Date night goes chill

Ever since last Monday night life has gone into warp speed for both Mary and me. I think we are experiencing our 15 minutes of fame as we have been asked about our engagement and wedding plans numerous times a day. I think we may just start referring friends and family to this blog over the holidays to save time. It has been exhausting but it is a good exhausting and I would not want it any other way.

So this week Mary was excited to have everything planned ahead but she made it clear that it was a night to relax and get away from all the madness for at least a short time. Things started off as we headed over the one of my favorite neighborhood bars, the Harmony Bar and Grill on Atwood. I love this place because it has for its unpretentious feel and inexpensive but good food. It also holds many good memories of enjoying a beer and discussing politics, religion and philosophy with college friends.


Last night the Harmony played host to the Madison Jazz Orchestra playing Christmas tunes and a number of jazz classics. At least that is what they said as I am not much of a jazz connoisseur. The place was comfortably full with both old and young people enjoying the free show. Mary and I enjoyed some bar food and I had a bowl of their chili which is some of the best chili I have had in a long time if you like spicy food.

Then after a couple games of cribbage, we are like an 80 year old couple already, we sat back and enjoyed the music. After the Harmony we headed over to the Holiday Fantasy of Lights over at Olin Park. It was not really that impressive but felt like the right thing to do with it being a week before Christmas and we had mentioned going there a number of times while driving past.

And then we called it a night and for the first time in past week I believe we both got to bed early and had plenty of sleep.

Note: We will be off for the next couple of weeks over Christmas and New Years. Drop us some ideas over the break if you have any. Happy holidays all.

the best date post. ever.

well, this won't be the standard date night entry, but i have no idea how else to write it up ... so here's madison date night from december 11th, otherwise known as "chicago proposal night" ... read on :)

... so for those of you who don't know, jon and i have standing monday night date nights, so him... taking me out last night was nothing out of the ordinary. we had been talking about engagement, but, like any secretive boyfriend, jon has always refused to talk proposal details with me, so i've been in the dark as to the when and where ... he'd asked that i try not to think of every date night as a possible proposal night, so i've been trying REALLY hard to be calm about the whole thing.

so last week, he told me we were going to drive down to chicago for our upcoming monday night date night because he thought we ought to get outside madison just to change it up a bit. so yesterday, even though i had voices of "maybe we're getting engaged tonight, maybe we're not, but this does seem like engagement, but then again, maybe it's not," there wasn't anything bizarre about us going to uncommon ground (it's my favorite restaurant/coffeehouse/wine bar in all of chicago). it was where we first started dating, but we'd been there many times since that it wasn't out of the ordinary to go there.

jon had made reservations (for 4:30 pm which is crazy. no one eats that early in chicago), so when we got there i told him we didn't need to mention we'd made reservations because that would seem so weird when there were so many tables available. still, jon told the host casually that he had actually made reservations and the host replied casually and led us back to our table.

now uncommon ground has three rooms, one of which is used for small, intimate concerts, so when we walked in to that back room, it wasn't too bizarre that there would be white lights strung from the ceiling, and candles everywhere. but it was VERY different to have a beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers on one table and smaller, warmer candles on that table and the ones near that one, with their own flower arrangements as well.

the host sat us, and i remarked to jon how gorgeous the room was (all the while thinking, "be cool, mary. it might be, it might not be."). then the server came out with a bottle of pinot noir (we hadn't even ordered yet), followed by their gorgeous hummus plate. i told jon that he'd set the bar really, really high now for date night, and asked if it'd be okay if i couldn't ever match this. he smiled.

after the waitress left us, he said, i wanted to come back to uncommon ground because this is where we had our first date. i wanted to have the same wine, and the same hummus, but i want to do something different this time.

and then he walked around the table to my side, got down on one knee and asked me if i'd marry him.

i was speechless.

(that's a really big deal for me).

but when i found words, i said yes :)

we celebrated with incredible food and dessert and 5 or 6 staff members came in to congratulate us throughout our evening (our waitress was so wonderful ... she made sure to let the chefs know since they kept peeking through the kitchen door to see if jon had proposed yet ... yes, they ALL knew what was happening in that back room).

afterwards, jon planned for us to go to guthrie's (one of my favorite casual game-playing taverns) where he thought we could hang out, have a beer, and play cribbage (my new obsession). at that point i was, of course, happy just to be with him and celebrate just us two, but i was THRILLED to see a few of my closest friends arrive minutes later .. jon had called them much in advance to ask them to celebrate with us that night.

seriously, i am going to marry the most excellent man on the planet :)

it was an incredible night of being overwhelmed by the realization that i'd get to marry the person who's loved me better than anyone ever has. i feel pretty dang lucky.

is it worth posting?

