Well, we had a very successful first Valentine’s Day as a married couple!! Dan gets an A+ for his nesting doll of Valentine’s cards… and yes it started with one of those super large, cheesy $7 cards. I’m a big fan of the cards portion of any occasion. Who doesn’t enjoy hearing nice things?! He also got me BANJO!!! We are going to be an adorable folk group in no time. ACL here we come.

We started a little early on Friday trying out a new pizza place… can I say yum? And a great deal? Because it was great. I love Pie Five and I love that it’s so punny. It’s like the Subway/Chipotle of the pizza world and I don’t know how a place like this hasn’t existed before.

Barley explored a new dog park near our house and made some friends. But was the slowest of the bunch. All legs but no speed.

Buffalo Bayou released a Valentine’s beer (only at Creek restaurants, with rose petals and honey) so we had to go try that out and it was pretty darn good! We also made the BEST sandwiches ever. I’m not kidding… it was the best I’ve ever had.

On actual Valentine’s Day, we spent all day outside, walking the heights trail with Barley and just happened to wind up at Onion Creek (again) who just happened to be having a “green” valentine festival and I had the yummiest sno cone ever (lime basil and 100% fresh). We met 3 more people who had met Barley before (he really gets around). We were lazy on our back patio in the beautiful Houston weather (but it’s supposed to drop to the 30’s… I swear, the “seasons” here…).

Dan surprised me with reservations at Underbelly where we feasted on charcuterie, pork thit ko, braised goat with dumplings, market veggies with caramelized fish sauce, and smoked oysters. I was in heaven. I have a very long list of Houston restaurants I want to try and this one was at the top. The chef, Chris Shepherd, is a James Beard award winner too! Cool stuff.

After dinner, we went over to Poison Girl and played pinball! Which was a blast. And we now want a pinball machine in our house. Too bad they are a lot of dollars. But they did already steal a lot of our quarters…

Now I’m off to learn the banjo!! Right after I finish off that pan of truffle brownies… a box from Trader Joe’s… I’m not the biggest baker. Still home made, right?