Casino and Spa Night – October

…So, these date nights are becoming very stressful, which is my own fault considering I plan them… I raced home from work on Friday because I had to do some last minute shopping for the evening and had to run to Home Depot to have some wood cut to complete the massage table that I was constructing….I know, I have problems. So this is the itinerary of the evening:

*7:00 Dinner at…the Hollywood Casino.

*Gambling with $40 each..I may or may not have snuck more in the machine:-/The money limit was to make sure we didn’t stay forever cause I had a lot planned for the evening.

*Get home at 10:00

*Ed is sent in to put on his new “Spa,” robe while I make final preparations.

*Pedicure

*Manicure

*Deep conditioning hair treatment with scalp massage

* Facial with cleanser, exfoliation, and mud mask

*Full body exfoliation (Note to self, next time don’t use a home made recipe, and make sure it’s not edible) (Second Note to self, make vet appointment for dog due to ingestion of large amounts of raw oatmeal and brown sugar that fell off of Ed as he was sent to rinse off)

*Hot Stone Massage with oils

*Hot Therapeutic Bath with oils and salts

This date night went very well except……he was so relaxed he fell asleep:-/

Dinner in a Surprise Location-August

We own a pub in our city’s downtown that is located in a 2 story building. We also purchased and remodeled the bottom floor of the 3 story warehouse next to our building to use for events.  From the top of the warehouse you have a beautiful view of the city and of the minor league baseball field located across the street, so I had heard…. I have a terrible fear of heights and could not be convinced to climb the very steep ladder, and shove the cap at the top off to climb up on the roof to see for myself. What a perfect place for a gourmet dinner!!! I just made the resolution that I would make it work and just deal with it. I was going to enlist some help from one of our managers and our niece who works there as well to carry the tables, chairs and chafing dishes up (we weren’t even sure they would actually fit through this tiny opening.) The day before this event I made an excuse to come downtown to the pub for dinner with family and friends. I grabbed one of my friends and pretended to show her the warehouse so I could make the excuse to check out the ladder to see how bad it was. I had only been on the 2nd and 3rd floor once before and wasn’t exactly sure where I was going. We happen to have an newspaper office on the second floor that we would be passing by but it was closed for the evening so we should be able to slip by undetected. That was of course until I accidentally opened the door of the newspaper and set off the alarm system.:-( We ran back downstairs and tried to pretend we knew nothing. Then the police arrived…I had to admit what happened to the manager on duty and convince him not to tell my husband. The alarm was turned off after the owner of the newspaper was called and was told of my transgression…Sorry Tom! My secret was slowly spreading. I arrived the next day at 5:45 and was snuck in frantically through the back door while trying to evade my husband. All he knew was that I was going to pick him up at 7:30 from the pub for our dinner. I had prepared a gourmet dinner and had several bottles of wine, cheeses, and breads. I had a banquet table up on the roof to hold the chafing dishes to keep the food warm and a smaller table for us to eat on. I had linens, china, silver, wine glasses, serving platters, lights, candles, candle holders, speakers for my romantic play list on my Ipad,  and tons of food. Now, I just had to get it all up there…. I stood at the bottom of the ladder with what was definitely going to be about 8-9 trips up and down ahead of me. I started praying while I was grabbing as many bags as I could hold. I continued to pray as I gripped the ladder and fumbled my way to the top using one hand. I made it up high enough for my head to stick through the opening. I lifted my bags up on to the roof and proceeded to make my way back down. It was awful!!! My last trip up I actually had to lift my leg over the side and onto the roof. This was almost my undoing. I somehow managed it and all I could think of was the fact that I would have to somehow leave the safety of the roof top to swing my leg over the side and attempt to get a foothold on the ladder. This terrified me more than my trip up. I started preparing everything. I was told through a text message that the manager was going to move my car to hide it and also move my husband’s car so he would not trap anyone into the parking area and that way they also wouldn’t have to disturb us later.  I was almost done with my preparations when I received a text from my husband asking me if I would still be there to pick him up at 7:30 (10 minutes away) and I assured him I would. Two minutes later my phone rang and it was him. Apparently he wanted to move his car thinking I would drive to our “dinner,” and he didn’t want to block anyone in. This must be a major problem there…. Anyways, he started to inquire where his car keys were (I had them.) The only person left at the restaurant who even knew I was on the roof was my niece so she panicked and just told him to call me. His first question was, “Where are you?”  I told him come upstairs and I hung up. He was totally clueless what I was talking about until he slowly made his way up to the 3rd floor. He never would imagine that I would go near that ladder so he didn’t even consider that as an option. When he arrived at the 3rd floor and looked around, he saw light streaming down the ladder and went to check it out. I don’t think I have ever seen him as surprised as he was that night. It was a beautiful clear night and there was a baseball game playing. The sun had just begun to set and the candles made it so romantic. We ate, drank, and danced. After dinner, I brought out 2 Chinese lanterns. He had never heard of them or seen them in action. We released 2 of them and watched them float away. We called down to the pub and ordered roof top service. The bartender very curiously came to the ladder carrying coffee and Bailey’s and took our picture. It was an amazing night and he was absolutely thrilled. And then I had to get back down the ladder…:-(

My husband and I were about to celebrate our 25th anniversary and anyone who knows my husband also knows that he is quite possibly the worst person in the world to buy for. He basically gets what he needs or wants and if he doesn’t buy it, it’s because he doesn’t want it or need it.  I looooove Christmas and his birthday:-( (heavy dose of sarcasm.) I am big on researching. So, I started researching different creative gift sites and anything that I could get my hands on. I finally came across a site where they talked about doing creative Date Nights as a gift (Dating Divas). So, I started researching different creative “Date ideas.” Now you have to understand our relationship. We have absolutely zero things in common. So usually dates are not something we do well. I love everything that is; outdoors, about animals, playing games, watching movies, the arts, etc,. He loves sports, politics, music, and hanging out with his friends (and me when I join in) at a pub or nice restaurant. He is very into foods and craft beers. This was a great undertaking. I painted a box silver, (for our 25th) and wrote a title for each date night but didn’t completely reveal what the date nights were. I created 12 different “Dates,” and wrote a month on the front of each envelope. The instructions read that he would open the appropriate envelope on the first day of each month, read the date title and schedule our time for that month. They are very detailed and take a great deal of preparation on my part. I tried to make these as inexpensive as possible, just like a real date would be. I will post a new “Date Night,” each month but I will post the “Dates,” we’ve already had.