Last night Paul and I went on a date, the main goal of which was to research a piece of computer equipment. So we got the boring task out of the way first, and then it was WOOOOOOOO PARTYYYYYYY!!!!! by which I mean we went to Chili’s and then browsed for awhile at Border’s. That’s our favorite date.
At Chili’s we ordered the Fried Cheese appetizer, and why oh why do they make us SAY that? “Would you like anything to start?” “Yes, we’d like the FRIED CHEESE.” The FRIED CHEESE never comes with enough dipping sauce, which is a constant heartache to us. We ask for a double serving of dipping sauce—but really, even a double serving of dipping sauce is not enough dipping sauce. We need more like a VAT. We always end up morosely dipping the FRIED CHEESE in salsa.
I tried something new: Firecracker Tilapia. I love fish and never cook it, and Paul hates fish, so it’s an excellent thing for me to have at a restaurant. The Firecracker is a CRAZY FLAVOR. It’s spicy-hot (“actual discomfort to mouth” level), but also tastes like…..cinnamon roll? It’s sweet and also hot and also a very peculiar flavor. I really, really liked it, and I really liked TRYING it. I tend to stick to the two chicken dishes I know I love (the Monterey chicken and the Cajun chicken on penne), but trying something new was surprisingly…..fun.
We talked for awhile about something Paul is trying to figure out at work, by which I mean HE talked and I tried to look bright and affectionate so no one would be using US as an example of the sad married couple with nothing to say to each other anymore. He was explaining a computer concept that sometimes eludes the people asking for a task to be done: he says it’s like, one woman can make a baby in nine months, but that doesn’t mean nine women can make a baby in one month.
And I don’t know what else he said, because I was busy inside my mind thinking OMG WOULDN’T THAT BE GREAT??? The worst things about pregnancy are that (1) it takes so long and (2) it TAKES so LONG. If nine of us got together (and in my mind I was already assembling a team) and each of us were pregnant for one month for the first person’s baby, and then had a little break, and then another month to give the second person a baby, and then a little break, and so on—well, I’m just saying. I think he should be working on making THAT happen, instead of working on whatever little “project” they seem to think is so important.
I kept bringing up how agonizing certain things would be if we were on a first date (the way the FRIED CHEESE strung wayyyyyyyy out long after a bite; I dropped my fork and it spattered sauce; the silence that fell at the end of one topic; the time we couldn’t understand what the waiter said), and Paul kept saying, “I don’t even want to think about the horror that is dating.” So I cheerfully picked a shred of broccoli out of my teeth, even going in with the floss when we got to the car, and he went right ahead and burped in the open air, and we held hands which felt weird because usually we’re holding kid hands.
At Border’s I bought another copy of this journal, which I think is so cool/fun and which they only had one copy of left. I figured I’ll give it as a baby gift or a wedding gift or a birthday gift or something.
We also bought a dinosaur ABC book for Elizabeth’s birthday (it has a pronunciation guide in the back, which is crucial), and I bought something for the pay-it-forward package—more on that later, probably Monday, but I will say this: it is SUPER CUTE, and I want to keep it for myself, and I might! Even PAUL agreed it was super cute, though he declined to use that specific adjective.
Then we drove home arguing vigorously on the same side of an issue: we think those electronic book-reading things should be usable at LIBRARIES. That is, you should be able to check out an electronic book that then disappears after 2 weeks. This way, we could all read Harry Potter at the same time, and maybe without having to actually drive to the library. Libraries struggle endlessly with an approaching-infinite number of books and a not-even-in-the-universe-of-infinite amount of space, and this way they could have ALL the books without taking up space. We think this is GENIUS, and now we are going to sit back and wait for it to happen. We don’t want to hear about profits: libraries give out books NOW without charging, so we see no difference if it’s electronic, except that it’s easier and costs less to taxpayers and works better.
