Day after Valentine's was actually much better than Valentine's, we did a big giant grocery shopping trip, and picked up a few cheeses and some good crackers, and then two bottles of wine, and grabbed a few movies at Blockbuster.

History of the World Part 1, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters For DVD.

We figured watching those, with our wine and cheese, about suited us.

I made some pasta for dinner, which we had with one of the wines and History of the World, and then had the cheese and the sweeter wine with Aqua Teen. (Both movies were freaking awesome, as a note.) It was a really, really nice evening, one of those warm cozy perfect ones. <3


Wednesday night, we were ridiculous slow at The Paper Factory, we hadn't had anyone at all in the store for awhile, and I was stuck at the register with absolutely nothing to do. Tom walked in. Tom NEVER comes into the store, or hardly ever, unless I drag him. His computer died. Fortunately by borrowing a part or two, (and by being really really desperate,) he got his new computer to work finally. Only he needed a cable from mine, and wanted to know if he could borrow it. (Apparently I only need it if I'm doing hardcore graphics, which he assured me I won't be.) He actually hung out and talked awhile, which was really nice, there was no-one in the store so I didn't feel bad. Really, I think he just needed to get away from the computers before he broke something in frustration. But he tried some of the coffee sample and loved it, and we chatted, and I asked him again what he'd like to do Saturday. For our 3-year anniversary.
He looked at me with that half-blank look which translates to a sort of.. like he purposely does a bad job of faking innocence/forgetfulness, to make it look like he's not *actually* trying to cover up his guilt over forgeting or not having done anything yet.
"You haven't gotten me anything yet, have you."
"Uhh.. ... ..." He looks around the store with an exaggerated desperation, trying to be funny about it. "Point to something?"
"I like the Faerie Glen pieces, which are downstairs, over there. I like some of the Willow Tree, which are right over there."
I tried to play along but oh god was I disappointed. I commiserated with my coworkers all night, and everyone reassured me that I should totally kick his ass if he didn't come up with something awesome.

We had a lovely leisurely morning yesterday, I made some of the Chocolate Cherry Kiss coffee from work (which he now thinks is the greatest thing ever), I printed out maps of the places we were planning to go, we bought our movie tickets online just to be safe. I wrapped the last of his presents and he wrapped mine, I took a shower and dressed in one of his favorite shirts of mine. And we sat down to exchange gifts.

I'd gotten him a really, really cool dragon piece from work - he likes dragons but not the cliché ones, and I knew he'd like this one. Also, after the Giants won the Superbowl, he was obviously flipping out, and was considering getting one of the shirts off the nfl's site, to commemorate. So a day or two later, I'd gone on, and found a shirt exactly like what he'd wanted but hadn't seen that day - in giant letters, 19-0 with a big DENIED stamp over it. And then the Giants logo and Superbowl Champions and whatnot. I also picked up a really nice little knit hat, with the Giants and Superbowl Champions on it, for the times he didn't want to be quite so blatant.
He loves he loves, and I was really happy. He was really psyched about the dragon, I was so glad I'd been so spot-on with it. There's so much detail in it, it's really cool.

So he had a WalMart bag full of several little packages. He hands me the first, and I unwrap it. "PEEPS!!!" A package of adorable lime-green Peeps. He hands me the second, and I laugh. Blue Peeps. He hands me the third - yellow Peeps. I'm laughing, but at the same time, I feel my heart sinking - he did not seriously just get me a shitload of Peeps, did he?? I mean it's cute but.. He hands me another, and before I even open it, I call it - pink Peeps. He hands me the last package, and I see that it's the same size and shape as the rest, and I open it - and laugh, the brilliant little sneaky darling, it's Peeps but half are gone, and in their place is a little jewelry box.

