Category Archive for ‘Date-Night’ at eastowners

Archive for the 'Date-Night' Category

Is it Winter or is it Spring?

Published

charmaspice

on December 2, 2007

in Date-Night and Music

. 0 Comments

Current Mood: Lovey & Martini Mood

I feel like it’s Spring time weather right now with the rain and slush in the 43 degree Farenheit weather. The picture to the left, is the actual one for tonight’s forcast from the National Weather Services website. Last night, however, it was an icy winter skating rink! We had found out a band we enjoy seeing when we can, Hello Dave, was playing here in GR. FABULOUS we thought! I arranged for a babysitter, and we were leaving around 6:30. It had begun sleeting of sorts, and the roads were just messy with slush. No huge worries, as it just meant I had to take my time. We made our way down town to find large amounts of traffic around Van Andel…we forgot that the Trans Siberan Orchestra was in town clogging up traffic. Our plan was to eat at a place relatively close to the bar the band was playing…however by the time we got there they had an hour and 45 minute wait. We ended up down at the new Founders Brewery for a sandwich and a beer. They recently moved to a new building, and it’s VERY nice on the inside. Currently they only have a few beers on tap, but it made for a quick and easy dinner that was very tasty! When we left we headed for our next destination The Whiskey Lounge. We have never been to this place, and while the ride there was scary…we might go back if the right band is playing. We headed down Grandville from the brewery to Franklin, making a right on Martha. This is the scariest road I’ve EVER driven down on a snowy, slushy, sleeting night. You crest the top of the hill to see pretty much a straight drop down drop to a fence that ends the road onto Godfrey. I was stumped on how we were going to get out of there once we saw the band play. Thankfully one of our friends gave us another road to use that was switch backed up the hill to civilization.

The show was awesome. For probably about the 2nd time in my entire history of seeing this band I was sober. It wasn’t a bad thing, I was trying to stay responsible and sober so I could get us up the hill home without dieing! They played a killer closer with a Pink Floyd cover of “Another Brick in the Wall”. For some strange reason, I have a deep love for Pink Floyd. I think it has a lot to do with my brother Larry & I experimenting with my parents 8 track player when we were younger…as they had lots of music from that genre. That and we grew up in a house listening to classic rock on occasion. Their cover was ~~Great~~ ~~Faboulous~~ FANTANSTIC though, and I could do nothing but get up and shake my booty to it singing along. This song also brings back fond memories of living with my roomie in college Beeko. The semester I did my teaching internship he would come in my room just about every morning singing “Charma, leave those kids alone”. It makes me giggle every time I hear the song.

We left the bar just after 1am to find our car completely covered in ice. The roads were okay so long as you were on a main road, but once you got on the side streets it was slick driving. We made it home without incident. Well, I almost slid on my butt trying to make it from the car into the house. Our street, sidewalk, and porch steps were extremely slick! Thankfully there was still enough snow underneath the ice I could dig my feet into the icy snow to make my way up the stairs to the porch. I was just concentrating on not falling and getting a wet a##. I can’t imagine how retarted we would have looked had we actually gotten somewhat drunk. We paid our sitter, told her to be careful, and crashed out on the couch for a few minutes before heading up the stairs to some slumber.

Today has been pretty quiet. I de-smoked myself from the bar funk by getting a shower, and we pretty much lounged about all day. I did a few loads of laundry - I’m still catching up from last weekend, and read through the paper. Still no Christmas tree up, I have a feeling that we’ll be working on that tomorrow or late in the week depending on how much we have going on. I don’t know why, but for some reason I am just in no hurry to get it up yet. I think the early Christmas in the stores has me almost Christmased out before it’s even really started. I have started shopping for a few people already, so that’s underway. Hopefully that won’t sneak up on me too soon too!

Well, I leave you with a few shots of Hello Dave. They are from Chicago, and I highly encourage you to go check out their webpage and MySpace page to listen to some jams! They are a sort of countrified rock and soul group with nothing but good music that makes you want to dance (even when the weather is bad). CHEERS!

