Justin Thorn

It is time to catch up on the past couple busy weeks. The weekend after the Super Bowl was Lauren’s birthday. We celebrated by spending the weekend in Fayetteville with her family. She got to enjoy doing some shopping and watching a play at the local theater (an annual birthday tradition). On the way home that Sunday evening we were able to have dinner with her dad and brother. It was a lot of traveling but a lot of fun.

Last weekend we decided to stay close to home. Valentine’s Day fell on a Saturday this year which meant going out to dinner at a restaurant would be crazy. We tend to be patient people but we also value our time. Waiting around for a couple hours for a table in Greenville and an over priced meal is not our first idea of fun or romantic. We decided dinner for two at home seemed more appropriate. Provided that this was a “real dinner” which meant putting aside the TV dinner trays and pizza boxes in favor of home cooking and the dining room table. Who knew you could eat at a table while at home? We only seem to do that a couple times a year so this qualified as one of those special occasions. Lauren and I had fun browsing around The Fresh Market down the street to pick out our ingredients on Saturday afternoon. For dinner we had fresh bread and salads complete with the restaurant style dipping oils and spices. The main course was stuffed chicken breast filled with either crab meat, or spinach and cheese. You can probably guess which one was mine. Then we fixed potatoes and beans as sides. Add a glass of wine and two slices of cheesecake for dessert and you have yourself a complete meal. This probably goes down as one of the best meals we have had at home so far. We were stuffed afterwards and best of all our wallets were still fat and our feet weren’t sore from waiting in line. Then it was time to enjoy a movie. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind seemed appropriate for Valentine’s Day. We had watched it before several years ago and really enjoyed it. It is fundamentally a story about love around Valentine’s Day but not your typical sappy, heart-felt romantic comedy kinda way. More a strange mix of sci-fi, psychology, dark comedy rolled together in one hard to explain movie. Just watch it for yourself sometime when your in the mood for something different.

Another big event for us recently was the end of our dog training classes for pepper. Last night was our last class of our 7 week course for “Basic Obediance Training” at the Top Dog Academy. There was even a little graduation ceremony after all the dogs passed their exams. This simply meant demonstrating the skills they learned in class like sit, lay down, stay, walking in control on/off leash, etc… It was a little hectic last night since our normal trainer was unable to attend due to a recent death in the family. The presence of new trainers threw the dogs off balance a little bit and everyone had overactive, hyper dogs to calm down and try to get them to focus. Afterwards they setup an obstacle course for the dogs to play in and we all enjoyed treats for humans and dogs that everyone brought to share. It was kind of like the last day of school in a way. One big test then a lot of goofing off and snacks. To say Lauren was excited about this day would be an understatement. Its great to have a more obedient dog even though she still has more work to do. It is also great to have our Monday evenings back and not need to rush to school by 7:30PM every Monday night anymore.

One last thing I forgot to mention. Lauren and I had the pleasure of buying two tickets to the Coldplay concert coming to Raleigh this August. The last time we saw Coldplay in concert was their last tour in this area back in 2005. It is still the best show we have been to so far in all our concert going years. We are really looking forward to it and splurged a little for good seats in the middle of the ampitheater. If your not familiar with Coldplay’s music you can listen to them on Last.FM. Also be sure to check out this really great 60 Minutes interview from a couple weeks ago.