(no subject)

We have stopped reading The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma as Cordelia's bedtime book. I don't know if we'll go back to it later or not. Cordelia got interested in Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series by hearing bits of it in the car (Scott's listening to the audiobook versions there). When she heard that I own it, she was eager to read it. We're about a chapter into First Test, and she's liking it so far.

I don't own The Song of the Lioness or the books about Daine (I forget the series title there). Chances are that Cordelia will want to read those, too, so maybe I ought to look for copies. I do own a lot of the Circle of Magic books, so I may try to nudge Cordelia toward those after The Protector of the Small. Or maybe we'll do something else entirely. Who knows?

(no subject)

Last night, Scott and I finally went out to dinner for our anniversary. I didn't think it was going to happen, so I was pleasantly surprised. Scott spent about an hour online, looking for good restaurants near where his sister lives. He kept finding places that simply wouldn't work. He finally found a place called Stillwater about twenty minutes away from his sister's place and called to make a reservation.

We weren't sure how fancy the place was, so we dressed up a little bit. I wore a dress and dress shoes. Scott wore long pants and a long sleeved, button down shirt. As it turned out very few people at the restaurant were dressed up. There were a lot of ratty t-shirts and the like. Still, we preferred being overdressed to being underdressed.

It rained really hard while we were on the highway, going north. Visibility was extremely poor, and we had to go pretty slowly. We could barely hear the audiobook Scott had playing.

We got to Scott's sister's place about 5:30, an hour before our reservation. We didn't stay long, just long enough to see Cordelia happily playing with her cousin.

The same rainstorm that we'd met going north caught us on our way to the restaurant. We weren't on the highway this time because Scott chose to take back roads to get there. It was still raining hard when we got to the restaurant. We had some time before our reservation, so we sat in the car and talked for a while.

The meal was decent. Scott had lemon pepper chicken with sweet potato fries. I had a salad with salmon and fruit, lentils and quinoa. We had potato skins as an appetizer, and they served us bread.

After dinner, we went for a little walk, to settle things. There is a path behind the restaurant that leads to a long bridge over a pond/lake/whatever. We didn't go the whole way because my dress shoes hurt my feet. I wanted to walk more, but I couldn't see taking off my shoes and walking in my socks.

There was a nearby Dairy Queen. We stopped there for a little dessert. Scott had a small dipped cone, and I had a small Heath blizzard. That was more than I should have had, unfortunately, and I paid for it in lost sleep last night. (At my doctor's appointment last Wednesday, I talked to my doctor about my reflux. She's referring me to a specialist because it's been twelve years since I was last scoped.)

We picked Cordelia up about 8:30. She was a bit disappointed to leave (but still adamantly against the idea of spending the night. Scott's sister told her that the invitation is open any time she wants it). The weather was clear on the road home, and we got there about 9:00. Cordelia went straight to the shower.