Packaging Valentine’s Day the Right Way

With Valentine’s Day falling on a Saturday, it means a weekend full of opportunities for the material expression of romantic sentiment. At least for some people.

This isn’t one of those holidays that means all that much to me, since I have a husband who likes to express his ardor at holiday time in practical ways, rather than with candy hearts or large bouquets. Given that Valentine’s Day falls during a winter month, he is more likely to get my tires rotated, to guarantee my safety on the road. I appreciate this.

Which isn’t to say that I’m not green with envy over a colleague whose husband sends her flowers every week. And I’m not talking about a few lurid carnations lost in a mess of baby’s breath. She gets ornate arrangements, the ones with tentacles and spiky things, which seem to come either from Versailles or the bottom of the sea.

Well, for Valentine’s Day, her husband is bound to get an even more elaborate floral display than usual--one that will probably look like the Transamerica building or the ruins of Pompeii. But I’m guessing, he won’t be slapping down his Platinum Card for the $14,500 weekend package offered at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa, which Leo Smith details for his Centerpiece story on extravagant Valentine’s Weekend options (Page 46).

Though she’s not getting the spa package, my colleague will probably get the wine and the truffles that Smith also talks about in his story.

But there is one gift she isn’t getting. She’s not getting my new set of wiper blades.

Elsewhere in today’s section, Jane Hulse, our Jaunts columnist, writes about a musical event featuring Tracy Lee Nelson and the Native Blues Band, this Saturday at the Satwiwa Native American Indian Cultural Center in Newbury Park (Page 7). Sights columnist Josef Woodard reviews the Annual Juried Show of the Thousand Oaks Art Assn., which will be on view at the Thousand Oaks Community Gallery through February. (Page 58)