Date Night on the Cheap

Thursday night is date night, but what with trying to pinch pennies and eek out the chapters for our sequel novel, I must say, we've been more utilitarian than romantic the past few weeks. So yesterday, I set out to achieve both!

Complete with Italian mandolins playing in the background, I set up our spare room upstairs as a little candle lit bistro.

The menu consisted of a healthy salad and a yummy parmesan-garlic-alfredo-chicken pizza (on sale for $5 at Albertsons!) and a bottle of Martinelli's sparkling cider. Oh, and cookies for dessert.

After our fine dining affair, we settled in and each knocked out nearly a chapter. Whala! Cheap and time-efficient.

Of course, this wonderful plan was nearly foiled by traffic. Our lovely neighborhood, which we enjoy so much, is connected to the rest of the world by only one--very popular--thoroughfare, Highway 76. Jim called me 30 minutes after he was supposed to be home to say that traffic was backed up a mile away and apparently "they" closed the highway 2 cross streets before ours. So he turned with the rest of traffic down N. Santa Fe, waited for another 20 minutes to go about a quarter of a mile, and then found out that the 76 was closed all the way down to the major cross street past ours. So basically we were stranded--no getting in or out. Finally, he decided to park his Jeep in a random neighborhood and run home about 2 miles through Guajome Park. Of course, he'd had several meetings that day and had worn his dressier shoes. Oh yeah, and he had to lug around his big lap top bag. But none of that deterred him. He finally made it home, an hour and a half late, and the pizza still tasted fine even after being reheated.

Yea for date night! :o)