Valentines Day : Revisited

Have I ever told you about our first Valentine's Day as a married couple?

It was February 2007, Erik and I had been married a mere month and a half.  I was still a faithful vegetarian, but thought that I would treat my husband to a nice steak for dinner. 
On February 11th, I cracked open a bottle of marinade, slapped some steak in a ziploc bag (and a portabella cap in another for myself) and tossed them in the fridge.  Yes, you read that right.
Sometime also in the week leading up to the big day, Erik surprised me with a complete set of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets... He may or may not have said that they were a Valentine's gift and I may or may not have had that statement stricken from my short term memory.
Then, on the 14th, it was a Wednesday... I came home from work and busied myself around the house.  I tidied up, got the stove heating up, put some candles around the bath tub (eyebrow wiggle... sorry mom and dad). 
At some point, I looked at the marinade bottle - maybe for some cooking tips - and noticed that it said something about a meal in 30 minutes.  "That's funny," I thought, and I looked closer at the label... Yes indeed, it said that you only had to put the food in the marinade for a half an hour.  "Huh." 
I believe that at this point, as the food was grilling away on our range, Erik came home.  My memory is fuzzy, but I think I gave him some sort of gift, and he said, "Oh yeah!  I got you something too!" He then reached into his backpack, pulled out a small box of chocolates and may have handed them to me.  This might have hurt my feelings a little, teensy skosh... because I might have long forgotten that the Shakespeare set may have actually been my gift, just early.
I'm using vague terms, because for a long time, I would have sworn to remembering him tossing the box in my general direction and my heart shattering into a million microscopic pieces... but like I said, the memories are hazy due to time and/or reality and/or the trauma that followed...
It was time for dinner, after our gift exchange, and I served up Erik's steak as he sat on our futon (before we had a table) and I hovered nearby to see if he liked it.
Erik gets 100 zillion good husband points for eating the steak without barfing immediately. 
I then served up my mushroom cap, took a bite and realized what a difference 3 days makes to a marinade.   I would describe it as, my tastebuds being burned in a forest fire.
After that doozy went in the trash, I went to salvage the rest of the evening by drawing a romantic bath.  I turned on the faucet, lit all the candles, checked the water and discovered that, apparently, our water heater was broken.
I'm not sure what all followed, but I remember maybe getting a little upset... Possibly resenting my candy box from Erik, perhaps laying across our bed sobbing in anger, maybe looking back a few years later and feeling like an idiot/laughing at myself.

For the next 3 Valentine's Days I was working in floral capacities, and barely had the time to look at Erik, much less celebrate (unless it was to celebrate not seeing that many roses in one place for another year).

This year, I decided to make steak again.

While we didn't have the money to even get each other a box of chocolate this year (thank you so much IRS for cycling our return through for an additional 2 weeks, for no apparent reason that anyone can give me! :D !!!) and I may have picked the wrong cut of beef for an optimum steak experience (I'm assuming that, because I just picked the thing that looked the most like steak but cost least - no cooking suggestion on the package {I hate you WalMart and I miss you Maceys} I'm pretty sure that paying only $3.50 for a package of "steak" means it's not like, NY Strip, yeah?).
It turned out pretty great!!! No marinade this time, baby, just some butter in the pan and a sprinkle of seasoning... BOOM, we each had seconds! 
Elliot was not impressed, but he's not a beef fan. 

Anyway, Valentine's Day was good this year.  MUCH improved since our first one... I'm hoping that we're just getting better with age.  I was happy to be with my two special guys, relaxing and reflecting on how much we love each other.  Hopefully next year, I can improve on my Valentine's skills even more!

Here are some pictures of my smallest sweetie...