Tag: date night

February date night

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, local fun, movies, restaurants

Well, it’s been a while since we’ve been able to have a date night due to college classes resuming for our elder child (who babysits our younger child), but the planets aligned so we got our dinner and a movie.

The dinner part was at Ruby’s in York. We got the coupons from the SuperCoupons monthly mailer and I actually remembered to bring them this time and they even hadn’t expired yet, so we were off to a good start.

We ordered a McCann’s pizza which is bbq sauce, chicken, bacon, and cheese on a thin crust. We also got an order of fowl fingers with torch sauce on the side. These two menu items were the reason that my husband wanted to go there, so he was happy. The big letdown for me was that they were out of sweet potato fries, which was the reason that  I wanted to go there, so I wasn’t so happy

(NOTE: It’s worth it to go early for dinner since from 4-6pm on weeknights the appetizers are half price).

It continued to be a boy’s night because it was Bill’s turn to choose the movie. He chose True Grit, and just in case the title doesn’t tip you off, I’m here to tell you this: chick flick it is not. I actually (in hindsight) would not consider this a good choice for a “date night” movie…warm and fuzzy it also is not. Not one little bit. Not for one instant. It was all hard edges and angst. (Okay, there were one or two little laughs, but they were wrapped in blood and gore and so therefore hard for me to appreciate).

My husband thought that this movie was great. I thought that it was difficult to watch. It was violent, grossly (heavy on the “gross”) violent at times, and there were a couple of occasions of violence before which there was no fair warning (read: time to cover my eyes). My husband managed to tell me “don’t look” just in time for one of these, which I greatly appreciated.

We didn’t even agree on the ending. I said, “It didn’t even have a happy ending to make up for all of the difficult-to-watch parts!” and he said, “What? It did have a happy ending,” bewildered by my assessment.

And there you have it: men and women are different.

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So there you go.

Date night: payback for the chick flick

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, movies, restaurants
promotional poster

Our last date night movie was chosen by moi: How do you know (as in, “how do you know” it’s a chick flick? When your husband looks around the theater and says, “Hon, I’m the only man in here,” that’s a big clue).

This time we went to see The Fighter (his choice). Now, this is not typically a movie I’d have one iota of interest in seeing, but hey (as he cheerfully pointed out as we left the theater last week)…I owed him. I was a good sport about it.

Here’s the thing though: it was a great movie. I loved it. What it had going for it was that Mark Wahlberg was in it. A bigger thing that it had going for it was that Amy Adams (I think that she’s a terrific actress; I’ll even go out on a limb and call her the next Meryl Streep) was in it. It was well paced, interesting, and (of importance to me, not so much my husband) not overly bloody.

It’s based on a true story about a (you guessed it) fighter and his brother, and how he tries to pursue his dream both with, as well as in spite of, the support of his wildly extended family.

For the dinner part of our date, we went to Mike’s Clam Shack. We split fried ravioli and Bubba’s Mixed Grill (steak tips, half a rack of ribs, and BBQ chicken breast), salad, shack potatoes, and I had a cup of chicken noodle soup (yup; still sick; see prior post). The chicken soup had more chicken in it than I’ve ever seen in a cup of soup that I didn’t make myself; it was impressive.

The waitresses were nice when, after sitting at one table in the middle of the room for about five minutes, I asked to be moved to a booth (did I mention that I hate to sit in the middle of the dining room? I need the anonymity of the periphery).

Here’s a tip: if you go to see the movie and sit in the last row in back, don’t spill your cup of Peanut M+M’s …they will roll loudly downhill to the front of the theater, for what seems like forever, while everyone in those rows in front of you will look back to see who the dope was that did that!

It wasn’t me! It wasn’t me!

Okay, it was me.

🙂

Date night (vacation week edition)

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, local fun, movies, restaurants
How do you know (promotional poster)

It’s been a while since we’ve been able to have a date night, what with the holidays coming, shopping for the holidays, wrapping for the holidays, hiding presents and then (forgetting where they were hidden) looking for the presents for the holidays….

It was nice to have Christmas behind us and get a little time together for a date (courtesy of our eldest child, who stayed with the youngest child). Going out one night during a week off from work feels totally different from going out on a “school night”. No worrying about getting home early, or having to get up at dawn to spoil things. It was nice to just think about what we wanted to do, where we wanted to go, without outside time constraints.

So, even though we decided to stay local and do the usual dinner and a movie, it felt…nicer. More relaxed. No rushing through the meal to get to the movie on time, since we didn’t have to leave after I’d gotten home from work.

First, we stopped at the Wells Public Library, because I love the library. That was pretty much the only reason. I dropped off some books, then chatted with my friends, the librarians (Cindy, Cindy, and Cindel), about blogging and the book that I’m writing (almost finished!!).

Next, we were headed to Ruby’s in York, when my husband (on a whim) made a U-turn and we went to East instead. What are you gonna do? It’s a man’s prerogative to change his mind at the last minute! The food was great, as was the service. The only annoying thing was the woman at the table next to us who wouldn’t shut up about how cold it was (it wasn’t) in there.

