Stapled Hand to Face

This didn't happen this year:

Source

And it was good.

But we did go on a Valentine's EVE date, in honor of the fact that we live in a country that likes to celebrate its holidays the night before ...the holiday.   

This involved Paul knocking on our door with flowers to "pick me up."  What?  So cliche.  So exactly-what-I-wanted.  

Then, we went to Block House ("BEST STEAKS SINCE 1968").  There's a giant Angus steer on its logo so, I mean, America, right?  Our goal was to find real hamburgers (oh the craaavings).  Because that is some serious romance right there, folks.

The menu said, "New York Cheeseburger" so you'd think that was a safe bet, right?    Well, it... was (hah!  Psych!  You thought I was going to say it wasn't.  Ohhh, literary devices.)

But, it was good not in the way we expected because I think that this mid-range German restaurant felt a little concerned that an actual cheeseburger would be too "low-brow" and they had to dress it up a bit ("You eat it...with your hands?  Not in my establishment," says the German chef).  Which made it really tasty!  It also made it without buns.    No buns for the New York Cheeseburgers.    Huh.  So, we had some really well seasoned ground beef patties, tastefully arranged on top of a slice of baguette bread.  Oh yeah.  

And then we walked over to Eis Cafe Milano, which is like a dressy version of Baskin Robbins and got two cones of gelatto.  I got kiwi--it was...interesting and green (so, point for kiwi!).  Paul got "cookie" which is nothing like cookies and cream or cookie dough or oreo or anything you've had in the US.  All I can say is that it was "cookie"...graham cracker meets gingerbread?  You should come try it.

And then we came home and then it's none of your business.  

And then we had pancakes the next morning.