I didn't shoot my eye out

Hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day or at least survived it without feeling too depressed.

Joe and I had a nice 4-day weekend. He took 2 mental health days off of work and we decided to do some things that were a little different than usual. We slept in on Friday, Saturday, and Monday (he did a little on Sunday, but I tend to sleep in anyway).

On Friday, I picked out our activities. We started by going bowling, where Joe kicked my butt at both games. I told him it tends to take me a couple games to "warm up" where I play terribly (my high score out of the two games was 69. Ouch, lol) and then I have maybe one or two good games and then I start doing poorly again. Well, he said his first game was his best game ever and he was very close to getting a turkey! His second game wasn't quite as good, but still better than mine (I was robbed from a couple strikes!). He isn't a big fan of bowling and we'd never done it together, but hopefully this might make him change his mind, because I enjoy it and hadn't gone bowling for well over 3 years.

After bowling, we hit up a Japanese sushi (& other Japanese foods) buffet. I wasn't all that hungry, but I piled my plate up before I sat down. And then I saw a sign that said there was a 20% charge for uneaten food. Joe had to help me clean my plate. The sushi was mediocre, but Joe said he wouldn't mind going their again. I should've looked harder for wasabi, which makes me enjoy sushi more.

Next we headed to a painting ceramics store. We didn't have anything specific in mind to paint, but he ended up painting a wizard bank for me and I ended up painting a vase for him. He wished he hadn't chosen something as detailed as he did while I wished I had chosen something that wasn't as much of a blank canvas. Our "creations" will be picked up today, and they are no masterpieces, but it was something neither of us had done before and enjoyed.

We decided to head home after painting and ended up staying home the rest of the evening. It was nice relaxing at home after having an active day together.

On Saturday, we didn't have anything major planned. We ate lunch at Red Robin and went futon shopping. First, we checked out futons at a local store, and then we went to Ikea. The products didn't compare at Ikea, so we decided to do a little more investigating online but figured we'd probably buy from the local store. We shopped online a bit but ended up going back to the first store to place our order. We were able to set the futon up to be delivered and set up for a very reasonable rate. We should get it in a couple weeks when the cover we ordered is available. We're really excited, because this will make our guest room more usable, and the futon seemed quite comfortable and sturdy.

After purchasing the futon, we went to a church Valentine's dance for adults. We snacked, chatted with some people we knew from church, and danced. It was the first time we'd really danced since our wedding (I say "really" because after we returned from our cruise without dancing-- and much to my dismay-- I made Joe dance with me in our family room). We only danced on the slow songs because Joe said he couldn't remember how to swing dance without a refresher class and he said he didn't know how to do any other kinds of dances. So we literally danced in circles. It brought me right back to dances as a teenager. We are definitely going to take a dancing class.

On Valentine's Day, we made breakfast together (German Oven Pancakes) and then headed to church. Joe didn't have any church-related meetings, which was very unusual but nice. So after church, we headed home, made lunch together, watched some TV, made dinner together, watched more TV, and played games. It was very relaxing and enjoyable.

Yesterday, Joe got to pick our activities out. We headed to Bellevue to go to an indoor shooting range. I had never fired a gun before in my life, but Joe wanted me to feel a little more comfortable with one, so he reviewed usage and safety information with me, showing me how to aim and all that fun stuff. Then he let me have a shot at it, literally. I swear my heart was beating so loudly in my chest that I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. I got less than a dozen total shots off, but felt like that was plenty for my first time through. He said I did pretty well for my first time, but I was just glad to have that done with.

After the shooting range, we headed to an indoor go-kart racing track. We paid ridiculous amounts of money to ride in electric cars with 4 other people (including one young boy who kept getting in my way and annoying the crap out of me) around the track for a total of about 16 laps and then that was that.

We headed to downtown Bellevue to shop and eat. We wanted to eat first, but our first two choices for food were places that weren't yet open, so we ended up at Bellevue Square. While trying to figure out where we'd eat, I decided against shopping. We ended up having fabulous Italian food in a restaurant where we were literally the only customers there. Afterwards, we headed to Video Only and Best Buy to look for a blu-ray player (we couldn't find one we were interested enough in buying) and then headed home.

When Joe asked me yesterday what activities I liked the most, I had a hard time answering that. While everything we did was okay, nothing was spectacularly fun or anything. On the other hand, it was very nice spending so much time together without time restraints or specific obligations strewn throughout. The only thing that we'd planned that had a specific time frame was the dance on Saturday night, and that didn't come close to interfering with anything we were doing. I told him I liked being out of the house (I swear that doesn't happen nearly enough these days), enjoying the sun (yesterday, anyway), and just spending time with him. I even told him that getting out made the sitting at home and watching TVs and DVDs more enjoyable for me because it was more of a way to relax than just a way to pass the time.