Love, Polenta, and Broken Transmissions

They say that the way to a mans heart is through his stomach.....if that is true, David shot a culinary arrow right through mine this weekend! We were supposed to go out to dinner on Saturday to a place called the Harmony Inn, which is in a little town that is about 45 minutes outside of the city.  We did a little running around in the morning and had planned on heading out around one.  The weather was chilly, and I think that both of us weren't up for the drive anyway.  David suggested that we stay in and spend a little quality time together (wink wink) so that was fine with me. I had mentioned that I was craving the three cheese polenta dish that we had had at a place called Stagioni a few months back.  David, being the fabulous cook and sweet guy that he is, offered to make it for me.  We ran to Trader Joe's to get the supplies and then realized that they didn't have polenta, well they did, but it was the precooked stuff that is cold.  He was a sweetheart and made a special trip to the Giant Eagle (the one in the ghetto I might add) and found the real stuff.  He made THE best polenta that  I think that I have ever had. It truly was like sex on a plate.  Rich, creamy, cheesy polenta, with pancetta and topped with olive oil, caramelized onion and sliced fennel.  We sat together and ate, listening to the jazz station with a couple of candles burning. It was better than any trip to a restaurant and was especially nice because it was made from scratch just for me!  What a sweet and romantic thing for him to do for me.  I highly recommend finding yourself a cute Italian hunk who loves to cook.  They will spoil you with love, affection, and the best food EVER!(grin) I know I sure do love mine...did I mention that he looks like Anderson Cooper!?! Sigh....

Ok.  That was the love and polenta part....now for the broken transmission.  For the last few months David kept mentioning that my car was leaving oil stains in the driveway.  It was red fluid, so we figured transmission.  It wasn't a large amount, and I kept checking the fluid level.  It was norma,l so I assumed that it was a small leak and nothing urgent.  Friday, I took the car to Pep Boys over in Oakland and dropped it off.  They called me and said that there was a leak in some hose that feeds the transmission with fluid and that it "shouldn't be that bad for cost."  Hah!  You know, and I know that nothing related to car repairs is ever cheap!  Two days later, they had it fixed.  It cost me $600.00.  The actual part, mind you, was $49.00, the rest was labor!  David took me Sunday morning to retrieve my car.  I drove home and had planned on picking up Dan and taking it to the car wash for my upcoming trip to Florida.  On the way to the car wash I decided to have a cigarette and went to put the window down.  The window button didn't work.  Dan, in the driver's seat, decided to help me by putting it down using his switch not remembering that that side would only work to put the window down and not back up (it too had been malfunctioning before).  Well, down the window went...and it stayed down! Now, neither switch was working and we had no way to put the window back up.  Off to Pep Boys I went, after driving to see if the dealer was open.  I get to Pep Boys and they said they couldn't work on it because they were too busy.  After I begged and pleaded, they agreed to at least put the window back up and would worry about fixing it later.  Thankfully, David was available to pick me up or my ass would have been walking from Bloomfield to Squirrel Hill, which isn't terribly far but it was pretty cold out!  What a very expensive and aggravating day!