![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Apparently, it's cold out...
Jan. 21st, 2011 10:17 amActually, I *know* it's cold out, because I've been out there delivering various people in my life to their jobs/school. Now I'm sitting in a coffee shop and eating a donut, having convinced myself (and the barista) that I NEED the fat layer to keep warm.
Last night, Shawn and I splurged and had a "date." As in we left Mason in the company of a babysitter and ventured out... into the wild unknown of where people go who are not hampered by kids.
I know. Kinda scary, right? :-)
I'd been kind of aggitating for Ethiopian food, but when the temperatures took their nose dive in the afternoon, both Shawn and I suddenly craved comfort food. We ended up with the elderly set at Red Lobster. Which was kind of a theme for my day yesterday, as I had made myself my favorite "old lady" lunch of a hot beef, mashed potato, gravy, open-faced sandwich for lunch, AND encouraged a writing collegue to put on fuzzy slippers and stand in her front lawn yelling at the "kid" listening to his music too loudly. Yesterday was my embrace my inner old lady day, I guess. Continuing in that vein, Shawn and I did not, in point of fact, go "clubbing" after. We went book shopping.
There was a little public fondling, though. Shawn couldn't keep her hands off the color Nook at Barnes & Noble.
I suspect that in the next few (months? years?) our household will have an e-reader of some sort in it. Shawn would really like B&N to let the next generation of Nook be a bit more of a Pad, but I think she'd settle for something that can read .pdfs from her work. (At least I think that was her complaint. She was so buzzed about the Nook that I had trouble following all her excited noises.)
In keeping with our new austerity program, we didn't buy too much at HPB (or B&N), we mostly window shopped. I did end up with a new dinosaur book, which I bought as a gift for a friend whose birthday is quick approaching, and Shawn found some things she'd been searching for, and one she wasn't: H.G. Well's slim volume of the "Complete History of the World." Which just looked too cool to pass up, especially as he starts in space, and the thing can't be more than a couple hundred pages (if that!) long. As it was $2.00, it was hard to say no to.
Anyway, it was lovely, even though, when we got home at 9:00, the babysitter hadn't quite been able to coax Mason to sleep. It was fine, though, since we actually sort of suspected he'd resist, and I rather enjoyed snuggling him (warm!) and hearing about how he and the babysitter had just talked a lot of "small talk" all night.
All and all a very successful date, IMHO. I mean, the best part of being together for twenty-five years is that the quiet dates can be just as romantic as the big, splashy ones. And, frankly, book browsing without a small person under foot can be really relaxing and romantic. Mason is usually pretty good in bookstores, though, since he's such a big reader. IF he finds a good haul of whatever series he's reading at the moment, he will just plunk down next to whatever asile I'm in, and start reading. It can be tougher, though, if he strikes out, or only finds enough books to last a few minutes. Plus, regardless, I or Shawn always have to keep track of him, and not having that worry was just... pleasant.
Did I ever tell you about the funny incident in the HPB that Shawn and I both witnessed in different parts of the store with the mom who just wanted five minutes to browse and the toddler who just wanted to pull all the books off the shelves? She had a much older child whom she'd put in charge of the toddler, but little guy kept making a bee-line for her skirts. At one point Shawn overheard her say, "How did you find me!?" She also heard the older boy say, "Take care of your baby, Mama," to which she relpied, "I just want five minutes!"
I'm sure most people were horrified by her parenting, but Shawn and I had only sympathy. We call those moments "noodles," because of a very similar experience we had when Shawn was trying to make lasagna when Mason was just a newborn. Let's just say, it involved a hungry baby, tears (from everyone), and noodles that had to be re-done because they got soggy....
Sometimes you just don't GET five minutes.
Last night, Shawn and I splurged and had a "date." As in we left Mason in the company of a babysitter and ventured out... into the wild unknown of where people go who are not hampered by kids.
I know. Kinda scary, right? :-)
I'd been kind of aggitating for Ethiopian food, but when the temperatures took their nose dive in the afternoon, both Shawn and I suddenly craved comfort food. We ended up with the elderly set at Red Lobster. Which was kind of a theme for my day yesterday, as I had made myself my favorite "old lady" lunch of a hot beef, mashed potato, gravy, open-faced sandwich for lunch, AND encouraged a writing collegue to put on fuzzy slippers and stand in her front lawn yelling at the "kid" listening to his music too loudly. Yesterday was my embrace my inner old lady day, I guess. Continuing in that vein, Shawn and I did not, in point of fact, go "clubbing" after. We went book shopping.
There was a little public fondling, though. Shawn couldn't keep her hands off the color Nook at Barnes & Noble.
I suspect that in the next few (months? years?) our household will have an e-reader of some sort in it. Shawn would really like B&N to let the next generation of Nook be a bit more of a Pad, but I think she'd settle for something that can read .pdfs from her work. (At least I think that was her complaint. She was so buzzed about the Nook that I had trouble following all her excited noises.)
In keeping with our new austerity program, we didn't buy too much at HPB (or B&N), we mostly window shopped. I did end up with a new dinosaur book, which I bought as a gift for a friend whose birthday is quick approaching, and Shawn found some things she'd been searching for, and one she wasn't: H.G. Well's slim volume of the "Complete History of the World." Which just looked too cool to pass up, especially as he starts in space, and the thing can't be more than a couple hundred pages (if that!) long. As it was $2.00, it was hard to say no to.
Anyway, it was lovely, even though, when we got home at 9:00, the babysitter hadn't quite been able to coax Mason to sleep. It was fine, though, since we actually sort of suspected he'd resist, and I rather enjoyed snuggling him (warm!) and hearing about how he and the babysitter had just talked a lot of "small talk" all night.
All and all a very successful date, IMHO. I mean, the best part of being together for twenty-five years is that the quiet dates can be just as romantic as the big, splashy ones. And, frankly, book browsing without a small person under foot can be really relaxing and romantic. Mason is usually pretty good in bookstores, though, since he's such a big reader. IF he finds a good haul of whatever series he's reading at the moment, he will just plunk down next to whatever asile I'm in, and start reading. It can be tougher, though, if he strikes out, or only finds enough books to last a few minutes. Plus, regardless, I or Shawn always have to keep track of him, and not having that worry was just... pleasant.
Did I ever tell you about the funny incident in the HPB that Shawn and I both witnessed in different parts of the store with the mom who just wanted five minutes to browse and the toddler who just wanted to pull all the books off the shelves? She had a much older child whom she'd put in charge of the toddler, but little guy kept making a bee-line for her skirts. At one point Shawn overheard her say, "How did you find me!?" She also heard the older boy say, "Take care of your baby, Mama," to which she relpied, "I just want five minutes!"
I'm sure most people were horrified by her parenting, but Shawn and I had only sympathy. We call those moments "noodles," because of a very similar experience we had when Shawn was trying to make lasagna when Mason was just a newborn. Let's just say, it involved a hungry baby, tears (from everyone), and noodles that had to be re-done because they got soggy....
Sometimes you just don't GET five minutes.
