....). So, I'm making a somewhat healthier version of it tonight (wheat pasta, ground turkey) as a little nod to our past.
I'll also be playing a few romantic tunes by Hall and Oates (haha, go ahead and laugh). We connected on our love of 80s music and certainly we sang to Hall & Oates's "You Make My Dreams Come True" at our rehearsal karaoke. Yes, we did. It is our unofficial song.
So cheers to my husband who will eat my cooking and sing Hall and Oates on karaoke with me.

I've realized I'm not a fan of PDA. I mean, who is? I'm down with hand holding, kiss/pecks and hugs but I am generally not a fan of making out in public (except in late night bars, but that's a whole different topic...Just Kidding! Kind of.) Bad PDA is just bad. But "canoodaling" at a dinner with others - just annoying. Rewind to our dinner with colleagues the other night. I won't go into too much detail but suffice to say that one of my husband's bosses was generally canoodling with his girlfriend at dinner. The Entire Time. Like, patting each other on the knee, rubbing each other's backs, holding hands, having private whispered conversations and totally did the "hold my hand in front of my face/mouth and tell you a joke so we both laugh." Annoying? ohmygod! Rude? Personally, I thought it was pretty rude after a point. Canoodaling (P can't believe I use this word seriously)? Keep it to yourselves!!

In other news, I made BBQ pork last night. Threw in a pork loin I'd gotten on sale in the crockpot with some sauce and spices. Left it on all day and when I got home it just fell apart and was soooo good. BBQ, by the way, may as well be called puppy crack. We gave Ralph a few tid-bits in his bowl (after his dinner and treat of course!) and he went crazy!! Like a mad man running around sniffing and looking for more. Funny.

This whole Roger Clemens thing has me interested. I've never been into baseball and really have no idea what is going on but I happened to watch some of the hearing yesterday. Seems pretty crazy to me. I felt that there is dishonesty on both sides after listening to both of them, I just couldn't tell about what they were being dishonest. Hmm! Curious to see where this goes. I had a lot of male students last semester who were really passionate about sports & steroid use. I had several in each class write persuasive papers on the use of it in professional sports.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!!