Valentine's Day 2008

These are the roses David gave me for Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day in Portland in 2005, when we came here to check things out and see if we were ready to commit to a move from the Bay Area. David made reservations at a funky little restaurant called "Wild Abandon" (he liked the name) on Belmont Street. We sat in a booth, way in the back of the restaurant, and we both loved the venue as well as the meal. Since our reservation was on the early side, we decided to go to a movie after dinner. We ended up at the Moreland, an old, neighborhood theater that turned out to be the second oldest, continuously running movie theater in the country (the first oldest is also in Portland!). We saw Sideways, which was a first-run movie at the time, and paid $4.50 each for admission. Movies in the Bay Area had just hit $9.00, and parking was always an issue unless we opted to go to a suburban movie complex instead of one of the smaller theaters in Berkeley or Oakland. We anticipated having to drive around looking for parking, but we ended up parking in front of the theater (well, not in front, exactly, but in the first available parking space next to the entrance). Amazing!, we thought (and still do). We get to see a movie for half of what it would cost in the Bay Area and manage to find a free parking spot within spitting distance of the front door! It was a very cool way to spend Valentine's Day.

Last night was much more quiet, but equally as lovely. I made dinner (lamb chops glazed with honey, cumin and coriander and curried couscous with dried cranberries, saute'd onions and cilantro. We opened our last bottle of a beautiful Rosenblum Zinfandel, toasted our third Valentine's Day in Portland (and each other, of course). The venue this year was much more familiar (and had a lot more cat hair wafting all over the place!), but the feelings were as strong as ever.

I am one lucky woman.