A Night on the Town

Wifey and I decided to splurge a bit tonight, so we went out to dinner. We headed over to the mall about 3:30 after Munchkin woke up from her 2.5 hour nap (hooray!) and started walking around. Munchkin loved being out and about in her stroller as long as we kept moving. It gets really boring when you are a toddler who is stuck in the middle of clothing prints, no matter how colorful.

After a couple of hours, we ended up heading over to the food court. I'm sure some of you are thinking in your head hey wait a minute. Isn't this guy pretty much unemployed? Where is he getting enough money to buy dinner for a family in the mall food court? And you would be completely right. The fact is, we don't have money to throw at a mall food court, no matter how reasonable it might be. That is why we decided to go the gourmet route—we brought our own food.

Dinner consisted of homemade sandwiches (two for me, one for Wifey), chips, yogurt and mini muffins for Munchkin, and drinks from our water bottles. I am pretty sure that the employees of the various stores in the food court were hoping that we would come up and buy a dessert from them. Wifey and I both approached the counter of Orange Julius at separate times, but it was only to nab napkins.

We even brought dessert, which consisted of Nabisco snacks that had chocolate on them for one reason or another.

So, next time you really want to go out to eat knowing that your budget doesn't agree, just do what we did. Find a slow Thursday and eat in the food court.

We were punished by the mall gods though. On our way home we ran into terrible traffic because of a four car pileup on the Interstate. The fifteen minute drive became an hour, and I spent a lot of time singing songs to Munchkin to keep her entertained. She was a good sport and lasted about 45 minutes, and then we caved and gave her a binky and Monks, her stuffed monkey. I felt bad that the mall gods had to take it out on four other cars, but I think we got the better end of the deal. They did tempt me to want to go into the Apple store in hopes that I could catch a glimpse of the new MacBook Pros, but I decided I had better avoid it and save my coveting for another day.

Dinner and a Movie

Last night, Wifey and I went on a date to celebrate my birthday. Nothing fancy--we just went out for a quick dinner and a movie. We realized that we didn't even know what movies were playing, or what might be interesting to watch. We have just gotten out of the habit of seeing movies since Munchkin was born.

We ended up going out to a gourmet dinner at Dairy Queen. On my way home from work I realized that we hadn't been there in quite some time, and it sounded like a good idea to have a blizzard. I splurged by getting a mini blizzard that we shared with our meal. Needless to say, Munchkin was a fan of the Oreo blizzard.

We dropped Munchkin off at Grandma and Grandpa's place. She was content to play with all the toys, and always has a good time over there. As we slipped out the door, we headed off to the theater. Now it feels always a bit odd when Wifey and I go anywhere alone. Munchkin as become so intertwined with our lives that I always get fleeting thoughts like does Wifey have Munchkin or what is Munchkin getting into, because I haven't heard her making a ruckus in a bit. Forcing those thoughts aside, we bought our tickets to the movie and found an acceptable seat.

As we sat down, I inquired of Wifey if the seats were okay. She said that they were fine, so we sat. About ten seconds after we had planted ourselves, Wifey asked me to switch her sides. It has become tradition for me to always sit on her right side when we go to the theater. We pulled the switcheroony, and started getting comfortable again. Then Wifey informed me that we needed to move in one seat closer to the middle. Such is our movie-going ritual.

The move I chose to watch was "Eat. Pray. Love." I was in the mood for something more serious, and I don't mind seeing a bit more of the world through a camera lens, so we went to this one. Following a theme of the movie, if I chose one word to describe the whole thing it would be sumptuous.

The eat section had foods that were perfectly plated. Shots of appetizing platters enlarged on a big screen will make you want to eat. And I am a sucker for pasta, so since this part was mainly in Italy, my salivary glands were telling me that I needed to eat again, even though my stomach was contented. The scenery caught the spirit of Europe with the cobblestone streets and grungy beauty. It even made me miss Finland a bit.

The pray section took place in India. Working for the company that employs me, I occasionally have meetings with people from India, so I am interested in their part of the world. The movie didn't show much of the abject poverty that I have heard is apparent is so many places over there, but showed a wedding scene, complete with vibrant orange and yellow flowers strung and laced overhead. The glamor of the arranged marriage made me want to see a traditional Indian wedding some day.

The love section took place in Bali, and some of the scenery made me want to ride a bike through the jungles of Bali handing out food to the monkeys. Or maybe play on the white sandy beaches. I can't decide which would be more fun. Maybe I could lure some monkeys to the beach.

All of the cultures that were represented were shown through the eyes of an American, but the movie did a good job of whisking me away to see the world, even though I was sitting in a chair in Idaho. It had a genuine feel to it, and Julia Roberts did a great job to make her character believable. Not that she struggles with that. As we left, Wifey said, "That would probably be a good book to read." I agreed. I think we might have to pick it up.