They Might Be…

Published

charmaspice

on November 17, 2007

in Date-Night and Music

. 0 Comments

Current Mood: Happy emoticon Happy & Jammin’

Giants. What or Who’s that you ask….an awesome geek rock band that we went to go see on Tuesday night. I still have “Particle Man” and “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”stuck in my head. We had a great time seeing the show at The Intersection; as we always do. We ended up meeting up with one of my pal’s from playgroup (no the playgroup is not for us….it’s for the kids) after talking about it at playgroup earlier that morning. I’m so glad that M & J were able to get tickets to join us because we had a great time hanging out with them. Not that we don’t love our children, but it’s always nice to get out with adults and discuss adult things. We found out that we had a lot more in common than just belonging to our MOMS Club, and our daughters being great pals. Hopefully we’ll be able to hang out again soon outside of playgroup. The show was awesome, as I said, despite the opening act sucking…badly. They were a 2 man band (literally) playing instruments over a loop (bad ones I might add), and they even used an air horn during a song to see if you were paying attention.

The pictures above are not from our show, just ones I saved by searching for They Might Be Giants in Google’s Images. We tried to get a couple of pics on our new cheap bar cams….but the camera’s turned out to be just that - cheap. Apparently the pictures we did take were quite blurry, and the videos we tried to take didn’t come out that great. Which is a bummer, because they played “Alphabet of Nations” one of Clare’s favorite songs. Yes, people, this band is Kid Friendly - one of the other great things I like about them. They even have a couple of kid albums out, one entirely about the alphabet “Here Come the ABC’s”. Clare loves to sing them, especially “Flying V”. Most of their songs are about things that you learn about in life - real things, not just love and heart break, and how to shake your booty…one of the reasons I call geek rock. That and I’ve never seen so many guys in one bar with striped sweaters on in one night!

Oh, and if you’d like a free listen and another site to look at feel free to check out their MySpace page.

Dates Really Do Count

Published

charmaspice

on September 22, 2007

in Alcohol, Art, Date-Night and Food

. 0 Comments

Current Mood: Cool emoticon Cool & Lovey

Last night for the first time in about a month Brad & I were able to get out for a much needed Date Night. I know I’ve blogged about these before, but let me tell you why they are so important. We started doing these regularly about a year ago, and it has helped us out in more ways than we can count. I know it sounds cheesy…Date Night…but seriously it’s one thing we forgot how to do after embarking on marriage life and the decision to have a child. We were so busy thinking about jobs, parenthood, and jumping through the hoops of life that we forgot about US…and what we like to do together. It’s something that I think every couple should do, and it should be an institution! We get so wrapped up in every day life that we forget about the things that drew us to this other person that we chose to commited our lives to. So I urge anyone in a long term relationship to make sure that they fit a Date Night into their schedules on a regular basis.

Last night we decided to head out to Bar Louie in Woodland Mall. They have yummy out of the ordinary bar food, and a happy hour we were unaware of….meaning martini’s for pretty cheap, and that’s what we’re all about! I think they were about $5 each, regularly probably around $7.50. I had a few Peartini’s along with the Blackened Fish Po’ Boy. Brad had a variety of martini’s including the Peartini, and the VooDoo along with the Shrimp Po’ Boy. We also shared their absolutely wonderful Salted Pretzels. There isn’t much special about these, other than they are soft pretzles sticks (easy for sharing and dipping) and they come with queso, yellow mustard, and honey mustard for dipping. We stuffed ourselves to the gills, and decided to see if there was a movie playing of interest at the new cheap 2nd run theater at the mall. There wasn’t much in our time slot, and nothing that we wanted to see. So, we headed to Meijer.

We actually had an agenda for going to Meijer this time. When we went camping with our parents a few weeks ago for the Wine Festival, Brad’s Dad had purchased a table top propane grill for a pretty reasonable price. He had said that he had gotten it at Meijer for about $25…Brad thought that it’d be a great alternative for us instead of buying a full grill for a much higher price. Being Demi-vegetarians (we eat fish/shrimp…and that’s the only type of meat we eat) we have been wanting to grill our vegies, Boca Burgers, Smart Dogs, and Shrimp Kabobs for years now! So, for a grand total of just over $30 we purchased a table top grill & a mini propane tank to go with it. I think we’re going to do some grilling this weekend before the nice weather ends! We also picked up some Jones Soda that was on sale (one of Brad’s fav’s), and some Strawberry Kiwi flavored Vodka from Pinnacle on a whim…hey, we are still working on the impulse buying - at least this time it was a relatively cheap impulse buy! We also picked up some frozen lemonade for mixing and to drink on these somewhat warm early Fall days.

