The themes for this Date Night were; Room Service and Champagne, and Chocolat! I need to explain why we have a 2 for one deal. The main things that my husband and I are working on is his ability to set time aside, and my ability to speak up when I’m bothered by something. So, having said that, I was annoyed by having to ask constantly for his available nights and gave up. I punished myself in the process. So we went a few months without any Date Nights. I finally in my very passive agressive manner, 3 months later pointed the situation out to him. He realized that he was getting caught up in his work and needed to make time for us. He really needs to work on his telepathy skills…. So we sat down and he gave me a ton of dates for the summer. We are back on track and moving forward. OK, so this Date Night was wonderful. It was very relaxing and a nice get-away just as it was planned to be. I reserved a beautiful, 2 story loft suite with a private pool and started off the evening with a romantic candle lit dinner and a nice bottle of red wine in the suite. We went swimming, spent time in the private sauna and later shared various cheeses and champagne. After time in a gigantic bubble bath we had chocolate fondue with a variety of foods for dipping. We watched the movie Chocolat and fell asleep. This all sounds wonderful, relaxing and romantic except for the fact that I left the part out about our bodies being covered by bruises the next day… So, they have a sign up next to the pool that states, “Caution, steps are very slippery!” The sign should have said “Caution, Death is Probable!” After watching Ed almost kill himself while his feet were completely swept out underneath him and he came crashing down onto the steps, and the pole, and then plunging face first into the pool, you think I would have learned…. Well if you believe that, you don’t know me very well. I, knowing that I may not be the most graceful person on this planet proceeded very cautiously to the handrails and had a very firm grip and daintily, seductively, tried to make my way into the pool while keeping an air of romance about myself. Well, that was all before my feet flew out from underneath my body, my knees smacked me in the face, I wrapped myself violently around the pole and then plunged headfirst into the pool pretty much the same way Ed did. Romantic mood broken! You would think that we would have learned from this…. No Ed got out again at some point and entered the pool in a similar fashion as before. I was pretty terrified just to get out! I have bruises on my thigh, shoulder and arm that are the exact shape and dimension of the pole. Moral of the Story… Romance is a Violent Contact Sport!

The theme for this month was a Progressive Dinner in a Limo.  Being a teacher, I had access to an awesome set of dice that I could write on with a dry-erase marker. I wrote down 6 different restaurants on each side of the dice, all of different food genres. A roll of the dice would decide the evening’s chain of events. Ed was told to be home by 6:00 and that our ride would arrive at 6:30. He truly thought that I was just going to have a friend drive us around…He should know me better than that by now.:-) Our limo arrived promptly at 6:30 and had to wait a few minutes while I tried to convince my husband we needed to leave. He was on the phone with work and really thought a friend of ours would be walking in any minute to take us on our Date Night. He truly was shocked when we walked out and there was a stretch limo in our driveway. One of the issues we have had with these dates has been time. My husband’s schedule can be a little overwhelming at times and at the beginning of the month he gives me the date that I can plan our night on. He gave me a Monday….:-/ But, instead of being a bad thing, this actually ended up being fantastic! I was able to get a limo for pretty close to half price, and there were no waits at any of the restaurants which would have made the evening difficult. Before we walked out to the limo, I gave my husband the dice and had him roll to determine which restaurant we would go to for drinks. He rolled Plaza Azteca. My first time there. It is a very nice little restaurant. We both ordered a medium margarita and were totally shocked that their medium was 27oz. I should probably mention that I put some of Toledo’s nicer restaurants on the dice except for the one side that had McDonald’s. There had to be some edge to it.:-)  Next roll was for appetizers. It came up mancys. He was allowed to choose between their Italian restaurant or their steakhouse. He chose Italian.  I had a martini and he had a beer. It’s pretty sad but I’m not totally sure what we had to eat because things began to get a bit foggy after that… The next roll took us to Ciao’s where we had a glass of wine (you can see where this is going…) and pasta. The food was incredible! I know this because I ate my leftovers the next dayL-) The last roll of the dice was for dessert and the choices were, J. Alexander’s, Beirut, or McDonald’s… He rolled J. Alexander’s. We had a glass of champagne and warm chocolate cake with ice cream. Every restaurant was incredible! Our drink combinations provided a very interesting day at work on Tuesday…  This was one of Ed’s favorites!

