Valentine's Day

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

By E. E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Robbie and I head the most wonderful Valentine's Day.  My mom and step dad babysat little Meo for us so that we could have a nice evening alone. I dropped Meo around 4:00 before I went to pick up Robbie from work. This time it was harder to leave him for some reason. I knew he would be fine though and that it is good for him to have some time with his grandparents without mommy and daddy there to distract him. 

Robbie and I went to eat at our favorite restaurant, the Green Elephant. This is a vegetarian restaurant in downtown Portland, and the food is simply amazing.

Seriously, I have never such delicious food. I had the Chinese broccoli with crispy breaded soy filet which is stir-fried broccoli, Chinese broccoli, carrots, and Thai bird chili in a brown sauce served with brown rice. The soy filet was crispy and delicious and melted in my mouth. The sauce was light but flavorful and made each bite tantalizing. It may seem like I am exaggerating, but I am not; I really do think it's that good. Robbie had the peanut curry which was soy meat, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, onions, and carrots slow cooked in coconut milk served with mashed butternut squash and brown rice. He loved it.

Our valentine's day meal at the Green Elephant

We both had some delicious local made Honey Maker Mead to drink. I had the blueberry mead which was one of their seasonal wines, and it was delicious. I am not very fond of wine, but I really like their mead. It went straight to my head though since I really haven't had a drink for a year an a half. It made for a more lively dinner conversation though haha! Robbie had the dry mead, which was also spectacular.

Honey Maker Mead

For dessert, we shared their valentine's day special: rich dark chocolate mousse topped with raspberry sorbet, paired with a chocolate cupcake topped with peanut butter frosting. Wow. I do not have a sweet tooth and I thought this was delicious. I don't even like cupcakes, but this frosting wasn't sweet, it tasted more like fluffy, yummy peanut butter. The raspberry sorbet and mousse complimented each other really well. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Me and dessert :)

Closer view of desert taken from the Green Elephant facebook page

After dinner, Robbie and I went to the Nickelodeon to go see a movie. We saw The Artist, which was fantastic; certainly one of the best movies I've seen in a while.

It is a silent, black and white film about an actor who stars in silent films and how his life changes as "talkie" films begin to replace silent films. Meanwhile, a beautiful budding actress gains fame and stardom as she helps popularize talkies. The film beautifully depicts their stories as their lives often zig-zag through each others stories, and in the end...well I don't want to give anything away. The film does an excellent job depicting advancements in technology by making subtle changes in the quality of the film itself...such as as the the years progress, Robbie cleverly noted how the color of the film went from brownish black and whites to much sharper black and whites. And just as in the old style of silent films, this film is full of symbolism and takes advantage of the lack of sound to emphasize important visual moments. Also, there is an amazing dog actor; he is adorable and I want to kiss him.

One of our favorite scenes from The Artist

So, as you can see, Robbie and I had a fantastic night together. It was really nice having some alone time together. We still have fun and tease each other just like all times, and his kisses still give me delightful shivers.

One last Valentine's Day related bit I wanted to share with your are the cute Valentine's day cards that little Meo "made".

Valentine's Day card for my Mom and Step Dad

These cards were inspired by something I stumbled across on Pinterest. Meo helped Robbie and I to make these cards by attempting to eat some paper and laughing at flapping paper scraps.

Meo "helping"

Meo and I being crafty

Here is how we really made the cards. Step one, wrap some yummy chocolate in paper for the robot body.

Step two, attach the robot body to a card (we used pink and purple cardstock to make our cards), and glue on a square head.

Step three, attach googly eyes. We thought it was more endearing to use two different sized eyes.

 Step four, draw on some silly robot mouths.

Step five, make arms and legs by folding strips of card stock accordion style. Step six, make hands and feet (use blocky, simple shapes) to attach to the arms and legs. Step seven, draw on some antennas (Robbie cut out little hearts to put on our antennas).

Final step, come up with some cheesy saying that a Robot might say about love to put inside. I credit ours to Robbie.

I hope that you all had a fantastic valentine's day, be it with your loved ones or enjoying something you love like chocolate and a good novel.