Valentine’s Day | dual personalities

February 18, 2020

“January cold and desolate; February dripping wet”*

by chuckofish

The OM and I had a fun trip to Jefferson City last weekend. We took the “River Runner” train after work on Friday. The next morning daughter #1 drove us to Columbia where we checked out the new State Historical Society of Missouri building…

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(The sky was grey and overcast when we visited and there was a much more brutalist feel to the building than in this photo.)

The museum inside was small but very nice with some good paintings and drawings by George Caleb Bingham and Thomas Hart Benton.

It was pretty cool. We had lunch in a hip, Brooklyn-esque restaurant and then headed home to Jeff City where we dropped off the OM at daughter # 1’s charming apartment…

…so that we could do a little mid-MO shopping. After a late afternoon glass of wine, we hopped on the train and returned to Kirkwood. It was a lovely, hassle-free overnight visit with daughter #1.

On Sunday I went to church and came home and caught up on laundry and vacuuming and got ready for the wee babes’ arrival later in the afternoon. I had bought them little Valentine presents, which turned out to be big hits. The Jumping Bear stacking toy was for Lottie who, as you know, loves to stack, and the Fisher Price Nifty Station Wagon was for the wee laddie who loves all things on wheels.

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Note that he has taken out the Dad, Mom and dog and put more cars in the “nifty station wagon”…

There’s a whole lot of concentrating going on here…

I was pleased. My choices are ~~seldom~~ not always so successful…

In other news, I forgot to watch the Westminster Dog Show last week. I always got a kick out of it, but I’m afraid it has become a bit of a clown show…

Screen Shot 2020-02-17 at 1.15.24 PM.png That poodle, good grief.

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Here’s to the rest of the week! Maybe the sun will come out!

*Christina Rossetti, “The Months”

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February 14, 2019

You blockhead

by chuckofish

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So today is Valentine’s Day. I think the OM is cooking dinner, which is good. Cleaning up after himself would be better still.

I plan to watch some classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered from season two. You remember…Xander and Cordelia break up because her friends don’t think he’s cool and then he tries to put a love spell on her just so he can break up with her and have his revenge. Classic. Mean girls. Are you with me?

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After that I propose we watch a movie we can both enjoy, which usually means watching Bullitt (1968) again for the umpteenth time.

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Give your sweet babboo a break (and a hug). Let the good times roll.

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February 12, 2019

“Like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery.”*

by chuckofish

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A Valentine picture from the past!

“You think you will never forget any of this, you will remember it always just the way it was. But you can’t remember it the way it was. To know it, you have to be living in the presence of it right as it is happening. It can return only by surprise. Speaking of these things tells you that there are no words for them that are equal to them or that can restore them to your mind. And so you have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day by day, moment by moment, in this presence. But you have a life too that you remember. It stays with you. You have lived a life in the breath and pulse and living light of the present, and your memories of it, remember now, are of a different life in a different world and time. When you remember the past, you are not remembering it as it was. You are remembering it as it is. It is a vision or a dream, present with you in the present, alive with you in the only time you are alive.”

― Wendell Berry, Hannah Coulter

*Wendell Berry

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February 14, 2018

“My husband and I have never considered divorce… murder sometimes, but never divorce.”*

by chuckofish

As you know, today is Valentine’s Day. We thought it would be fun to look at some of our favorite couples in history since we’ve already looked at favorite movie couples/kisses in years past.

William and Mary, King and Queen of England, who rocked the Glorious Revolution together.

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2. Simon and Ann Bradstreet, “questing puritans”…She wrote, “If ever two were one, then surely we/If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.”

3. Calvin and Grace Coolidge, President and First Lady. He said, “I do not know what I would do without her.”

Calvin was devoted to his wife; he never cheated on her like some presidents we will not mention! Theodore Roosevelt and his wife Edith would be another example of devoted presidential couples, as would Ulysses and Julia Grant.

3. Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poets. She wrote, “I love thee with the breath,/Smiles, tears, of all my life; and if God choose,/I shall but love thee better after death.”

4. Katie von Bora and Martin Luther, reformers, who famously said, ” There is no more lovely, charming and friendly relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.”

5. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, actors, who proved that a long marriage in Hollywood is not impossible…unlikely, but not impossible.

Well, our advice yesterday was to do your best in Lent, and that is good advice for love and marriage as well.

As for what to watch on Valentine’s Day, nothing tops The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland for romance. This movie turns 80 years old this year! All the stars were aligned when this movie was made. It is perfect.