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Then we saw How do you know at the Wells Five Star Cinema. I loved it. He did not love it (as evidenced by him saying to the ticket seller after the movie, “You could’ve warned me!”). Okay, so I’m saying it: Bill, you’re the best husband ever for sitting through that movie and still having a smile on your face at the end!

Dinner and a movie

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, local fun, movies, restaurants
Morning Glory promotional poster

In reviewing some of my past posts, I’ve noticed a date night trend toward Dinner and a Movie; this night is no different. The movie was “”What’s the Story?’ Morning Glory”, viewed at the Wells Five Star Cinema. It almost couldn’t be bad, with Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford, right? Rachel McAdams was the real draw for me though; she’s been great in all of the movies she’s been in (that I’ve seen) and was in this movie also. The first half of this movie was a little slow, but the lightning fast second half more than made up for it. Also, I was laughing so hard that I had tears in my eyes. It made me nostalgic for Broadcast News with Holly Hunter and William Hurt (the latter movie was a little better).

Dinner was at Mekong Thai in Wells. Our choice of restaurant is often based on being short of time and proximity to the theater, and tonight’s choice was no exception. That said, Mekong Thai has probably the best service of any restaurant I’ve ever been to.

When we were younger (in the late 90’s and early 00’s), when we had a little baby (and littler discretionary income) our dinner and a movie date night happened at home. We watched Dinner and a Movie on TBS with Annabelle Gurwitch and Paul Gilmartin. It didn’t even matter whether or not I liked the movie; I enjoyed watching Annabelle so much that was enough. I still have the apron with the Dinner and a Movie logo that my husband gave me one year for Christmas.

It is poignant to me now that the child that was sleeping in the crib in the next room is now babysitting our younger child so that we can have dinner and a movie out in the real world.

Dinner and a Movie  (with different hosts) is still on TBS; My Cousin Vinny is next up on December 17th, with Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei (back when she still was keeping her clothes on for the camera). 🙂 Enjoy!

Date night: Maine Diner and a Movie

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, local fun, movies, restaurants

Date night last night was short, but great. We unexpectedly had a babysitter when I unexpectedly got out of work early, so we made the most of it. This date night consisted of dinner and a movie.

Because with me it’s all about the food, even though we had barely an hour before the show started we still had to go somewhere to eat first.

It was my husband’s turn to pick, and he chose The Maine Diner, on route one in Wells. Even on an off-season Wednesday night, it was pretty full and we got the last table on the periphery (I hate sitting in those little two-seater tables in the center aisle of the restaurant).

We split the buffalo tenders and the seafood sampler (made up of fried shrimp, whole clams, and scallops), which was excellent. We had just enough time after it arrived to eat it and get to the theater for the 7:05PM show start time.

We saw this particular movie (thanks, Bill!) because I have had a thing for Robert Downey Jr for years.The movie was great, even though there was some violence (some of which had implicit jokes  that I didn’t get, but my husband did). It wasn’t the horrific, bloody-guts-and-death kind of violence though, so it’s all good. It reminded me of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles from (OMG) 1987.  Not quite as good as that movie, but definitely worth seeing.

Last, we went to the ocean. There was someone beach combing in the dark with a flashlight and a white bucket…what was that about? We never did find out. There actually were a lot of people (at least four others that we could see)  out running around in the surf in the dark…guess I missed the memo on that field trip. Since it was so crowded, we headed down to the other parking lot, which was empty, to…er…to watch the submarine races.

I didn’t notice who won. 🙂

Late, late summer (but feels like fall) date night

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, local fun, restaurants
Yia Yia Pizza from Jimmy the Greek

I took off early from work for a date night I planned with my husband last week. He said he wanted Thai food, so I was going back and forth mentally all day about where to go (Mekong Thai? Thai Rose? Thai 9?).

Since I couldn’t decide, I decided to let him decide. When I got home from work I said, “Okay, where are we going?”
He said, “We’re going to Jimmy the Greek’s“.
Well. All-righty then.
Portland Dine Around Club has some pretty excellent, useful coupons for Jimmy the Greek’s, so if you have one, check it out. We ordered a small Inferno Zeus wings and a large Yia Yia Pizza (that’s the leftover, for breakfast today that you are seeing up there). I thought it was a little over-feta’d but my husband did not.
Then we drove down to Old Orchard Beach…much different experience on a post-labor day evening than it is in full-swing summer. For one thing, we parked for free this time in the lot that cost $5 last time. For another, there were way fewer people. Both of these things were good. 🙂
We walked down to the ocean, then to Dolci Crema Cafe. This is the place to go if you are craving dessert, or anything sweet. The owner offered us samples of any gelato, and even suggested some and handed us the sample before we asked! We ended up trying almost all of them. We settled on “Almond Joy”.
What was great about this (well, you know, besides the gelato) is that my husband is not really a fan of gelato. He was trying something different because I like it so much. This is why we got the Almond Joy to split; it was his favorite of the bunch (mine was the dark chocolate!).
Then we drove back home to watch the Survivor season opener.
P.S. We got the Thai food 2 days later. Just goes to show you: cravings must be satisfied.

