Zombie Date

It's been far too long since Joe and I had a date night, so we decided to do one on Saturday night. Instead of pulling from the date jars, though, Joe thought we should have a zombie date night. As a lover of all things zombie, I was definitely on board.

For dinner, we had ribs and tater "toes." Joe had the idea to make homemade chips to use as toenails. So gross... yet so good :) For dessert, we had eyes (grapes) and chocolate pudding.

Fans of The Walking Dead should remember Carl going to town on 112 ounces of chocolate pudding :)

A zombie movie would have been the obvious choice for entertainment, but all it seems we do is watch TV or movies ever since pregnancy turned me into a couch potato (okay, okay... MORE of a couch potato). Instead, we decided to play The Walking Dead Season 2 video game. We REALLY like the Telltale Walking Dead games because it's like a Choose Your Own Adventure book (R.I.P. R.A. Montgomery) where you are faced with lots of choices and interactions with characters that can change how the game progresses.

(Warning slight spoilers for The Walking Dead video games ahead. So slight that probably only me, the Queen of No Spoilers, would be annoyed if I read it haha).

We had already played and finished the game a few months ago, but we were in the middle of playing it through again and making all bad/mean choices. I have to say, as fun as it is to play the "correct" way and make decisions we feel like we would actually make in the situation, it is REALLY fun to say and do the meanest things the game will allow you to do (we even let a totally defenseless character die... just because that's what "Mean Clementine" would do). It's kind of like how it's fun to build a swimming pool on The Sims and then remove the ladder while some unsuspecting houseguest is doing laps (R.I.P. countless Sims).

This time around I'm "Mean Clementine" - watch yourself.

It was also interesting to see how the game really does change its story based on your choices. For example, a character who dies much later in the game actually died pretty quick the second time we played (sorry dude).  It's also interesting to see how strongly Joe and I want to make the "right" choices at certain parts. While playing Saturday night, the main character was faced with a pretty big moral dilemma and, true to our vow of playing "mean" this time, we went the immoral route. It actually made us feel really bad! We know there is another choice coming up that is going to be incredibly hard to make, but we will suck it up and be as mean as possible :)

It was a low-key date night, but that's about what I can manage right now. So it was perfect :)

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Nickelodeon Date Night!

Woo hoo! We successfully completed another date.

This week's date was Nickelodeon night where we were tasked to watch all the classics.

***Side Note*** I realize that this is another date where I designed the night around sitting on the couch and eating. Is it any wonder I need a trainer? Just kidding (kind of). When I wrote these dates I tried to think of ones that wouldn't cost a lot of money since I planned for us to do one each week. Eating dinner made at home and watching TV is about as cheap as you can get. ***End of Side Note***

We figured if we were watching shows from our childhood, we should eat kiddie food. So dinosaur nuggets, tater tots and orange slices were on the menu:

And, like any children, we played with our food a little:

For dessert, Joe had the great idea to make pistachio pudding since it looks like slime (and if you've ever watched a Kids' Choice Awards, you know how much that station digs their slime). The pudding didn't turn out green enough, so I added a bit of food coloring and voilà:

As far as shows for the night, here was the line-up:

Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Legends of the Hidden Temple
What Would You Do?
Doug
Double Dare
All That
Hey Dude
Legends of the Hidden Temple
Legends of the Hidden Temple
Legends of the Hidden Temple
Legends of the Hidden Temple
Family Double Dare
Family Double Dare

If you couldn't tell, we decided that Legends of the Hidden Temple was our favorite... and we couldn't stop watching! I kept hoping a temple guard would get punched or a kid would pee his pants when a guard grabbed him. No luck on either count and I was bummed. (Does this make me a bad person?)

Family Double Dare was good too. We lucked out and saw an episode with DJ Tanner and Steve Urkel! They looked like babies! And it was hilarious to see what the fabulous 90's prizes were. I have a feeling our future children won't even be able to identify 1 out of 3 of them.

But it wasn't all good...

Honestly, I was SUPER disappointed with Are You Afraid of the Dark? (And not just because I guessed the "twist" a mile away...). It was super cheesy. The acting was terrible. The camerawork was even worse. I'd hazard a guess that every amateur video on YouTube is better produced than this show. Plus, it annoyed me that these children, *ahem* members of the Midnight Society, were allowed to go into a forest in the middle of the night and light a campfire. Where are their parents?! Where is Smokey Bear?!

I was also disappointed with What Would You Do?. Though we got to see Marc Summers slide down the pie slide, the rest of the episode was *meh.* Speaking of the pie slide, I don't understand why everyone pretends they don't want to go down it. Be real folks - you know you want to slide face first into some whipped cream. Who doesn't?!

