Barnes and Noble Date

On Friday evening Kim took me and out to dinner at Anthony's Hearthfire.  We had a $20 gift certificate which made the bill easier to handle. This was only the 2nd or 3rd time we have eaten in the dining room.  Hearthfire has an amazing happy hour in the bar, which we normally enjoy.  Dinner was great, with a wonderful sunny view of the bay.  After dinner Kim told me to drive toward Meridian.  We normally keep most of the dates a secret until they happen.  The suspense is more fun.
We ended up at Barnes and Noble for our after dinner adventure.  My grandpa gave us both giftcards for Christmas which we still needed to use up.  The bookstore is a super fun date spot, you can spend hours browsing around at subjects you could only dream about.  Kim had a fun idea of picking out our favorite childhood books (Under 5 years old) and read them to each other.  I haven't thought about Corduroy for years!  For the most part we knew the books that each other picked out, but Kim had a couple I didn't remember. I'm sure Kim read more than I did as a kid.  Harry the Dirty Dog is pretty darn funny.
After reading our favorite kid books to each other we went and found a bible and read a bit more of Romans.  We actually ended up purchasing the bible, it was a really nice brown leather ESV.  We ended up with a wooden chessboard (an upgrade from the plastic chessboard from our dollarstore date), the Bible, and a cook book for a gift.  We spent about an hour and a half wandering around Barnes and Noble and spending time together. This is a fun potentially zero cost date.  You can learn a lot about a persons likes from the books they pick out.  I'm normally in the food/cookbook section or the DIY/home remodel section.  Kim spends more time looking for good novels, also the financial and cookbook sections.
Overall, A+ for a creative date idea.  My only regret is for not purchasing a chess for dummies book.

Evening at the Planetarium

Did you know that Western has a planetarium on campus?  Well, I did. And part of me thinks Jason stole this date idea from me! Apparently I need to be more secretive about my potential date ideas... Sheesh.  It's okay though, none of the planetarium showings fell on my date week.

Anyways, it was fun.  Jason and I got off of work on a Wednesday evening and headed over to campus.  Jason already had tickets and we found street parking very quickly which left us some time to wander around campus.  It was a beautiful day and the fountain was going...Jason even put on his cheesiest smile for a selfie.

Once the show in the planetarium begins, you get a tour of our stars and planets.  This is my favorite part. In this case, it was one of Western's professors who showed us some of our favorite constellations, told us about some history and Greek mythology.  It is a fun view of the sky because they are able to rotate your view, zoom in, move around, and show you what things look like at different times of the year.  Looking at the stars and admiring the vastness of this universe invokes feelings of wonder, amazement, and humility.


The second half of the show is a film that follows one story line more closely.  In this case it was called Stars of the Pharaohs.  This show discussed ancient Egypt and how the people used the stars in multiple ways, from building pyramids to telling time.  

If you have never been to a planetarium, I highly recommend you take the time to check it.  The one on Western's campus is open to the public and is affordable.  Check out the Spanel Planetarium website here.


Cost:
Planetarium tickets - $10 each

Roller Derby Date

In Bellingham we have a very active roller derby league called the Roller Betties.  This league consists of 4 female only roller derby teams.  The teams have bouts about once a month at the Sportsplex indoor arena.  The derby sets up on the soccer field and brings in the floor for each bout. Kim took us to the bout for a our date this week.  The Sportsplex filled up with players and fans, ready for the action.  I had zero idea of what to expect.  The only education I've had on roller derby was from Whip It the movie. I don't think I learned much about the strategy of the game from this movie.
I will try my best to explain the game to you.  The players outfit themselves with flashy, outrageous, somewhat aggressive attire as to scare or intimidate the opponent.  There is one lead "Jammer" that wears a star helmet, and another skater with a striped helmet who leads the strategy of the block.  The lead jammers goal is to break lose from the pack and then lap the group over and over.  All the other skaters act as defensive blocks and also run screens to allow the lead jammer to pass.  The lead jammer is the first jammer to break lose, when the other teams jammer breaks lose they can also score points as they pass players, but they don't have all the benefits of being first. The lead jammer has control of when to stop the Jam. The strategy of the jammer is to know when to stop the jam as to optimized her points and minimize the other teams points.  It kinda reminds me of Football. The majority of the team stays together in a line ready to block and limit movement, while the jammer (mix between quarterback and running back) races around the track avoiding being blocked.
What a fun time to get loud and watch some highly physical contact sport.  One thing I really appreciated was when a player would get hurt.  They would turn off the music and everyone got quiet until the player got up, and then they would cheer them off the floor.  Roller Derby has a great sense of family and comradery.  The teams are competing, but it appears as they all understand that they are in this sport together and at the end of the bout it is all about staying safe and having fun.
Kim took me to grab burritos during the game, and afterwards we headed home to sit on the couch and continue our reading through Romans.  I really enjoyed my first roller derby experience.

Improv and Ice Cream

After a bit of procrastination, I am here to finally tell you about the last date Jason planned.  After a normal evening of Crossfit, and a moderate form of speed-eating, Jason took me out.  I was pretty sure I knew where we were going, since it was a Thursday evening, and we had to be there before it started.

If you have improv comedy nearby, you should go.  We went to the Upfront Theatre here in town, and enjoyed an evening full of laughs.  We love going to the Upfront, and I was keeping this date idea in my pocket for an emergency, too bad Jason got to it first!  However, it was really good timing.  We got to see our local celebrity, Ryan Stiles, perform.  You may have heard of him...and he's just one funny guy among a whole crew of hilarious people.  For some reason I was  also having a bum week, and laughing was just what I needed! 

I might say this a lot, but Jason knows me so well, and he often knows just what I need. Sometimes he knows I need ice cream (which we grabbed on our way home from the theatre) and sometimes he knows I need sleep, or food, or a chill pill, and so on.  Sometimes it is nice to go on a date and let someone else take care of the entertainment.  A date like this is pretty easy, all you have to do is find the show and get the tickets.  Finishing our date by stopping to get our favorite dessert always helps sweeten the deal too.




Cost:
Tickets to the Upfront - $8 each
Dessert - $6