Current mood:

chipper

A good weekend
Well, the weekend certainly had some negatives with the news I got Thursday and then not being able to spend Father's Day with my dad because he was out of town, and of course Tanja's back bothering her so much (we really need to get that taken care of before her trip to Germany to see her folks). But it also had some great positives too.

Thursday night, I ended up rocking out to some Rock Band at Jerm and Krissi's house while I was checking on the menagerie. I just felt like being alone to soak in the news about my father, but I didn't want to drink alone. So, I played some loud music to mellow out my mind. It worked fairly well, though I think it was talking with Tanja about it all helped the most of anything.

Friday night, Tanja and I had a romantic evening planned, more so than she realized actually. The plan began as soon as she realized she wouldn't be able to make it to the meetup for the Dining Out group this week at Casablanca Café (she's got a deployment for work that night that she has to manage and just doesn't have the time for a meetup that night). So, I told her we would just have to go by ourselves on Friday, and then we would go back to her place and watch the movie Casablanca which is a favorite of both of us (though she had yet to see it in the original English because she had only watched it in Germany). That's sounds like a good date night, right? Well, I also decided to make it a little more special. First off, I planned out a bit dressier outfit than I normally wear and stashed it at my parents' house. I didn't want to have it wrinkled by me wearing it all day at work and I knew I could clean up there before heading to her place for the evening. Secondly, I bought her some long stem roses, one for each day we've been together. Yeah, that may have been overdoing it a bit for the first time I've given her flowers. But I really wanted to make a statement with them more than the typical dozen or some random number of them. And I put them in the beautiful vase I had bought a while ago without knowing what I would ever use it for. And to top it all off, I brought a bottle of Patron Anejo tequila. LOL. You may think that some wine would be a more romantic drink to bring, but tequila has more significance for us I think. After we had the bad experience at Bonefish a couple weeks ago we ended up drinking tequila at El Porton. Well, Tanja really wanted to have the Anejo because she had recently discovered it there and loves it, but they were sold out. What we had was still quite good, but I could tell she didn't think it was as good as the Anejo. And after trying it this weekend, I would have to agree. The Anejo goes down far far too smoothly for how strong it is. It's amazing.

So, I did surprise Tanja at her apartment Friday night. She absolutely loved the flowers and I believe she enjoyed the sentiment of the exact numbering of them. We ended up not trying the tequila that night, but she still seemed to appreciate it too. We ran a bit late getting to the restaurant, but it didn't really matter as the place was completely empty inside with just the three tables outside being occupied (their a/c was out). I embarrassed myself a little bit by asking after alcoholic drinks when I should have known they didn't serve any there. But being with Tanja, it really didn't phase me at all. We just moved right on with me ordering the Falafel Hummus Platter as our appetizer while we continued to peruse the menu. Every on the menu sounded delicious. Tanja ended up getting the Moussaka (Seasoned Beef and Eggplant, Served over Baked Potato Slices & Topped with Baked Cauliflower) and I had the Kifta Kabob (Beef and Lamb Patty Char-grilled & Topped with Casablanca Sauce). Oh and we also had some House Fruit Smoothies, we ordered Mango Smoothies first and then they brought us out free Banana Smoothies later simply because they just made a fresh batch and thought we'd like to try them. Now that is what I call good service. Another funny momemnt was when we were ready to go and I ended up walking into their kitchen to ask for our check (just worked out that nobody was in the dining area when we were ready to leave). No big deal really, but it was still kind of funny that I was bold enough to just walk in there and ask for the check.

We headed back to Tanja's apartment after that and started watching Casablanca to put a finish on a thoroughly pleasant evening. It definitely helped get my mind off of other things.

Saturday, we spent all day together. She helped me pick out a couple of gifts for my niece's birthday, along with starting her collecting these very cool German figures of fairies on horseback that they have at Toys'R'Us (i'll have to find the link to show you), we played some Wii Fit and Guitar Hero, and she took a little bit of a nap before we headed down to Southaven. We stopped in for a little while to take care of the dogs at Jerm and Krissi's then went over to Cato's to do a little shopping. We were able to find one very nice top for Tanja that she ended up wearing the next day. Next we went to Schnucks to by groceries for the Goulash she wanted to make for me. By the time we actually got everything home and started cooking it was far too late to actually finish it and eat (the Goulash tastes best using a slow cooker to cook it for hours). So, we ended up just snacking on cheese toast and letting it cook overnight. Then we had it for a late Brunch or early Lunch.

Everything was amazingly delicious and the presentation was wonderful. I'll have to show you the pictures we took of our plates. We had the Goulash, with rice molded into different castle shapes, cheese toast seasoned with some paprika, and the wonderful salad Tanja makes. It was quite filling and as I said very delicious.

After that we went shopping some more. Tanja needs some new clothes for her trip next month and we think her heels have been aggrevating her back, so we were also looking for some flats for her. We also ended up getting me a new pair of shoes too. Yeah, it's been a while since I bought new shoes and my current ones are looking a little bit worse for the wear. We found some very cool tops for her at Fashion Bug (I'm really excited about taking her out when she wears the red one) and some cool sketchers that are a little bit dressy, but also a bit sporty.

Everybody got back from Bonnaroo safely and invited us to go see the Hulk with them, but Tanja wasn't interested at all, and I really didn't care one way or another about seeing it. The only reason i might have wanted to go was to be with my friends. But i was having a great time with Tanja. I'm sure I'll see them some other time soon to have some fun.

We again went back to her place and watched some tv, played some Guitar Hero, oh and finally got her flight to Europe taken care of. Damn was that a painful process of finding the best flight and damn was it expensive. Still, she needs to go back and I am glad that we got it taken care of and out of the way.

And that was pretty much it for another great weekend spent with Tanja. I'm definitely glad I could spend it with her, particularly because I couldn't spend any of it with my father.

Happy Things: Get Smart comes out this weekend! I just hope that I can make it to the meetup group that wants to see it Saturday night. It will be rather tight since I have plans with my friends that night for D&D character creation. But we'll see. I would hate to miss seeing the movie with Tanja and the rest of the meetup group, but I also don't want to cut short the time I'll be spending with my friends.