It’s all good

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, health, italian, local fun, restaurants, tweens

I was annoyed the other night, thinking that even though I was lucky to have had an extra day off from work this week, it had been all used up with medical appointments. Deciding to make them, scheduling them, dealing with insurance company in advance to try to make sure they didn’t weasel out of paying for them, transporting to and from them, waiting to be seen after arrival, waiting for test results…

The ocean

That evening, as I was telling my husband how annoyed I was, I decided to stop and change course. Why? As I was talking, I noticed that he was quickly becoming tense and seemed to be losing his good mood. I decided to change course and instead started listing what had been good about the day.

  1. I did not talk myself out of exercising in the morning!
  2. I had time to finish reading book that I was loving while I waited for my husband at his appointment
  3. My daughter told me things about her day that she probably wouldn’t have otherwise while we waited for doctor at her appointment (“Guess what! I’m an alto in the chorus this year!”).
  4. Lunch (Chinese lunch specials from Maple Leaves!) and dinner (Quattro Formaggi pizza from Pizza Napoli!) and dessert (Mocha Mousse Torte and a chocolate chip cookie as big as your head from Bread and Roses in Ogunquit!) dates with spouse.
  5. Drove down to say “Hi” the ocean for a few minutes. 🙂
  6. Appreciated having my son around the house more, now that college has started back up again.

After reviewing list, noticed that yoga was missing, and immediately jumped to the floor into “down dog” so I could include it on my list, and in my day.

I realized that my day had actually included many of my favorite things, but if I hadn’t noticed my husband’s reaction to my complaining, I may not have taken the time to stop and appreciate that it had, in fact, been a really great day!

Sometimes, when you try to do something nice for someone else, you are actually doing something really nice for yourself!

Late summer date night

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, local fun, restaurants
Federal Spice

When you have a babysitter, it’s a shame to waste the opportunity to go out with your spouse.  We only had a little lead time (once we knew we had the babysitter) to organize the date, but we put our heads together and came up with a plan.

First, we headed to Scarborough Downs. We missed Family Fun Day this year, so this would be our annual summer visit. We arrived during the 8th (of 9) race, but it was fun to sit on the bench outside (weather was beautiful) and watch the horses…and the other people. 🙂 Cost: $4.

Next, we decided to see a show at the Old Port Playhouse. We called ahead to reserve our seats. Since we arrived a little early (and were starving) after we picked up our tickets at the box office, we ran around the corner to Federal Spice and split a large order of yam fries. Let me tell you: this turned out to be the highlight of the evening. Cost: about $4 (yam fries + can of diet coke).

The show was advertised as “a comedy…” .Well. There were some humorous parts, however there were also some dark and awful scenes that neither of us expected (Hello? Rape and incest are funny? not so much) which kind of put a damper on things. The ad was also misleading visually: the attractive people in the newspaper ad were nowhere to be found onstage. ‘nuf said. Cost: $44.

The audience unfortunately contained an annoying woman who would spontaneously break into song and dance during the “pre-show” (an endless loop slide show) and who was obviously impaired in one or more ways. Fortunately, she got up and left in the first 10 minutes or so of the performance, creating more distraction since the door to the street is right in the middle of the theater, but hey, at least she was gone.

I might give the theater another try at some point; right now I’m not sure; it could go either way.

So, where would you go for an impromptu late summer date?

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Backyard date

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family

Maybe you leave for work very early in the morning, and return home late in the evening…and maybe you have a significant other that you would like to have date-time with, at least once in a while! What do you do?

Well, the situation demands creativity on the part of the couple, no question. Tonight, what we’re doing is date night on the deck. I’m at work all day, but my husband is going to get things ready for us for when I get home.

Steps to readying your backyard for a date in the summer:

  1. Use a leaf blower to blow the dirt off your back deck/porch/stoop. No leaf blower? Get a broom!
  2. Spray some Cutter Backyard Bug Control well in advance of your time outdoors. Nothing will make you more miserable, ruin the mood, (and drive you back inside faster) than getting swarmed by mosquitos.
  3. Light some Off! bug candles. Couldn’t hurt.
  4. Place some cut flowers from your backyard (daisies work, or sweet peas) into a milk bottle (for the daisies) or a drinking glass (for the sweet peas) and place them on the table that you hopefully have out there, or the railing, or just next to you on the steps.
  5. If you haven’t had dinner yet, cook out or have the working spouse pick up something (pizza? chinese?) on the way home. Did you eat dinner already? Share a dessert.
  6. If it’s still enough light out, take a walk around the block, or around your yard. Do a little light gardening (if you like that sort of thing). Those blueberries (unfortunately) won’t pick themselves.

Hopefully your kids will be in bed already (hint: don’t let them see you preparing; don’t tell them about it ahead of time. Good luck getting them to go to bed if you do!).

Don’t stay up too late!