Today Valentines day is the day the birds choose their mate .. folklore says so

So take a look if you can and see if this is happening near you.

MA

200 tiny brown birds are chirping away in my bouganvillea bushes. I assume they may be looking for mates because in a month or so there will be at least one nest in the bushes. However, I'll never be able to figure out who chooses whom.

The male blackbirds here evole their song year by year.This sharpens the upcoming males to improve .The older bird gets first pickings.Only an accident will let a whipper snapper mate.Then its back to basics.
My blackbirds are very tame.Come to hand for sultanas.The mother has taught her babies to do this.We weaned them year by year because there were too many.The balance of nature was upset due to us fostering a young female.
MA

In honor of.........

Casablanca :
Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time.

City of Angels:
I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss from her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it.

Crimes and Misdemeanors:
My husband and I fell in love at first sight... maybe I should have taken a second look.

Fried Green Tomatoes:
A heart can be broken; but it keeps beating just the same.

Four Weddings and a Funeral:
I always just hoped that, that I'd meet some nice friendly girl, like the look of her, hope the look of me didn't make her physically sick, then pop the question and... um... settle down and be happy. It worked for my parents. Well, apart from the divorce and all that!

Love and Death:
To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love; but then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer, to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love; to be happy then is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy; therefore to be unhappy one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down.

Wizard of Oz:
Hearts will never be practical until they are made unbreakable...

So, love is for the birds and JJ got all the good quotes. What's a single girl to do?

This morning I got a call from one of my sons. He said, "Mom, no matter how old I get, you will always be my Valentine." Of course I cried...

He and his girlfriend had me and her Mom over for dinner tonight. A first for them, and my first time to meet her Mom. We had a great time. They had each of us roses and cards.

I've been blown away by the thoughtfulness of these kids. I say kids, they are 29 and 30, but still. You know?

So I hope all of you have enjoyed your Valentine's Day as much as I have! I feel so blessed!

Aw, JJ, that is so sweet. It must be the product of your good mothering.

City of Angels:
I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss from her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it.JJ QUOTED IT

one of my favies movies belive it or not and i do rember that scean.....

Love and Death:
To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love; but then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer, to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love; to be happy then is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy; therefore to be unhappy one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down. JJ QUOTE

iv lived with a picsean (sorrie all) and the yes yes ermmm no attitude over everiething is challenging to cope with lol, but the above quote makes that seem like wee fish, lol....I don't know what it says about me that i followed it lol.
ah well

I got a valentine surprise my partners outa hospital in the evening, so i gotta say hi to them, i was even more surprised couse i didn't know theyd been in hospital for last 3 days, lol

Jawjaw, I read your NABBW article about the kids' gift to the Moms. How wonderful for everyone!

Yes, it was. I have been blessed by it all, I can tell you that. Its not that I didn't know my sons are loving and compassionate people, but that they would take a day that is normally for "lovers" and make it a day of appreciation for Mom's...well, that speaks so highly of those kids. I just love um! Thanks for your words, Meredith!

Georgia, what sweet kids. Sounds like a nive, happy couple willing toshare what they have. Do you think this gal's the winner?

I had a little surprise too. The day before Valentine's Day Ross decided we were going to have dinner and stay in the city for the big lover's day.

I took the overnight bag, scooped him up from work at 6:00, we ran by our favorite restaurant in Little Italy to get carry-out, then dashed to the hotel. Upon check-in, we moved the furniture around a little so we could have dinner by the window overlooking the inner harbor. Our room was on the 8th floor and it was a gorgeous winter night.

We could hear and see couples coming and going in the rat race below while we were snug in our room with dinner for two and a bottle of wine. Hmmm.

I remembered everything we needed except his dress shirt and tie for the next morning so we had to run to the mall that's connected to the hotel to get him a shirt. He had a 7:15 patient and I had an 8:00 work call so I dropped him off, then headed back home. It was short and sweet and lots of fun.

No more details! Just a fun way to share sweetheart's day!

Hope everyone felt loved!

