My hunny, by the way, was not one of the men scrambling. Mostly because I guided him like one of those people who wave flags before the imposing airplanes, calm and stately.
"You have to let me know about this stuff four days in advance!" he cried, the week before, after hearing a radio commercial.
"I will, I will," I assured him.
I think the stress got to him though; he went out and got a bonanza of Valentine's goodies a day early and then, too excited to wait, laid it all out on the table and called me down from the bedroom, where he'd instructed me to hide.
He was especially proud of the card, which blared forth, "I am the man who will fight for your honor and the glory of love!" as soon as it was opened. My heart melted. It now sits on the mantel.
I gave him a John Deere shelf that matches the John Deere curtains that Jenkins and I made him. They are flat valences, which is a fancy way of saying that they are the absolutely easiest curtains ever to make.
Poor Keith is lately trying to come to terms with the fact that I will be gone for a week, starting tomorrow.
"What will I have for dinner?" he asked in a small, small voice. "Who will make my bed? Do my laundry?"
Ah, the beauty of those words; the very stuff of life for the one who does those chores every day, day in and out.
"You'll appreciate me so much more when I come back," I say, reassuring.
"But I appreciate you now!" he countered, eyes wide with sincerity.
"You'll have fun; you'll have mac 'n cheese and pizza rolls for dinner."
"I won't! I'll sleep in the bathtub with a whiskey bottle!"
A burst of laughter escaped me.
"I will! And then in the morning, all I'll have to do is turn the water on..."
Speaking of dinner, we've been scraping by without a shopping trip since the beginning of the month, consequently last night's dinner was going to be tuna fish sandwiches with mac 'n cheese. This was derailed by the discovery of some pork chops which had been intended for a corn bread crust but were instead forgotten until that moment.
Tuna discarded, I de-thawed the pork and made up a honey barbecue marinade (1tb honey, 1tb Worchestshire, 1tb barbecue sauce, 1ts lemon juice, 2tb catchup). Keith emerged from the Man Room in the middle of this process.
"What happened to tuna fish?" he cried in dismay. "And I don't like pork."
"You love pork," I countered, with the calm of experience. "You think you don't, but every time I make it you think it's amazing."
"No, I don't," he said, looking disdainfully at the innocent chops, searing in olive oil and smoking.
About an hour later, he admitted that the kitchen smelled damn good and five minutes later he was declaring that it was the best thing he'd ever eaten and how on earth do I do that and to stop reading him like a book; it wasn't allowed.
We went up to Indiana yesterday, I think it was. We took his mother out to eat at a Mexican restaurant in the middle of a snow storm. This winter almost anything one does is going to be in the middle of a snow storm; there's almost no use trying to plan around them.
Afterward, we went shopping at the local Good Will. I was browsing through a rack when I felt some one's presence.
"How you doin'?" asked my husband from the other side of the rack, with a significant tilt of the head and come hither eye brow.
A giggle escaped me. "I don't talk to strangers," I replied coy, with an accompanying flutter of eyelash.
He cleared his throat, preparatory: "My name's Keith...I'm a tank commander..." He was wandering on down to the end of the isle.
"Oh yeah?" I asked, archly, meeting him there and looking up at him through eye lashes, fingering a sweater, "Whadaya drive?"
"A Can," he declared, making a clean breast of it and taking me by surprise, naming his dented work truck and not the sexy HD. "Wanna take a ride around the town?"
"Yeah," I admitted, and received several thrilling kisses.
I have to go start packing! Ugh. I am not looking forward to flying. What exactly awaits me in the security line this time around? As long as I don't carry on any really dangerous items, like water and shoes, I should be fine.
