You know my husband’s a chocoholic, right? Well, in honor of Father’s Day he got his greatest wish–a chocolate cake.

Behold the cake:

I made it yesterday, but made John wait until today to eat any.

So today during Sunday School he leans over to me and whispers, “So, um, after church . . . can we have some chocolate cake and open presents?”

And that’s exactly what we did, throwing in some actual lunch in there someplace, too. The cake was good. Very moist, and very rich.

Here’s the recipe, if you want it:

1 chocolate cake mix
1 package instant chocolate pudding
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
1 bag chocolate chips

Mix and bake according to directions on cake mix box.

I made Perfectly Chocolate Frosting from Hershey’s. Melt 1/2 cup butter. Mix in 2/3 cup cocoa. Then gradually alternate mixing in three cups powdered sugar and 1/3 cup milk. Finally stir in 1 tsp. vanilla.

I love a good deal.

Love it.

A true good deal is constituted by purchasing a quality item that you very much desire and/or need at a darn good price. Most often good deals are found in clearance racks.

Tonight I visited the ShopKo in Spanish Fork, looking for something specific for my husband. Naturally I didn’t find anything I had hoped but instead came away with an armful of apparel for myself.

But–everything I bought was a good deal. As is customary whenever I find a good deal, I will proceed to enumerate everything I bought and specify how much I saved. Because it still feels so good and I just have to share.

1. Blue shirt made of lightweight, stretchy material.
Reg $12.99. Sale $8.99
Save: $4

2. Tracy Evans black gauchos–look really sharp, wish I had a picture to share.
Reg $26.99. Sale $16.99
Save: $10

Now on to the clearance items!

3. Fall jacket with hood.
Reg $49.99. Clearance $12.49
Save: $37.50

4. Pretty brown scarf belt.
Reg: $9.99. Clearance: $2.49
Save: $7.50

5. Snazzy belt made of bronze plates. Again, wish I had a photo to show you. It’s a cool belt.
Reg: $12.99. Clearance: $3.24
Save: $9.75

Total Spent: $44.20.
Total Savings: $68.75

That’s enough to make anybody grin.

We do love our neighbors, all of them. Especially the one who is selling her home and is asking $389,000! Granted, her house is a bit larger than ours and the basement is more finished . . . but in any case, if she gets her asking price our home’s value will not suffer one bit.

When I went to aerobics at 5:45 this morning I wore a light sweater over my workout clothes. It was maybe 55 degrees, and clear. When I drove home afterward I admired the gorgeous morning sky that was mostly blue with a few scattered clouds. It was so pleasant.

I took my car in to get fixed at 8 a.m. When I left the shop with my now fully functional car at 9:30 it was wet and rainy.

When I drove home today at 5:30, there was an inch of soggy snow on my car.

What’s up with that?

On Tuesday night (Valentine’s Day, in case you didn’t register that fact) John and I got off work early and he took me to dinner at Olive Garden in Provo.

I’ve never noticed it before, but on Valentine’s Day suddenly couples are everywhere. I bet you didn’t even know that so many people dated or were married in the world. Everywhere I looked, people were walking hand-in-hand, cuddling up, smooching. Walking hand-in-hand with my wonderful husband, I actually felt like I was part of a special, secret club–the Secret Society of Lovers.

Sometimes, on a regular day, when you see two people expressing PDA (whether it’s hand-holding or arms around the waist or kissing), you think, “Gah! Get a room!”

But on Valentine’s Day it’s different. You see a couple engaged in PDA and it’s like, “Hey, look! You’re in the Secret Society of Lovers, too! You go, girl!” It’s an instant bond with people you don’t know.

Members of the SSL come out just once a year, the one day it’s acceptable and even a status symbol to show your love for someone else. I want a card embossed with gold script that says

Shannon
Honored Member of the Secret Society of Lovers Since August 2001

(Present this card at any ice cream establishment for 15 percent discount!)

I’ll keep wishing…

In the meantime, here are two tips for anyone (i.e., guys) planning to take their sweetie out for a special dinner next V-Day:

1) If you want to take her (which, translated, means that she wants to go, so you’d better take her) to a fancy schmancy place like Chef’s Table in Orem, you’d better call for reservations at least three weeks in advance. John wanted to take me (which, translated again, means that I wanted to go and told John he’d better take me) to Chef’s Table, so in late January I suggested that he call to schedule a reservation. Here’s the gist of his phone conversation with the Chef’s Table employee:

John: Hi. Um, I was wondering if I could make a reservation for Valentine’s Day.

Chef’s Table Employee: Sure, no problem. We’ve only got two reservations so far.

John, thinking to self: Phew. Good. My wife won’t hate me, and maybe I won’t even need to get her flowers if I take her here.

Chef’s Table Employee: Let me just go grab the reservation book. Do you mind if I put you on hold?

John: N– (Hold music cuts off his response . . .)

John, fifteen minutes later, still on hold, thinking to self: Hmmm. Maybe I’ll have to get her flowers after all . . .

To sum up, after being on hold for fifteen minutes John finally hung up. He called back a week later, and guess what? The only spot still available was for 9:30 p.m., and if you know me, you know that 9:30 p.m. is practically equivalent to 2:30 a.m. I’m pretty sure I have a trip switch hidden somewhere deep inside me that flips on sleep mode starting between 8:30 and 9 at night.

So, needless to say, we didn’t go to Chef’s Table this year but opted for Olive Garden instead.

Now for tip #2:

2) No matter where you take your sweetie for dinner on Valentine’s Day, be sure you go early. We arrived at Olive Garden at 4:30 and already there was a ten-minute wait. This was nothing compared to when we left Olive Garden at 5:45–a line was coming out the front door and couples were strewn everywhere, waiting to be seated. We’re glad we got in and out early.

(Obviously, this guy’s not a member of the SSL club . . .)

(If the title of this post hasn’t warned you sufficiently, I hereby further warn you to postpone reading this post until you have finished eating. Or, better yet, read it now and eat later when you’ve forgotten all about what I’m about to write.)

Today I got to try out a housecleaning product that I had bought when we first got new carpet, but hadn’t used yet: Spot Shot.

It’s magical stuff. I know this because I read about it in Talking Dirty with the Queen of Clean, and because today I tried it out myself for the first time.

After I got home from church today I fed Kyra, our not so little kitten (she’s almost a year old now), and then let her upstairs to romp around a bit. John was still at bishopric meetings, so I made myself lunch–a piece of toast smeared with Nutella and sliced bananas. It was delicious. One of my favorite semi-healthy treats.

I was just finishing off my last bite when a loud hack-hacking noise arose from behind me. I turned in my chair just in time to see Kyra toss her cookies…er, Friskies.

You’re likely familiar with standard human vomit. Now imagine that pinkish-orange mass dotted with non-digested Friskie bits. A colorful mess it was.

My first thought was, Sure glad I already ate my lunch.

My second thought was, Ewww. Kyra just threw up her own lunch.

I gently scooped up the cat, who was now licking her vomity paws, and put her down in the basement so I could clean up. (I was afraid she might try to explore the mess she had just created. Cats are curious, after all.)

This is where Spot Shot comes in. I wiped up the main blob with a paper towel (two, actually) and then covered the area in Spot Shot. A few dabs with a clean cloth and voila! Clean carpet.

This was our first carpet blunder since we got the new carpet, which is why it’s blog worthy. That, and it involved kitty vomit. John assures me that we’ll have many more such blunders once we have kids. Probably then we’ll have stuff in the carpet that we never even thought kids were capable of producing.

I’m telling you…cats are good practice for parenthood.