In the spirit of Valentines Day, I thought it would be appropriate to share the love by offering my Nokia E61i up to one of you. Yeah, I’m nice like that. ;o)
How can you be the lucky one that snags it? Just respond to this gear diary entry to tell us all how your Valentines Day turned out. Good, bad, funny or sad, let’s hear your stories. I’ll pick a random post sometime on 2/21 as the winner. Good luck!
The winner is Paul Eddie!
Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
First one to comment (I must be really desperate to get that E61i!)… Anyway my Valentine’s Day was crap as I am not currently in a relationship, and I was not desperate enough to find a one-night boyfriend for it… Basically I spent it watching Seinfeld and Fraiser, my laptop charger has some wire problems, so my battery was drained so I couldn’t even do some posts or catch on RSS.
Not so hot. I spent nearly $50 on roses for my wife, who is at the office until noon on Thursdays, only to have the florist deliver them after she was gone. She still doesn’t know she got them, so we’ll have to go up to her office this evening. My fault, though, as I didn’t specify delivery time.
Oh well, there’s always dinner.
If you’re fishing for how my Valentine’s Day worked out romantically…well…I’m in similar straits as is Ms. El Khoury. However, on Valentine’s Day, I filed the paperwork to start a new business, so to some extent, I won’t know how the day turned out for a while…
My wife and I rarely do anything specifically on Valentine’s Day. This is due, in part, to her being the victim of an armed robbery on VDay when we were dating ten years ago, and also the fact she she doesn’t like flowers or expensive jewelry. (Back off, guys, she’s taken. heh)
However, with no pre-planning at all, I think this is going to turn out to be a great Valentine’s Day. I always keep a small piece of jewelry in reserve for when I forget an occasion or need a “get out of the doghouse” card. This morning, as I was leaving the house, I noticed that the outfit my wife war assembling would go perfectly with a freshwater pearl necklace I just happened to have left-over from Christmas. I gave it to her and she about lost it.
Then, at lunch today, I noticed in the paper that Art Garfunkel is appearing in Baltimore with the Baltimore Symphony Opera. A quick trip online, and we have seats for tomorrow night.
Cannoli from her favorite place in town as a surprise dessert should be a perfect cap.
All, completely unplanned and spontaneous.
My Valentine’s been very good so far, because this is the first year in many that have passed, that I am with a woman that I really love, so I hope everthing will be OK.
And I hope I’ll win the E61.
Thanks.
This Valentine’s Day is going well. I have a new person in my life, but it is hard to let go of my wife who died 3 years ago from cancer. My new friend understands, but sometimes I don’t.
Hopefully everyone’s Valentine’s day is going well.
<And I will keep my fingers crossed for the e61.> <My phone contract is eligable for an upgrade today as well and the e61 was one that I was looking at. Small World.>
Thanks Julie.
My wife has spent the last three days baking goodies for our son’s class at school for Valentine’s Day, and today the little four year old children had the best time gobbling all those brownies and cupcakes down. I do not think there was anything left 😉
Everyone on this list will have a better V day than me, and here’s why:
I wrecked my beloved 2001 Toyota this morning. Smashed both ends of the vehicle against a guardrail. The car is paid off and I had foolishly dropped the collision coverage on it last fall, so if I want it fixed, it’s coming out of my wallet. Gonna buy a machine to kick me in the butt each morning to remind myself of how dumb a move that was. Got one of these, Julie? 🙂
When AAA towed the car into my driveway, I discovered that the transmission in my wife’s Oldsmobile SUV is slipping. it wouldn’t go forward in any gear but 1st. It’s well out of warranty too.
As a result of #1 and #2, I had to call my jeweler and cancel the order for a mother’s ring that I was having made for my wife. We’re expecting our second child in April and I planned to give it to her when the baby arrived.
So in short, this has been anything but a Valentine’s Day for us. Can’t wait to see what the rest of the week brings.
But as they say…what does not kill us makes us stronger, eh?
Hey Julie,
I have a valentine, but I can’t be with her today because I’m traveling for most of the year.
I PLANNED on being able to call her, but I lost my headphones so I can’t use skype. An e-mail will have to do…
An e61i, however, has built in VOIP. I know this because I desperately want to get one so that I can call back home. Maybe today will be my lucky day and I’ll win yours!
Thanks for everything and Happy Valentines day to everyone!