As I'm opening it to look, Tom tells me that there were two necklaces he was really torn between getting for me, and very solemnly told me that when we headed out today, he'd show me the other one, and if I liked that one better he'd exchange it for me, because he'd really been torn and more than anything he wanted me to have something I loved. :) At first I was a little surprised, it's not my usual, but the more I looked at it the more I liked it:

There's a lot of fine detail in the texture of it, three colors of 10K gold, it's really pretty, and the colors actually compliment my skin tone and hair and things really, really well. Plus I can wear it with aaaaanything. It's so pretty, I wore it all day and every time I looked in the mirror I smiled. He's such a sweetheart.
(The other one he'd considered is actually much more me, but I think this one I'll wear more - it had a smaller circle set inside a larger one, with these delicate little curls of filigree between the two, and it was really cool but it was a little big, and though the details were me, the overall thing was a little much, as Tom had suspected.)

So we made a few stops before heading out of town, then drove out to Rochester for an afternoon/evening out. :) We were planning on one of two places for dinner, Thai or Indian depending on our mood (Mom gave me all sorts of good suggestions yay), and I'd originally planned on going to Greece-Ridge, but then realised that Marketplace Mall was muuuch closer to the restaurants, and would involve a lot less back'n'forthing. Which is good because I really don't know Henrietta very well..

But we went to the mall and wandered around, and found the coolest little store, which it turns out is owned by the same people as the Steel Source, which accounts for the vague bit of deja-vu I had walking in. I can't recall the name, it was down by Bon Ton's and was the Memory Place or Mirror Time or something random like that. Anyway it was all full of fairies and dragons and things. Unfortunately the fairies were mostly.. of that sort of middle-ground quality where the details are lacking and they all look sort of the same. But there were a few pretty ones - some pieces based on Amy Brown drawings that were really cool (and really pricey). They only had two sorts of unicorns, and they didn't really grab me. But they had a whole display of replicas of Greek and Roman sculptures, which were really, really beautiful. I was thiiiiis close to getting one of Eros and Psyche, it's such a gorgeous statue, but, then I noticed the figleaf Eros was wearing. And I still thought about it, but, if I'm going to drop $60 on a big piece like that, I don't want something that'll bug me as much as that.

Tom, however, decided then and there that he's going to pursue a dragon collection (which he was thinking about after I gave him the really cool one earlier), and we came back later to get him one. Poor boy, the one he really liked, I discovered had little eyes painted on its wings. It's hard, finding non-cheesy dragons.

We also had a field day in this Asian store, Oriental Trading 9 or something to that effect, which was full of all sorts of cool little things. I came pretty close to buying a sushi set or tea set or silk dress, but ended up with a pretty little calligraphy set, with the ink stone and everything. <3 Going to play with that today. Tom bought himself a Go set - he'd prefer a nice wooden one, but given that we have no idea how well we'll do at the game, he went with a cheaper version for now. ^^;

We had dinner at Thali of India, a cozy (if overly-crowded, at least last night!) little Indian place about five minutes from the mall (if you knew where you were going, which we didn't entirely, we have this bad habit of missing turns on those streets where there's nowhere to turn around for like two miles). The food was very, very yummy, Tom picked out some breads for an appetizer, he had Chicken Vindaloo (his favorite) and I had.. something the name of which I can't recall, but it was a yogurt-based thing, with chunks of farmer's cheese and raisins and cashews and it was really good. Paneer! It was a type of paneer. I would have loved some dessert but a)it was getting late and b)holy crap was I full. The rice was absolutely delicious, I couldn't figure out what was in it and it was driving me nuts.

I mislabeled some of my directions and we had about two minutes of directional confusion, but we ended up right, and got to Tinseltown without any further trouble. Later than we would have liked, but still 10min or so before the movie started. The theater was PACKED. Like I'd expected there to be *people*, and as Tom pointed out every U2 fan in a two-hour radius would be there this weekend, but still. The only open areas were right up front, so we wound up in that row that's on the big aisle that runs between the entryways. God I love Tinseltown, it's such a gorgeous movie theater, so comfy and wonderful - we both agreed we honestly would go to the movies, and be fine paying the $8, to have it in a theater so nice.