We got a little heated on the topic. There were lots of “I KNOW, RIGHT?”-type statements. Then we thought, actually this could already be a fully-realized dream, and we just don’t know because we’re a little behind the times. (For scale: we have not yet seen Juno. Or Titanic.)
You guys are so CUTE. And also, WAS I ON YOUR PREGNANCY TEAM? And if not, CAN I BE?
1) Can you sign me up for that baby project? Think of it! Those that have trouble conceiving could always have “give” the first month or two to someone else, those that want another baby but don’t want another Csection could “give” that last month/delivery to someone who finds labor a breeze…
2) The thought of dating horrifies me too… but then sometimes the thought of all those “firsts” sounds exciting and FUN.
3) I love dinner/book store dates.
4) You will love Juno. Go ahead and skip Titanic, but Juno is fab.
5) I am up Waaaaaay too early for having NO kids in the house. Hmmmph.
Borders is our favorite date destination, too! (It used to be Joseph-Beth when we lived in Lexington, but no more. Sigh.)
Also, I never want to be the sad married couple, either!
Also, I will *gladly* be on the pregnancy team if someone will take over the first week of postpartum time for me.
And finally, we *just* saw Juno on Mother’s Day. My *parents* saw it before us.
Pay-it-forward package?!?!
Even before we had kids the dinner and bookstore was a favorite date – especially when we went off on our own to browse!
And you should check, but our library does have an e-book option, as long as you have your own reader.
Pregnancy team? Brilliant! And you’re right, Paul should totally be working on that instead of that other supposed project.
Electronic book things at libraries? PURE GENIUS!
Also, this post makes me want to double-date with you and Paul.
1)Our library HAS the ebook thing! You have to have Adobe Reader, but you check it out, and then it disappears after a month! I haven’t much used it, because I mostly read at home and I don’t like to be on the computer at home. And I already read enough (BLOGS! NOT WORK!) at work. But still: awesome
2)PICK ME for the pregancy team! I will take the labor FOR THE TEAM! Babies practically FALL out of me!
3)That was gross. And hardly true based on a sample size of one.
4)Still. PICK ME!
Oh, oh. This is GREAT.
I NEVER EVER want to be the EXAMPLE COUPLE and will go to great lengths (minus, of course, PDA) to achieve that end in a restaurant.
We like B&N as a date but now, I just end up looking at all the kids’ books.
My kind of date! Only, with August, not with you or Paul. No offense. We went out last week: we ate Indian food and then went to a bookstore. Great evening.
A few weeks ago August and I did actually find a dark place to make out in the car — something I NEVER did as a teen — but we accurately re-created the experience by worrying the whole time that we’d be caught.
I’m signing up for your pregnancy group if you get it up and running.
So glad to know I am not the only one that looks at the sad married couples in restaurants! That, right there, is one of my biggest fears in my marriage.
i have such an internet-crush on you and paul. and i want to go on a double date with you guys. and, uh, my imaginary boyfriend, obvs.
Yeah what is it with restaurants that they are so stingy with dipping sauce? You’d think the stuff was filet mignon or something. We’ve always got to ask for extra and then more extra and then finally they bring you out a bowl of sauce and you kinda feel like a big piggie. Well only kinda.
LOVE your baby project idea! And I would gladly handle the pushing part (I’m REALLY good at it) if someone else would take the weight gain.
Also, GREAT library idea! They should ALL do that! Though I do like an actual book… I could probably adapt, though.
I also have not seen Juno.
This post made my morning. You guys are so cute, I can’t stop smiling. Ditto on loving the bookstore dates and not wanting to be the “example” couple.
What’s this pay-it-forward project of which you speak?
I’ve often told my husband not to even consider dying or leaving me because not only would I be sad, I just can’t handle the thought of dating again. The horror.
Our local library also offers ebooks – not all of its books are available that way, but some are. I think it would be great if they offered the insanely popular ones that way so that everyone could read them at the same time. Someday….