We had big plans today… you see my wife had her first pre-natal (pregnancy) appointment. We planned to get the ultrasound and surprise our parents about our first baby for valentines day…
Turns out we got surprised… they took the ultrasound and the baby looks way too small for how old it is supposed to be. They also couldn’t see any heat beat or motion at all from the fetus… they are nearly positive that we’ve experienced a miscarriage.
So we basically had to go home and get the house and food ready for the big valentines meal that we promised our parents… only to give them some pretty crappy news.
We’re still hoping that baby is OK… test results from today and next tuesday may bring good news, but today… valentines day was pretty lousy.
Well, what can I say? This is my second Valentine’s without a Valentine. After a rough divorce from an 7 year marriage (a good thing, believe me), and a rough time getting on my own two feet, I’ve finally started bouncing back – almost 3 years after the divorce! But what made this Valentine’s depressing was having to drive past my exbf house today on my way to a road job. I’ve never had to drive by his house since we broke up 2 years ago. I tell ya – it was really hard to do but I had no choice.
So, what I thought was going to be a blah day and after convincing myself Valentine’s Day is another highly commercialized holiday, I was left wondering, why on all days would I have to drive by his house. He is a man I really loved. 🙁
I came home and ravaged the chocolate covered strawberries my sister made for her boyfriend. She let me though, because they stuck to the pan, so it was all good.
My day is one to remember, my wife brought me some baloons and I really blushed. All of my employees noticed me turning red and made fun of me the rest of the day!
It was pretty good. I really surprised my wife with a manicure/pedicure gift certificate. My kids made presents for me, and my mom made cookies. I got the traditional card from my wife, and that was very appreciated. Her major effort was to supervise the kids in their gift-making. That is a lot of effort, and she knew it would mean a lot to me.
Hey Jules…everybody 🙂
My Valentine’s Day was wonderful, and I haven’t been able to say that too often in my 30something years. My boyfriend and I didn’t go out to dinner, rather we ordered in some wonderful Italian food, sipped wine, exchanged gifts (I received a beautiful diamond and ruby pendant/necklace!) and settled in. There was no teary phonecalls to girlfriends blubbering about being lonely while guzzling Apple Martinis, or sitting in a bar having my ego stroked by drunks…I am more than content today 😉
Of course getting that Nokia phone would put the cherry on top of my sundae!
Lets see…
My #2 son’s birthday happens to be on Valentine’s Day (who turned 2 today), but this year’s festivities got botched because my wife somehow came down with stomach-flu along with explosive vomit on tuesday… inturn, passes the symptoms over to my 6 year old son lastnight. So after an evening of mopping the floors from all the carnage, i was pooped.
Maybe we can attempt to celebrate tomorrow?
Just curious…how many of you gadgeteers bought tech-related goodies for your loved-ones and how did they react?
My Valentine’s Day was pretty quiet I guess. I’ve had a nasty cold the past couple of days and spent the day at home, luckily I didn’t have class today anyway. After a slow afternoon, my partner and I ordered in for dinner (neither of us felt like cooking and figured restaurants would be pretty busy this evening). Dinner was enjoyable and now we’re just ending the night with some TV and online reading. As I said, pretty quiet, but a nice and relaxing night together.
I’m a pastor in the United Methodist Church. This evening, I drove 1.5 hours to Richmond, VA to meet with our Bishop, the Bishop of the East Africa Conference, our Conference Missions Director, another pastor, and one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.
Sounds exciting, right? Read on.
The point of our meeting was to see how can we help to rebuild Southern Sudan, which has been ravaged by five decades of civil war. We explored ways to provide college scholarships for Sudanese women and men in Virginia, so that if/when the return to Southern Sudan, they will be equipped for the work facing their communities. We also looked at ways to build primary and secondary schools in Southern Sudan, while looking at ways to develop peace and reconciliation resources for this land where they people have known nothing but was for so long.
As I type this, my wife of nearly ten years is asleep beside me, and my daughter is asleep across the hall. I didn’t get to spend the evening with my Valentines, but I hope and pray that in some way, what I/we was/were able to do tonight will help change lives, here and in Africa, for the better.
Bittersweet. I did not have classes or work today, so I got the chance to spend most of day shopping with my girlfriend. She managed to pick me up a Guitar Hero III, but that quickly got put aside after it caused a RROD on my 360. I suppose my days are not quite exciting as others 😛
Pretty much went to the gym and watched “Lost”. Awesome show but I don’t know if it can keep my attention any much longer after so many years. I am looking for closure and resolution… but that’s just me!
