We’ve been indulging ourselves with date nights lately. Thanks to willing grandparents and a kid who loves spending time with them, we have been able to go out for nice dinners and some entertainment.
This year, prior to the Oscars, we had seen almost none of the nominated movies so we wanted to go and see at least one of them. One of the lessons of past date nights is to avoid movies that end up being depressing and spoiling the mood. An examples of a past bummer date night movie was Fahrenheit 9/11 (a great movie, but very depressing). We smartly avoided Hotel Rwanda and Million Dollar Baby (we were told that the latter, although a very good movie, had a depressing ending). We also nixed The Aviator because of its running time, avoiding the other problem of barely being able to make it home because we are so tired!
While this date night was not going to be derailed due to poor choice of film, we did have to endure a series of mishaps before even making it to the theater!
- Dog Poop. No, we are not referring to Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (that, at least, would be funny). We were greeting in the morning with the unpleasant evidence of a sick dog. So, after banishing Cookie to the backyard for the day, we had to clean up around the house. We should by stock in the companies that make Fabreeze and Nature’s Miracle.
- Wendy’s Crazy Driving. After leaving Marino’s (see below), Wendy made one of the most reckless U-Turns ever, right in front of ongoing traffic! I closed my eyes and white-knuckled it. We survived, but just barely.
- Ralph’s Butter Fingers. The movie theater at Cerritos Towne Center, or “The TC” as the local kids apparently call it, does not allow outside food or drink and, of course, we stopped at Starbucks on the way in. So, Wendy hid her drink under her jacket and Ralph tried to hide his cappuccino under his shirt only to drop the entire thing right on the floor as he handed the ticket to the ticket-taker! What a moron. (By the way, the movie theater coffee that I bought as a replacement was awful.)
Despite the mishaps, we really enjoyed the movie, Sideways. It is not the mushy romantic comedy that we were expecting and, despite the sad-sack lead character, it was a very fun and interesting movie. If you are at all into wine, especially the California varieties, it is even more interesting. We still want to see a few of the other contenders but, given the circumstances, this was the perfect movie to go and see on a date night before the Oscars.
One other note. We went to dinner at Marino’s Italian Restaurant in Bellflower. Marino’s is one of those great, local, family-owned restaurants that we should go to more often. It is very authentic Italian with great food, wine and service. It’s on Bellflower Blvd., just north of the 91 Freeway. Check it out.