Double Date Nights

Dave and I had two Christmas parties to attend this weekend, necessitating two different baby-sitters to cover for us at home. The first party at the home of a couple from church/Marriage Encounter, is one we've attended for several years now. I told the hostess that it's one of those events that tells me, "Okay, now it's really Christmas." They provide abundant beverages and main dishes and they ask everyone to bring an appetizer, salad or dessert. I had a holiday-manic mood and I took the girls to the store with four recipes in hand and wound up making and taking all four things to the party. We got to touch base with friends we haven't seen in months and it surprised us that midnight rolled around so quickly.

Last night we attended a new-to-us party: Dave's Fourth Degree Christmas party. Dave looked handsome as can be in his evening wear and I got to wear a new frock. The food was good and the company was even better. I got to dance with Dave and he serenaded me along with The King and The Righteous Bros. We are the only couple in this group who had to leave to take the sitter home and we are the youngest, too. We've been officially squares for a long time and this just reinforces that we like squareness.

Taking Suggestions

We're planning a date night Saturday. The sitter is lined up and I'm off from work for a whole week. [I will experience that most awesome of feelings on Sunday...the feeling of it not being a work night!]

Now we can do mundane and boring [dinner-and-a-movie or just dinner-at-the-movies], or not. I'm open to suggestions. And if you suggest 'movie' also recommend a picture that's playing now and why.

As I did my Christmas shopping tonight online [5 different stores, thankyouverymuch], that option is off the table. It's cold here in North Carolina, so al fresco anything is not an option either. This morning we woke to a dusting of snow everywhere but the roads and sidewalks. They postponed school two hours.

Can you hear me happily humming as I type this?

What I Watched Instead of Night 3 of the DNC

Netflix blessed us with the last DVD for the HBO series "The Wire." The season had 10 one hour episodes and we started the night with episode 8, promising ourselves it would be all and then bedtime. But after the hour, which seemed about as long as a preview, we forged on to watch another hour. We told ourselves that it was the thing to do so we could 'just finish off the disc.'

I forgot I was watching TV.

We looked to the season/series finale, a disc all its own, and realized the last episode ran for 1.5 hours. Well, that would put us going to bed around 2 a.m.

We slept in. It was better by quantum measures over watching the democrats. Real time with a real man and one of the most excellent dramas to grace the small screen? I chose well.

DVD Reviews: Curb Your Enthusiasm and Charlie Wilson's War

We spent a couple evenings watching the sixth season of "Curb Your Enthusiam" starring former Seinfeld creator Larry David. The schtick is that David is a real-life noodge, obsessed with unwritten social rules and unaware of what most polite people internalized at age 8. He spends the shows getting into trouble, lying and apologizing. His show is unscripted and well-cast and usually quite funny. But this is the sixth turn on this ride and I'm getting a little tired of the schtick.

Charlie Wilson's War, starred Tom Hanks as a real-life Congressman from Texas' 2nd District who got interested in the Afghan's plight in the early 80s when they were attack by the USSR. It was the undeclared front in the cold war and Afghanis were willing to fight. His challenge was to finance their cause with untraceable weaponry. The movie co-starred Julia Roberts and Phillip Seymour-Hoffman as a Houston socialite and a CIA agent who shared Wilson's determination to help the Afghanis. It was a good little picture and the bonus features were excellent. What an interesting chapter in our recent history. Tom Hanks as producer kept it more on the facts and less on the preaching to great effect.

Date Night and Family Fun Outing: Bon Voyage

We are making the most of the last couple months with our babysitter, who has warned us that he's done at the end of May. We had a date night with 6 members of Dave's family at our local restaurant/sports-friendly bar. Our nephew, known still and ridiculously as "Little Dave" is joining the U.S. Army. He will report to Fort Benning for Infantry Basic, A.I.T., Airborne and, God willing, Ranger School. He wants to be part of something bigger than himself, serve his country, find himself, and wield weapons. Lucky him. This one job adventure fits the bill.

Godspeed, Little Dave.

Date Night: A Swell Soiree

Dave and I had a brief date night tonight to go to the annual Mardi Gras cocktail party at some friends'. This is always a lovely affair and I marvel at how many people fill this quite large house. The catering staff is always top notch, as are the eats. Good thing, too. Tomorrow we fast! Tonight, we soiree.

Date Night: Plans for Dinner and Shopping

When did it become a treat to pay a sitter so we could go to CostCo unencumbered? I dunno. I guess the point is that it doesn't really matter where we go together, just that we go together. The kids like having the sitter come, so there's no guilt whatsoever. After we close down the warehouse store, we have reservations at our local bistro.

