We were supposed to have band practice yesterday, but it all fell through because one guy's kid made it into the finals of a football tournament and another guy had to work and couldn't come if we moved practice later. I don't remember having problems like that when I was in bands 20 years ago. Skipped practices back then were more likely to be hangover-related.
With the day freed up, I tried to think of something fun that my husband and I could do together. We go out for a lot of dinners and movies, but sometimes that gets a little old. My initial thoughts all involved places that close at 5:00 p.m.: the Kansas City Zoo, Powell Gardens (after a short road trip) or the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Those all sounded like reasonable options at 10:00 a.m. when I was doing the brainstorming, but they didn't hold up to the reality of my husband sleeping into the afternoon. By the time I finally woke him up at 2:00 p.m., I had a new plan: a trip to Parkville, MO for Stone Canyon Pizza and Parkville Mini Golf.
It was almost four by the time we finally got to Parkville. Don't even ask me what took so long. However, we had just as good a time as I thought we would. I'm a great mini golf companion because I completely suck at it and my opponent is certain to win by a large margin. The same holds true for bowling, ping-pong and any other sport-like game. I have no patience and no sense of trajectory, so there's no chance of my getting a good score at any of them.
Fortunately, Parkville Mini Golf is lovely even if you're losing. It's built on a hillside and winds up and down through the 18 holes with lots of flowers, plants and comfy benches. That's well worth the $6 admission price.
After my husband beat me by something like 30 strokes, we started walking back to the car but got drawn in by The Sweet Guy and compelled to buy tiramisu-flavored gelato. Really it was just coffee-flavored, but we managed to polish off our portions with no trouble at all.
Once we got home, we watched umpteen episodes of "My Life on the D-List" while I brushed a kitten's worth of fur out of the cats' coats before turning off the TV so I could clean out the cat box and do some laundry. Ah, the romantic glory of a sixteen-year relationship.
With a three-day weekend coming up, I'm hoping we can come up with an equally fun activity on one of those days. Any ideas?
We are headed to a nearby city for the three-day weekend, to take advantage of the extra time to wander about aimlessly and hold hands like teenagers.
Posted by: Kerri Anne | August 25, 2008 at 01:07 PM
A Kathy Griffin marathon sounds pretty good to me. The highlight of our weekend was taking our dog to the off-leash park on Saturday night. Didn't cost any money, didn't require any makeup.
But here's something we'll do on anniversaries or birthdays when we don't feel like springing for airfare: we treat our city as if we were traveling. We check into a hotel, make reservations at a fancy restaurant, stay out late for some live music. It's surprisingly fun!
Posted by: Ellen | August 26, 2008 at 11:18 AM