Why It's Nice to Leave Your Children At Someone Else's House

Wednesday, July 11, 2012. I'd like to burn this date in my mind as one of the best days of the summer of 2012. Much of this unrestrained bliss stems from an amazing, relaxing date with Chrissy, during which we left our children in the hands of Janna's daycare provider, Erin Scott.

Date Morning 2012

We began our date by simply walking through stores at 9:30 in the morning. That’s right, we simply walked through stores, unhurried, unstressed, and unneeded. It was glorious. We began at Staples and walked through every aisle, making casual conversations about file organizers, the problems with store-brand pens, and the respective strengths and weaknesses of the “new” iPad. Unfortunately, I somehow set off the theft detection system on the iPad display, which proceeded to harangue us with unnecessarily loud noises. After apologizing to everyone nearby, we decided it was time to move on to the next store.

Our next visit was Starbucks/Chapters for a Chai Tea Latte, which we shared. Delicious! Then off to Chapters, where we each went our own way. Chrissy immediately hit the trendy knick-knack section, and was then engrossed in the baby section. I was magnetically pulled to the language section where a handbook on English grammar sucked me in for the next ten minutes.

Eventually, Chrissy and I both picked out a book for ourselves to read at the beach – Chrissy picked out a baby journal in which she can write details about our and the baby’s lives. I picked out a book of short stories by Ernest Hemingway, who is quite the guy. He has the reputation of being one of the “manliest” writers in the English language, but I’ve never read any of his stories!

Next, we decided to go out for an early lunch. My friend Jeremy introduced me to this killer restaurant called “Bambu,” which serves all kinds of excellent Asian foods. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be open for another twenty minutes. FORTUNATELY, there was another exciting, mysterious store nearby that we had never explored...

The T&T Supermarket!! I had heard rumors that this was the coolest supermarket in Ottawa, full of ingredients and foods from Asia, many of which we had never hear of before. We decided to check it out and were deeply impressed by what we found.

There are too many exciting things to mention. We found new fruits that we had never experienced, an incredible selection of fresh seafood (at very reasonable prices), and an enormous variety of sauces. These, in this picture, are just some of the selection - it extended all the way down the aisle!

We also found some foods that were a little less familiar to us - like these assorted guts. It was fascinating, actually, what sorts of things are used as ingredients in different cultures. We saw genuine chicken feet in this section, as well as chickens with completely blue skin.

After about twenty minutes, we went to the restaurant, which had just opened. Bambu is one classy place!

Even the washrooms were majestic. The romantic tunes were pumping in here, the light was low; 
somehow, the washrooms set the mood for the rest of the experience. That was, until the hand dryer almost blew my hands off! (Have you ever been surprised by unexpectedly powerful hand dryers?)

What to order? The other nice thing about this restaurant is that they have a pretty reasonably priced lunch menu. I'm told they have a gluten-free menu too, although I didn't realize this at the time.

Lunch is served. At top is Chrissy's "Combination #4 Plate," featuring shrimp wantons. Below is my Chicken Pad Thai. Both of us haven't been able to stop thinking about our meals since. SO GOOD!

Maybe the best part of the lunch experience was our fortune cookies, and I must say, I was impressed by the insight of my fortune especially. The one on the bottom right. (I have since been exploiting my beauty for all its worth!)

 We finished our date by lying on the beach, reading (or in Chrissy's case, writing in) our books. It was so relaxing!

 We tried to take a shot from above, and this is what we got. Apparently, I forgot to smile; this is my natural photographer face. When we saw this, we burst into laughter for about five minutes. Then we tried again....

Much better!

That was the end of our beautiful date together, but the day was great for a a few more reasons:

Reason 1: I was able to spend some great quality time with my friend Stevie Andrews. This is a guy whom a greatly respect, but we rarely get the chance to hang out.

Reason 2: Swimming lessons continued, and they were at least twice a good as last week! Jesse ran in, bobbed around with me with no tears (at first), and even worked on his front float with enthusiasm. Only twice did he break into a fit of tears and screaming - we need to work on floating on his back and getting his head wet. Altogether, though, I'm really proud of how he did today.

Here's a picture of Jesse all ready to go to swimming lessons. He thought he was being very witty in refusing to open his eyes for the picture. What a guy!

Well, that's enough for one day. Until tomorrow!