Wordless Wednesday - Tear Jerker Date Night

Wordless Wednesday - Date Night!

Skype Date

I've seen very little of Kurt this month. He's been traveling a lot due to Air Traffic Control problems across the nation. His job is to investigate these incidents, and there have been quite a few lately. Since tonight was supposed to be our date night, we had to be a little creative. Skype dating leaves a lot to be desired! ;-)

Budget Date Night

I love a bargain! Tonight our date night consisted of dinner at TGI Friday's (buy one entree, get one entree free), and 2 tickets to see "Beastly," purchased through livingsocial.com (2 tickets for $9.00). Total savings = $22.50! Woot Woot!!!

Double Date

Tonight we met one of Kurt's co-workers, Howard, and his wife Cheryl at Sweetwater Tavern for dinner. We had a fun time. They told us about their adventures in Amish country. We had all kinds of questions since we plan to visit Pennsylvania next weekend. Dinner was delicious, the conversation was interesting, and I think we've found friends who love dining out as much as we do! Can't wait for next time!

Out on the Town

Our date night has changed from Friday night to Wednesday night. Friday nights are just too crazy around here. There's at least a 1 hour wait at every restaurant we go to, and the movie theaters are packed. Since we usually go exploring on Saturdays, we decided, "Why not spread the fun out over the week?" This has worked out pretty well until last night. My plan was to go to Cici's Pizza for dinner and then to go bowling at Bowl America. Dinner went without a hitch, but bowling didn't happen. It's league night on Wednesday night. We'll have to change our date night to Thursday night if we ever want to bowl I guess. Plan B was to see "The Green Hornet." It's only playing in 3-D and it kills me to pay $15 per ticket to see a movie, but I had coupons and a free pass. It's a good thing, because the movie was pretty lame. Oh well, date night is still my favorite night of the week!

- VALENTINE'S DAY 2009

- ELEPHANT BAR

Tara and Greg have never spent a night away together without kids....for 10 1/2 years! Tonight was the night! Tara's parents watched the kids and they booked a room at the same hotel they stayed at on their honeymoon. They figured they'd better have one last get-away before baby #5 arrives. They asked us to meet them at Elephant Bar for dinner. Yummy food, lots of laughs, and I've never seen them looking more relaxed ;)

- TWILIGHT

Tonight we finally went to see the much talked about movie Twilight. I read the series. Kurt didn't. He liked it more than I did. The characters just didn't measure up to the descriptions in the book and since Kurt had no expectations, he wasn't disappointed. It was a good movie though. Can't wait to see the next one.

We thought we might have the theater to ourselves....until abut 1 minute before the movie started and we were joined by 6-8 giggling tweeners.

We haven't had an official "date" for weeks. After the movie we met Debbie and Mark Perkins at Cascada's, a new Mexican restaurant in Placerville. I had the pork medallions in chipotle sauce and Kurt had the lobster enchiladas. This may be a new favorite restaurant for us. We stopped at "What's the Scoop" for ice cream before going home. Fun night!

Early this morning I taught seminary. I have the wonderful opportunity to substitute occasionally when the regular teachers have in-service meetings etc. This morning we played a scripture mastery review game that the kids love - "In The Box". I forgot to take my camera! We had a great time and reviewed quite a few of the New Testament scripture mastery scriptures. Little did I know that later in the day these same students would be on lock-down at the high school when someone reported that a student had a handgun and was planning to use it. The students were asked to stay in their classrooms, in the dark, while police searched for the alleged gunman. I'm sure the 2 + hour ordeal was a very scary experience for the students there. I'm happy that nobody was hurt and that everyone is safe.

After seminary Kurt and I went to Home Depot to get supplies for a shelter for Rusty and Rolly. Yes, we're spending MORE money on our goats ;) The rain is supposed to start this afternoon so Kurt wants to make sure they have somewhere to stay dry. (Their previous owner told us that they hate the rain and will cry, whine and bleat until it stops).

Home Depot is Kurt's favorite place to hang out. I went with him this morning to help him focus. He's been known to spend hours there just browsing.

Trying to find some straight 2x4's.

In the load zone.

Hurry, hurry Kurt. The rain's coming!

Well, he didn't finish it completely before the rain sent him running for cover, but it'll keep the boys dry.

Rolly and Rusty - snug as bugs in a rug.

Meanwhile, back in the house, I have a little construction project of my own. I assembled a new CD holder I bought this morning.

Later I organized, by category, some of my CD's. I love music!

When Kurt came in, he helped me assemble this TV stand for our bedroom. Our DVD player has been sitting on the floor for months. It's always interesting when we have to point the remote control at the floor to change the channel on the TV.

We decided to stay in for date night tonight. It just seemed like the right thing to do with the nasty weather and all. We made homemade pizza dough and sauce and made a combination pizza....

and a chicken alfredo pizza. They were delicious!

