Anniversary Surprise

I celebrated my 14 year anniversary last night (that's the Styrofoam anniversary, isn't it?) by surprising Nina with a night out. (Thank you Nick for taking closing duties at the shop for me)

Usually, neither Nina or I are all that concerned about anniversary's. It just seems a bit odd to celebrate being together for another year. It's like saying, "Hey! Look at that! I made it through another year without killing you!" or "Yay! Another year down! Just 36 more till everybody gives us gold!" I mean, really, didn't you intend to be with this person for the rest of your life when you asked them to marry you? If you're going to celebrate each year of being together it's like saying that you were actually hedging your bets the whole time. "Wow, another year down. I honestly wasn't expecting to make it this far. Good for us! Let's go out."

We started the night by going downtown to the Ipanema Brazilian Grill. If you've been there before, you know that it's damn good food. If you've never been, do yourself a favor and go sometime. Yes, it's downtown so it's a bit on the expensive side expensive. ($40.00 a person for dinner but a bargain at $17.00 a person for lunch)

To quote Invader Zim, "You might as well resign yourself to your meaty fate!"

Had we not been on a time schedule I'm pretty sure I would still be there eating all the delicious Garlic Infused Fillet Mignon, Bacon Wrapped Turkey Breast, Parmesan Pork Loin and Roasted Cinnamon Pineapple that my stomach could handle. (And yes, my colon is not happy with me this morning. Not happy, AT ALL!) There was also Slow Roasted Sirloin, Beef Ribs, Pork Ribs, Bacon Wrapped Steak, Roasted Lamb, Brazilian Sausage Links, Garlic Fries with Sea Salt, Fried Plantains and a HUGE salad bar as well as other meaty goodness that I'm not remembering at the moment. Have I mentioned it's all-you-can-eat? I'm going back into a meat induced coma just thinking about it.

Now, I'm pretty sure Nina would have been happy to have just gone out to dinner at a restaurant she enjoys for our anniversary but I then busted out the chocolates! A hand picked box of See's fruit creme centers and chocolate covered cherries (Her favorites) as well as a tin of York chocolate mints and some limited edition Root Beer suckers from See's. (Is it obvious we aren't dieting in any way, shape or form at the moment?)

Finally, I sprung the big surprise on her. Tickets to see Eddie Izzard at the Paramount!


Nina and I have been big fans of Eddie's for many years but had never had the opportunity to see him live. We have all his stand up dvd's and enjoy watching him on The Riches. I knew that Nina would be thrilled with going and I was right. As I gave her the tickets and she looked to see who it was we were seeing, a smile spread across her face and just kept growing and growing. It literally stayed there the rest of the night.

Eddie was, as always, FABULOUS! He spent several minutes at the beginning of the show doing a very Seattle centered bit about "Chief Seattle" founding the city before amending it to Hendrix founding the city all with the help of his iPhone and Wikipedia. I can't do the bit justice but the man was on his game. We were laughing so hard.

All the material he did was new but a few bits were reminiscent of previous sketches. Which was fine, as it gave a familiarity to the show but you never felt like he was just a rehashing past glories.

It was also nice to see some Comic Stop patrons at the show. (Hi Matt. Hi Dawn.)

So, all in all, it was a great night out. I now have a day to recover before having to move the entire shop downstairs tomorrow. (I think my back just gave out writing that.) Anybody who wants to come by and help move stuff is welcome to. I'll have some free drinks and food for anybody who comes by. See ya in the new spot!