Tinges of blue are beginning to show between the clouds hanging over the city. I doubt this signifies approaching warmth, or even sunshine, but I will remain hopeful.
The Valentine's Dinner was a smashing success. Mixed green salad (radicchio, romaine, endive) with homemade raspberry vinaigrette dressing and topped with a few raspberries, mozzarella/ciabatta/pancetta/rosemary skewers with an olive dressing, roasted red potatoes with asiago cheese, filet mignon, and caramel-cognac fondue and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot for dessert. The sauce for the filet was, sadly, destroyed when the chef suffered a lamentable kissing-induced lapse in concentration during the final "stirring" phase, but happily, the filet seemed to hold up all on its own.
(Side Note: Sea and I just came up with a brilliant new marketing scheme: "I'd do anything for a bottle of Veuve!" I had originally thought it would be Mountain-Dew-esque, you know, diving into bubbling mud pits, that kind of thing. He decided, and rightly so, that it should be a little snobbier: picture someone dressed in a tuxedo shirt and a knee-length black velvet jacket (in other words, me) being forced to watch a two-hour long piece of mime performance art. Or a Barry Manilow concert, perhaps. Afterwards, say at a reception, the jacket-clad fellow (me) gleefully pours himself a glass of champagne and announces, "I'd do anything for a bottle of Veuve!")
The rest of the weekend was spent being snowed in with the boy, except for a brief mountaineering excursion to pick up Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which ArtStudent and I are rapidly devouring.
Now, in keeping with my distaste for doing anything less than whole-hog, on the schedule for tonight is dinner with the boy. In Queens. With his family.
Meeting his family. Gulp. This is not something that I have done before, either meeting someone else's or introducing my own. Color me petrified.
Although, I just found out that the meeting will be postponed -- apparently his mother asked him to put it off, as she has not had time to make homemade sauce. It seems she was impressed by reports of my V-Day dinner and is almost as nervous about meeting me as I am to meet her. Which is both very cute and very reassuring at the same time.
Also, I am wearing a new shirt today. HTML geeks among you might appreciate the fact that it is pretty much #66FF33 colored. I was just informed by a co-worker that it is very "flashy."
And finally, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, I have a Joyous Connection of Domestic Internet Love again! Checking my mail at home has never felt so sweet.