Chinese Valentine's Day

Today is Chinese Valentine's Day.  I ran to the grocery store and then stopped at Nick's Mart.  I picked up a few waters and snacks there.  Todd, Dan, and Bill were headed to Beijing together so I wanted to have a gift bag of snacks in the van for their trip there.  Dan and Bill were headed back to America and Todd was headed to Singapore.

I ran up to get the gift bag out of the apartment, stuffed it with waters, chips, peanuts, Starbursts, and Gummi Bears.  Ran back down to the van and sat it on Todd's seat.  Mr. Xue picked the boys up and I received a phone call.  Todd said "So, you remembered it was Chinese Valentine's Day huh?"  Yes, I did.  "Well, I remembered when I got to work and I was hoping you wouldn't remember".  Nice.  He then asked why I had 3 of everything.  I told him I didn't want Bill and Dan to feel left out.  He said "So, you want Dan and Bill to be your Valentine's too huh?"  Ummmm, no.  I think one man is enough to deal with.  I was just being nice.

I can't be upset that Todd forgot.  He sent me flowers last year and I didn't even know about Chinese Valentine's Day.  And if I am going to be totally honest...the only reason I knew about it was because it was in an article I read in Beijing Kids magazine yesterday.  Plus, we aren't Chinese so it isn't like it truly counts as a "holiday".  I still love Todd even if he forgot Chinese Valentine's Day!

So I decided to be nice to our neighbors and friends on this special day.  I made strawberry cupcakes with vanilla frosting.  Cameron delivered them to Carrasco's, Hindman's and Cuevas'.  They are the lucky recipients to my Betty Crocker moment. 

Ileana and I went to Tanggu this afternoon.  We hit the fabric market and then went looking for chandeliers.  Fredy hates all the ones they have in their apartment.  After what we saw today we are pretty sure he is just going to have to live with it.  There are some HUGE, gaudy chandeliers that are WAY over priced in the home store.  I can't believe someone would look at these and say "Wow, I need that in my house."

That is a whole lot of shine.

Too many crystals.

This chandelier is bigger than Ileana if it was on the ground.

We hit the cold food warehouse next.  Picked out what we needed pretty quickly.  However, the two girls working were slower than snails..  It was so hot in the store too that we almost died.  We finally had all our stuff and headed to the veggie market.  We bought some fruit for gift baskets for the baby shower tomorrow.  I bought some lettuce for the first time living in China.  Ileana says she buys it all the time and it is fine.  Off to school to get our kids.

Back home.  Cameron received his Valentine's present and then he delivered cupcakes to all his friends.  I cleaned the lettuce.  I first broke it all apart, rinsed it, and then washed.  I then rinsed it with bottle water and left it out to dry.  I then cleaned the cherry tomatoes.  As I was cleaning up I realized I made a horrible mistake.  Instead of using fruit/veggie cleaner I used Febreez (the Chinese version).  I couldn't figure out why the cleaner smelled so different.  Luckily I figured out my mistake and threw it all away before anyone ate it.  No wonder the kitchen is not my favorite place.  Oh my.  Back to the store.

Don't ask why his pants are down.

Plate full of cupcakes and a Wii game.

One of the trays of cupcakes for our friends.

Cameron and I decided to spend Valentine's Day together at Ashanti for dinner.  We walked over there and went in.  It was pretty crowded.  After all, it was Valentine's Day.  We saw Michelle and Owen and their girls so Anthony (the manager) sat us next to them.  It was such a nice dinner chatting with them.  Cameron handed me a red rose.  Aww, Anthony had them to give to all the ladies.  How sweet.  After a great dinner Cameron paid.  What a great guy.  Oh wait, he used my credit card.  It was the thought that counted.  We walked backed home, showered, read, and watched some tv.  Off to bed.