back to duck soup.

jon's trying to get me off my addiction to the card game spider. and actually, it's not even spider, it's spiderette, but i'm only winning 10% of my games, and the drive to hit 11% burns inside of me. in his wish to shake my mac free of the spiderette game on my dashboard, he's "encouraged" me to log on to the internet and write up our november 4th date.

and only because our november 4th date was SO good will i leave my little addictive game of spiderette.

so, reflect back, if you will, to saturday, november 4th. a normal day. a badger game in the morning. a chill in the autumn air. the skies growing dark at 5 pm.

jon came over around 5:30 to make dinner with me and we lounged around until "date night" officially began.

for jon's date, he discovered overture center's silent film series, "duck soup cinema." according to the OC's site, "these light-hearted presentations bring back the Capitol Theater's early years as a silent-film era movie palace." a classic silent movie (in our case, they showed the great black and white "for heaven's sake") accompanied by live music played on an organ is preceeded by vaudeville style entertainment on stage, magic in the lobby and chances to win (often) extravagant door prizes.

a uw a capella group who sang a couple of beautiful songs followed a folk quartet. then we had a juggler and then giveaways. and then the movie. and i loved it all. i've watched and enjoyed at least a few silent movies in my day, but accompanied by a live organ and amongst a multi-generational audience the fun factor goes WAY up. in a world of aaron sorkin and gilmore girls shows where the dialogue is spit out so quickly that clearly it's been rehearsed a thousand times (seriously, you can't listen and talk that quickly), watching a movie without words is really refreshing.

we're definitely going back in february. check out the upcoming schedule here.

oh yeah, and make sure to get your tickets at the overture center beforehand. don't call on the phone or order over the internet because they add a $3 fee for each ticket. and if you don't get them in advance, it'll most likely be sold out. just a tip!

playing catch up

As Mary has already mentioned we are way behind in our date blogs but rest assured we did not break-up. Thank you all for your many concerned emails asking how we are doing as a couple. We are now trying to catch up and the next couple entries are not in chronological order, all anal retentive readers please forgive us.

Some time ago Mary and I spent the afternoon at Barnes and Noble as I worked on homework and she did some light reading. As I remember the date was not yet planned at this point but with a little brainstorming it came together nicely. Mary decided we would have a drinks and game night. She went and picked up a couple books on bartending and after much thought and reflection decided that we would imbibe in the famous WooWoo and Michael Bolton*. Then as I continued my homework she ran over to Shopko and picked up Scene-It.

We eventually headed back to her place and ordered out from Sa Bai Thong. If you are at all a fan of Thai food then please for your sake head to one of their two locations or call for delivery. I don’t remember now what we had but I think we had Pad Thai and something spice. Memory loss sucks.

The rest of our time included taking turns making the aforementioned drinks and me trying to retain my manhood while enjoying a Michael Bolton. I am not always a big board game fan but Scene-It is fun for anyone who likes movies which is pretty much all but 4 people.

After going out to so many different restaurants and bars this date night was a nice change of pace and had the advantage of owning a new game when all was said and done.

* According to legend The Michael Bolton was created one fateful night when the incredible musical artist, Michael Bolton was out at a bar and approached the bartender and asked him to make a drink that reflected his talented and unique style. The bartended had a moment of inspiration and made an incredibly sweet and fruity drink to reflect the man. And that is how we came to have the Michael Bolton.

oh! the weary traveler!

well, it's been awhile since we've written up a creative date night in madison. this happens to be for a number of reasons ...

1. jon had a birthday which we celebrated for a few days at different venues but, it being his birthday, those nights trumped what would have been considered "date night."
2. we are lazy.
3. we've been out of town and enjoying a few of my favorite spots in chicago (oh, how i miss the number of tapas restaurants and the freedom from chain spots!!)
4. my date nights have been pathetic and left jon with very little to write up. it's true. he's been kind not to post how really ridiculous i get when it's my turn to take him out. somehow, we believe that i subconsciously feel unloved because i'm not being wooed with dates created for me. i am a very selfish person and am still learning how to be confident that jon loves me even when he's not planning something for me.
5. we are lazy.

so since there's been nothing new for a month, i'd like to write up a bit on my new favorite restaurant in madison - the weary traveler.

now, granted, this was a birthday dinner, so it can't be technically classified under "date night," but to appease our audience of nearly no one, i'll write about it anyhow...

so, imagine this. it's a saturday night in november. folks are recovering from a snowstorm the night before. it's chilly chilly chilly outside, but we're midwesterners so we adjust quickly to the 30 degree drop in temperature from only days before.

jon's birthday had been celebrated with a few friends at the wine cellar at porta bella the night before (great in nearly all respects minus the manic music choices - i.e. frank sinatra and big band music for 15 minutes, then one bad 80s techno-rock-pop piece, repeat cycle). so saturday night was my time to take him out. of course, i hadn't thought of it in advance, so when we showed up at sardine, i wasn't surprised that without reservations my wait would be an hour plus.

jon and i had been wanting to check out sardine since it opened so i was looking forward to it, but the wait started me out on the wrong foot (i know, i know, it was my responsibility to make reservations, but i still begrudged them that).

"you can grab a table anywhere in bar area as they open up if you don't want to wait for the dining room spots," our hostess offered.

sure, we'd do that. of course, the bar area leaves something to be desired. it looks like a big deli, bright white lights in an open room that echos nearly every conversation (could it have been built with the rathskellar in mind? i wondered if we'd hear someone's conversations across the room if we positioned ourselves correctly). but we waited. and watched. we noticed a lot of people leaving the dining room and not so many going in, but figured our hostess would alert us if a table opened up in the dining room. perhaps there is a secret entrance for people with reservations ...

anyhow, when we at long last saw a table of four stand up, we moseyed over towards the table until a waitress blocked our path. "i'm sorry," she said. "these tables are part of the dining room."

"oh no, I'M sorry," i replied sarcastically. "they didn't mention that they saved four unmarked tables to tease waiting patrons into believing they may actually be seated soon."

ok, ok, i didn't actually say that. but i thought it. i think the conversation actually went something like this: "Oh, okay. Thanks."

details, details. the point is that that was enough to send us out of there. i'd like to try the food someday, but i'm not in any rush now. i'll wait till the thrill of it among madisonians wears off.

we hopped in the car and drove down willy street to the weary traveler. now THIS is a hot spot.

i love the dark wood, i love the service, i love the bartenders, and oh, how i love the carne asada. it sets the perfect mood. it's probably a little trendy for willy street's hippie population, but it's unique. and, in my world, unique equals fascinating. and when fascinating is good, it becomes trendy. (i haven't really thought all that, so don't hold it to me).

there are games on the back wall (oh, the days of guthries in chicago!) which says, "stay awhile. no rush. enjoy your friends. enjoy, o weary traveler." there is so little pretention. it's good. it is good as restaurants should be. in my opinion, it sets the standard for madison restaurants.

i'll add links later, but now i'm getting hungry. and it's lunchtime. later.