Posted 10:19 PM by Blah blah

Happy Valentine's Day to YOU! I wanted to thank some of you reading this who have been very kind to me over the last year, including:

Belle
Bich Ngoc
Chel
Christina
Ellen
Esther
Ida
Mira
Mona
Netneur0
Peg
Sandy
Valerie

And of course I thank my dear women friends here and around the world (who don't have websites and who don't read this blog) who have been sweet to me too! That means people like Cindy, Crystal, Dawn, Dolly, Iris, Jan, Jennifer, Joanne, Jovis, June, Kelly, Limin, Lisa, Magdalene, Myra, and Sophia. Wherever you are, however you are feeling, I blow a kiss to all of you. I am apparently a slant-to-the-left kisser (NY Times) who has met "more right-kissers" and been "subtly pressured to shift to the right" by society, to "avoid a broken nose."

HAHAHA!

Ok, here's the scoop on the romantic shopping list below. It's not for me. My housemate, his girlfriend, and I live together. He asked me to help him set up this surprise dinner for her. He had called a bunch of French and Italian restaurants to make reservations for Friday. (Here are my restaurant recommendations if you live around here. I've eaten at most of them.) Since they were all booked, he decided to bring the dinner home instead.

Click here for their pix. They are the couple on the upper left. Click for larger size.

I talked to Netneur0 for suggestions. She is a very sweet girl who has a great imagination! She told me this female romantic fantasy for Valentine's, including a dramatic script for how SHE would seduce a girl (hehe...), so on Wednesday I ended up buying EVERYTHING she suggested, after merging ideas with my friend's. Some stuff we already have at home. The girlfriend keeps our house smelling of incense all the time already.

Wednesday night, I brought home everything and put it in our empty third bedroom. Last night, my friend prepared the food and set up the dinner table, with the vase, plates, etc. Friday evening, I broiled the salmon, and while she was taking a shower, he brought down the dinner table and...voila!

My friend really spoils his girlfriend, but then again she is a high-maintenance princess (or gongju, as Mira says). She's an only child, spoiled and snobbish. Drives a BMW convertible. Complains and criticizes easily. Doesn't cook. She and I get along pleasantly, but I feel bad for her boyfriend. Oh well---he's grown used to dealing with it.

Tomorrow I'll find out how the night went. In the meantime, Netneur0 said she'd slap the girl if she wasn't blown away by tonight. I would too.

I only know two songs by heart in Chinese. I used to sing in a group at Berkeley that sang international songs. My friend T, from Taipei, taught me this song, which we performed. I am very grateful to Netneur0 for enhancing my knowledge of it! The Chinese name is Ni Nong Wo Nong:

Married Love
by Kuan Tao-sheng

You and I
Have so much love,
That it
Burns like a fire,
In which we bake a lump of clay
Molded into a figure of you
And a figure of me.
Then we take both of them,
And break them into pieces,
And mix the pieces with water,
And mold again a figure of you,
And a figure of me.
I am in your clay.
You are in my clay.
In life we share a single quilt.
In death we will share a single coffin.

Kuan (AD 1262-1319) was married to one of the leading calligraphers and painters in Chinese history, Chao Meng-fu. She was a calligrapher and painter of bamboos, orchids, and plum blossoms.

Even seven centuries later, her words still flow with freshness and vitality.

I was going to tell a love story next, but I'll end with this ideal tonight. May you live this kind of experience. Au revoir!