Captain America Date

While the rest of the country has already seen the movie Avengers a couple of times, my wife had not yet seen Captain America (imdb link).  I wanted to  keep the movie part of this date a secret, so I just advertised it as a red-white-and-blue night and had the family dress accordingly.

 I used some comic books from the half-price bookstore for a centerpiece, with another Superhero Squad comic for my boys to read.  I had the boys decorate some white plates with colored electric tape to make Captain America shields for table decorations or to use as their actual plate.  For dinner I made good ole American hamburgers. Dessert was plain white and blue colored whipped cream with strawberries.  Simple but yummy.

We let the boys start a different movie in another room so we could start watching Captain America a little earlier.  I really liked the movie (I had seen it previously in the movie theater).  I like how it's the little guy with the right attitude and determination who gets the power to do what he knows is right.  I like it when an action movie has a good moral.  Great movie!

Love - Love on the Tennis Court

When keeping score in tennis, a zero score is called "love".  You could make use of this in a clever invitation for this date.  But if your date isn't familiar with the usage, they might just be confused.

Since moving into our new apartment complex with it own tennis court, I had been wanting to play tennis.  Not finding any rackets at the thrift stores, I was happy to find my old tennis racket (and my brother let me have his) at my parents' house when we were visiting.  With our level of play (and that of our boys) having old, beaten-up rackets was just fine.

As I tried to figure out what to make for dinner, google told me that bananas and pretzels are associated with tennis.  We didn't have bananas, nor yeast.  So I found a yeastless pretzel recipe and made pretzels and pretzel dogs (wrapping the dough around hot dogs and cooking them like pretzels).  They turned out a little too pretzel tasting.  Dropping them in boiling water-baking soda mixture gives them the characteristic soft pretzel taste, but I think I used the amount of baking soda for the quick dip recipe but then let them boil for a minute like I had seen in another recipe.  So the flavor was a little strong, but still edible.

We went out to the tennis court and hit the ball around a little.  My wife had requested an athletic date, but her wrist was hurting, so tennis wasn't quite the right game.  But we had a little fun out there, and it was nice to finally use our tennis court.

Tin - Tin Foil Dinners and a Movie

My wife had been wanting to see Tin-Tin, and after a long, busy week at work I was too tired for much more than a movie (and too tired for even a movie it turns out).  I was in charge of dinner that night and quickly thought of tin foil dinners as a nice complement.

Tin foil dinners are often cooked in a campfire (or even under a car hood), but an oven works fine.  Here are some recipes, courtesy of The Art of Manliness.  I planned on doing some Mexican style chicken, with some leftover diced green chiles and pepper jack cheese.  But we were out of chicken breasts.  So I set out what we did have and let each person fill their own foil packet.  They are pretty simple, and you can't really go wrong with throwing some meat and veggies (potatoes would have been nice) on a piece of tin foil, wrapping it up, and cooking it in the oven.  Our boys probably made some of the most original tin foil dinners -- chicken nuggets and hot dogs anyone?  My wife and I made more traditional ones with hamburger, onions, and zuccini.  The hamburger was already cooked, actually, so we didn't have to worry about undercooking them.  So we threw them in the oven until everything was hot and steamy and then ate.  I think they turned out pretty well.

After we put the boys to bed, we settled down to watch Tin-Tin.  The title character was a little older than I expected, and there was enough action and danger that it would have been too intense for our 5 year old.  It might have been interesting enough to me, but I was so tired from the long week I kept dozing off.  We only made it through an hour before deciding we should just go to bed and finish the rest the next day.

Pure Country

Howdy y'all!!

This here was a date I'd been wanting to take my purty lit'l lady on since moving to Texas.  Maybe it was just an excuse to have me some yummy barbeque. So a country theme seemed appropriate, with a country music movie from a while back that I'd never gotten around to seeing.

I bought a couple cowboy hats at the dollar store.  I also bought one of them "hair volumizers", as we've sometimes joked about big Texas hair.  I pushed this date up on the calendar as my purty lit'l lady has been complaining about how hot her hair gets and that she just wants to chop it all off, so I wanted to do this date while she could still pull off the big hair look. She did a great job dolling herself up for the date. So here we are:

I picked up a nice variety of food from C&J Barbeque :  smoked sausage, brisket, pork loin, and half a chicken.  Fried okra and potatoe salad.  I also picked up some jalepenos and some other kind of pepper, but they were a wee bit strong for us city folk.  We went to a park for a picnic.  I picked a park with horse trails, hoping we'd see some, but we didn't.  Here's a picture of our picnic, and my sweetie eating some fried okra:

On our way home we stopped to see some longhorns up close (but safely behind a fence).

After we put the yungins to bed, my lady and I cuddled up to watch Pure Country (Internet Movie Datebase Link).  George Straight's "I Cross My Heart" was one of my favorite songs when I first started liking country music.  I had never seen the movie before, and I enjoyed watching it with my girl.

Building a Date Night Itinerary

The difference between a date and just hanging out might be just a little bit of planning.  A date can be simple or elaborate.  Below are a few of the pieces from which to build a date night.  You might need just one activity, or you might frame it with a coordinated dinner and decorations.  It's probably a good idea to mix things up for variety but also to keep from trying to outdo yourself each week with something grander and more spectacular than the week before.

A choice:  

maybe you have a few date ideas that could work a given week, and you can give your date a choice between a few good options.  This is a great step up from "What do you want to do this weekend?" because it shows you've thought about it but still want to involve them in the process.  You can ask "Do you feel sporty or formal?"  You could keep the possibilities a surprise by giving each date a name.  I once asked my wife, "Do you want to Go Dutch, Go Green, Go Medieval, or something else?"  Actually, since she doesn't like surprises, she made she explain what each was before choosing to Go Green.

Invitation:  

a written invitation or a small gift might help them anticipate and prepare for the date.  At the very least your date probably needs to know what time to be where and what the dress code is.  How much advance warning they need to get an outfit ready or such is something to consider.  If you have a regular date night, that at least goes a long way in knowing when they should be available.

Dress:

for a formal dance or an athletic activity, appropriate dress is obvious.  But you can also use your choice of dress to enhance the theme or color

Food:  

maybe it's because I'm a guy, but often an activity centers around food.  But if your going to be with your date more than just a couple of hours, there is likely a meal time at the beginning, end, or in the middle of the date.  And you both (likely) need to eat anyway, so you might as well plan for eating a meal as part of the date.  Maybe for a short date you just plan on bringing a snack, or maybe a special dessert would complement the date.  Coordinating the food with the activity can go a long way in spicing up an otherwise boring dinner & movie date.  Likewise, adding something special to the date can make it more exciting than just going out to eat.

Activity:

 this is probably where the main focus of the date is.  It could be a movie, but it could also be a concert, an activity, a service project, or a trip to a museum.  Find things you and/or your date enjoy.  Don't be afraid to introduce them to something you like, or surprise them based on something they like.  It's okay to take her to the ballet one week and a baseball game the next.  (She is a baseball fan, right?)

Decorations:  

Especially for a stay-at-home date, a few decorations can set the mood.  You probably have some random knick-knacks or souvenirs you or someone else brought back from somewhere.  You might as well use them sometime.  Or make a some simple decorations yourself, or make them together.

Music:

 appropriate music can set the tone.  It is easy to find music on the internet, paying a couple bucks if necessary, or borrowing music from friends or the library.  They often have quite a selection of music of various genres and from around the world for you to choose from.

So there you go -- get planning!