Current mood:

embarrassed

Date Night
A few weeks ago, Brian and I decided to make Friday nights "date night." We've only been on one so far, for a variety of reasons, but last night was our second.

I made awesome plans. Mini-golf and Mexican food in Palatine.

There's a funeral home called Ahlgrim & Sons. They have a mini-golf course in the basement. I think that's really cool, so that's where I thought we'd go. We both like mini-golf, but I'm kind of tired of the windmills and stuff, and was looking for something different. Besides, it was supposed to rain last night, so I didn't want to play outside.

About 5 minutes away is a restaurant called Tamale Wally's. Based on its description on metromix.com, it didn't seem authentic, but it seemed like it had a festive atmosphere--which we could really use right now. Anyway, it's supposed to be more of a Cuban and Tex-Mex place, and I love Tex-Mex.

So, get this. We go to the restaurant. It's no longer Tamale Wally's. Now it's some Italian place, and we didn't feel like Italian. Plus, the atmosphere was more subdued than what I had in mind. I'm not at all familiar with the Palatine area, so we drove around for a while trying to find a place to eat.

First though, we wanted to drive past the funeral home, so we'd know where it was. We figured there'd be restaurants around there.

Because the mini-golf is free, they can cancel at any time if there's a funeral going on. And when we got there, the parking lot was totally empty. Not a car or hearse in sight. No mini-golf; no funeral. Also, it didn't look like the family lived there, and even if they did, what were we supposed to do--ring the doorbell and say, "Hi. Can we play in your basement?"

It's my fault, I suppose, because I didn't call ahead. I was reminded of the old, stupid jingle that I think AT&T used to have: "Phone first, before you go," which my mom loved to sing in appropriate circumstances, but it was extremely annoying.

In my defense though, metromix.com should have at least deleted the entry for Tamale Wally's. And they boast about being one of the best entertainment search engine things in Chicago. Phooey on them.

We ended up driving around and ate at this noodle shop in downtown Arlington Heights. The area looked revitalized and somewhat upscale. Some of the new condos were really impressive looking. It was understandably crowded, but there were too many junior high and high school kids for our taste.

Oh, well. We still had a good time, even though things didn't go as planned. I still want to go to the funeral home, though.

Next week it's Brian's turn to make the plans.