Last night John asked me what I wanted for Valentine's day. I've never been a flowers type of girl, so of course I joked that I wanted flowers.

"Really?"

"No."

But it's worth it to clarify that I have nothing against flowers. I do like them. And I've been lucky enough to receive some spectacular arrangements over the years (the kind I take photos of).

Flowers are beautiful and brighten your day. But roses have gotten so expensive especially around this time of year I think it would be just as nice to have the $70 plus in a card. Romantic, eh?

Of course when I walked into KGW this morning this is what I saw.

It's like a floral explosion and it was only 9am. And, no.. none of them were for me. I'm not whining about it, either. Hey, I'm the one who said "naw, no thanks on the flowers, babe." But give it time and pretty soon desks everywhere will have big, beautiful boquets that send my news director Rod running for the tissue (he's allergic). I feel bad for the guy because he has to walk past the flowers and certain ones just set off his sinuses. Of course, he hates to tell you to put them on the other side of the newsroom... Maybe for Valentine's day I should get him some Kleenex?

So, anyway.. my mistake is shooing John away from the idea of flowers on Valentine's day. :-)

By the way, Timmy is stalking this blog. He's my friend so I'm allowed to give him a hard time.
He writes about my dog Milo snoring (as part of the "What keeps you awake" story):
While you're asleep and he's pretending to snore, Milo will really be
wearing your glasses and successfully completing the New York Times
crossword puzzle (and the sudoku just for 'dessert'). I'm sure Jim would've loved
the mention....

We need to get "vampire" Lee into this discussion (see my previous blog if you have no clue what we're going on about).

I asked another blog buddy of mine to send me a photo of his two twin boys Connor and Brennen. Yup. TWO TWIN BOYS. His name is Tom and he hangs out with rocket scientists (no joke). He also sent me a very funny story about the family trip to Disneyland which I have included with the photos:

Little Connor: do NOT show this picture to Mike G. (photographer) in our shop. I'll never hear the end of the hate little Connor is wearing because Mike is a huge Coug!

Little Brennen:

And "The Disney Trip":

Tom writes:
Their first trip to Disneyland this past November.

* Favorite ride? Well, we end up flying 1500 miles, renting a sky blue mini-van from the early ‘80s, spend oooooodles of money only for them to become enamored with… the *&^%$#@ Carrousel! What, you ask? No Pirates of the Caribbean? No Haunted House? No Tom Sawyer’s Paddle Boat? Nope. I repeat… the Carrousel was the prize winner – it was without a doubt, the one ride they asked to go on over and over and over again… priceless.
LOL (laugh out loud). Very funny story Tom!!

And Christiana (hi there!!) writes:

Great blog as always. I know I'm little late but I was wondering what book
you were reading over the weekend. I'm always on the lookout for a new one.

So, I am hooked on it. I went to bed EXTRA early last night so I could read and when John asked me what it was about I blathered on for like 5 minutes, "well, there's this wooden mermaid and she keeps throwing the sailors in the water, and these rain ships, and this dead chick... blah blah...." and no, I haven't given anything away. I'm only on page 110!

Well, I "googled" it and was so happy to find this website:

http://www.jonathanstrange.com/

I picked it up on the recommendation typed onto a little card at Powells. The employee who wrote it wasn't even done reading it and felt good enough about it to recommend it. It's a blast...

Click here to email Stephanie Stricklen and tell her why she should have kept her mouth shut about not wanting flowers.