I’m so sorry Copa. That sucks. I do hope your boyfriend can see his friend in person.

Wow, that is a wake up call, Kate. A guy I went to university with posted on Facebook that last year while he was driving he had a seizure. Thankfully he didn’t hurt anyone or himself. Turned out he had a brain tumour. Due to COVID the procedures were delayed so finally they were able to remove the tumour last week.

Thanks, guys. I’ve had some friends encounter some scary health issues, but luckily the deaths have been few and far between. The whole thing prompted BG to make a long overdue appointment for a physical. He’s active and thin so I think he tends to assume everything is a-okay because he generally takes care of himself. And things probably ARE a-okay, but never a bad idea to be proactive with your health.

I think some kind of get-together with his friend is in the works. Another one of their friends wants to drive up from another state for a weekend. I’m sure whatever plan they come up with will hinge on how their friend feels about different levels of risk, but I think they could have a guy’s weekend or something if everyone is willing/able to really hunker down beforehand. I guess on their happy hour Zoom, where they heard the news, they were talking about wanting to go to Moab and acting like it could really happen. After the call ended, BG seemed okay for a bit. We talked about it and did our usual stuff, then he said he had to take care of a few things for work. Maybe 15 minutes later I realized he was trying to distract himself with work, had started crying, and he told me they’d never make it to Moab together. Anyway, it sucks, but even with everything going on, I hope they can figure out something in person that everyone feels okay with, risk-wise.

We’re going to cook a nice meal and stay in, too. I’m making homemade pasta and sauce from scratch and my husband is going to make fancy-pants meatballs for him and veggie ones for me and we’ll have it with a nice red wine and then chocolate covered strawberries (from the store) for dessert. It’s going to be damn near freezing here, so even without COVID, I doubt we’d have left the house.

The most we ever do for V-day is a nice home cooked meal and one of more expensive bottles of wine. This year, the husband is making beef burgundy. I’ll make a salad. We’ll have some chocolate cookies from the bakery across the street.

Prior years, he’d grill a steak and two lobster tails. The 5 degree weather and snow is more prohibitive.

Speaking of, I ended up buying the Orolay coat Kate recommended. So between that, my new cozy core leggings from Old Navy and the Ugg boots, I was more than warm enough walking to and from the grocery store today. The hood on that coat does such a good job blocking wind. Loved it.

Also, pls link the leggings.

I like those, thanks!

I would have gotten the black coat but my existing winter coat was black when the Amazon coat went on super sale. I like the olive green but it’s not my most flattering color.