A Lovely Valentine's Day

Since *B* and I have a number of expenses this year, we knew that Valentine's Day would be low key. I did all the dishes, swept and mopped the kitchen, and started to clean the house in general. At some point, I got a great idea: I was going to finish the work in the bathroom as a present for *B*. I painted the bathroom with my mom just before Thanksgiving, but it really needed a second coat. I had bought the second can of paint a few weeks ago. Today, I got up the guts to just go ahead and paint it on my own. I think it turned out really well! I will get the fixtures for the walls as soon as I can and then we'll finally have a finished bathroom upstairs. I also took us out to dinner at a great little pub type restaurant. *B* bought me the most beautiful flowers for Valentine's day - daffodils and purple paper like flowers.

I am very sad to report that my laptop bit the big one. Thank God I made a memory card recently with good pictures from the last two years. My dad doesn't think he can salvage the data on my hard drive. Given this very sad turn of events, I bought an external hard drive. I've learned that being prepared doesn't always mean being ready for just big disasters. It also means being proactive to avoid personal disasters, too. There's one more possibility to save my pictures and wedding plans, so I'm praying for it to come through.

My mom's cat, Shadow, is staying with us for the week. It's crazy to see her - she looks JUST like Wicket, but about 5 pounds lighter. When one walks in, it takes a while for me to figure out which is which. Shadow is very skittish and easily startled. Right now, she's peaking around the ottoman and staring at me. Shadow and Wicket stop and stare at each other a lot. I wish I could upload pictures of it - it's like looking at a mirror image of my cat. She also "talks" a lot. Even when she's not put away in a room, she yowls pretty loudly. I'm hopeful she won't keep this up all night.

Stay tuned for pictures. I'll upload as soon as I can get a cable for my camera.