Dining with Love...

Wrapping up coverage of our anniversary...

Thursday (A-day), I was late coming home as I helped a fellow employee change the tire on her car in our employee parking lot. (Always looking to reflect good Karma.)

Lavie kept calling me to check my progress...

I ducked into our grocery store on the way home to grab some roses and a card.

I was signing the card in the parking lot when the phone rang.

Lavie - "Where are you at?"

Me - "Passing Dairy Queen. I should be home in about three minutes."

Lavie - "Are you sure?"

Me - "Promise! Why?"

Lavie - "Nothing. Just wanted to know how much longer you would be."

Me - "I'll be home in just a minute!"

Lavie - "OK, Bye."

So I quickly finished writing up her card, secured the roses behind a seat-belt and set off.

Were her parents in town? Did they get reservations somewhere?

I got home and surprised Lavie with the cards and flowers, but was kept outside until I could be blindly led into the house (either a Good Thing or Not Good Thing) by Alvis and Lavie.

Allowed to open my eyes, I saw a fantastic Asian spread on the table for dinner.

Miso soup, salmon and tuna sushi, California rolls, Vietnamese spring and egg rolls, dipping sauces, and Japanese white rice. Lavie even found the best imported Japanese sake we have in town.

The girls had spent the afternoon running by our area's Japanese and Vietnamese restaurants (and the spirit house) collecting all the goodies, then making the rice when they got home.

Alvis usually cooks us dinner on our anniversary and we had discussed putting together an Asian salad, but my girls out-did themselves this time. Even pulling out our chopstick sets and our fancy Asian plates. Lavie even went by Pier1 to get some sake serving cups and bottle.

It may not look like much from the picture, but we couldn't manage to eat it all. Yummers. It was a very nice night.

And the reason for the constant status checks? Well, seems that they were not sure how long they should leave the sushi out and were trying to decide it they needed to put it back in the fridge if I was stuck in commute traffic, and I think they were a little excited as well!

I have such awesome girls.

Saturday, Lavie's parent's kept Alvis so Lavie and I dressed up and went to a fancy-pants dinner. We were going to drive over to dine and play on the Kemah Boardwalk, but I had a last-minute change of thought and we went to a (really) out-of the way restaurant on the Houston Port called Brady's Landing. We put on our best, and when we got there around 9pm, the parking lot was packed.

I was worried about a wait, but they were hosting a company party in one their banquet rooms. We immediately were seated at a candle-lit table in an area all by ourselves right next to a panoramic window view of the Houston Ship Channel. We dined on two of the best steaks we have ever had. We watched the night lights sparkling on the water. We held hands and laughed and flirted. We realized that good food, great service, and cherished company can make even the barges and sparks from a hidden welder look romantic at night.

Isn't love grand, sometimes?
--Claus