I don’t want the phone, just wanted to chime in. Valentine’s Day is a day that goes pretty much deliberately ignored by me, but I had a darn good cuddle with my cat Mina and that made it a great day.
There are a few exceptions out there, I’m sure, we’ve read some of them here, but it seems to me that people let you down. Is it because we have expectations that are unreasonably high? Or maybe they do? I know that’s part of the many things that have kept me single my whole life. I am not ready or willing to deal with another human being and their baggage in my life. I keep myself danged good company, and I can keep myself busy and content with life. With that going for you, what purpose does Valentine’s Day serve? 🙂
So I have my cats. And it’s enough for me. And St. Valentine can kiss my big fat sweaty…uh…OK, I think that’s enough.
Thanks for your stories so far! Looks like a mixture of good, bad and sad so far. I am hoping that the good stories over power the bad and sad before the contest is done. 🙂 I’m one to always look on the bright side 🙂
My Valentines day was pretty quiet. I came home to find 2 new ukulele’s on my door step. Nope, no new gadget deliveries yesterday, but that’s perfectly fine as I’m having fun cultivating a new hobby and website ( ukulelereview.com ). After goofing around with them, we had a heart healthy dinner of fried chicken, green beans, rolls with butter and iced tea. Chowed down on that in front of the TV while watching the previous night’s episode of Big Brother and then Survivor.
Keep up the stories guys!
My day was pretty busy so we went out the night before. Had a nice dinner, some wine and Port and then went to a Dallas Mavericks basketball game. When I left for work today I left a new bottle of Port that she really liked along with a card telling her how much I loved her. Didn’t get home until late and we just kissed and talked the evening away.
OK…Valentine’s Day was just about like every other day… work, then home, then back to another work.
But in between, I gave my wife a puppy from Build-a Bear workshop, a Beatles CD and a box of Turtles. She loved it!!! Married 24 years this coming October, 7 years of dating before that….I’ve known her in my life more than I haven’t…and I love her more today than ever.
I know, it’s mushy, but isn’t that the point of Valentine’s Day?
Mine went pretty well. I started out picking up flowers,choclates, and a card for my wife. I had to be sneaky, because she was’nt expecting anything for valentines. I thought the jig was up when here cousin saw me in the store parking lot with my arms full!! But she kept quiet about,so I got home and hid everything since my wife has a habit of coming home for lunch. I then arranged everything by the front door,so that would be the first thing she saw when getting home. She was really surprised!! She called here Mom and had to tell here all about it.I had reservations at a local steakhouse, so then we headed down for steak and seafood at the Broiler.
They were so packed that they were turning people away!!
We had a really nice evening out on the town.
We came home and was surprised by our cat,Cuddles who decided to join us!!
A great valentines alltogether!!
I’m a nurse so I wake up early (5 am). My wonderful wife is so nice that she gets up as well to make me coffee every day. So I left her a cute valentines day card right beside the coffee maker (very cute card about dogs). I heard her laugh out loud while I was shaving. When I came down to see her, we kissed and hugged each other for the event. She gave me a card and a special box of chocolates, special because It had the carbohydrate content written. I count carbs with everything I eat. Very Short and Happy celebration.
Marco Bianchi
My wife and I did not celebrate Valentine this year: I am busy running around finding a job and she did not feel like making a big fuss about Valentine. I have promised myself getting her what she wants to make it up: a 15″ MacBook Pro (since her iBook is currently used by our 9- and 7-year-old daughters most of the time).
Me and my fiance spent Valentine’s Day at home. We had some healthy snacks (pumpernickel bread with dip, and cheese with crackers). The she made me one of my favorite Mexican dishes. After dinner we played some video games together. After a grueling match, we cuddled together and watched a movie. I am 22 years old and this is my first relationship, but i plan on marrying her soon. She is the best thing to ever happen to me.
My Valentines Day was full of emotions. As a intro, I wanted to say I am the guy of the relationship and I am married to a very beautiful girl.
Before, every year when my wife and I were dating I would always surprise her with little hints on Valentines day about how much I cared.
For example, and feel free to use this… I would leave post its all over her car that had numbers on them, and when she put them in order and made a little flip book out of it with animation (usually stick figures) and a rose or a pink tulip and a little note about happy valentines day.
