Saturday, December 3, 2011

Scratching the 7 Year Itch

Due to my lack of blogging, I’m going back a little.  This may be a common occurrence for the next few blogs. Again, my apologies.
 
A little more than 7 years ago, I was fortunate enough to marry my beautiful wife.   Since that day, we moved once, added a little boy to our family, had some great dogs come and go and replaced them with two dogs that the jury is still out on. I love her very dearly and couldn't imagine anyone else I would have rather spent the past 7 years with.

Now, onto the good stuff... This year was a nice change of pace with Michelle planning out our anniversary celebration. Let me say that she hit this out of the ball park. Thanks again Michelle for such a great evening out.  The evening started off with us checking in at the Westin Hotel in Plano .  It was a nice hotel with a nice bar area, good sized rooms, and a really comfortable bed.  After getting checked in, I was informed that we had massages scheduled.
 
View from the room.
The Lovely Mrs.


We started it off with a nice couple’s massage at the Stonebriar Spa.  Now, I’m not much for massages but it was an anniversary celebration and last time I checked, she was part of this too so I’m really glad she set this up.  The Spa was really nice, there was a relaxation area, the bathrooms were really nice and the toilet even bubbled. I don’t know why it would but it just did.
 
Let the pampering begin
Kicking up my feet.
View's not bad here either.
 The massage was really relaxing and comforting and a nice way to kick off the evening.
 
The next stop was at Jasper’s in Plano .  It’s gourmet backyard grill food. The service there was pretty slow and inattentive but the food more than made up for it. I had their famous ribs which were voted top three in the nation according to Gourmet Magazine.  Michelle surprisingly got the grilled pork tenderloin. Surprising because she doesn’t really like pork, even more surprising was the fact she ate most of her plate. She did leave me a couple of pieces to enjoy. Like I said, she is a great wife.
 




Little aperitif

Mound of ribs and creamy potatoes
Grilled pork tenderloin with corn


 After our meal, we went to the Angelika to enjoy a movie. She even made sure she timed it just right so we had a movie to watch without waiting. What a planner. We watched Margin Call which was a movie about the Stock Market and all the mess that with the housing bundles and corruption that went on that helped tank our economy.
 
After the movie, we ventured back to the hotel and went to the bar where we chatted like old couples do while being disturbed by a guy well in his forties screaming at the top of his lungs rooting for his Oregon Football team.  Some guys never grow up really and some guys are just jerks, this guy was a combination of both. It was one of the most annoying things ever seeing as how most people were there to enjoy a quiet evening at a hotel bar. What’s even more annoying was that he was screaming at his team even though they were up by 20 points with not much time to go. I was thinking either he drank way too much or needed to drink more. 
 
We did enjoy a really good molten chocolate cake and some glasses of wine there while chatting about the wedding crowd that walked the hallways.  After a while we got up and walked around ourselves. We saw the wedding party leaving.  Instead of rice, this wedding had sparklers which was a really nice change of pace as long as no one got set on fire (no one did fortunately).  We even went to the reception room hoping to grab a slice of cake. No cake to be found but the wedding looked like it would have been fun to go to. Lots of pretty flowers, nice arrangements, and just the right mix of fun people and booze seeing how some of the guests were stumbling about.

Talk about a nightcap.   

That’s where this story ends. The rest of the evening isn’t for the young kids.  I hope you enjoyed reading about things as much as I enjoyed living them.  Till next time, hang loose.