Date Night: Dinner and "Juno"

Dave and I had a lovely date night. I had to leave work early to bring home dinner for the kids. Our sitter, now fully mobile with his own license and a car, was pulling up as I did. Zeke was winding down his one-day probation from the computer and I told him that the sitter's assessment of him tonight would affect whether his privileges resumed tomorrow. He responded with Eddie Haskell-like zeal and is now riveted to the small screen.

We called ahead to our local fave, but when we arrived to an over-full parking lot, we realized it was just not to be. I suggested the Golden Corral on the north side of town en route to the theater. And so it was. I was a little surprised by the price of the buffet--$9.95--and mentioned this to Dave. I limited my meal to a few side items and desserts, but he reminded me that the price included steaks, too. There was often a disconnect in how pretty the food looked versus how good it tasted, but their yeast rolls were top notch. That's the kind of place to go when you have an empty stomach and a hollow leg and time on your hands.

Onto the movie. We saw "Juno" and I absolutely loved it. It's the story of a 16 year old Minnesota girl who becomes pregnant and decides to have the baby and place it in an adoptive home. I got lost in the story and actually cried on three different occasions [hormones?] and felt like the story did justice to those characters. From the opening credits, you expect quirky and off-beat. You get that and so much more. A life-affirming movie well worth seeing.

Best yet: I got to spend some time with my man, whom I often misplace amid the daily grind of parental, work and home maintenance duties.

Date Nights: We're Wired

Dave and I are well into the fourth season of "Wired" on DVD and we scramble to watch a couple episodes each night. It's so riveting. How did these guys re-make the crime drama genre, using real-looking people as thugs and cops and dockworkers and get us to know and care about all of them? Amazing and worth a rent. It takes a different pace: one season accomplishes what most crime dramas accomplish in one episode. All the better to savor.

And I reiterate: Dominic West is hubba-hubba. In this season, however, I only get passing glances of him. He must've been filming "300" when this season was being done.

My HBO swoony dream? Jimmy McNulty [West] and Seth Bullock [Tim Oliphant]. Aaaaaye!

ADDED: See for yourself.

Date Night: Holiday Party

Our babysitter should be arriving in an hour. Dave and I are going to a Christmas party thrown by a couple we know from church and Marriage Encounter. They've held this party for several years. Last year, however, they didn't throw it. Around Easter, I worked up the nerve to ask them how their party went and they laughed, "We didn't have it last year! It was too crazy!" It's a lovely party. Everyone brings a dish to pass and we have a potluck with cocktails. I'm bringing a few chocolate delectables: brownie bites, fudge, almond bark. All made today. I expect a lovely time and a chance to spend time with several friends who we haven't seen in a while.

Date Night: Santa's Little Helpers, Part 2

Dave and I enjoyed another date night. First we had dinner at Jimmy's. Then we went to Tar-Jay. The two items we planned to get were: a Christmas tree, and sweaters for the girls. We happily wandered the aisles and filled up the cart. [Now that certain little ones can read, I won't disclose the loot. Suffice it to say that Santa's gonna' be well-loved Chez Adams.]

I've recently been reading a book called "Your Money or Your Life." It is transforming the way I look at material goods, accumulation of wealth vs. clutter, how to identify "enough" and a little thing called gazingus pins [defined as 'any item you just can't pass by without buying.'] We avoided major indebtedness and came home exhausted. There are only three days until my Christmas vacation begins. I have a long list of to-dos which are more like spring cleaning than holiday festooning.

Date Night: Movie "No Country for Old Men"

Dave and I enjoyed a date night. His pick was the movie "No Country for Old Men," starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and several others. It is a Coen Brothers dismal-fest, based on a book by Cormac MacCarthy, that David read and liked. He didn't give me any spoilers, so I went into the theater knowing nothing much and left knowing not much more. It's a good movie--well made, well acted--but it is not a feel good holiday flick. Javier Bardem, Spain's Russell Crowe, plays a psychopathic killer, and Tommy Lee Jones plays an aging Texas sheriff on his trail. I love Tommy Lee Jones and have ever since "Coal Miner's Daughter." Much like the Coen's "Fargo," the desolate scenery [west Texas] plays an important part in establishing a mood of desperation and bleakness. Josh Brolin performed well, making a complicated character likeable. If you're up for a downer, this film is it.

Date Night: Santa's Little Helpers

Thanks to the efforts of a dedicated group at church, we dropped the kids off at the "Santa's Workshop" and evaporated for a couple hours. We ate at The Loop [Pizza Place] and shopped at Bed, Bath and Beyond for a Christmas gift for Dave's side of the family. We returned to pick up our charges. They had been well fed and were doing crafts and watching movies when we got back. All of them had temporary tattoos which fascinated them up 'til bedtime when they had to be scoured OFF! or no one would get to sleep. It was a lovely freebie for us and a kind gesture from the church group. We will probably do it again next year.