This was a very fun post to read. It cracked me up, how you were trying to look bright and interested so as not to be a poor example of marital communication. I always try really hard to look perky and loving and AWAKE on dates, too.
Also, I will SO take the labor part on that whole preggo team! My labors never even get intensely PAINFUL until the last hour or so anyways, more just tiring and uncomfortable, so if someone else will cover the whole transition/pushing part (Tessie and JMC!) I will take the hours leading up! Yes? And then I can skip the weeks and weeks of so-called “false” labor?
Our “dates” are very similar. It’s weird being out and about alone, with no kids when they are these appendages all the time.
I would totally be on your pregnancy team…as long as my month could be sometime during the second trimester. And if anyone wants to get on boad now, and take some of the brunt off of me…that would be great.
Having been with the same guy since high school, if I were ever back in the dating pool, I’d be a total fish out of water.
wow wow..this..well im floored…PREGNANCY TEAM—STAR TREK LIBRARIES–AND FRIED CHEESE????? well done swistle!
Yes yes yes on the dipping sauce quandry! I dip stuff into the salsa as well, because salsa can never be wrong. It’s the same with ketchup at fast food places (when going through the drive thru) – most of the time I have to ASK FOR KETCHUP. What is with that? I know I’m going home and there is ketchup there but I like the packets better. And I think it’s funny how many of us are concious of not wanting to be “that” couple, out to eat with nothing to say, even though it DOES happen. Even though it’s been SO LONG since we’ve had a date, that well, this confirms that we need a date night soon.
We just watched Juno last night. I loved it, and it made me cry, and Husband kept saying he was going to go to sleep but stayed awake until the very end…
Firecracker Tilapia is my favorite!!! I try to order something else, but… always go back to it. Worth the $10.99.
Sounds like a fun night… Which reminds me, a co-worker informed us yesterday that his daughter is available for babysitting in my area of town! WOOO! *scoots off to go talk to him about it*
I need a date night!
Hee hee. When we go on dinner dates I’ll do things like read the paper in advance and my husband will not talk to me for days so that we have good and animated conversation at a restaurant. Dinner at home consists of getting food into the stomach as efficiently as possible.
Love Love LOVE Borders. Not too keen on the idea of kindle though. I’d much rather have book in hand. I’m getting old.
Also, fried cheese? Are these like mozzarella sticks? Just curious because when you said fried cheese I was like “OH something new to try that sounds really unhealthy and super good!”. If it’s just mozzarella sticks I’m going to be sad.
I’m still craving Chili’s though.
Natalie- I am sorry to say it is just mozzarella sticks. Which is what I think they should call them, for the very reason you mention. “Fried Cheese” sounds like something Different.
Your date is my favorite kind. But we go to Flatbread Pizza and then the bookstore (Borders) to browse. We always drop a cool $60 or more there and love it.
And as one half of a couple who has been together for 17 years, the thought of having to go back to dating is daunting. I would prefer NEVER to have to go through all that again, thank you very much.
Our library does this! E-books and audiobooks. You download them and borrow the license for two weeks. You can renew the license if necessary.
I have a funny feeling you won’t like Juno. I say this because I didn’t like it, and for some reason, I think we’re very similar in this stuff.
At any rate, Adam and I always get nachos at Chili’s, and then I get the southwest spring rolls. With EXTRA dipping sauce. There isn’t ever ENOUGH dipping sauce. Ever.
That sounds like a GREAT date! I don’t care what anyone says, Chili’s is awesome. It’s cheap and consistently good – what’s not to love? The Cheesecake Factory has a Fried Maccaroni and Cheese appetizer. FRIED MAC AND CHEESE! I really don’t think it gets any better.
A co-worker asked me one day what I would do if I had to start dating again and I replied, “I would just go ahead and kill myself.”
And I will totally join the pregnancy team. Sign me up for the second trimester, though, please, as the first and third are kinda hard on me.
