Man, I hate being sick! And in the whirl of Valentine’s Day party planning, I certainly cannot afford to be now. I almost finished the vday favors tonight (been saving toilet paper rolls for months now), but ran out of candy and didn’t have the energy to go to the store.
Oh, I forgot to tell you that my car died the other day. Yeah, I noticed that the little dial that tells the temperature of the engine tended to always be on hot…but we decided the dial probably didn’t work right. good call. The other day, Rosanna borrowed the ambulance* to go to the dentist and poof! It started making jack-hammer noises and then smoke began eeping out of the hood. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there to witness the theatrics myself, but apparently she pulled over to the side of the road and an 80 year old man rushed up to the side of the car and yelled to “quick get out before the car explodes!”
*Decided to refer to my white station wagon as “the ambulance” instead of giving it a name. It just fits.
I finally got the ambulance back today, and let’s see where we’re at–payed €1800 for the car, €300 for new brake pads and 2 snow tires, €50 for a new battery, and now €250 for whatever they did to fix this heat flash problem. Yup, probably should have got that used porsche instead.
Did the official head count tonight and, whaddayaknow, there are 22 people coming to the VDay shindig on Saturday. Yeah, how did that happen? I think we might have to put our couch out on the balcony in order to make room for everybody. Either that, or we divide the guests into groups–some party up in the loft, others party in the kitchen and we’ll call out names like they do at weddings when it’s your turn to eat. I wish my fellow QM was here to help me prepare.
I had to give Luca the party pep talk again last night. He just doesn’t understand the concept of being a good hostess. The pep talk went something like this, “it’s time to raise the bar, Luca – our parties have to be the best parties. That’s right, better than all the weddings we’ve been to this year. And there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be since we’re both great cooks and I’m a certified Queen Motifa.”
Later on that night we were arguing about the menu and I found myself chanting, “Is that a dish that raises the bar, Luca?! Is that dish going to make people beg us for the recipe? Is that a dish that our friends will remember for years to come? No?!? No?!? *high pitched squawk* Then we’re not making it for the Valentine’s Day party!!!”
(The dish in discussion was a cold rice salad hot dog bits and canned corn. Yuck.)
Luca got me a sweet bonsai tree for Valentine’s Day! Score. I’ve always admired bonsai….from afar (obviously, considering my track record with killing plants). 
Every since meeting my parents’ new dog, Chewy, I’ve been dying to get a dog. They’re such good company! And an excuse to get exercise everyday too. But everyone keeps saying how much work they are, how you can’t go anywhere or do anything because you’ve got this dog tying you down….blah blah blah. 
