Birthday Drinks for Hobbits and Other Exciting Things

I was going to write a post yesterday to catch up on the last week, but then I didn't have time because of double soccer games, my discovery of a new yoga studio (so beautiful! so invisible to google maps!), and a free makeover I forgot I had signed up for at the Benefit counter at Ulta a few weeks ago, and then it was suddenly 6:00 and I needed to get ready for a date night and date nights are so exciting that we're going to talk about that now instead. Cora wearing a fire hat and diaper while emptying the dishwasher to follow later this week. I know, it's hard to wait, but:

We went on a date! It was in celebration of the swim school's 2nd birthday and we were very excited to get fancied up and eat food slowly over multiple courses without children. As I told the makeup artist at Ulta, who was excited about my date night for me, "yeah, it's always exciting when my husband wears pants."

[funny look from very sweet makeup person]

"Ha, I mean, he's covered, just not with pants . . . He's a swim coach, so he's usually half naked. Jeans are a really big deal."

I think she got me, though I didn't add that I don't exactly mind the uncovered look.

Oh Cora, are you also in this picture?

So! Back to date night. We decided on a new downtown restaurant, Vivo 53, because it looked like a place that was nicer than we'd probably bring the kids, but not so expensive that we couldn't order everything we wanted on the menu.

And so we did. We ordered everything we wanted on the menu: Roasted Cauliflower with Greek Yogurt (a-freaking-mazing), Chicken Meatballs, Housemade Burrata, Lasagna, Garlic Ciabatta Bread, Crispy Prosciutto Pizza, Spicy Sausage Pizza, Ice Cream Sandwiches, and Creme Brulee. And four drinks. Four drinks that turned into six drinks because our first two took forever and our apologetic waiter started bringing us extras.

burrrrrata

My favorite part, besides all the food- of which not even a crumb remained, astonishing our skeptical waiter- and the excellent company, was when JP's choice of overpriced hand crafted cocktail came to the table. JP never orders drinks because (1) he's not a big drinker and (2) it makes him crazy to pay the extra $$ to drink his beer or rare glass of bourbon in a restaurant as opposed to at home. So it was a big deal when he ordered the $13 hand crafted tequila something cocktail and thus an even bigger disappointment (and even more hilarious to me) when this tiny "drink for a hobbit" came to the table.

Can I get this in the adult human version?

Luckily, some of the drinks were normal sized and mine was one of them.

It was all delicious, though the cauliflower and pizzas and ridiculous chocolate shortbread cookies with homemade amaretto ice cream sandwiches were particularly good (ah, the memories). Afterward, we walked off our 8 plates of food with a stroll down Main Street for the Arts Festival that we forgot was going on. Some live music and fresh air later we headed back home, walking through our charming little downtown with twinkling lights and the occasional tall building and I thought, I love this so much. This man, this city, this life, this company he started that I'm so freaking proud of. He has 175 swimmers signed up for this Spring session and he's become so well known in our community. Having a small business in a smallish city is really a fun old-fashioned feeling kind of thing.

from the swim school's birthday party at the pool

Fourteen years after we first met, when he drunkenly told me along the sidewalks of 6th Street that "my big dream is to own my own company one day," and even then my risk-averse not-even-a-lawyer-yet-brain yelled "danger! no! good luck with that you crazy drunken person", and I'm (finally) the enthusiastic other half of a small business owner.

And I'm even the enthusiastic other half of a small business owner who started ANOTHER small business. Details as soon as the website is live, but basically JP developed a new swim product and has done a ton of work- applying for a patent, working with China to develop the prototype, finding a warehouse to store and drop ship it, etc.- and he now has 500 of these products headed our way. And I was encouraging him the whole time! Really, I'm proud of both of us. (I mean, mostly him, but my aversion to risk and preference to just shut down anything that might hint at risk is a very real thing.) But it's a great idea and a great product and I can't wait to link to the website and go on another date night to celebrate its launch!