Agnew's Mind He's got a long journey ahead of him.

It isn’t THAT bad.

    by Jon Hassinger

I know everyone hates Valentine's Day. However I maintain, that this holiday, at the very least can offer a spark to relationships that have past the "honeymoon stage".

The trick is, to do/buy things, that you BOTH enjoy. Flowers are generic, boring and they eventually die. Stuffed animals are a waste of closet, attic and basement space. And chocolate is all around us, so there is nothing special about it anymore.

The night before(Feb. 13th) Renee asked me if she could give me my "gift", now. I had no expectations...maybe a Phillies' shirt or something. "Sure", I said.

Then she handed me what looked like a wrapped DVD. Confused, I unwrapped....THIS!:

You all know I am NOT gamer, unlike my two fellow colleagues, Agnew and D*iewit. But every once in a while...I'd say every 5-10 years a video game will come along, that consumes me.

Renee and I were up till 2 in the morning, drinking beer and wine, playing this game. We quit after failing to complete World 2, over a 4 hour period. World 1 was obviously easier. But i was so satisfied to have a new video game, that was fun, had a little bit of nostalgia, since this game is all previous Super Mario Bros. from old-school Nintendo, combined, and a challenge! Because when I opened it, after my initial excitement, I worried, "Is this game only going to take one night to beat?".

I was happy to find out, I was dead wrong.

On the actual Valentine's Day, we both woke up early, and went right back to it.....obviously trading back and forth after one of us died. And after an entire pot of coffee, and some delicious, made-from-scratch Bacon/Egg quiches....

We defeated World 2!

That evening, we splurged, and for the first time, went to The Capitol Grille. And as you can see, we hated our meals:

After that, and a nice bottle of red, we stumbled home, attempted without success, to defeat World 3, then passed out watching the Olympics.