Hey Dude wasn't much better. I LOVED that show as a kid, but Danny's "acting" was so awful that it distracted from the show. (I feel a little bad criticizing him because there are rumors the "actor" died of liver failure... but no one can confirm this because no real record exists of him after the show. I know, I am as shocked as you are that his "acting" career didn't take off.) Anyways, in this episode Ted and Brad challenged one another to a battle of the sexes (of course) and the boys and girls did a cook-off. The girls made tuna noodle casserole (WTH were they thinking?) but the judge was allergic to tuna. This forced them to choose another challenge. You know, because there is only one human being on that dude ranch who could judge. What? The only adult staffer (a.k.a. Lucy) doesn't have a refined enough palate to be your tuna noodle casserole back-up judge? At least Ted and Danny made cupcakes.

Alright - enough complaining about children's shows. I loved ALL Nick shows as a kid, and it was a blast to revisit them the other night with Joe :)

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P.S. If you ask why Salute Your Shorts wasn't viewed, it's because my dad wouldn't let me watch the show as a kid. He thought the title was dirty. At 28 I agree with him, but I still maintain that the show was perfectly fine for youngsters.

200th Post... And Mexican Fiesta Date Night

While I may have been a pretty pathetic blogger lately, on the whole I totally rock because I have officially made it to post 200!

Every time I hit one of these big milestones, I am shocked that I've kept up with this blog for so long. I'm not exactly the best at sticking with things, so the fact that I have hit "publish" 200 times is a pretty impressive feat for me. 

Speaking of poor follow-through, my goal of doing a date a week while Joe is in dental school hasn't been the most successful. So far he has been in school for 34 weeks and we've done a whopping 11 dates. For those of you who aren't math geniuses, that's a 32% success rate (don't worry - I'm not a math genius either. I used my favorite online conversion calculator). 

***Side Note*** The closer Joe and I get to starting a family, the more I start viewing things in terms of how long pregnancy will be. The fact that Joe has been in school 34 weeks and pregnancy is 40 weeks is absolutely mortifying. That is a very, very long time to have another human being inside my body.... and to give up wine. ***End of Side Note***

***Clarification Side Note*** No we are not starting a family soon. In fact, babymaking has been postponed. We chose a date, I accidentally spilled to several people (thanks, wine), and then we re-evaluated things. So when I say "closer to starting a family," the word "closer" only means one fewer day. You know, in the same way we are "closer" to death every day. Fun thought.***End of Clarification Side Note***

Anywhoo, we completed our eleventh date on Saturday night and it was a fun and relaxing one: a Mexican themed night! 

Of course, that meant dressing up in clothes we might wear in Mexico plus a dinner consisting of tacos and margaritas. 

The finished product

Joe thought it would be fun to put a Mexican blanket on the coffee table to make the room more festive. Buster has never gotten on the coffee table before, but apparently he figured that a table with a blanket on it is fair game to use as a chair:

While we ate, we wanted to watch a movie that takes place in Mexico. All we could think of was Nacho Libre, so we watched that (well, about half of it and I got bored and demanded requested Game of Thrones instead.)

I may not have liked the movie, but I do dig these adorable babies in Nacho Libre costumes :)

It was a fun night, and I am excited for this week's date! We've already drawn it, and it's an easy (but FUN!) one :)

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Valentine's Day 2014

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day everyone!

This year, as usual, Joe and I vetoed gifts in favor of going out to a fancy dinner. We also do this for our anniversary. We figure it's hard enough to think of gifts for birthdays and Christmases, why rack our brains for two more dates on the calendar? Plus, we have too much stuff as it is. What we don't have a lot of (especially now) is time with each other.

Since Valentine's Day was on a Friday this year, we decided to do our fancy dinner on Saturday and hang out at home on Friday night. Why brave the crowds? Especially when season 2 of House of Cards had a 2/14 start-date ;)

So Joe made heart-shaped pizza and we chilled on the couch watching House of Cards. It was SO relaxing - which was something both of us desperately needed.

For our fancy dinner on Saturday, Joe made reservations at a northern Italian steakhouse. MMMMM.

I was super pumped because I figured out how to do a sock bun in my hair. My hair NEVER EVER EVER cooperates. I could spray tons and tons and tons of hairspray in my hair and it still doesn't hold. I had pretty much given up on ever being able to have my hair in any sort of "do" - until I learned of the sock bun.

We got to the restaurant a little early, so we had some pre-dinner drinks. I accidentally ordered a $17 glass of wine. Oops...

I'm trying to grow out my bangs... they are in a super awkward stage...

Dinner was DELICIOUS.