This year was our first year being married and celebrating Valentines Day. As the day got closer and closer, I was suspicious that she was already thinking that I was going to give her something, so whenever we went out with my friends I would always tell them that after getting married, Valentines Day is nulled since there is always love and there’s no need for a special day to be reminded. That kept on being the subject as we got closer and closer to Valentines Day, and you would be able to tell by her expression that she was getting less and less aware of Valentines Day.
The day before Valentines day, she was very agitated, probably due to work or just being tired, and I wasn’t helping much by not doing anything and watching the basketball game and vegging out like I usually do after work.
She started to talk about what we were going to do tomorrow (Valentines Day) such as run errands and go buy some groceries for the weekend, but I kept saying that I didn’t feel like doing anything and I wanted to just stay home and go to sleep early since I have an early day on Friday. With that said, she just stormed out of the living room and went straight to bed and “slept” or probably was pouting because by then she was really convinced that she wasn’t getting anything and we weren’t doing anything.
–I’m sure you guys are wondering what I did for her or if she’s still angry at me today–
Yesterday (Valentines Day) She received two packages… one package of Flowers and another package of sweets. I would have put something in her car that morning, but since we work so far from each other now and work at different times.. I didn’t get to do that, but schedule a delivery instead.
On the card, it said the usual mushy message that all guys take forever to think of or grab from an online source. And told her that I couldn’t wait for her to come home.
I received a phone call later that day with a speechless wife on the phone tell me how much of a jerk I was the day before and that I shouldn’t mess with her emotions and how much she loved me. All in all, it worked out pretty good because she loved the flowers and the candy, and that night I took her out to a great restaurant in downtown LA that was superb.
To summarize, I got her angry at me and then made her feel like nothing was going to happen, until she got to work, when she found the little surprises and looked forward to a great night out for dinner.
The end..
Hello, my Valentine’s wasn’t so hot, see I live in Show Low Arizona which is in the White Mountains about 3 hours from Phoenix. I have been living here because of my work. I am married and two children and wife live in Mexico. I am an architect and because of my job and the fact that my wife works too and the kids are established in school we live apart. My wife always makes a big fuzz about Valentine’s but this year we had to be apart again. I would usually get a great cake baked by her, and always a present. Believe me is not the present but the fact that she would take the time to bake the cake and in addition is always delicious! The hardest part though is having to wish my 3 year old daughter a Happy Valentine’s from far away, is though. I do get to visit every two months but is hard living apart! that was my Valentine’s alone ! keep smiling !!
We had a relaxing Valentine’s day evening. We just took it easy. I cooked while my fiancee fell asleep on the couch. I was happy to try a new recipe – Brazilian seafood stew. Definitely a nice night.
Rich
I’m such a ‘putz’ with holidays, my partner loves them. So, I’m listening to everyone talk about Valentines day at work and I realize I’ve totally forgotten it. But, I have a plan – I rush out, buy cards, a cute white stuffed dog. I’m going to set them up the night before Valentines day so she sees them in the morning, and is very impressed that I remembered. I get home that night and she’s already put out her gifts to me. So much for great plans. So we went out for a great Chinese dinner, watched TV and now she’s cuddling with a really cute white stuffed dog. Not the surprise I wanted but it worked anyway!
So… I’m taking lunesta to help me sleep… I live down the block from a Rite-Aid drug store… my girlfriend took my car home on the 13th and was going to pick me up in the AM on V-day… I took my lunesta, she left, I walked to Rite-Aid to pick up some Valentine’s parephernalia so I have something to give her in the morning when she arrives. By the time I get to Rite-Aid, the lunesta is starting to kick in… I go to the first candy I see… It’s her favorite kinds, chocolate covered marshmallow, caramel and pecans, and also peanut butter. I went to the checker-outer lady and she mentioned something about Easter… when I got home, I was proud of myself for going the extra step to make her happy… until I realized that, in my sleepened state, I had bought her EASTER candy!!!! I couldn’t believe it!!! We both shared a good laugh… I’m lucky she’s so understanding.
I decided to surprise my wife this time. I bought her earrings which she was planning to buy for a long time now.
I asked her office colleague to hep me out.
On valentines day i acted as if I have forgotten about it. I was home late the previous day and on valentine day morning I acted as if I was thinking about some problem in office.
Obviously she was angry but she decided to be patient.