JJ, that was so sweet. It almost made me cry too. My Valentine's Day could be called "My Funny Valentine." We were not going to do a lot or buy gifts because we just had that nice weekend away. Then, the night before, Dick gave me a beautiful necklace. So, on Valentine's Day, I thought I would cook supper. (A shock, more than a surprise) I called him at 6:10 to tell him I was on my way home and not to cook. That made him happy. I had bought the stuff to make dinner a couple days before, just in case I felt like doing this. I was making pasta with a garlic, oil and plum tomato sauce and breaded eggplant. He loves eggplant like this. I walked in with a red rose and a big balloon for him. (Such role reversal) By the time I got home and got everything ready, it was getting late. I set the table, opened a bottle of wine and went about my preparations and he sat and watched a movie. I covered the eggplant and put it on the table. The plum tomato sauce was just about ready and the water was just coming to a boil. (It was almost 8PM!) We were hungry. I was taking the pasta out of the package when BAM. Out went the lights! AND THE STOVE. Had I found the tea lights for the table earlier, we would have had candles going, but I couldn't find the new bag I bought so I figured the rose on the table would be enough.

We scrambled for the flashlights and candles and waited, figuring the power would come right back on. We sampled the eggplant in the meantime. About 8:45, we found out there was a major power outage and that they would hopefully have it back on by 11 p.m. I put the stuff in the fridge and poured myself some wine. (He already had a drink) We ate the eggplant by a whole lot of candlelight. The power didn't come back on until well after 2 a.m.

This is yet more proof that I should stay out of the kitchen.

I am laughing out loud here. If that isn't an article in the making, I don't know what is. Girl, welcome to my world. That is the kind of thing that happens to MOI all the time! What a hoot!

I hope you got an "A" for effort!

He loved the eggplant. Last night, I took him out for Chinese food. My next book may be, "Why Not To Cook Book." I think you just gave me an idea Let's see, there's the latest chapter on real candlelight dinners made easy, the "glass bowl in the beef stew is not a crouton," "what to do on Thanksgiving morning when you find out the turkey is rotten," "how to clean Stovetop suffing off the stovetop when you open the bag too fast," "how to cook for a crowd in frigid temperatures when the gas line freezes and the party is in a few hours," and my all time favorite which explains why you should never put Pyrex in the broiler, "there's glass in the pork chops." This last one could almost be a book in itself. I have several stories about pork chops mishaps and to this day believe that pork chops are bad luck and will not eat them or order them in a restaurant.

I could also list several good restaurants and tips on eating out in my book. What do you think?

Wow, Louisa....you have me laughing hysterically! Love the book idea...I'd buy it right away! I also have some good (or sad) cooking stories if you decide to make this a compilation! Like how I burnt 17 crockpots of Italian sauce (in the basement of the church)that was supposed to feed visiting missionaries and church leaders. Oh yeah, got many!

Sounds like a plan to me. I could offer the time I cooked french fries in water. No, no I didn't...but I THOUGHT I was cooking them....

Grilling out is a speciality of mine as well...that is, if you like fire.

We may have started a whole other thread here:) I had so many close calls with a hibachi, I would never try a gas grill. We can't have a gas grill here. We have an electric one. As long as I don't have to use it, I don't care.

Disaster cooking stories. Yes me too...the worst ones are when we expected guests, the kind you don't know that well...and would like to impress....hahahahahahahaha

If you write that book Louisa, I'll be glad to send you my yucky cooking stories.

Hey...I think this deserves to be a thread all on its own! Now back to Valentine's Day...as I've so eloquently whined in other threads today, I was living in the dark ages on Valentine's Day this year. No lights, no heat, no water. Hubby still came home bearing a beautiful bouquet of flowers. And as unromantic as this sounds, he replaced my tires! My poor tires had seen quite enough with all the daily travel I had done in my last job. We drove through the dark streets to find someplace with lights. We found a little local store that had a grill and went in for a hmaburger. Yup...that was Valentine's Day this year.

I laid his gift on the dining rm. table...simple a card, a bottle of maple vinegarette and a small bag of Lindt dark chocolate...before I went to work early morning. I had the gifts lying around for past few weeks.

After work, we decided to browse while walking along street. And found a lovely small Japanese restaurant. Walls were plastered with autographs from sports figures, musicians....we sat right at the sushi bar. It's only been 2nd time in my life I've seen sushi made that close..even though we do go to Japanese restaurants often. EAch of us chose...hot, nutritious soup broth with udon noodles. Appetizer of hot chili based tomato tofu --Japanese style.

Then when I got home, his gift was handmade chocolates from gourmet cake and chocolate place...we both know...run by a German-trained chef (he is German) from Black Forest region and his Chinese (or is it Thai?) wife. He says he stood in line on V-day to get the chocolates with a cycling buddy of his....shop was 40 people deep at 1:00 pm.

Of course, there was an ulterior motive why he bought 2 small gift packs of these chocolates....so I shared them with him.

