Date night’s triumphant return

Quite a number of months ago, Rockford and I made a pledge to go on a weekly date. And I was writing about the dates, and they were fun, and then they stopped. It was supposed to be a 52-date project, but we only made it to date No. 9 before things interfered. We went a few weeks without having an official date, and then we forgot about it altogether.

But! We’re trying to start again. And thus I present to you:

10/52
Project 52: Date Nights logo

  • The friend with whom you’ve set up a date-night babysitting exchange
  • Trivia night.
  • A friend with whom Rockford and I went to high school lives in our city, and he is very hip and active in the Fun Things to Do scene. He goes to a trivia night downtown pretty regularly, and the last time he posted something about it on Facebook I asked him about it. And last night, Rockford and I finally went.

    Trivia night was held upstairs in a rather seedy-looking bar, and I only knew two of our six team members. But it was so much fun! The categories ranged from video game consoles to cartoon sidekicks to beer to movies, and I actually managed to come up with a few answers. Here are two of the questions I was able to answer:

  • From the cartoon sidekicks category: Kimber Benton, Shana Elmsford and Rio Pacheco. Can you name their show?
  • This beer comes in four “colors,” but most people drink their red, white or blue. As someone who doesn’t drink at all, I was pretty pleased to come up with this one. Do you know it?

    Trivia night was loud and quite a bit more raucous than our typical Monday night, but it was surprisingly relaxing to spend a few hours answering silly questions and hanging out with friends. And did I mention how much fun it was? We’ll definitely go back.

    Oh, and also? We won! Go team!

  • In which I follow my own plan

    I have kind of a template that I try to follow for my weekly menu planning. My in-laws come over for dinner on Sundays, so that’s designated “big meal” day — even though I rarely actually make a big, boisterous meal like the Sunday dinners the people in the movies have. The plan also includes meat on Mondays, kids’ choice on Tuesdays (the kids take turn picking), sandwiches on Wednesday, vegetarian on Thursday, pizza on Friday and a new recipe on Saturday. The categories are rather open-ended, so you’d think it would be easy to keep to it. Even so, I have a hard time with it. This, in fact, is the first week that I’ve managed to do it in a long time!

    menubutton

    Saturday: Banh mi burgers

    I made these banh mi sandwiches awhile back. The flavor was great, and I thought they might translate well to burger format. I used half ground pork and half ground beef, but otherwise I stuck pretty close to the Bon Appetit recipe.

    Sunday: Mu shu tacos

    Good Housekeeping calls this a “quick mu shu pork,” which I guess technically it is. But I don’t generally associate mu shu with ground meat, so I’m calling it a taco. Whatever you’d like to call it, though, it was tasty.

    Monday: Roasted chicken & veggies.

    I might start roasting my own chickens once fall comes around, but for now I’ll rely on the grocery store’s rotisserie.

    Tuesday: Grilled cheese & black bean soup.

    Poppy picked grilled cheese sandwiches for her kids’ choice week. The kids will be having standard-issue cheese, but I’m going to make use something like a pepper jack to go with the black bean soup for the grownups.

    Wednesday: Grilled pork sliders.

    I picked this recipe up from Relish, a meal-planning website to which I’d like to subscribe.

    Thursday: Grilled tuna.

    I grilled fish for the first time last month, and it was delicious. I didn’t intend for it to be a once-a-month meal. Maybe I’ll get to it again before another month goes by!

    Friday: Pizza.

    Again, I might start making my own pizzas once it gets cooler out. For this week, though, it’ll be Papa John’s.

    I’m not sure how long I can handle the puppetry

    Our first week of the 2010-11 school year went quite well. I’m trying to be more relaxed with our schedule this year. Last year I wanted to sit down in the morning and get everything I had planned finished before we moved on to anything else. home/schoolThat wasn’t a terrible thing, but here’s what we’re doing this year: A little work, a break, a little work, a break, etc. and so on until bedtime. It’s easier on Poppy, who is a wiggly, energetic girl with the attention span of, well, a kindergartner. It’s easier on Pete, who only has to keep quiet(ish) for short pockets throughout the day. And it’s easier on Mommy, who always has an easier day when the children aren’t irritable. And being frustrated with or about schoolwork? That makes for irritable children.

    The only real complication we had this week was yesterday. I watch a friend’s 2-year-old on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. She was here Monday through Friday until last week, but we adjusted the schedule because Poppy has mid-day activities on Wednesdays and Thursdays now. Anyway, Monday and Tuesday went fine with her here, but I think Fridays might be difficult. The kids were both really excited to see Addy after she wasn’t here for a few days, and Poppy had a hard time concentrating while Addy and Pete were playing without her. So I’m going to need to figure that out.

    Anywho: Our roundup. Since Monday was our First Day of School, I gave it its own post. Here’s what we did for the rest of the week: Continue reading I’m not sure how long I can handle the puppetry