Only when she reached office did she realized that I have a surprise for her on her desk.
The day ended with a romantic dinner.
I had roses delivered to my fiance’s work. This year was a little different as I tried an online service where I saw a slickdeal. 🙂
After reading reviews the previous years, I decided to give it a shot. How did it turn out? The delivery was on time, actually early, since I opted for an afternoon delivery and they delivered late morning. The flowers though, were in a box and had to be “put together”. Although my fiance’ loved the 2 dozen red roses and said it wasnt a big deal putting it together, I thought it would have been fully assembled like the picture online.
I probably wont be doing any of the online delivery specials on Valentines day from now on. I didnt think it made the “impact” I wanted and with this being that special day, its all about delivery and presentation, isnt it? So thats my review of an online service for roses…now onto the rest of the day.
After work we headed strait to Chili’s! We opted for a casual place instead of some fancy schmancy gig. We waited about an hour with no reservations, but that was fine. After all, its all about spending time with that special person. We got a nice booth and enjoyed our dinner topped off with dessert.
I had a very boring Valentine’s Day, I must admit. Given how commercialized Valentine’s Day is nowadays, my husband and I usually skip it entirely or “celebrate” on an alternate day when the restaurants aren’t so crowded and flowers aren’t three times their normal price! So, Valentine’s Day was a normal day of going to work as usual, sending my husband a quick text message to wish him a happy Valentine’s Day (we both forgot about it as we got ready for work in the morning), seeing a few other people get flowers delivered to them at work, and that’s about it. But, we are celebrating tonight by going to a nice restaurant!
This phone would be a welcome addition/replacement to the minimalist sanyo I am currently packing around. VDay for me was full of love (that of wine, woman (x1) and song). Spent a night out on the town, taking in a local rock/regge band with a full brass section. Very nice indeed. Thanks for the chance at the phone!
we’re originally both from Europe – it’s where we met, got married and lived a lot until we decided to take our kid, our cat and the rest of our possessions and make it in North America.
now in Europe – the Eastern part of it – Valentine’s day is more like an imported holiday. it’s marketing that made it whatever it is nowadays, but to be honest, we were not used to give it much importance. however, live in China, eat Chinese… and mix it with another important moment in our lives. we were married on Feb 3rd, so that’s the time we’re actually giving each other the presents, have our night out at a nice restaurant and enjoy it. being so intense, the 14th somewhat fades away in comparison to that… but.
we totally forgot we ran out of coffee the night before V-day. we’re usually grumpy in the morning and barely pop a word out until we have our magic potions, so you can imagine how difficult it was to get up, gear up and pack the kid for school at 7 AM without the above-mentioned hot beverage. so here we are, Feb 14th in the morning, desperately scraping for some coffee on the bottom of the jar, to no avail. I somehow manage to drive to school, drop the kid and nearly fall asleep behind the wheel on my way back when something fuzzy and green catches my almost closed and unfriendly eye: a Star-something sign at the intersection of 6th and 6th. so I park the Nissan (lousiest parallel parking ever) and creep inside… to make a long story short, 10 minutes later I show up at the door with two of the HUGEST cups they had at Starbucks, caramel macchiato and everything.
I’m telling you folks, I’ve never seen Mrs. changing from the grumpiest, quietest and sleepiest face – in a matter of seconds – to the biggest smile I’ve EVER seen in 7 years of marriage.
so we’re enjoying our life-saving coffees out on the balcony, catching some sun and slowly re-gaining contact with reality when she mutters “Thanks”. “What, the coffee? No big deal”, I reply. And she smiles: “You just don’t know, do you. Thanks for making my best Valentine’s day ever”.
[Edited at February 16, 2008 17:45:05 PM.]
A quiet day. Work, home, an actual evening at home with the family, and a couple attitude adjustment items for my wife – all chocolate, all the time. minds out of the gutter please…
Hi, Julie.
Kind of a calm Valentine Day. My wife of 34 years (my only wife…I’m blessed) is traveling with me on some business and we took the day off in the San Diego area.
I took her to Carlsbad, CA to the Premier Outlet mall and let her shop ’til she dropped. We then went to an awesome restaurant called Dini’s By The Sea, which is right by the Pacific ocean, priced incredibly cheap and outstanding food. Then we walked along the beach for awhile, drove to San Diego where we had a room waiting at the Doubletree Hotel Downtown. We watched the sunset over the bay and airport, drank a cup of tea, and just relaxed the rest of the evening.