Dotsie....you and Ross sound so happy...and what a romantic way to spend Valentine's day...JJ...you raised your children right...I had tears in my eyes reading what you wrote about them. And yes, they'll always be your kids no matter the age.
Louisa...I'm still laughing...when is the book coming out?

Here's my Valentine's day...My Larry, bless him, is NOT a romantic at all...but, he's a good hint taker...but, this year I decided not to hint but to let him do or not do according to Larry. Normally, when he works on a special day he'll leave a card or a note on the bedside table...Thursday there was nothing...no flowers delivered and by the afternoon I have to admit, I felt a little bummed...I thought oh gosh he didn't want to bother this year. We had plans to go out to dinner that night so I looked forward to that. He came home from work (no card, no flowers and I was thinking shoot...he's really forgotten). I gave him his card and gift and he thanked me and said, "I didn't get you a card." I said, 'that's okay' and I got dressed and when he helped me into the truck and got in, he reached into the console and with a big grin on his face handed me a card....He wrote the most tender words I've ever read and of course the tears welled up and ran down my face...that got him chocked up and his eyes welled up...then I realized he'd found a love song channel on the satellite radio and that got to me even more. We drove not far from our house to an Italian Restaurant and in the back are little cubicles large enough for one table, two chairs and it's very romantic. There were rose petals sprinkled on the floor and on the tables. When he sat me in our cubicle there on the table was a beautiful pink vase with a pink heart and ribbon filled with purple tulips (my favorite flower color)...he'd had the florist deliver them that afternoon to the restaurant to surprise me. The cubicle has velveteen drapes and they were drawn so we could be alone...so there we sat holding hands, in candlelight with a ceiling twinkling with fiberglass stars and soft music playing...I was in heaven. It was so romantic and I loved every moment. On our way home Larry looked at me and said...'you can't say I'm not romantic, now can you?' The rest of the evening is private but I can say that the most precious gift Larry gave me Valentine's day was a side of him he wasn't used to giving...the romantic part. Before we went to sleep in each other's arms he kissed me and said...'I'll get better with this romantic stuff over time.' I told him the evening and everything he did was perfect...just perfect and he could not have done better. Not bad for a man who has never done this before...I'm such a lucky woman.

My husband amd I took my mom to dinner... her favorite fried catfish diner... got her out of that horrible place for one more evening.

Wow...I want to rent Larry....WOW!

I love the idea of Valentine´s Day..however it is interrpreted. A day of hearts and love can´t be wrong???

Anyway..a little late, I admit..Lots of LOVE and HUGS to all of you on this forum..and thank you SO MUCH for being there..giving so much.. and putting up with my LOOOONG posts

Dee, His efforts alone, speak volumes.

Gims...how sweet. I'm sure your mom loved that.

JJ...LOL...yeah...WOW

Humlan...your posts are never too long...you speak from your heart and that's all you need do.

Louisa...yes, Larry is an angel.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day...HUGS ALL AROUND!!!

Dee, I'm getting all misty-eyed! What A sweetheart

Merideth...thank you darlin'.

You say Larry is not a romantic at all, well you could have fooled me. Sounds about as romantic as they come.

Dee..I AGREE FULLY ..you are such a lucky woman..BUT so is Larry..such a lucky man..to have YOU!!!

Angel hugs...my dear dear DEE (and larry)...

Dee, sounds like you bring out the best in Larry. That's beautiful. I'm sure you make it easy for him to love this way.

Chatty, Humlan, Dotsie...thanks so much for such sweet remarks. Yes, I know how lucky I am and how blessed my life with Larry is. Today I had lunch with my MIL and 3 SIL's. Two were talking about their frustrations with their hubands (the 3rd not married) and when it came for my time Cindy said, "she never complains because he doesn't have anything to complain about." I never thought about it but she's right as far as my marriage goes. It made me even more thankful for having found Larry. But, I know there are lots of good men and husbands who have wonderful wives and their marriages are good. Dotsie it sounds like you have a wonderful man and Humlan your man is working with you...that's half the battle, I think...having a partner who wants to make a difference and who shows you have your feelings mean something to him.

Dee, I often feel guilty because my husband and I have such a sweet relationship so I know what you mean. I feel awkward when women moan about their spouses because I don't jump in. It's so unfortunate that everyone can't be in a happy marriage. We make one another a priority and it works.

Are your 3 SILs in good relationships? Just wondering if it's something their mom did...

Well until number three, I loved being married and was pretty fortunate to have two good men who loved me...I would marry again even at my age if I found someone kind, considerate and ""FUN"" to be with. His being 'rich' wouldn't turn me off either.