I got some beautiful flowers yesterday. Paul brought me the sweetest minature roses at The Fresh Market. I love flowers. They are frivolous and serve simply to adorn and delight.
 
I put them on my kitchen table so I can look at them while I bake cookies and make peanut brittle….for the second time. The first batch of peanut brittle I tried to make “free hand” without a candy thermometer. It is not possible to GUESS 238F degrees. So now I have a mound of caramelized peanuts. Paul thinks I should make balls and cover them in chocolate like turtles……maybe. Last year I tried to make taffy and burned my hands pulling taffy……I get too ambitious.
I also got tulips delivered to my office yesterday. Since we are closed for the next 4 days, I elected to bring them home for myself. It is amazing to me that you can get tulips in December. They do not even grow in Florida. Actually they will grow if you buy bulbs in October and refridgerate them for 6 weeks and then plant them….they might bloom. After the bloom, you have to dig up the bulbs and store them until next year in the fridge. Seems excessive and all the more reason to delight in the ones that came yesterday….hot house flowers. I put them in my new room next to where I work. We get all kinds of stuff delivered to the office in the holiday season, mostly food baskets. I let the staff pick through those and take what they like. My medical assistant called me a food snob yesterday……I admit I am picky and prefer to buy snacks for myself. But flowers…..unless they are paperwhites….I will never pass up.
I have sent Paul flowers a few times. He was working for an actuarial firm in Miami and I sent a bouquet…..when I learned later that is sparked the interest of some of his co-workers…mainly some dude named “Rod”….I thought maybe it was better to just go meet him for lunch.