playing hookey

last night, andrew and i went out to dinner with lora and marc. we met up at humble pie and had another great meal there. i appreciate a place with an eclectic decor and good food. we shared a few bottles of wine, some work stories, and discussed topics from travel to animal rights and even circumcision. never a dull moment.

i'd been toying with the idea of taking a "mental health day" from school all week long. since i've been so stressed at work recently and andrew works every night and weekend, i wanted to just take a day to be here with him and relax. this morning when the alarm went off, i decided today was the day to stay in, but unfortunately, i did pretty much feel like crap. so while i felt good that i wasn't lying to the school, i also regret somewhat spending the day off that i had laying on the couch.

this evening though, we went out with andrew's mother to uno's for pizza. that's pretty much one of the only places we go with her because both andrew and his mother are crazy about pizza, and this is as close to real chicago style pizza as they've been able to find in the area. we had a nice time there and then spent some time bumming around briar creek.

we went to petsmart or petco or whatever it is and bought an "ultrasonic" bark preventing bird feeder thing. it's supposed to put out frequency when dogs bark up to 50 feet away. weirdly enough, it is advertised to be used for your dogs or "for your neighbor's dogs" - i thought that was a little strange. but we are willing to give it a shot so the children will quit being obnoxious in the afternoons.

after that, we went to the caribou where we had our first unofficial date. andrew and i spent all day hanging out in this alcove while i was supposed to be grading papers. we literally spent 5 hours talking - it was kind of neat to go back there and reminisce. now that we've finished watching the "hell's kitchen" on the fox reality network, it's time for bed!