I was asked to keep my eyes shut last Saturday morning as my boyfriend, Ben, drove towards Arlington (although at the time I did not know this.) We were celebrating an anniversary and I was really wondering where on earth we were going. He pulled into the parking lot and when I opened my eyes I still had no idea where we were. Then I got out of the car and saw the restaurant – Marks Duck House. This is where we had Dim Sum on our first date. Awwww geee. What a sweetheart.

Once inside, there was a bouquet of flowers already on the table and a box all wrapped up. I opened the gift and there they were – three beautiful pieces of glass art pendants. They all had something in common – a tornado! His friend, Alicyn Drew, is an artist. Between Ben and Alicyn, they created this wonderful jewelry. Alicyn (cool way to spell that name, huh?) even watched a tornado documentary to get the right feel for the project. You can check out her art here: http://www.alicyndrew.com/Home.html Since Ben couldn’t make up his mind as to which one he liked best, I got all three. I love this man. As I sat there with my belly full of steamed shrimp and a gorgeous piece of natural disaster around my neck, I felt *VERY* cheesy about the tiger lily I had given him the day before. He has set the bar high (but at 6’ 5”, that’s not hard to do!)

By the way, it is day 5 of our heat wave. It looks like we will have 6 in all. A break in the steamy weather comes our way Thursday. Stay hydrated, find some AC, check on the elderly and please keep your pets in the AC with plenty of water. I’ll see you tomorrow.