spaghetti with lemon and olive oil

Look, it wasnt my finest moment but my Happy Valentines Day gift to my husband was an epic meltdown over book deadlines and recipe flops and the near impossibility of getting anything done with a toddler underfoot in a kitchen that doesnt actually fit the two of us. It wasnt pretty. We ordered pizza and watched How I Met Your Mother.

Now, just in case that story elicited even a wisp of pity, you should take it back right now because the week, it got better from there. First, I realized that my hey, lets not do gifts this year conversation with my husband may have never left my own head when he busted out tulips and a spa certificate. (Oops. Im a real catch, arent I?) Then my very kind agent and editor talked me off the book ledge, theyre good at things like that though I suppose they have to be, taking on nuts like me. The following night, I made an actual dinner that involved those insane green beans and this little spaghetti dish Ill get to in a bit because you know, its hardly as interesting as what we did the day after that:

Heres where the story could continue in any of the following ways: How hard it was to be away from our little baby for the weekend (so hard! except for all of that sleep!) How quickly we adjusted to views like this, boats like that, beers like this and sunsets like that.