April 2004 Archives

I wrote a summary of Date Night© for another site I write for, and I thought that some of you may enjoy reading it, as well. Keep in mind that this was originally written for total strangers, so if it seems formal or fluffy, that's because it was never intended for my hypercritical extended family. :) Also, you'll note that I never call Alecia or Maddie by name...again, that's part of the "writing for strangers" bit.

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Fondue Me, Baby!

Okay, so I stole the headline from an Austin Powers joke. Anyway, have I ever told you how much I love Fondue? Sure, I'd never even tried it before taking the wife to The Melting Pot for Date Night© last Friday. But it was love at first taste.

Before the food, my date and I kicked off our baby-free celebration with a Banana Berry Margarita. Sweet and smooth, served in a gigantic glass the size of a basketball, the drink was worth every cent of its $20 price. My wife hasn't had a drink in almost two years--first due to the pregnancy, then due to nursing. And I don't usually drink at all. So the tequila in the king kong margarita quickly sent us to happyland.

The meal only got better from there. :)

The appetizer course was assorted breads, fruits and vegetables, dipped into a creamy pot of lovingly blended cheeses (with a few shots of alkie-hall tossed in for flavor). Then came the salads. By the time we polished off our greens, we were starting to expand like Mama Cass, and were actually starting to feel full. It didn't matter--once they brought out the main dish, our appetites made a reappearance.

We had a pot of Mojo Fondue and a pot of Coq au Vin, as well as a platter piled high with lobster tail, jumbo tiger shrimp, filet mignon, beef teriyaki and marinated chicken. I had always thought that fonduing meat meant dipping pre-cooked meat cubes into warm sauces. Of course, I was wrong. The meat came raw, and we cooked it in the fondue pots while we ate. It was like playing with your food on an adult level.

They also brought almost a dozen sauces out with the meats. Since I'm a condiment addict, this was like the ultimate playground for me. I'm not sure what any of the individual sauces were, but I tried every piece of meat with every different topping, and loved them all.

By the time the entree was finished--and boy, did we finish it--the server let us know about our dessert choices. Knowing we couldn't go wrong no matter what we chose, we settled on the Bailey's Irish Cream Dream. We dipped chunks of cheesecake, brownies, marshmellows and assorted fruits into the liquid heaven for the next half hour, devouring every last morsel. Watching us, you'd never have guessed that we'd already eaten about five pounds of food, apiece.

The meal was awesome, but I can't help but feel that it all tasted so good, at least in part, because of who I was eating with. Without the baby to worry about, my wife and I were able to reconnect and focus entirely on each other (and the food, of course). It's been a while since we've been able to do that, which is kind of sad, since we've only been married for about a year. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing in the world I love more than my baby (I'd even have a tough time putting my lovely wife on a pedestal that high), but I almost forgot how great it feels to have dinner and drinks with a hot chick. It's niiiiiiiiice.

Here's the final math for Date Night©:

Babysitter: free, with promise to reciprocate (But let's be honest, who's gonna leave their kid with me?)

Dinner/Drinks: nearly $150 (and worth every penny...especially since it used up all of our eating out money for the month)

An evening with the girl of my dreams: Of incomparable value... (Come on, 'priceless' has to be copyrighted.)

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Alecia's making me do the update post this week, because she's done the last few. Well, she can make me post, but she can't make me spell all of the words korectly!

Anyway, tonight is Date Night® for Alecia and I. She doesn't know where we're going, yet, but I guarantee it will rock her world! Date Night® was Alecia's idea. Since we're practicing the handoff style of parenting, we barely see each other during the week. And we've had nothing but extended family stuff for the last six or seven weekends. So Alecia decided it would be nice if we got out as a couple at least once a month. I'm not arguing.

Tonight will also be the first time we've left Maddie with anyone who's not family. Our friends Jeroen and Jane are babysitting while we wine and dine. We're totally confident that Maddie will be fine (heck, not a knock on J&J, who have a beautiful daughter of their own, but I believe the dogs could keep Maddie alive for the few hours we'll be gone). In fact, I'm more worried about J&J's sanity, since Maddie seems to have developed her father's sleep patterns, by which I mean she REFUSES to go to bed before 10pm all of a sudden. She's being sort of a baby about it, really.

So that's tonight. Date Night® will be the one unusual thing about an otherwise normal weekend. After this, it will be the usual work/soccer/baby stuff. I may mow the lawn tomorrow, but that's as exciting as it should get. This is a good thing, since our weekends have been all-too-busy as of late.

Over the last four weeks, we've had Papa Cotton's funeral, my work retreat, Alecia's cousin Sloane's wedding, a trip to the Dogwood Festival, a visit from Julie, Randy and the kids, and a trip to Alabama for Easter. It's been up and down, and exhausting! (Speaking of the above events, if you're ever looking for professional egg colorers, you may want to avoid the Schneider children. They're definitely enthusiastic, but unless you're looking for a dozen broken and poop-brown eggs, they may not be the ones you want. If you're going to a Braves/Cubs game, however, I can't recommend anyone who would be more fun than the four of them.)

Besides all of the weekend activity, our weekdays have been pretty full recently, as well. A couple of weeks ago, I had my annual review, and was happy to accept a promotion to "Interactive Editor." (I was formerly "Interactive Writer." See the difference?) It was a much needed move up the ladder for me, since the title will make it easier to find an equally managerial position if/when I leave Turner. Also, the extra money doesn't hurt.

We already told you about Alecia's promotion, the one she didn't even ask for. But did you know that her promotion apparently comes without any additional responsibilities? They increased her pay, but she is still pretty much doing what she was before. They have yet to hire a full-time cafe manager to be Alecia's boss, so she has yet to be trained on the new duties she'll have to do. Her hours haven't even increased like we worried they would. So she basically got money for nothing. We're hoping it stays like this for a while. And that maybe my own bosses will follow the example.

Maddie has news, as well. She had her six-month doctor's appointment the other day, wherein they weighed and measured her, and injected her with viral toxins to make "big strong baby!" She took the shots well, and seemed similarly okay with the news that she is, in fact, a midget baby. She only weighs 13 freaking pounds! She weighed 12-something a few months ago! And she's only 24 inches long, which means she's only grown four inches in her whole life! She's in the 14th or 15th percentile in height and weight, which means she's still proportionate, but is definitely a runt. I blame this entirely on my petite, 5'4" wife. Except for my brother Todd, who I believe may be adopted, there's not a single adult male under 6' in my family...not even the in-laws. And the women aren't giants, but they hold their own. So thanks, Alecia, for passing the oompa loompa height genes on to our baby. Heck, just my gut is way more than 24 inches and 13 lbs. So it can't be my fault.

Alecia posted some April Pictures on our Snapfish account, if you want to see some of what we've been up to. I don't really know what's on there, because I'm too busy in my new role as INTERACTIVE EDITOR to waste my time looking at pictures at work. So there.

See you all in the funny pages.

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Two things just occured to me today:

1) 7 years ago I worked at a Barnes & Noble Cafe so I could pay my way through college, get a degree... and work at a Barnes & Noble Cafe.*

2) Scent is tied very closely to memory, especially in children. Some people talk about memories of their mother whenever they smell lavender soap or a particular perfume. Will Maddie grow up and think of her mother every time she smells coffee?

*Seriously, though, I don't care what I'm doing now as long as I get to continue to be home with Maddie during the day. I love and cherish our time together.
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