The 3D glasses actually weren't horrid, they were really kind of cute geeky things, lightweight black plastic. Clear lenses - Tom worked out that each lens shows a different wavelength, the image on the screen isn't red'n'blue but offset, the image doubled and slightly offset. It took a bit for my eyes to adjust to it, and even then there were times when thin things (like the metal rods of Lar's drumkit) seemed jittery, and motion was just the littlest blurred.. it just feels like you can't *quite* focus perfectly, but for the most part it's pretty unobtrusive, I was really impressed. Lean your head any which way and you're fine, and while Tom said one of the visual touches made him a little dizzy, I felt just fine.

I am happy to say that they really didn't overdo it with the 3D effects - they took advantage of it, but nothing was done purely for the sake of cheap effects. Nothing comes flying at your face or anything. :) And oh god there were times it really DID feel like you were there! Oh I was dying, poor Tom, his arm must've been so sore afterwards, I clutched at it so much. (I actually discovered at one point that *my* arm hurt, the muscle was sore from being tensed so long! I'm such a spazz.) I don't want to say too too much because I don't want to give it away to anyone who hasn't seen it yet and is going to - but I will say that if you're a U2 person you REALLY, really need to, it was fantastic. It really *is* a plausible recreation of a U2 concert, obviously half your brain knows they're not really there in front of you, but damn does it do a good job of faking you out sometimes.. and that rush, that surge of emotion, that overflows your heart and soul, it's there, it comes through and I don't know how but it does. There were so many times I had to hold myself back from reaching out toward them.. and so many urges to just fling my arms around one of them, hee. <3

I think they've finally done "The Fly" the way they've always wanted to, with this.

The camerawork was really, really nice, so many shots felt like you were standing on the stage right next to them, it was really lovely.

Larry's hair, unfortunately, was awful, all long and limp and slicked back. But aside from that, gorgeous as always, and he SMILES! and he's such a little dear.

Tom kept himself amused by working out exactly how the technical end worked - he was counting the number of cameras they used to shoot it with, trying to sort out what sort of lenses they used, how it was being projected...
...but he was also blown away by the BELIEVE/LIE image (which they've used since ZooTV but Tom hadn't seen). And the CoeXisT thing, now that he was finally able to read what was on B's bandana. ;)

It's a fantastic movie for Adam-watching, he looked so happy and it really shows him off. <3 And Edge has sparkly guitars. Larry's shirt had a red star on it that matched Bono's. BONO! Bono did a Mackie-bow! And there are hugs and kisses and things.

No songs that you wouldn't expect (though "Miss Sarajevo" is there <333), and the two middle-aged guys behind me lamented that "Still Haven't Found" was omitted, but oh, there were some stunning images... the lights, when Bono has everyone hold up their cell phones and there are thousands of blue lights all around.. it was as breathtaking as it was in real life, I'd forgotten just how beautiful it is.

I had to consciously take full breaths again afterwards, and my lungs informed me that I hadn't done so in quite awhile.

We swung by Tim Hortons to get Tom some coffee, and drove home, and went to bed and even I fell asleep almost right away.

He has work today, but I'm still off, and oh is it lovely to have two days in a row to myself! I shouldn't have stayed on the computer so long this morning, but, I wanted to post, yesterday was a lovely day. And Tom is amazing, he really is, for all I gripe about the little things he's so good to me. He has little use for music, and doesn't get U2 at all, and he drove me two hours to sit through 85 minutes of sheer boredom for him and fangirling for me, and let me squeeze the blood out of his arm, and then discussed it with me all the way home.

I'm going to make a giant vat of chili today, and as much as I want to, I won't put chunks of tomato in because he doesn't like it. *giggles* It's such a pretty day, I don't even know what I want to do. I need to shower and do up a few dishes at least (I'm out of clean spoons again wth), and should do laundry, but I think I'm going to draw. I was looking through some of my old sketchbooks and holy hell did I do some amazing drawings from life in high school. I need to get back in practice. And my novel needs some illustrations, I started drawing Meres the other night. And I have a calligraphy set to play with. :)