We were actually home relatively early this Date Night. While it was somewhat short, it was nice. I just enjoy spending time with Brad - alone - without having to take someone to the bathroom as soon as our food arrives, listening to “Hey, did you know” or “I have a question” every 5.8 seconds. We love our daughter, but she drives us CRAZY sometimes! Other than dealing with retarded people in the parking lot of the mall (a fine lady ignored the 3-way stop, laughing her way as she turned in front of me…as with most malls-ALL incoming traffic has the right of way), and trying to find a parking spot on a Friday night (we finally found one, and then the girls were parked the wrong way making them go the wrong way down the one way parking lot lanes). Ah well. Funny enough, we ended our date by falling asleep on the couch around 10:30pm. I guess that’s what happens when you’re old!

This morning/early afternoon has been relatively quiet around the Eastowner’s house. We made brunch, Vegetarian style, with eggs, toast, and Morningstar Fake Sausage Links. Clare of course ate tons of food for her growing body, and Brad & I enjoyed our Michigan Maple Coffee from Shuil with our food. This afternoon we will be heading up the street for Eastown’s Street Fest. Every year they close down the street and offer up live music on 2-3 stages, and venders up and down the street selling their wears. If time permits & we have the gumption to go…I read in the paper this morning that their’s a Marching Band Competetion up in Rockford. I doubt we’ll go, but it might be a nice end to our already groovin’ day.

The Much Needed Date Night & Good Times

Published

charmaspice

on August 25, 2007

in Alcohol, Date-Night, Local and Music

. 0 Comments

Current Mood: Eat Drink Smiley & Happy emoticon Happy & Lovey

Last night we booked our babysitter for a much needed date night. It’s actually been some time since we’ve been able to have a night out as we’ve had a lot going on this summer. We left home wondering what to do for dinner, I made mention of Roses on Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids. Brad said there was no way we’d get in, as it’s always busy….not to mention on a Friday night. Apparently we got there at a good time because we were seated with no problem. We started out the night with a pitcher of sangria…..YUM! For an appetizer we had the Cheese of the Day which was a baked bri served with toasted cranberry walnut bread, apple slices, grapes, and quince (which is like a jelly spread). It was super yummy and a great way to start out a meal. Because I went with a small plate for dinner I had a Baby Spinach Salad which had sun-dried cherries, red onion, gorgonzola, tosted pine nuts & balsamic vinaigrette. And my Small Plate was Sesame Seared Ahi Tuna with ginger-soy glazed edamame, pearl onions & cashews, with sriracha & sweet soy around the plate. I WISH we had taken a picture of it before I started eating, however I was so eager to try it I dug in with an eager palate. It was ~~wonderful~~ ~~fabulous~~ unbelievably tasty! Brad has a picture of my polished plate on his phone….I’m sure it’ll make it in his blog later this afternoon. I got a head start blogging this AM because I was woken up at 6:30am by our darling daughter. I dozed for a while, but then I was startled awake again to help put “planting pants” on Barbie at 7:30am.

Anyway, back to my review of the evening. We’ve been on the look out for Burnett’s flavored Vodka lately, and it’s hard to find around town as it’s WAY bottom shelf stuff. However, we heard rumor of a great new liquor store up on Alpine just North of the Best Buy & York Creek Apt.’s (our old home sweet home). They of course had the Burnett’s and much more! We picked up Coconut, Grape, & Watermelon for our weekend consumption. It was kinda funny, the lady was like “Having a party?” I said, ”No… we just like to drink.”

We got in the car and decided to head back into Eastown to try our local Hookah Lounge. We went to one out in AZ with Larry & Meghan and that was lots of fun, and it’s VERY relaxing. We ordered up 2 pineapple-strawberry smoothies and a hookah with raspberry flavored goodness. Once again Brad took photos on his phone, I’m sure they’ll be up. We were obviously the oldest people in the room, not that it’s a problem for us…..but we were definitely the people we stared at a decade ago ( or at least I stared at ). We got in contact with a friend that was downtown at a show, and decided to join the party after our hookah was finished.

After some smokin’ we got in the car and headed downtown to The Intersection to see The North Mississippi All Stars with some of the Geek friends. The show was pretty good I must say…..I don’t like all of their music, but most of it is pretty good…especially their newer stuff. They are though one of Brad’s favorite band, and for a chance to let him see them I would go and enjoy the company of our drunk annoying friends and have a few drinks myself. We stayed until the end, and it made me want to come home to watch Back Snake Moan. We didn’t watch it last night, but I foresee it in our future movie watchings. It was a night of randomness for us, but it was oh so enjoyed by me. I miss being able to wander around town on a whim doing what we do best…..finding interesting things to do. Maybe once things settle down this Fall we’ll be able to get back into do some things for us again.