Dinner and a book store are our favorite date, too! That’s what we did for Mother’s Day. I love you and Paul.
Your post made me hungry. Well, hungrier than I was in the first place.
And also, you have got to see Juno. Right now. Go get it.
Oh my gosh, it’s like you were eavesdropping on my car ride home yesterday. My hubby bought me (us) a Kindle for Mother’s Day (early Dad’s Day as well). It’s cool, but I was telling him that I would love to be able to rent books. great minds…
You’ve inspired me to try to plan our annual date with my Hubs. Maybe in a month or two…
Sometimes, when the Hubs and I get in a heated discussion where we are on the same page, I get the butterflies again. Right in my stomach, like we’re dating all over again. That’s foreplay – if you ask me.
Two things that have me coming back:
1) I love that Tessie offered to be the labor portion of pregnancy. HA. “Babies shoot out of me!” HAHAHAHAHA. Tessie, you’re on. I fear labor. You can have mine, when it’s my turn. I’ll call you.
2) Fried cheese SHOULD be something different, and do you know that here in Vermont, being so close to Canada, that fried cheese often means friend cheddar cheese CURDS? They’re delicious, by the way, and if you’ve never had poutine, go get it. We can get it here, which is YET ANOTHER of the bajillion reasons I love living near the Canadian border.
Fried cheese. . . you would like Wisconsin! Where I grew up fried cheese is practically its own food group. And there are fish fries year ’round, not just during Lent.
I am thinking I’m not a good candidate for the pregnancy team, but I would like to be the captain of the pregnancy support team. I am organized (especially about projects I’m enthused by) and I think I’m pretty good at doing nice things for my friends. Thank you for considering my application!
We have fried cheese curds here and fried cheese balls. They are awesome.
I really really really like hearing about you and Paul.
But . . . but I *love* books! I don’t want electronic books! I want paper books!
Also: Paul’s baby metaphor was a really good one.
Also: Your train of thought afterwards=funny because it is so true-to-Swistle.
Also: Titanic blows. Juno rocks.
Date nights are the best! My husband and I frequent Borders on dates (when we live in the US).
Juno is so good! You’ll love it. My husband doesn’t like chick flicks. He loved this one.
This could be illigal. But, a librarian suggested this to me so I’ll pass it along: Check out a book on CD, rip it to Itunes (or whatever you use) then onto your Ipod or MP3. You can then listen to books while you cook, blog, exercise, etc. If you don’t want it stuck in your ear, we have one of these stereos that you connect your Ipod to. It was $120 for that. But, in the past, I’ve used a very small speaker set that you click your Ipod into ( A friend got it for $10 at Wal-mart). The catch, obviously, is that you can’t see what you’re reading. Which may defeat the purpose for some.
I tried his recently and love it. Our Ipod hooks up to our car stereo so books for the kids (BIG hit) and adults are listened to in the car. I did rip some library books onto CD and I don’t feel guilty about it b/c I’m not going to “give” them to anyone else. I few it as an extended loan from the library. In fact, I may delete them off Itunes soon. I doubt I’ll listen to them over again.
I am SO jealous – I have been looking for that damn journal ever since you mentioned it on SundryBuzz and it’s just nowhere. NOWHERE. *pout*
On the upside, fried cheese is the bomb. And I know where to get it. So, I suppose I could console myself with that.
I like your library idea. Also, I love that you are actively trying NOT to look like the “couple with nothing to say” at the restaurant. We do that too sometimes–I wonder how many diners are acting on any given evening???
Oh! I looooove dates. It makes me fall in love with A. all over again, especially when we are “arguing vigorously on the same side of an issue.” LOVE. Glad you had such a fun night!
I couldn’t love you more!
An actual date. I am so jealous!
Our library has the e-books and audio books which they allow you to burn to CD for personal use!
Can you say no more Wiggles in the car?
Personally I think E-books are a great idea. Think of all the trees we would save.