Date Night and Family Fun Outing

We have been having a great time with my cousin and her husband here. Last night, we had a sitter and took them out for a great dinner at a local bistro. Today, it was Mass together while the kids were in church school, being cooked-for by my guests, playing all afternoon with the kids and a family fun outing to the big gerbil cage and Mac and Don's Supper Club. All the while, there were endless conversations and reminiscences with folks who are joyful to be around.

There are a few people in my life who I have conversations with which never really end. My cousin Anna is one of them and I'm just enjoying her company and seeing her newlywed bliss with her wonderful man.

Date Night: Not Too Pooped to Whoop

A Friday date night became a double date when Nanny and Mr. H's plans changed. We started off with a quick run through CostCo, then onto Jimmy's for fish. The discussion was so good, we didn't want to end. Next we were off to Fox and Hound and the guys spent an hour at the pool table while Nanny and I solved all the rest of the world's problems over an Irish coffee and Bailey's. I was surprised at how the time flew. Our poor sitter was not used to us being out so late [he was well-paid for his dozing]. Me either! I was up another couple hours, doing the blog thing. The children woke us, groggy, this morning.

I remember the times we partied quite late. Those days vanished many years ago. Our confreres are now empty-nesters. Perhaps there's a consolation prize for raising your kids successfully to adulthood?

Date Night: More Paint

We had a date night which included dinner at a nice seafood place and a trip to Home Depot. We're planning another improvement while we're away at the beach. [For my money, that's the best way to do it. Give the contractor carte blanche at our place and come home to a new whatever.] We purchased a new Hunter ceiling fan for the living room. Last week, we also tried a paint [light beigey tan] which wound up being just blah, and very reminiscent of the original shade the house was everywhere when we moved in 11 years ago. The kamikaze mixer gal gave us a shade just darker than the one we tried last week, but not as dark as the next swatch up. We'll see how this one looks. I want it to actually look like there's a color, but not be as deep a tan as Zeke's room. Who knew that selecting paint could be so difficult? I chose all the other colors based on the small swatch and am happy as can be with them. But this time, it's a little harder than matching a stripe in my comforter or a flower in the border print. This time, it's just beige.

Date Night

Dave and I have the sitter lined up. We have friends who we're joining for dinner. Then after, joy of joys, it's a trek to the big box home improvement stores. Another project is in the offing and we have some paint to pick, some lights to look at, some switches to see.

Date Night: New Town Bistro & Shopping

Today was awesome. Dave and I took the kids to the Y. We got schweaty and they had fun. Then it was a road trip to Ketchie Creek [sound at link] to pick up my birthday cake. All the while, my cleaning lady worked her magic and we came home to lemony-fresh house and clean sheets on all the beds.

We planned a date night, and I suggested a new-to-us restaurant: New Town Bistro. Someone unknown-to-me put me in the birthday club and the restaurant sent me a big postcard with a free entree during my birthday month. We both had excellent pan-seared steaks and the dessert was out of this world. The wine list was good and I tried a couple new things. They played jazz and it was an unhurried, delicious, nice meal with my man.

In an effort to save the fee on the nearest ATM, we went grocery shopping. In an effort to act my age, not my shoe size, I purchased my first ever pair of reading glasses: +1.o strength and Barry Goldwater style [that's what Dad always called his black hornrimmed glasses.]

It's been so lovely, I can hardly imagine tomorrow being much better.

Date Night: Big Shotz/Pool

We had a big ole time for date night. We had dinner out with another couple and then, when the restaurant got too loud, we went to shoot pool. It's just lovely to never run out of conversation with friends. We are blessed to have a few double date couples like that. When we were first married, I didn't really realize that our socialization might change too. We sort of naturally gravitated to other married couples who we met through work or church. And our marriage encounter friends have been great mentors to us. I believe that you become like the people with whom you spend most of your time. Why not choose happily married couples with similar interests?

Date Nights: "Evan Almighty" and "Little Miss Sunshine"

We had a date night last night and saw "Evan Almighty." We both enjoyed it. Some of it was silly but the heart of the film was love-, family- and God-affirming. Morgan Freeman plays an excellent God, even though his teeth on the big screen look British.

Similarly, our recent DVD rental of "Little Miss Sunshine" surprised us with an uplifting family comedy/drama [some of it found amid some crude language]. The family there was struggling with dysfunction, but opted to pull together amid a very challenging road trip. Some of my greatest recollections of childhood are the cross-country vacations we took in the family station wagon. There is a unifying act of being alone together out in the world. It's the core of familiality.

Both featured Steve Carrell, known mostly for "The Office," who Dave and I agree is really behaving like himself most of the time. It's o.k. He's quite charming.