My funny valentine

What else am I going to title a blog post the day after Valentine's Day?

A had a great time yesterday. When he popped off the bus wearing his heart headband, I had to laugh. He was so excited to show me all the valentines he received and to tell me all about their party. The best part about the party? "My daddy came and we made ice cream sandwiches." I have not yet told J that he is ranked right up there with ice cream.

I did not go to the party. I came home after tutoring and baked Valentine cookies using a recipe I saw in last week's AJC, Catherine Antles Brubaker's Sugar Cookies. They are a simple, traditional sugar cookie and turned out very good, but I was reminded of why I don't like making cut-out cookies: it's so tedious! It took me almost two hours to bake all of the dough. But, wow, they are tasty.

For dinner last night, we had the menu that A suggested when I asked what we should have for Valentine's Day: waffles. I sliced strawberries and J made whipped cream, so it was a special dinner all around. We exchanged our cards; we also gave A a book and a little heart-shaped box of chocolates that contained three pieces of candy. Much to our surprise, he insisted on sharing his chocolate so we each had one. How sweet!

I tend not to be the sentimental type of parent that mourns "how fast they grow", but I will miss this very sweet, tender age when he enjoys everything without being jaded or sarcastic.

Happy Valentine's Day, dear boy!

Her Royal Geekness

I am such a geek. I have been for a long time and I know that I am a geek, but every once in a while a glaring example of my geekness pops up and reminds me in a big way.

The latest proof of my life as a dork is the iPod shuffle that I asked for and received for Christmas. It is the cutest little thing, the smallest in the iPod line both physically and in its capacity, and mine is a lovely purple color. iPods are very popular right now with many people, in fact with many COOL people...so how does having an iPod represent my geekness? It's not that I have an iPod, it's what I do with it that makes me a geek. I have yet to download a single song onto it; my iPod is used exclusively to listen to NPR podcasts.

Yes, you read correctly. I use my incredibly high tech music player to listen to radio programs from National Public Radio. Rather than hover around my radio at certain times each week to hear my favorite programs, I can quickly and easily download those programs and listen to them at my leisure. And since my mediocre local NPR station doesn't even broadcast some of my favorite shows, this provides me with the way to hear them.

And it gets even worse. I do not like to wear ear buds, so I listen to my iPod most of the time using a little speaker made just for iPods. The speaker is bigger than the actual iPod! So there I am, toting around the house a little iPod on a slightly bigger speaker with the voice of Peter Sagal or Neal Conan projecting from it. It works great for me as I clean the house, work in the kitchen or sit and knit. And one night last week when J wanted to want some show that did not interest me, I sat in the sunroom, knitted and listened to The People's Pharmacy, using the dreaded ear buds.

My name is The Queen, and I am an NPR geek.