"Did you see where I put that other butterfly?"

There are some things that you can only expect to hear in a flower shop.

After three-and-a-half years I have completed the boomerang that started with my move home and am once again delivering flowers professionally. This is, after all, the busiest time of the year for them, and when my old shop calls for help I am there to help. Assuming I'm in the area and not busy.

So today I cut and cleaned flowers, changed the water, arranged roses in vases, ran arrangements out on delivery and answered phones just like old times. I even went by the grave site of L Young for his wife and dropped off a little arrangement for the vase. I have given this man flowers more often than I have given flowers to any living woman, including my mom (and I used to, and once again, work in a flower shop).

People may think that working in a flower shop is dainty work. To those people I say, think about it. Five gallons of water, plus 4 dozen roses still in bunches weighs about 50 pounds (20 kilos for the international readers). That's a lot of weight to heft around, up and down. Especially when you're dealing with dozens of dozens of roses and other flowers and their fillers including baby's breath and various greens.

Come on guys, go with something original. Don't just get roses.

For now, my hands smell like myrtle and eucalyptus and I get to go back in tomorrow at 6:30.

Happy Valentine's Day. Or, to quote the oft-quoted in my house episode of "30 Rock," "HAPPY VALEN-TIMES!"