Seven Year Itch

Mr. Handome and I have been together for seven years as of this November. To celebrate our date-iversary we celebrated two weekends in a row! Our date-iversary is November 11, 2006. (I think it should probably be the 12th since we didn't really decide to start dating until the 12th.)

Mr. H got us tickets to go see John Oliver in Boston the week following our date-iversary using a ticket master gift card that was a wedding present. So our actual date-iversary was relatively low key. I made us a nice breakfast, we went to see Thor: The Dark World, and ate dinner at Arby's.

I made pancakes with all white flour, butter, and sugar.
So delicious and so special.

Thor 2 was the absolute best! It has everything you could want in a movie--space vikings and a lead actor that looks like my husband if he were taller, blonder, and on steroids. (Every husband would be better if he were taller, blonder, and stronger.) The pacing was perfect and it wasn't too mushy. It was funny at all the right points too. We also got to see the trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I am so excited for that! (My two favorite Avengers are Thor and Captain America.)

Also, just a thought, since Disney now owns the rights to Star Wars and the Marvel Universe, I am looking forward to a Star Wars/Avengers mashup! How cool would that be to have Han Solo and Thor hanging out and fighting crime and Sith?!?

We had a gift card from our Health Insurance Company because
we've been using Pedometers. We can only use it at certain places,
like this movie theater, so we went a bit wild at the concession stand.

In college we used to go to Arby's for Valentine's Day every year so we went to Arby's for dinner and they had bottles of Arby's Sauce for sale! I tried to play it cool so I could go back the next day and get Mr. H some for Christmas but we talked about it too much so the element of surprise was ruined and we bought a bottle. (I forgot my phone so I didn't get a picture of my sad looking but delicious roast beef sandwich.)

After dinner, we wandered around Target and Mr. H took advantage of their video game sale to get Christmas presents for his siblings. We had a really great day spending time with each other. We'd been very busy and it was so nice to just relax and hang out together by ourselves.


The next weekend we headed into Boston. We ate lunch at home and Mr. H drove all the into the city with me providing directions. (Pro Tip: Your navigation system will fail in the Big Dig because there's no signal underground so make sure you know your exit number before you go in. Super Pro Tip: Don't drive in Boston.)

In the Public Gardens

We parked near the theater in Chinatown and walked through the Commons and the Public Garden. We got into the city around two but it felt much later--I blame daylight savings time.

www.professorworldband.com
on Twitter @ProfWorldBand

We saw a wonderful one man band in the Public Garden.

Then we walked down Newberry Street. My husband humored me as I browsed through the Kate Spade store, In the Pink (Lilly Pulitzer), Anthropology, and Britt Ryan. We also stopped in the wonderful needlepoint store. As soon as I finish a project I will have to call and order the Red Sox snowman canvas to make into a new Christmas tree ornament. If I felt like taking on a challenge, I would order a Fenway Park canvas to make a pillow but I am easily distracted.

We stopped into Robin's Candy and bought some delicious chocolates. Mr. H got some chocolate truffles and I got a milk chocolate pecan tortoise the size of my palm. It was delicious.

I had to Instagram my beverage
even thought it wasn't in a red cup.

As we got to the end of Newberry Street we started looking for a place to sit down and have a warm drink. All the Starbucks were packed! We passed three that were far to busy for us to go into. We passed several busy Dunkin Dounut and we finally found one that wasn't packed.

We took selfies while waiting for a table.

I had a salted caramel hot chocolate and it was the best. It was only 4 o'clock but we were almost at the place where we had planned on having dinner--Boston Burger Company. When we walked by they were packed with people so we decided to put our name in. Mr. H found this place while we were in Boston last summer for the most horrible thing that ever happened to me so that I could sit for the Massachusetts Bar Exam. He was so excited to go back I could barley remember the place.

The Fried Pickles

We were seated. We ordered fried pickles as an appetizer. They were very fried and far too crunchy and dried out. I could not taste any pickle. I was not a fan though I did like that they were served with thousand island dressing.

Staring Down the Killer Bee

I loved my burger--the All American hold the blue cheese dressing (cheese, bacon, and BBQ sauce). My husband had the Killer Bee (american cheese, bacon, onion rings, and honey BBQ sauce) and he loved it. We both had baked beans as a side (delicious) and I ordered classic french fries for us. I was not a fan of the fries and I need to remember not to order them if we go again. I order french fries everywhere and I keep a mental list of which places have good french fries and I think Boston Burger Company ranks last place in this category.

