12 Dates of 2014: April

A quick note: One date a month seriously feels like A LOT of work when you have to find a babysitter. I know we have tons of friends who are willing and happy to watch Dane for us when we want to go out, but the problem is actually leaving Dane at their house and crossing our fingers that he will be nice. He's been very attached to us lately and doesn't like either of us leaving, even if the other is staying with him. Last night we tried to put him down to sleep at a friends' house and he screamed and screamed and screamed like he was being abandoned somewhere totally scary, so we ended up just letting him stay up with us and he didn't go to sleep until we got home at 10:00. It stresses me out, honestly, thinking of leaving him somewhere and wondering if he's crying and making life hard for the people watching him. But I'm always glad when we do end up getting out in the end. . . . It's just a lot of work to actually get out there! And I really feel like it's a good habit to keep up. It's only going to get more and more complicated and difficult to go on dates as time goes on, but obviously we want to keep doing it, so might as well start now. I think this goal of "12 dates per year" or once a month might become a permanent thing, as long as we can continue to plan it out.

But anyways, for this month, we ended up having dinner at the Angus Barn. Tommy has talked about going to the Angus Barn in Raleigh for a while. It's a kind of upscale steakhouse in the area, which I've heard a bit about while living here but never really thought we'd actually make it to. But this weekend, we decided that we'd have a graduation celebratory dinner there with Devin and Cathy, as a last hurrah fancy dinner together before we move to different states (boo hoo). We decided we'd use part of Tommy's signing bonus to pay for this fancy date (because we are usually more of a $10 a plate kind of people). When we pulled up, I was absolutely blown away by how huge the building and the parking lot were. I was kind of picturing a normal-sized chain restaurant, but it was actually this huge, sprawling, giant red barn basically just surrounded by forest and a beautiful lake (and the freeway and airport right next to it, of course). It was really awesome. 

We got there early (a miracle!), so we walked around the parking lot and saw some of the lake and the "Kicking Booth" (a nineteenth century North Carolina invention, if I remember correctly). And then we went inside and enjoyed a delicious, fancy steak dinner that we were 100% pleased with. The food was amazing, the company was amazing, the place itself was amazing. And the dessert was amazing--we got their chocolate chess pie, which was apparently rated "in the top 10 best chocolate desserts in the country" (according to our waitress), and we loved it. All in all, we had a great time. 

Happy graduation to Tommy and Devin, part 1! (Pretty sure they're going to get a lot of graduation dinners and experiences in the next few weeks.) And thank you, Angus Barn, for a wonderful evening out.