Busy Weekend

We had a very busy first full weekend of 2007:

Friday was our weekly date night, Ryan's choice. As a way to make sure our daily lives don't become too mundane and filled with unimportant stuff, Ryan and I set aside one night each week to hang out together, with no interruptions allowed, not even cell phones. So, for this week's date night, he picked me up from work and we headed to our favorite area in Northern Virginia, Old Town Alexandria. We had some Tapas appetizers at La Tasca (good food, reasonable prices), then headed to Bilbo Baggins for a drink and played some trivia. We ended the night attempting to play pool at Bungalow Billiards, near our house, but the wait was too long...so we set out in search of pizza. Ryan's profession, every so often, has a few perks and Friday night was one of those times. We stopped by Buon Appetito and the sign in the window said Open, but they looked closed. Unsure if they were open or not, Ryan pulled on the door and the owner (who he knew from supplying their wine) insisted he'd make a fresh pizza for Ryan. It was a very nice gesture, but we both felt bad for making him stay longer than necessary. The pizza was amazing, and we both fell asleep with full bellies, 5 minutes into Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Not the most healthy thing to do, but it was a nice end to a very fun date night!

Saturday was filled with necessary chores and we did some shopping for storage bins, so we can finally get rid of the cardboard boxes in our storage closet. The storage boxes were a decision brought about when I finally decided to let it all out...that my only point of contention in this relationship is the lack of organization in our house. Ryan agreed to start throwing some unnecessary things away and stop taking things out of the trash that I throw away. I know a few visits to the Container Store and a few Saturdays of pitching and organizing are all we really need to get ourselves in line, but it will be such a daunting task at this point. But, we got a good start on the organizing project and Ryan now seems to be more into it than I am! We also took down our Christmas tree and packed away all the decorations, a very difficult task for me. I love Christmas and the general feeling of the holidays more than just about anything...and absolutely dread taking everything down at the end of the season. We ended the organizing project for the day around midnight and wound down trying once again to watch Pirates of the Caribbean. This time we made it probably half way through before falling asleep.

On Sunday, around 10am, Connie picked me up and we went to breakfast at Bob Evans before heading to our friend's (Kate and Bernard) to hang out with their little delight, Nuri, so mom and dad could go out for the day to celebrate Bernard's birthday. Nuri was so great! He's only 16 months old, and communicates in short sentences in sign language already, while attempting to say the words as well (most words are easily understood in combination with the signs). He's the most polite toddler I've ever seen, signing "please" and "thank you" for everything. They sure are doing something right with that happy little guy - and making me want a baby even more!

Look how sweet:

Ryan spent Sunday installing my Sirius radio in my car and putting the boxes back in the storage closet. My Sirius works great and this morning I was so thrilled to have something else to listen to besides the traffic report and my own singing of random song parts. I love Sirius! And I really appreciate all your hard work sweetie...you're wonderful!

Back to the grind of the work week....looking forward to Friday again, already!

Have a great week!

~Erin