We started off with Philly cheesesteak spring rolls - which were yummy:

We also had salads (no pics) and for dinner Joe had the flat iron steak and I had a 12 ounce filet mignon. I should have ordered the 8, but it's been way too long since I had steak - I couldn't turn down an extra 4 ounces ;) For sides, we had gnocchi with pomodoro sauce and mac-n-cheese with truffle oil. Oh-so-fancy!

Of course, we had to get dessert too. A chocolate molten soufflé with vanilla gelato:

We definitely want to go back when my parents visit. Though it was pretty pricey, they have free corkage on Sunday nights and if we could bring our own wine that would cut down the tab a lot.

When we got home, Joe suggested that we watch Dirty Dancing. He knows I love it and he had never seen it before. It was really fun and during the last dancing scene we started dancing around the living room (cheesy, but what-ev).

Then we both went to bed at about 10:30. I think we are getting old haha.

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Disney Night Date

Being a rabid fan of anything Disney, I was SO excited when Joe pulled this week's date. We were to have a "Disney night," which meant watching a Disney movie and making Monte Cristo sandwiches.

Take it from me, Monte Cristo sandwiches are the BEST thing you can eat at Disneyland (find them at the Blue Bayou or cheaper at Cafe Orleans). Here is a picture from our recent trip:

Making our own Monte Cristos was surprisingly easy. We combined ideas from a few recipes online and listened to Disney music on Pandora while cooking :)

The result, of course, was not as good as Disneyland's, but we don't have a deep fryer and that is highly necessary for a true Monte Cristo. Nevertheless, it was yummy. Here's how we made ours:

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Kate & Joe's Monte Cristos (Makes 2 Sandwiches)
Adapted mostly from this recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 slices of Texas toast
• 4 ounces of thinly sliced ham
• 4 ounces of thinly sliced roasted turkey breast
• 4 ounces of gruyere cheese
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• Blackberry preserves (to preference)
• Powdered sugar (for dusting)

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Whisk the egg and milk together in a shallow dish and add salt and pepper to taste.

• Place your bread on a work surface and spread blackberry preserves on each piece. We did a light layer on ours, but it could have been thicker. The amount is up to you :)

• Divide the ham, turkey and cheese into piles on two slices of bread. Close the sandwich with the remaining 2 slices of bread and lightly press together to help the sandwich stay together.

• Over medium heat, melt the butter in a large nonstick frying pan until it foams. Watch carefully to make sure it doesn't burn. Lower the heat to medium-low if necessary.

• Once the butter is ready, grab a sandwich and dip each side of it into the egg and milk batter. Then place the sandwich in the frying pan. Repeat.

•  Fry until the bottoms of the sandwich are golden brown (about 6-7 minutes, but watch carefully). Flip the sandwiches and repeat. 

• After making sure the cheese is melted and the sandwich is warm through, transfer to serving plates and top with a healthy dusting of powdered sugar. Serve more blackberry preserves on the side for dipping.

FINAL RESULT:

Ta da! This is what your Monte Cristo should look like:

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Once our sandwiches were ready, we turned on The Lion King.

I was always more of a Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Little Mermaid fan, so I haven't watched The Lion King in YEARS. It was so much fun watching as an adult and realizing all of the famous people who were in the movie. Since I am currently binge-watching The Borgias on Netflix, I was particularly excited to see that Jeremy Irons was Scar.

I always knew that Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, James Earl Jones and JTT were voices (oh, JTT - how little Katie loved you so...). What I didn't realize is the following:

Matthew Broderick was adult Simba!

Ernie Sabella (a.k.a. Mr. Carosi from the beach episodes of Saved by the Bell) was Pumba!

Rowan Atkinson (a.k.a. MR. FREAKIN' BEAN) was Zazu!

Cheech Marin (of Cheech & Chong fame) was one of the hyenas!

This was a seriously star-studded flick. And a fun fact I recently learned is that prior to Robin Williams being cast as the Genie in Aladdin, Disney didn't really cast famous people as its voice actors. Obviously that approach changed, which is readily apparent in The Lion King.

I have to admit, that there have been times when I didn't really get why people were so into The Lion King. It was a good movie, of course, but as I said I was always more of a Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin fan.

Watching The Lion King as an adult, though, I got a lot more out of it. There were some pretty heavy themes and I loved how it was clearly inspired by Hamlet:

It was also interesting because Mufasa's death took on a different meaning. As a kid, you are sad thinking about your father dying. As an adult, you think of how tragic it is to leave your child and your spouse fatherless / widowed. It really hit Joe (probably because we've been talking about babies a lot lately).

Despite the requisite sadness over Mufasa dying, this was a really fun and relaxing date night! I'm excited to see what our next date will be...