For weeks now, Kurt has been hinting that he's craving pineapple upside down cake. In our 28 years of marriage, I never knew he loved this dessert. I've never made one before, in fact, I've never tasted p.u.c. before. I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and made one tonight. It was OUT OF THIS WORLD! We served it with whipped cream. Kurt was a happy camper. Below is the recipe:

PINEAPPLE UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

• 1 (10 ounce) jar maraschino cherries, drained
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flaked coconut
• 1 (20 ounce) can sliced pineapple, drained with juice reserved
• 1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained with juice reserved
• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat the bottoms and sides of each 9 inch round cake pan with 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Sprinkle the bottom of each pan with 1/2 cup of brown sugar.
2. In one of the pans, sprinkle coconut over the brown sugar. Lay pineapple rings in a single layer on top of coconut. Place a cherry in the center of each ring. In the other pan, spread the drained crushed pineapple.
3. Mix the cake as directed on package, but substitute reserved pineapple juice in place of water. Divide batter between the 2 pans. Remember which pan has the pineapple rings in it.
4. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool in pans for 20 minutes.
5. While the bottoms of the cake pans are still warm to the touch, invert the layer with the crushed pineapple out onto a serving dish, then gently invert the layer with the pineapple rings on top of it for a dazzling two layer pineapple upside down cake.

- FRIDAY FUN

This afternoon I had lunch with my friends Annette and Wendy. They were in my ward when we lived in Tracy. Annette was my Bishop's wife and grew up in Brigham City, not far from where I grew up. Wendy was my visiting teacher and I taught her daughter in seminary. They both moved up the hill shortly after we came here. Annette lives in Cameron Park and Wendy in El Dorado Hills. We used to meet for lunch monthly but we haven't been able to get together for a few months due to conflicting schedules, etc. We had lunch at Maui Taco in Folsom and caught up on each other's lives. It was so good to see them!

Later in the afternoon, Kurt and I met Alax at AT&T where he got a new iPhone. Kurt told the salesperson that we'd like to add our son-in-law to our family plan. Our family is growing! ;)

Kurt and I had a nice night together. We went and saw "Nights in Rodanthe" (my choice). I'd read the book a couple of years ago and was anxious to see if the movie was as good. I wasn't disappointed. It was definitetly rated 5 kleenex though. We did some shopping at Costco and then went to dinner at Red Robin. Kurt just couldn't seem to stay off the phone at the restaurant. Hazzards of being in the Bishopric ;)

We had to try the onion ring appetizer. The only problem was, we weren't hungry when our entree's came. We took most of our meal home with us. Fun night!

- A STROLL DOWN MAIN STREET PLACERVILLE

Nothing exciting was playing at the theaters tonight, so Kurt and I decided to explore downtown Placerville. It's been awhile since we've taken the time to look in all the shops and see what's new on main street.

This is Placerville's famous bell tower.
You can read all about it at:

http://ci.placerville.ca.us/our_city/about/history.asp

- CALIFORNIA STATE FAIR GOES HOLLYWOOD

Today Kurt and I had our annual State Fair date at Cal Expo in Sacramento. The theme for the fair this year was everything Hollywood. It was 104 degrees when we arrived at 3:00. We stayed indoors looking at the exhibits/animals until it started to cool off.

Here I am in front of the Indiana Jones display, one of the many movie sets we saw.

This was El Dorado County's display.

I always have to check out the quilt exhibit. This particular quilt took first place and best of show. The hand quilting was unbelievable.

We sat outside for awhile and watched Stars of the Peking Acrobats. I'm pretty sure they had no bones. I've never seen anyone contort their bodies the way these peformers did!

Kurt loved the llamas this year. They were so cute.

This man owns a llama farm. He was telling us all about his llamas. We talked for quite awhile. I learned lots of new llama facts ;)

Texas long horns.

Another variety of long horn.

Of course we had to check out the livestock nursery. This cow is due to deliver on my birthday.

These babies were born yesterday. So sweet.

My favorites. Baby piglets born earlier in the day. Eleven in all.

Two baby goats born at the fair this week.

And then, there's the fair food. So disgustingly good. Kurt had a BBQ sandwich with fries.

I opted for the greasiest thing I could find - we were at the fair after all! Deep fried fish and zucchini. (This was mostly in response to a challenge from Tara ;)

Remember this group? "C'mon baby, do the locomotion....", "We're an American Band...we're comin' to your town.....", "Some kind of wonderful"? Well, we joined a couple thousand other 40/50 somethings and rocked out to the oldies. VERY FUN concert!

Tickets to the concert were free with the exception of reserved seating right in front of the stage. We paid the extra $15 each to sit close. Well worth not having to wait in line in the heat.

The five member band includes two of the originals, Don Brewer (drums and vocals) and Mel Schacher (bassist). They sounded every bit as good as they did in the 70's.

Our tradition, at the end of the night, is to have a waffle sundae. By the time we leave the fair, we are usually sick to our stomachs, but we'll never change the routine. It works for us!