A totally enjoyable time of rest and relaxation and enjoying the day with a special lady. Yep, I’m incurably still in love.
Awesome website and one I frequent. Take care and thanks.
Michael
My valentine’s day was pretty good. I got my girlfriend a palm centro since I’d heard really good things about it (she really likes it ^^). I went out with her and just got a really nice meal and hung out over at her dorm, fixed her fedora installation (i’m not a nerd lol) and watched ocean’s twelve. That nokia sounds awesome btw ^^.
I love the reviews here and stop by pretty frequently.
Chris P.
[Edited at February 17, 2008 11:32:37 AM.]
Julie,
My Valentines Day was nice. I had just returned from a Las Vegas convention. The convention was booked for the Monte Carlo but, due the fire, was transferred to the Bellagio. That was a nice upgrade. I gave my wife of 20 years a case for her iPod nano. I took my daughter to see a Suns game which we won. It was a very pleasant day.
Well, my Valentine’s Day was pretty boring, to say the least. My Valentine was essentially my textbooks. I ended up studying all day for two midterms that were on Friday.
We were going to save our Valentine’s dinner until the weekend – planned a trip to New Orleans for some nice spicey curry. It’s about a 2 hour drive from where we live in Mississippi.
My wife had a crappy day at work, so we decided to go to New Orleans after all.
Some quick research, and I had 3 Indian restaurants lined up and entered into my favourites on the Wayfinder software I have installed on my E62. Off we went.
Found the restaurant easy enough, after a couple of false turns –
“In 200 yards, turn left: .. Turn Left HERE”
“That wasn’t 200 yards! Damn! Missed the turn – never mind, she’ll reroute us …”
“Make a u-turn here”
“It says no u-turns here!”
… etc 😉
Food was fantastic – if you are ever in New Orleans and you need some spicey (not crazy hot, sadly!) food, try Nirvana on Magazine Street – http://www.insidenirvana.com/
Anyway – I need to upgrade my E62, and the E61i would be a perfect upgrade for me 🙂
[Edited at February 17, 2008 17:44:19 PM.]
It was a normal day (for the most part). My wife and I are planning for our anniversary – trip to Hawaii – so we decided to just sit at home and have some home made lasagne.
So, I broke out the posterboard, crayons and stickers and made her a good old fashioned home made valentine. Truth be told – I enjoy making her cards a lot more than just stopping at a store and spending $4 … and she likes them more too.
My wife and I had a quiet evening home with the kids. I grilled some steaks served with some nice fresh veggies. I gave my wife and daughter flowers and my son a matchbox car. I kids made us cards. My wife and I exchanged small gifts after the kids went to bed. A nice quiet evening all the way around.
I have 2 love children, they are 3 & 11. Dining out with just my wife could be difficult, we don’t want to spend Valentine without them anyhow. Since my wife is a great cook, we had a wonderful dinner and a great time at home.
Nothing (romantic) happened on the 14th for me. I spent the day at work, taking care of my patients in the hospital. For me, Valentines is a day when one does something special for the person/s one cares about. I care about my patients…I spent the day with them, taking care of them.
After a very cold first half of Winter, 2 kids under the age of 3, and a drama filled teenage daughter had all hunkered down for the evening, I took my wonderful (and largely exhausted) wife out to dinner at Red Lobster.
We actually went on 2/13, to avoid the extra crowds and to give her a chance to sit, relax and enjoy the meal we had at one of our favorite (but seldom visted) restaurants.
We actually got a chance to have some real, engaging, adult conversations that didn’t include Thomas the Tank Engine, GeoTraks, diapers and potty training, or Caillou. We had a wonderful time, and really enjoyed being with each other (which, after 3 pregancies in the last 4 years, a job transfer and move away from Nashville 🙁 , and two Chicago-land Winters, was a welcomed and warming change).
Well, Valentine’s Day… Not typically my favorite holiday, but this year was super special. I married my soul mate. Nothing fancy, since we did it all on our own. Small gathering of family and the justice. Happiest day of my life every morning I wake up next to my wife. It makes me that much happier. Oh yeah and we had some pasta at a nifty lil Italian joint.
As most restaurants in Hong Kong always double or triple their prices and only provide two dinner set for that day, my girl friend and I usually go to those fine restaurant which always keeps the same price, e.g. Japanese sushi restaurants.
