Denice and Henrik

I’ve been floating on a four-leaf clover carpet these past few days. The influence of the Irish must be thick as Guinness in the Universe right now or at least over my head. For the last few days I’ve been receiving the girlie and sensual things I want with little more energy than a hot butcher knife falling through a stick of room temperature butter.

Yesterday Henrik and I enjoyed a relaxing and early dinner on Lake Union after half a day of running the streets. We got an aisle runner for our ceremony then went next door to check on the sailboat. On the way back to Seattle we stopped for coffee and vacuum bags and ended up with an additional steam cleaner. An hour later my friend Mark was using my feet for practice hours in his reflexology training, then we got Henrik and his best man all set up for their tuxedos. Finally, it was our 5:00 dinner reservation.

Later, while nibbling on dessert, we got to talking about my good luck as of late. Feminine angels and ethereal wardrobe consultants took pity on me seeing that some jester gnome taped a Gone Fishing sign on my back. They were appalled and infused me with the most potent charm allowable to use on humans.

I then found the perfect tailor for my wedding dress and a competent dry cleaners; I found perfect wedding shoes and a new outfit for a fundraiser; I got an adhesive bra (more about this later) that will work with my dress and other delicious summer attire; and a heavenly foot reflexology treatment. All in a matter of days.

I shared my theory with Henrik: The Force was with me, the Force is a woman. For too long maybe I’ve been trying to achieve the boring, things like work and studying. But when my focus shifted to dresses, home keeping, shoes, cosmetics, shopping, and foot massage, the sky opened up for me and goodness poured down. The Force is a woman. Henrik agreed and commented that “Faith” is a female name!

Yes, The Force is a woman.

Last week Henrik took a motorcycle certification class. I had no idea he was thinking about motorcycles. He never hinted about wanting to learn to ride motorcycles. He just signed up and told me a couple days before his first class. He went Thursday evening, all day Saturday, and half a day Sunday. He didn’t take any pictures (darn cuz he said he fell once) but he came home with a workbook and completion card. I don’t want him riding on the streets. Maybe we can each get dirt bikes and a cheap trailer and hit the back roads with my brothers. Like when we were kids. Aaron recently got a new quad. I bet Mike would get a quad, too, huh?

Valentine’s Day. A sweet-spirited idea spoiled by commerce. Well our first V-Day will be memorable, for sure. In fact, were still recovering from it.

Henrik recently went to a tech conference in Palm Desert where he met some friends who were planning to have dinner together in San Francisco on Valentine’s Day. They invited him and he thought it would be extravagant for us to go for a day.

Unfortunately, on Valentine’s morning he woke up feeling sick and by the time we arrived in San Francisco he was feeling even sicker. We took a short nap and had a wonderful dinner with his friends at a trendy Thai placed called Koh Samui & The Monkey on Brannan Street. Back at the hotel we had a piece of chocolate cake and hot Lipton tea. Woo hoo, right? Well I must digress.

As we were going through the *(%$! security checkpoint at Seatac Airport I was stopped by a TSA agent who wanted to examine the contents of my Victoria’s Secret bag. I was not in the mood for investigation so I sort of snapped at him to not let Henrik see what was inside the bag. The agent seemed like a nice enough guy as he examined the contents without letting Henrik see and then he gave me the bad news. The bottle of wine that I brought as part of Henrik’s gift was larger than 3 oz. I didn’t have time to go through checked baggage so I had to leave the wine behind. I pouted for at least three hours. I even almost cried. They took my wine and ruined my gift. Bastards. Henrik tried to make me feel better about it (which didn’t work at first) and then he kept laughing about it. He thought it was pretty funny that I seem to have an ongoing problem with TSA agents and liquids. I was able to laugh about it — the next day — and even felt bad for snapping at the Seatac agent. I have a feeling he would have let me sneak it through if he could and I should have happily given him the wine and told him to enjoy it with his Valentine. But I was being small and I missed an opportunity to share the love.

Well the next morning we decided to delay our flight so we could enjoy the sunshine and tour the city. Henrik had not really seen San Francisco before. We walked from our hotel through China Town through North Beach and Little Italy to Fisherman’s Wharf through the Embarcadero and back through the business district to our hotel. And since we planned on leaving that morning we didn’t pack any walking shoes so halfway through the day we were not only sick but limping and gimping because we both got big blisters on our feet. I took Henrik to a Chinese Herb shop where he was a doctor and was prescribed three days of herbs that I would cook for him when we returned home. It was a lot of fun and I wish we had more time to spend there. I really wish we had better shoes. Won’t be making THAT mistake again.

Oh before I forget, we saw the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill. They were adorable, I loved that!!

By the time we arrived home that night Henrik the flu bug had devoured Henrik and he was laid out in bed for two full days. I was laid out next to him but thankfully I resisted more heartily so was able to take care of him. As for the herbs, he plugged his nose to drink them to avoid gagging. THAT was funny!

We’re on the mend now and should be de-flued by this weekend.

Here’s some pictures from our Valentine’s Day in the City By The Bay.

Who knew that the flickr connection could make us so famous? Look at this story in the Seattle P-I.