I have mixed feelings about even writing up this date night review as I know that is soon to be overshadowed by the following week. However for the sake of trying to get caught up and keep an accurate record I will sum up the night.

One of the reasons we started this blog was to challenge ourselves to think outside the box so as to avoid falling into the pattern of dinner-and-a-movie each and every week. However there are weeks that that is exactly what you want and you should not feel guilty for it. This was one of those weeks.

We had both been talking about wanting to see Borat so Mary got the tickets and, with lattes in hand, we sat down eagerly awaiting to be shocked and humored. We were not let down. This is not a movie most of you would want to take your mom to. That is unless she thinks naked men wrestling around for several minutes is enjoyable. The film is some of the best comical social commentary I have ever seen and made for good conversation over dinner ...

... which we had at Eldorado Grill on Willy Street. Eldorado Grill is one of the many locally owned restaurants that make Madison such a great town to eat in. The food we had was excellent. I enjoyed the southwestern blackened catfish while Mary ordered the grilled pork tenderloin. That, along with an appetizer of chips and salsa and our beer, was more than enough food. The place has a trendy but comfortable feel and I would guess could get pretty loud if full, but on this Monday night was nearly empty and quiet.

My only criticism of Eldorado Grill is that for Mary and me it falls into the category of "too expensive to go very often, but not nice enough to go for special occasions," therefore making it the sort of restaurant we almost never go to.

Overall it was another fun date full of laughter, good food and interesting conversation (Mary's note: interesting coversation, indeed. Borat reveals some pretty sad things about our country in an amusing format ... highly recommended).

playing cards & eating jambalaya

so it's no longer my addiction to the card game spiderette that's keeping me away from the blog; this month, i'd like to blame it on, well, the month of december. and out of respect for those actually interested in what "madison date night" has to offer, i'll digress no further ...

date night began early a couple of weeks ago. whether that was intended or not is not certain, but since one coffee led to another which led to another which led to many, many games of the best card game i've played yet, we stayed for at least a couple of hours at meeting grounds on the west side.

meeting grounds is a cute little spot located in the mini-me version of greenway station. i love supporting locally owned things, i like the fireplace and furniture, and still have patience enough to wait the comparitively inordinate amount of time to get my latte (they obviously have no strict starbucks-esque practices of getting out 8 lattes per minute). i recommend it for those living on the west side (and will recommend it for those living on the east side once the speed of service picks up).

afterwards, jon and i went to gaston's on old sherman. OLD sherman. not new sherman, which is not OLD sherman (jon and i got lost). gaston's is a cajun and creole cafe situated in an old house on the near east side.

we walked through the front door and into the bar right away where patrons were watching the packers game (boring, of course, because the packers suck right now). the host took us through the bar and downstairs to a room that could seat about 20-25 people, but that night only sat us and one other table of two (until another table of 5 arrived later that evening). mardi gras beads wrapped the chairs in traditional lousianne style, and the walls were colored a bright antiquey yellow. the menu was smaller than normal (it being a monday night and all, they abbreviate the menu for the sake of the chef), but nearly every item came highly recommended.

i ordered jambalaya and jon ordered some kind of po' boy french dip sandwich (he can't quite remember but it was really delicious, as good as my jambalaya). we ordered some appetizer of shrimp, which our waiter wasn't sure they had, so he came out with baby shrimp instead. a minute later, he returned with four large jumbo shrimp after the chef informed that yes, indeed, they did have jumbo shrimp for appetizers that evening.

the food is spicy, colorful, well-priced, and delicious. for dessert, i had their creamy cheesecake with bourbon sauce. that was probably more than i should have eaten, but my food baby and i left very contented (jon doesn't eat cheesecake so when he dropped me off that night, he had to come in and grab a bowl of ice cream to satisfy his sweet tooth).

overall, gaston's is an ideal monday night dinner spot. i'm curious what it's like on the weekend and look forward to exploring their menu further one friday night with friends.