Happy Anniversary

Again, catching up ... April and I had a date night in honor of our anniversary (Oct 16th) which we celebrated on Sat, Oct 13th. Date nights are always a fun adventure. When you spend so much of your time shackled (as a shackled couple) to a 2 yr old, there is inevitably some culture shock when you find yourselves as an autonomous unit, free from the demands of a little one. Our friends Chris and Amy were kind enough to take Sylvia for the evening and we were free to hit the town. The image above depicts just one of the many reasons I love April so much. (Hey, every couple has their weird things ... and I love you, Sweetie!)

Well, I thought I was doing something nice by snagging some free tickets to a play. Mistake #1 -- not a good idea to schedule date night too rigorously. April loves theater (and was a theater major at Macalester). But it became apparent we should not put too many demands on the evening. Instead, we decided to free-form it and start off with a good ol' fashioned "domestic." Once the smoke cleared, we were on our way to Namaste Cafe, owned and operated by our good Nepali friends Swadesh and Saujanya. They used to have a cozy place called Himalayan Chai at Franklin and Lyndale. April and I met there. Swadesh and Saujanya saw our love unfold, one cup of tea at a time. Dinner was phenomenal. Go to Namaste if you get the chance -- 2512 Hennepin. They sell fun trinkets, jewelry and quality imports from Nepal in the shop upstairs. They also sell the best bulk tea and chai you will ever have this side of Asia.

We left very full (Swadesh insisted on giving us a free dessert) and decided to walk a bit, ending up at a used bookstore and spending some money on books (the ones I bought anyway, I'll probably never have time to read -- some Sylvia Plathe, a Karl Marx reader and a bike repair book). My contribution to the evening was taking in the final big night of Oktoberfest at Gasthoff's in Northeast. We headed that way not knowing quite what to expect. Gasthoff's had a huge tent in the lot (about five tents actually) and a throng of people to rival a bad rock concert. Most of these folks were piss drunk. I was too humble to get pictures of the lines to the Biffy's, but standing in one for 15 minutes was quite the study in bad human behavior.

Long live the polka -- the easiest dance in the world to do while drunk. Neither April nor I was drunk and we didn't dance, which pissed off April a bit. Sorry, honey ... I blame it on the band. I was expecting some employees wandering around in authentic German garb. I was expecting a REAL polka band. I was expecting a dance floor larger than 10x15ft. Instead, it was bunch of drunk, working class suburbanites and a band with a polka beat belting out bad Billy Joel and Jimmy Buffett covers serenading a group of bad dancers packed like sardines onto a tiny plank surface in the corner of the tent. Geez! Once again, I aimed too high.

I did score a plastic Warsteiner boot -- perfect for traveling! It even has a lanyard for easy transport. It'll be perfect for our party this Saturday. (If by some misalignment of the stars I didn't invite you, you're welcome to attend ... FLECKTOBERFEST! Sat, Nov 3rd.)

Happy anniversary, April. Three years ... working on a lifetime.