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Odontoblast 2014

Every year the dental school hosts a gala for its students, and last night was this year's event! The venue was incredible! Originally it was supposed to be at a hotel ballroom, but too many people wanted tickets so they moved it to the Penn Museum.

Which I am THRILLED they had to do.

Because instead of some nondescript (albeit fancy, I'm sure) ballroom in the middle of the city, we were at one of the coolest venues I could ever imagine.

As you can see, the lighting made iPhone photos rough. So I didn't take pictures of the venue, itself. Here are some photos off the web to give you an idea of the space:

Here is the main room - it was full of drink and food tables.

Part of the Egypt/mummy section was also used for the DJ, dancing & more bars and food tables.

The more cranberry vodkas I drank from the 3-hour open bar (!!), the more afraid I was that I would knock over a priceless artifact, but all was well :)

The food was also really fun. Amongst other things, they had soft pretzels and mini-cheesesteaks with cheese dip. O.M.G. so delicious.

***Fun Fact*** Most people know that Philly is big on cheesesteaks, but fewer people know that Philadelphians LOVE themselves a good pretzel. There's even a guy who works at Trader Joe's with a pretzel tattooed to his calf. Also, there are no less than FIVE Auntie Anne's pretzel stands at the nearby King of Prussia Mall ***End of Fun Fact***

Though I wore my most practical of dress shoes, my feet of course killed me most of the night. By the time we left I was hobbling to a cab. It didn't help that I am pretty sure I lightly sprained my ankle by slipping on some snow yesterday.

Despite my lingering foot pain, I will be on my feet a lot today preparing for our Superbowl party! I have always wanted to host a Superbowl party, and given that the Broncos are in it this year I knew I HAD to take the opportunity. Unfortunately, there's a really rough anatomy test scheduled for Wednesday. Since Odontoblast was last night, most people in Joe's class can't take time off today too. But we'll have a handful of people over, and more food than we'll know what to do with :)

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Mad Libs Date

Two blog posts in one day! I told you I was stepping it up with my point system ;) Since I get points for blogging, I'm going to try really hard to up my game and blog more often.

Anyways, last night Joe and I completed the date we should have done last week. It was a simple and quick one, but we still couldn't fit it in with everything that was going on. 

It was a Mad Libs date!

We grabbed some drinks, laid in bed and played a few rounds. I'd love to take photos of the Mad Libs we created, but the drinking led to some pretty non-PC / X-rated material. It was basically the Cards Against Humanity version of Mad Libs. 

But here's one that we did on our road trip this summer:

Oh, and we finished season 2 of Scandal yesterday! I predicted we'd blow through it in 10 days and we actually watched it all in 1 week. Maybe if we weren't so busy watching Scandal we'd have more time to do our dates... ;)

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Ice Cream Sundae Date

We sort of cheated with our date this week, but at least we did one! (Heck, with our track record lately, that's definitely a win).

Last Sunday, Joe pulled a yellow date. But after the craziness of the last several days, I knew that trying to fit in a 2-4 hour date (this one probably leaning closer to 4 hours) would be stressful.

What was so crazy?

Well, Joe threw his neck out somehow on Thursday and has been in a ton of pain and much slower at studying than usual. He had to miss classes because he could not move his head or focus, so now he's trying to catch up on lectures, studying, and prepping for his upcoming tests on Tuesday and Friday.

Me? I had my first online Paparazzi party on Thursday and Friday. While it was awesome to FINALLY do a party and make some money, it was incredibly time consuming. I've figured out a lot of shortcuts that I can do for the future, so hopefully other parties won't be so bad, but in addition to my full-time job I have probably spent 12 hours or so over the last few days working on Paparazzi stuff (not to mention all I did last weekend to prep).

Also, yesterday I spent several (unsuccessful) hours looking for a dress for the dental school formal on February 1. I have one that I bought off of Zappos, but it was $100. I am determined to better $$$ wise (though it is nice to have a back-up just in case).

Today it's back to dress shopping, plus packaging purchases from the party, 5+ loads of laundry, the gym and church.

We needed something fast, easy, and enjoyable for date night this week. So I dug around in the green date jar for something that would be just that.

ICE CREAM SUNDAE DATE!!!!!!

Since I was going to be out shopping anyway, I was able to buy all the necessary supplies for ice cream sundaes...

And we went a little wild...

We ate our ice cream while watching SNL. It was really fun, and a much needed break. It had been 17 days since I had sweets of any kind, so later I felt kind of sick. But I sure enjoyed it in the moment ;)

I think Buster wants the cherry...

And now, it's off to the gym to burn off that sundae.

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