Friday Night Date Night With The Fur Children

What a fun night! We started out at the beach and ended the "date night" at the dog park with the dachshunds!

The Help (Movie Review)

A while back I was watching Oprah and heard her talking about a book called "The Help". I knew that it was a book I would want to read and a must see movie!

Today , Vic and I looked up the movies that we want to see (The Help, Final Destination 5 and Planet of the Apes) to see which ones would work with our work schedule so we could catch one early enough after work to get home to the fur children at an early hour. The Help was playing at 4pm and that was just about perfect timing for us.  We finished up work and headed over to the mall. We go to a lot of movies but only have been to a few that have been "full", in most cases we are close to the only ones there but today we were surprised when we walked in to a 4pm movie and it was packed!

The movie was wonderful and I highly suggest it to everyone. If we don't remember where we came from we could easily make the same mistakes again. I just can't believe that this story takes place in my lifetime. :(
As the movie ended everyone just stayed in their seats. I dare say that I was NOT the only one sitting there with tears streaming down my cheeks. It was such a beautifully acted movie and I would put bets on many  awards coming to the cast of this movie. I was not all that familiar with Emma Stone before I met her as Skeeter, the main character, but I am an instant fan now.

I am going to go buy the book and the soundtrack this week...it is just that good!

Date Night on Friday the 13th

Tonight we had our "Date Night". We took off from work and went to the mall. I guess it has been a very long time since I have been to the mall because not only has the name changed (used to be Sarasota Square, now it's Westfield) but the whole dang mall and movie theatres have changed!

We didn't have much time but had not had lunch or dinner so we stopped in Ruby Tuesdays for a quick bite. We had the salad bar and split an appetizer. The salads were awesome..everything was so fresh! The appetizer we spit was a chicken quesidella -and quite remarkably the best one I've ever had!! It is one of my favorite things and I've had them everywhere so this is a big deal!

We made it out of there in less than half an hour and went over to the movies just minutes to spare before our movie started. I wanted to see Bridesmaids, and Vic was the good sport and said ok! We both laughed our butts off ...it's a total smile and laugh kind of movie.

When we were done with the movie it was still early so we wandered around the mall. I had worked at that very mall for years back in my 20s but it is so different now that I barely recognized it! We walked through the food court and got free samples. They worked because Vic ended up getting some orange chicken dish from one of the Chinese places. I had a bite and it was surprisingly good.

 I had the most fun just people watching! Living in a town with the average age of 67 (seriously it is, the census results were posted a few weeks ago!) it was nice to see teenagers and young kids all over the place! We walked around and in a few of the shops but headed home by 8:30 so we could take care of the fur children that had been home all day. I'd say it was a GREAT Date Night and looking forward to doing it again soon!

Date Night

Last night we finally got back on track and went to see The Color Purple at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center. It was awesome!!  We bought the tickets several weeks ago and have been counting down the days. It was the first time either Vic or I had been to the Van Wezel so we were not sure about our seats, but I had heard that there are no bad seats there. We were on row 23 , seats 11 and 12. The tickets were $55 each, a bit more than we normally spend for date night, but well worth it! It would have been more perfect closer to the stage, but the sound and performance were brilliant.

Of course I had a wardrobe malfunction right before we left home and the buttons on the pants I was going to wear popped off! (note to self, MUST lose weight!). I ended up finding a different outfit but needed a shawl that I could not find and improvised with a black table cloth..mom aren't you proud? LOL  Vic didn't even know until I told her so I think I pulled it off pretty good!

If we would have gone straight home or anywhere else to eat the evening would have ended a huge success! But.....we made the mistake of stopping at the IHOP on the way home in Sarasota. It was after 11pm so our dining choices were limited.

We almost walked out after it took the waitress three tries to find us a clean table. We thought there was a bad odor in the place and later after a trip to the restroom we found out why. I won't gross you out, we'll just leave it at YUCK. The food was average for IHOP..you don't go in a place like that expecting much in fine dining. Vic ordered more gravy for her country fried steak and it never came. I had to ask for refills on my soda because the waitress never checked back in on us. We were happy to finish our meal and head home. The babies missed us and we went to sleep with the songs from the musical playing in our heads.