This past weekend…
Hello all, in “Merle-land.” For several years, MB and I had a tradition of having someone watch the kids for an evening while we had dinner, had a couples massage at Spa Sydell, and then stayed at some hotel for the evening. We typically did this around Valentine’s Day. Well 2009 was a bit hectic, so we didn’t do it last year and we promised each other we’d get back to the tradition in 2010. Unfortunately, scheduling didn’t work out in February, so we couldn’t do it for Valentine’s Day. We re-scheduled with each other to do it for my birthday in March, but again something came up. Well, this past weekend, in celebration of MaryBeth’s 14th anniversary of her 29th birthday, we resurrected the tradition (accidentally).
The plan was to have dinner and sleep in a hotel while our babysitter (a 20-something college student who has watched the kids for the past umpteen years) stayed with the kids. MB then suggested that we spend the day Saturday at the Renassaince Festival (yes, we do get dressed up — as if you had any question!). Okay, so the plan was dinner (R. Thomas Deluxe Grill, a really nice, down-to-earth place that provides meal options for both vegetarians and carnivores, alike), hotel, Ren Fest. On the drive to the hotel from the restaurant , we noticed a Spa Sydell and, at the last second, we decided to see if they had an opening. As fate would have it, they did; so MB and I had a couples massage (as a bonus). We then spent the night in a nice hotel and had a great time at the Ren Fest.
What MB didn’t know, though, was that I had conspired with the kids and the sitter to get the house picked up and decorated so we could have a party when we got home. My younger son made her cake (with fondant, but no pastiage this time). One of her presents was a DVD of Avatar (which she had been asking me to get (“for my birthday”) all day. After my daughter was in bed, we hooked the laptop up to the projector and to an external speaker and watched the movie as it was projected on our living room wall. All in all, I think MB felt loved and celebrated.
It was a good weekend. MB and I had some alone time. We did stuff as a family. And the level of stress (attributable mostly to the papers that MB and my younger son had to complete for this week) in the house was reduced. It was a good weekend.
Merle
(look at that! A whole post without mentioning my cancer! DOH! I just did…Damn!) 
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