This Date Night was entitled, Wine, Cheese and Games. This particular Date took me about a week and a half to prepare for. One of the things that Ed was unaware of is that I also included a couple of group dates within the 12 Date Nights. This was one of them. I invited 3 other couples over for a Wine Tasting Party. The theme was Napa Valley vs Sonoma County wines. We were going to do a blind tasting. I bought 2 each, and 1 from each location, of Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Cabernet, Chardonnay, and Riesling. The bottles were covered and numbered. I also purchased and prepared a ridiculous amount of food to pair with the wines. I have issues with portions when I am preparing any kind of food. I did about a 15 minute presentation on wine tasting and comparisons and food pairings. We started off the evening with Champagne. I dropped a Wild Hibiscus flower in each champagne glass before pouring. These flowers are edible and were marinated in a syrup. They seemed to bloom as the champagne was poured in and added a wonderful flavor to the champagne. Those that ate the flowers compared the texture and taste to an apricot or a fig. I was too freaked out to try it. We then did an experiment with a bottle of Merlot to show how much food pairings affect the taste of the wines. Then we started in on the tasting. To go backwards for a moment, I spent the week before the Date discussing wines with local experts and visiting several wine shops. I also did a ton of research online. I purchased enough red, white, and champagne glasses for each guest. I took all of them and dipped the bases in chalkboard paint so that the guests could keep track of their glasses by writing their names on their glasses. Unfortunately the paint did not hold up well when I washed the glasses before having the guests put them in their gift bags to take home. I’m not sure if that project was a total bust or if I just didn’t purchase the right kind of chalkboard paint…Yes there are several kinds. I also spray painted boards with chalkboard paint to write the food items down on. I printed up sheets for everyone to keep track of the various aspects of the wines and to make their comparisons and vote on each wine variety. By the way, Napa won. It was close though. I also had trivia questions for everyone to work on during the party. We didn’t totally get to the games at the end…the whole tasting lasted a little longer than I had thought but it was still a great night and I really enjoyed myself. I think everyone else did as well, including Ed Beczynski. Thanks for making the evening a succes: Tom Pounds, Liljana May Brescol, Kenny Henry, Patty Henry, Richard Rideout and Janet Rideout. Oh and I totally forgot to get a picture of Ed and I together:-( that’s what happens when you are drinking wine…

The theme for this Date Night was, Slumber Party. One great memory I have of growing up is Slumber Parties! Staying up all night, talking, eating, playing games and watching movies. For this date, I created a basket of slumber party type foods (popcorn, milk duds, licorice, chips, canned cheese spread, etc.,) I also bought a new pair of pajamas for both of us. The evening started off with us putting on our new pajamas. We made our own pizzas and then put them in the oven to cook. I had pushed together the couch and chaise lounge to make a comfy sleeping area. We watched 2 movies and played Yahtzee in between. The pizzas were amazing!!! Naan bread is really good. We relaxed for the entire evening and it was amazing, especially after the crazy holidays.

A Night in Italy – November

Another successful Date Night!:-) Laura Dunn was amazing as our Italian waiter, Gino.:-) Thank you so much Laura, you’re the best!!! The Date was entitled a “Night in Rome!” Our meal consisted of: Chianti Wine, Italian Bread with Dipping Oil, Bruschetta, Caprese Salad, Antipasto Platter, Spaghetti with Homemade Meatballs, Tiramisu, Canoli Torte, Bailey’s and Coffee.  We had Italian music playing, and the ambience was perfect!

This took place on a week night so it was extra stressful and not done exactly to my liking but it still turned out very nicely. I posted on Facebook a couple of days prior, asking for someone to play an Italian waiter. I would have everything prepared, I just needed someone to serve the food. A very good friend of ours helped us out and made the evening perfect.

Photo Scavenger Hunt – September

This particular “Date Night” was one I was excited about but not sure how excited he was going to be. I came up with 25 Photo Captions that he would have to choose 15 from. He would take or have me take pictures to match the captions. I created the captions with the plan that it would take us through a variety of venues such as a restaurant, (for dinner) a bar, (for drinks afterwards) and a romantic outdoor location, (for me:-)) I also decided to put an announcement out on Facebook to ask his friends and family to come up with some suggestions as well. He would have to choose 3 Facebook captions as well. We ended up starting off in a small town nearby that has a very quaint downtown area and it’s located on the river. He really got into the spirit of things and ended up getting some amazing shots. It really took us around town and ended up getting many people involved. We ended up in our own downtown and of course at our Pub.