Try to do something nice…

So! This weekend went by SUPER fast. Friday night I had a board meeting for one chapter. Saturday morning was my local chapter meeting. We did the “first kiss” contest and I think it went very well. The “assignment” was to write a first kiss scene between two characters and then we all voted on our three favorite. We didn’t do it by heat level, just by which ones we liked the most. Gave out the prizes. What I love about that is it got them writing. Several people said they stepped out of their comfort zone and wrote things they normally would not have. I think that’s fabulous! And all the writing is great. Lots of talent in that bunch and I now know they can do it! So n more excuses, ladies. 😉

After the meeting, I had to swing by the mall to exchange a belt and lo and behold Man was there. We ran into each other and he shopped with me. The mall was exceptionally busy being Valentine’s Day and all. Then I went back home while he did some shopping for a “few little things” before coming to the house.

When he got there, we exchanged gifts. I gave him two giant special dark chocolate bars, a card, and a photo card I made. He gave me chocolate covered strawberries from Godiva Chocolatier, a super-duper mushy card that I love, and some unmentionables. 😀 Oh, and he also got me some clothes earlier in the week from Eddie Bauer. Gotta love that. Anyhoo, we headed to dinner at 4:30 (Red Lobster) but there was already a wait – 45 minutes. We waited. In the very crowded front of the restaurant. We tried to wait outside but it was just too cold.

Finally got a table and by the time we were seated, the wait was an hour and ten minutes. Oof. Despite the crowd, we had an excellent waiter (Charles was his name and he was awesome). I had the wood-fired shrimp and lobster with red wine (yes, I know, a culinary faux pas but it was delish). Man had the Hawaiian salmon and coconut shrimp (and chardonnay). We had a really nice time. Afterward, we headed downtown for another round of drinks at Fox & Hound. Great place but it was dead. I guess the entire universe goes out to restaurants and not bars on Valentine’s Day.

We came home, watched French Kiss, and then I promptly passed out. It was all that wine. 🙂

Sunday, he went to hang out with his daughter and I cleaned my disgusting house. Vacuum, dust, cleaned the bathrooms and the kitchen. It’s nice and shiny now. I also did laundry.

Man had left a basketful of shirts at my house. He said he’d do them later. But I was doing all my laundry so I figured what was one more load, right? Well, one his red shirts was in the load, along with his white ones. Now, I washed them in cold water but that damn red shirt still bled all over the place. sigh

I was frantic. Man is very particular about his laundry. So I knew these pinkish shirts would send him over the edge and I would never be allowed to touch his laundry again. Ever. Even if I had the best intentions. I felt horrible. One of the shirts was from Eddie Bauer and one was one I’d given him for his birthday last year. I email my mother and my friend and ask for laundry advice. I tried their suggestions – bleach and hot water. The shirts were still pink!

So I did a Google search on what to do for that. I found a comment thread on some forum about the same problem. Several people recommended Rit Color Remover. I found it online for $2.50 but it would be 10-12 days for shipping (URGH!). Amazon.Com has it online, too, but still I’d have to wait for it to get here. So I grab my shoes, bag, keys and jacket and hit the door for Walmart. I need a newspaper anyway, so I may as well see if I can find the stuff.

Well, I found it! It’s in a little box for $1.62 at Walmart. I got that color remover and the laundry whitener. I figured if one doesn’t work, the other one will. I followed the directions on the box to the letter. The whitener didn’t do a dark thing, so I tried the color remover. And, thankfully, it WORKED! Whew. I dodged a bullet on that one. His shirts are sparkling clean and very white. And I will never tell him I turned his white shirts pink. LOL

In other news… got a couple of crits back on Rome. Lots of good suggestions for tightening the writing. And I got my edits done for TAKE ME I’M YOURS and sent them back to the editor. Better to be early I think. I had two really bad annoying habits in that book – too many “beautiful”s and too may “grinned broadly” phrases. It was annoying ME. LOL  So the edits are done and now I’m going to edit Rome and start working on Delilah’s story again. I am determined to get it finished and to the editor. I could use a couple of releases this year.

Can’t believe it’s Monday already. And back to the old grind!