Sickbags on standby, everyone

I think Whitney and I chose our wedding date well two and a half years ago, even though we didn't realize at the time that it meant that we could use Valentine's Day as a half-anniversary celebration in the otherwise gloomy month of February where we have to spend an hour on the subway to get anywhere and struggle with our weekly shopping across the frozen wastes.

We had our dinner out a day early this year, going to Fugakyu, a large Japanese place down the road, which is one of our favourite restaurants. Whitney had read somewhere that if you ask your waiter "What's fresh today?" then they'll realize you're a distinguished sushi eater and will give you more options, and though I was initially skeptical of this secret password, she convinced me to try it and I was surprised that we were then offered king crab salad and toro sushi. I hadn't been aware that restaurants had cheat codes like this.

I had secretly gone out to get cupcakes a couple of days previously, and was quite proud of myself for "forgetting" to get my keys when we went out, going back into the flat and getting it out from underneath the mountain of tubs and jars that I'd hidden it under in the fridge then putting it out on the table for when we came back, without her noticing. But during dinner she correctly guessed out of nowhere that I would have bought dessert, and that they would be cupcakes. I promise that I didn't ask for the giant heart ones - I had thought I was getting two more floral designs, but the woman at the bakery took them out from the back of the shelf where I couldn't see them and I didn't open the box again to check. They're quite appropriate, though, eating a giant heart made of icing while simultaneously ruining yours.

Whitney found another rabbit online for me to add to the family - at the moment he's called Medium Bashful, as it says it on his label, and has been employed as the guardian of the desk lamp that I salvaged from the great move out at work last year. Also pictured are a heap of chocolates in a heart-shaped container and a couple of bottles of enthusiasm pills.

I'd been waiting for ages to give her her present - something that I'd vaguely remembered the existence of last month and gone online to see if it was still around. These stuffed Companion Cubes were first handed round to Valve employees, but recently they got a new pile of them made up and made them available again. Before playing the game I had somehow got the impression that the cube accompanied you through rather more of the game than the single level that you're given it for, and I was initially unimpressed when it dumped a box with hearts painted on it in front of me, but the psychology of the game makes you feel oddly attached to it.

It's almost appropriate for the day as it's covered in hearts - I got hold of an Aperture Science mug as well, even though they both become quite unsettling items if you think too much about what's supposed to have happened there.

So I think I should thank dr_dos once again for mentioning that Portal was $5 over Christmas, which prompted me to download it and get us both so taken with it, which then gave me some much-needed inspiration for a gift that went down fantastically. Everything is connected and there is order in the universe.