The All American

We were done with dinner by five but it was already pitch black out and it felt so late I was worried we wouldn't get to the show on time. So we started walking back along Boylston Street and stopped by the Shops at Prudential Center. I stopped into Vineyard Vines, Club Monoco, and the Lacoste Boutique. On our way out, we bought pistachio nougat at Truffles Fine Confections. I love nougat and it's so hard to find so when I'm in Boston I always stop there and get some or sometimes I need to have my parking validated so I need to buy $10 worth of nougat.

We stopped by our car to drop off our purchases and left over french fries and headed to the theater. We got there so early but were able to go in and sit.

I loved the venue. It was a lovely old theater and we were in the front row of the highest balcony so we had a great view. The local comedian who opened for John Oliver was very funny and John Oliver was hilarious. I was so happy that he did he Carlos Danger dance (briefly). He also broke the microphone which was funny because he hadn't realized that he could break it by dropping in.

Inside the Theater

I drove us home so I stopped by the Sonic on Route 1 and got a milkshake. We were in bed by midnight. We had been planning on staying in a hotel in Boston but it would have been expensive and Mr. H is very frugal (sometimes cheap) and much happier when we aren't spending too much money. I was also overwhelmed by the options and trying to choose the best place.

Have you ever drove in Boston? Did you survive the experience?

One Year Later - Our First Anniversary

For our first anniversary, I had wanted to have photographs taken. I was to busy to arrange that and Mr. H is not a fan of having his photograph taken so I did not want to ask him to do that. Fortunately for him, I wasn't feeling well when we got back from my parents'. I have very sensitive skin and something had irritated it so I had a rash all over (allergies, asthma, and eczema runs in my family) and I felt uncomfortable wearing a tee-shirt even. I did not feel like having my photograph taken either.

We went up to our Alma Mater and walked around before lunch.

If only the weather had been this lovely a year ago.
It was grey and rainy when we got married.

Then we headed to the Grand Central Cafe for lunch. We only discovered them after we graduated but I am glad that we did as they make the most delicious brick oven pizza ever! We shared a pepperoni pizza (delicious) and I had a hard cider that was made in Maine.

 

Our plan was to watch a movie next but we finished lunch well before the movie was supposed to start. So we went to Bull Moose, a music, book, and video game store. They had just remodeled the store in town and it was huge. We bought also bought a four sided die to help us choose which type of candy to get at the theater.

Selfies in the Dark Cinema
Waiting for the Movie to Start

Rail Road Square Cinema was showing: Lovelace, The Way, Way Back, and Fruitvale Station. Fortunately Fruitvale Station was not showing at a convenient time for us as I heard that this movie about Oscar Grant made people bawl and I didn't want to watch a sad movie on my anniversary. I thought Lovelace would be a good file to watch but apparently this movie about porn starts got bad ratings and my husband thought we wouldn't enjoy it. I trust my husband's judgment about what movie to watch so we saw The Way, Way Back and I am so glad that we did. It was a fun movie. We ended up choosing a Seattle Chocolates Dark Chocolate Truffle Bar with 53% Cacao for a movie snack and it was delicious.

Best Cake Ever!

After the move we headed to pick up our Anniversary cake from Got Cake? Paula baked the most delicious cake for our wedding (the best cake I have ever had and perhaps my favorite part of my wedding) and now she was baking us new cake so that we wouldn't have to eat gross frozen cake on our Anniversary!

When we got home, my mother-in-law came by just as we got back. She had purple (our wedding color) ballons for us! She also made up a happy anniversary song and left it as a voicemail message on our answering machine! She is so wonderful.

BACON!

After picking up our cake, we went home. Since we ate out for lunch, we stayed in for dinner and had Sharp Cheddar and Bacon Kraft Homestyle Macaroni and Cheese Dinner. Dinner was absolutely delicious and after dinner we had champagne and cake!

The glases and champage are from our
friends' wedding a few months ago.

Red Velvet

And, we had presents for each other. My husband gave me an appropriate first anniversary gift--books made out of paper. I gave him Red Sox Boxers from Vineyard Vines.