I always feel so sad when I see young men scrambling around Freddy’s filling up a basket with heart-shaped boxes of candy, useless red or black panties and bras, wine, flowers, and sometimes jewelry.  Am I forgetting anything?  They look very nervous as if they are afraid they are forgetting something. Is it about love?  Is it about sex?  Is it about affection? They mostly look pretty miserable to me.

And trust me, nobody, I mean nobody, wants these:

I used to leave a surprise on Ellen’s front porch on most holidays when she was the old lady on our block.  Now I am the old lady on our block!  I am honored to follow such a one as Ellen.  But since she is gone, I will spend the day pruning the roses.

One year, MM and I went a little crazy — and had a lot of fun.  She was at Berkeley and drove across the Bay so we could produce the following:

We are soooooo over our Martha Stewart silliness nowadays.