Sweet Valentine(s), a little knitting and a book review

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and my two sweet little Valentine's gave me this:

And lots of hugs and kisses.  Then I helped them make a stickered, scribbled, hand-print traced Valentine for their mommy and daddy!

My main-squeeze sweet Valentine took me to dinner at a new-ish Italian place, Cafe Calabria.  It was yummy!  I had tortellini carbonara -- tortellini, bacon, garlic, cream sauce.  But it made horrible leftovers.  Note to self: Do not take a cream-sauce-based dish home to reheat in the microwave.  You will end up with rubbery tortellini and droopy, rubbery bacon in a pool of oil.

In Knitting News:
I haven't been knitting too terribly much. I'm still stuck on what to start next.  And I haven't knit on my knit-a-long socks because it takes some concentration, and extra tools, to add the bling (beads) so it makes it hard to be a portable project to do during nap time.  So, I've been working on another afghan square.  I'm working my way through what seem to be the easy ones....

I don't have the Great American Afghan book in front of me and I can't remember which block number this is.  But if you have the book, it's the one that looks like this, minus the what-I-think-is-weird i-cord "stitch" edging.  Mine is just going to stay plain-jane without that embellishment.

In Book News:
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.  I loved. Loved. LOVED this book!  Couldn't stop reading it last night until I was done, then had to watch 2 cooking shows before I could fall asleep.  Now that's a good book and definitely one that I will think about for a long time.

Harold lives in England and is recently retired, but life is pretty dull and his wife seems irritated with everything he does.  Then, one day he gets a letter from Queenie, a former co-worker, whom he has not seen in twenty years.  She is in hospice and writing to say good-bye.  This letter throws Harold for a loop. He writes her a short response and steps out to the corner to post the letter.  But once he gets to the box, he thinks maybe he'll just walk a little further to the next box, and then the next.  Then, events happen that convince him that he needs to hand-deliver the letter to Queenie.  By the way, she is several hundred miles away.  And thus begins his journey, his pilgrimage - both physical and emotional.  I can't say enough how this book just drew me in and took me along, routing for Harold, hoping he gets to Queenie before she passes, feeling for him as he experiences all kinds of emotions, thinking about his past, gasping at some of the twists the story takes.  Highly, highly recommend!