We picked the sushi restaurant that you always need to wait for an hour for ordinary days and has around 50 seats. We expected people would go to other restaurants as they are more romantic, and that sushi restaurant would have less people waiting.
However, we were wrong totally. We got the ticket for getting in at 6pm. At that time there was around 250 outstanding tickets. After 2 hours, there was 200 outstanding tickets. We are highly disappointed and hungry, but we have to get in because we have waited for 2 hours. Lastly, we have dinner in a fast food restaurant with half full of tummy, and got in the sushi restaurant at 930pm ;-p
At that time, we cannot order as much as we used to, because we are too full. We can just order light dishes, e.g. raw fish.
Oy vey. My partner and I arrived home from Puerto Rico the weekend before Valentine’s day. We had great plans in Puerto to go hiking, go swimming and go scuba-diving. Unfortunately both of us were down and out with the flu. So, no swimming, no hiking, no anything. It was a particularly bad flu case for both of us. We were really bummed out about our vacation.
On the night before Valentine’s day, I gave Joseph some nyquil and I lied to him that I already took my nyquil. I waited 20 minutes and he was out cold sleeping.
I went to the kitchen and I melted some dark chocolate and dipped those menthol Halls cough drops. When I was done, I took some nyquil and went to bed.
The next morning, I gave him a Valentine’s day card with a DVD with Puerto Rican rainforest sounds (sounds of birds, water streams and croaking of coqui frogs) and chocolate-dipped Halls cough drops.
I went to work for the day and when I got back, he gave me a card and made fabulous homemade chicken soup.
Not the best Valentine’s but it was not bad either for both of us. The following weekend, we recovered hale and healthy.
At the moment I don’t have no one so I didn’t have a romantic Valentines. Spent the day working. At night went to blockbuster and got a film and played some poker on my Playstation and went to bed.
With four little ones, we recently have been taking the approach of getting them to bed early and then picking up dinner from a nice restaurant and watching a rented movie.
This year, at the last minute we were able to get a babysitter. The plan was for her to get there at 5pm, we’d go to an early movie (Juno) and then to dinner after, assuming perhaps the waits would die down. But the babysitter arrived at 5:45 and so with the timing of the movies that meant we had to either grab a snack and go, or forgo the movies altogether. We called a few restaurants in the area and they all had 2 hour waits!
I recalled a little Italian restaurant we went to about 5 years ago that was always quiet and empty. I honestly didn’t even know if it was still open but we stopped in the parking lot and I ran to see if it was still there. Turns out it was (well, it was still an Italian restaurant, but not the same one) and there was actually a decent crowd. But there were a few tables left with no wait. Turned out to be absolutely delicious- stuffed artichokes for appetizers, and buttery chicken Marsala for me for dinner and some seafood dish for my wife. And there was live music as well. We loved it and can’t wait to go back! By the time we left there was a huge wait, so it really worked out well for us.
As far as gifts go, here’s where the gadget geek shines through- I bought my wife a new printer and 2GB of RAM for her PC. I’m usually far more romantic, but she has been suffering with a 256MB of RAM for way too long- you can’t do anything on her computer without hearing the hard drive chug! Not anymore!! Oh, and I also bought her a dozen roses lest you think I have totally lost it!
Hope you had a great Valentines.
Spent the day very much alone! Sat tight whilst ‘everyone else’ enjoyed a cringeworthy day comforted by the statistic that 40% of those in couples would prefer to be single!
But I’m not bitter… An E61i would be very nice though!
A bit anti-climactic. I had planned to do a nice fondue at the house for my fiance’ and her two daughters. My schedule changed recently and I had to work Thursday night.
I made it up on Monday though. Beef broth, olive oil & butter, traditional cheese and chocolate with all of the fixins. An E61i would certainly sync with my MacBook Pro better than this Q!
For Valentine’s Day, I spent the day having a great lunch with customers followed by a wonderful evening with my two daughters and my wife. It was the first time the oldest daughter really was understanding Valentine’s Day so she got flowers along with Mama. She was very excited.
After we got the girls down for the night, my wife and I had a great home cooked meal together, drank some wine, and enjoyed quite time together.
A great day if you ask me!!!
To make a short story even shorter, it suffices to say that I spent the whole day on a work-related trip to Helsinki, Finland. I wish I’ll have better luck next year! 🙂
I travel quite a lot for work and am typically home for weekends and maybe a couple of days during the week. For Valentine’s I took the day off but did not tell my wife till the morning that I was taking the day off. My wife had mentioned a couple of times that she wanted to buy a pearl necklace so in the afternoon we went and bought a pearl necklace for her. The two of us are principally against buying diamonds considering all the suffering that is typically attached to diamond trade and there is no real way for anyone to know how much someone suffered to get the diamonds to the retail shop. While at the shop my wife really liked a diamond bracelet but we decided not to buy it for the aforementioned reasons. Instead we bought a matching pearl necklace and earrings for our 7 yr old daughter. Went out in the evening to a mini golf place and played 18 rounds of golf together and finished the day off with some great food at a local diner. It wasn’t till we got home that my wife and daughter remembered that they did not get anything for me for Valentine…..my response to them…..spending the day together was more than anything they could have bought!!!!
My Valentine’s day was a good one…though busy. Worked part of the day and waited for my little one to come back from school. Once she came back we immediately started out gathering materials for my wife’s Valentine’s day dinner. All the things she likes. Unfortunately calling the Asian restaurant didn’t work out so we had to go visit it. Found out that it was closed, permanently. (Sigh…I shall miss you Roasted Pork and so does my wife).
So from there I rushed to my next stop to pick up the groceries required with the change of menu. Steaks marinated in a variety of ingredients (special sauce), asparagus in garlic sauce, crab cakes (Figured surf and turf is cool), and a special fried rice using shrimp.
All in all…it turned out really well. Plus the little ones got their favorite meal of popcorn shrimp and rice. Odd how the youngest will only eat grilled cheese and pizza, but absolutely adores popcorn shrimp and calamari. Go figure.
AFter that I ordered her the BT-8010 from JAbra. Nothing says love like an electronic gadget. Don’t you think???
It could have been any Thursday if my dear friend wasn’t visiting the city. We had dinner and nice chat at local Nepalese restaurant, which I find the very best in town. I wanted my friend to taste the delicacies of the restaurant, bu he ended up chosing – despite all my warnings – a hot dish and finished his meal with much effort. I think he would have been enjoyed it a lot more with milder spices. 🙂
[Edited at February 20, 2008 16:36:03 PM.]
Lovely wife- I went a’shopping and gathered together all of the foods I could find that she loves and I hate (I do most of the cooking so they’re rarely on the menu). Eggplant, avocado, sardines, artichoke, and whipped up a gourmet-o-rama for one. I ate mac & cheese with the kids.
We were travelling to visit family and had planned to “trade” babysitting Valentine’s day with my brother/sister in law. We went grocery shopping and bought both husbands roses at Costco’s (why should only women get roses? why should we pay $50 a bunch? 😉
My DH took me to iHop (not “romantic”, but it’s what I wanted to do while because we don’t have them in our town), and my brother got the chance to take his wife to a nice dinner after his children were asleep. It was worth it to give them a fabulous V day of their own!
Thanks for the great giveaway. =)
Maria
My wife and I brought our 3-year-old daughter out with us this year. We decided to make it simple, and opted for a 5-scoop ice-cream sundae at Anderson’s.
The ice-cream was nice and we had a good time.
Before our daughter went to bed, she got her usual milk feed. As she was lay down, she started feeling unwell. I carried her and tried to comfort her… and that’s when it happened. She threw up over my shoulder.
It was a real mess. It got all over her bedroom floor, splashed onto the door, the walls, her chest of drawers, a few drops on her bed, her cupboard… By the time I finished cleaning her, myself and her bedroom, it was past midnight and I had to get up at 6 the next morning.
Mental note to self; ice-cream and milk in one night is just too much for a 3-year-old.
Other than that, it was a great Valentine’s Day 🙂
I won some money in a Superbowl pool. I saved the cash and took the family out to an all you can eat Valentines Day Dinner at Claim Jumper. The kids received Target gift cards and a couple of other nice small gifts for my wife.
Well for Valentine’s Day, I drove 4 hours to see my parents for a long weekend.
Ahh, the life of a single, gadget-loving geek.
And one more gadget for my collection would make for one heck of a Valentine’s Day gift!
[Edited at February 21, 2008 16:56:40 PM.]
I tried out the phone and it doesn’t seem to fit my personality. So if someone wants this phone, give me a shout and offer a price.
Cheers,
Paul