Back in 2009 a group of friends and I had what we referred to as “Dinner Club”. Once a month we’d get together and try out a new restaurant, generally they were locally owned restaurants. In May of 2009 we went to Bayou down in Monett, Missouri. At the time 4 of the “members” worked in Monett so they located this restaurant.
So jump forward a few months and I started dating my husband, the man who likes seafood type foods :). So I made it a point to take him down to Bayou. He’s been hooked ever since.
Here recently we decided to have an impromptu date night and decided upon Bayou for dinner.
Very seldom do we start with an appetizer, although once in a while we get it in our head to try something as a starter. This night we went with the fried pickles. They are hand-battered and fried crispy, choose from dill slices or spears.
Joplin recently got a new steakhouse. One thing about Joplin, there may be quite a few chain restaurants, however, when a new restaurant opens up, everyone and their brother seem to want to go eat there.
For Christmas my uncle and his girlfriend gave us a gift certificate to go to Longhorn Steakhouse… the new steakhouse in Joplin. For Tbug’s birthday, we were going to go eat there, however the wait time was 1 hour 15 minutes. No thank you. Dad travels for work and he says that’s pretty much the wait time at any he’s been to…. Crazy! So we left and went to eat at Jim Bob’s as there was no wait that night.
Jump forward to this past Sunday, when hubby and I woke up he wanted to go to Joplin so we got up and around and headed to town. After we went everywhere he wanted, but before heading to the store, we decided to try out our gift certificate at Longhorn Steakhouse.
We got there around 11:45 and were immediately seated. By the time we left there was a huge wait.
Back when I was in college – geez that seems like forever and a year ago! – my friend Janet introduced me to McAlister’s Deli, in fact it was this McAlister’s she took me to, over on Sunshine in Springfield, MO.
I swear, they are known for their sweet tea! It’s purdy darn good too! :). In fact one time in college on my way home to see my parents I stopped in to get a sweet tea. I pulled out onto Sunshine and dumped the entire thing all over the floor board of my car. To say I wasn’t a happy camper is a bit of an understatement because I wasted some extremely gooooooood tea. Tea in the floorboard didn’t bother me, it was the “wasting of the tea” that bothered me!
Once Thanksgiving hits our days spiral fast toward the end of the year between parties and trips and work in general. Yesterday, hubby and I had a free moment, a breather if you will and we decided to spend the entire day together doing nothing. Well seeing what sales were like after Christmas but pretty much, doing nothing and just spending time together.
We are probably two of the most indecisive people you will ever meet, especially when it comes to going out to eat or even what to eat at home. Neither of us usually care and we can always find something to eat just about anywhere.
We were driving down 7th Street in Joplin throwing out all the different restaurants we could eat at when I suggested Garfield’s. We realized right then that in the 3 1/2 years we’ve been together, we’ve never eaten at Garfield’s together; it was settled.
As a little kid, I used to love to eat at Garfield’s. So much so that it was usually my restaurant of choice for birthdays.
Two Monday’s ago, wow that seems like a long time ago! Tbug had a school Christmas program. First off I should mention she goes to public school now so with knowing everything about public schools and God being removed, it surprised and shocked me with the mention of Jesus Christ in some of their songs. Way to go middle town America school districts! I love it!
Anyway, moving on… on our way home from her school program we decided we needed to grab a bite to eat because it would be really late when we got home anyway. Hubby decided we should go to Johnny Carino’s since we’d both been craving Italian.
On Monday nights they have half price family sized meals. How cool is that?!?! Half price Family sized Appetizers too. Even better!
I also saw this… holy cow, I so need to try this sometime!
Last spring when we were out in Las Vegas, I introduced my husband to the restaurant that is Buca di Beppo. I know that it is a chain restaurant, but sometimes, they are some of the best… otherwise, why would there be a chain of them, they wouldn’t last at all. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the Mom & Pop type diners too! Just to be clear!!
Friday though, when we were driving up to Kansas City we were trying to decide where we’d eat dinner. I mentioned Buca to hubby and he agreed, it would be good so Buca di Beppo it was.
Now I’m not trying to brag or anything, definitely not at all, but we had to get new phones since we changed cell providers. Hey, Verizon has coverage at our house in every nook and cranny where AT&T only wished they had coverage… so we got introduced to the thing that is Siri. (if you’re not an iPhone user, she’s a cool feature that is in Beta on the iPhone 5 and it’s fun to screw with her, I’m just saying!)
We actually used Siri and an iPhone app called Open Table to make our reservations while we were driving to the City. I’ll tell you now, Hubby was driving, I was doing the rest. I’m totally against texting and driving. Ok off the soapbox now.
Buca di Beppo is located down on the Country Club Plaza, but not at street level, nope, you have to go down. How awesome is that!?!?
Remember, Buca di Beppo is family-style cuisine. So basically you order a small to feed 3-4 people or a Large I think they said feeds 6-8 depending on what you get, obviously.
Today is my 2nd wedding anniversary. Heck, I can’t believe I’ve been married for 2 years! One of my husband and my favorite places to eat is Zio’s Italian Kitchen.
We recently went to eat there, so I thought I’d share our experience.
Saturday night hubby asked me if I’d have dinner with him. Well he should have known the answer to that question, but he proceeded to ask anyway. On our way to Jasper it started raining. Oh it was glorious! We wanted to jump out of the car and dance in it!
Anyway, once we got to Jasper to Gem Dandy’s Pizza it had quit. I’ve been telling hubby for a while now we needed to go eat here. Finally we made it!
My weekend started early last week. Hubby had a day and a half of vacation that needed to be used up. Kind of the use it or lose it thing. I had 3 1/2 days, so we decided to take 1 1/2 days of vacation together. So we both went to work on Thursday morning and went home at noon to start our weekend!
When I walked in the house on Thursday afternoon hubby was snoozing on the couch. haha! We got caught up on White Collar then we decided to head out.
In Springfield they have a cheap-o movie theater. Basically it’s the movies right before they go out of theaters. We decided to go there. For $3 a person we got to see Snow White & the Huntsmen.
I liked it! Hubby was afraid it wouldn’t be my cup of tea, but I actually liked it. It did keep me on the edge of my seat a bit, I’m not in to scary movies, but this didn’t just horrify me, just kept me on the edge of my seat.
When we left the theater the pavement was wet. I’m not sure what that was…. j/k it had rained. We just really haven’t seen that in so long I wasn’t sure. ha! There was severe weather all around Springfield. The last I heard they got 1 1/2″ in about 45 minutes.
Then we headed off to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Zio’s. I have loved this restaurant since I was a little kid; I introduced hubby to it and it’s one of his faves as well.
After dinner we decided to go bum around the mall. A few weeks ago hubby and I found a pair of shoes we liked for him to wear to work, but we’re cheap… and they were $75. They aren’t typically what he would wear, otherwise $75 wouldn’t be too bad. So we moved on. Thursday night we were in a different store and found a similar pair for $55. Still not willing to purchase them for that price again, not his normal type of shoe so not sure if he’d like/wear them much. Then we went to Payless, found a similar pair for $16.99. Sold! Now at least he can try them out, if he likes them we’ll move on from there :).
Friday morning we woke up and decided to head to the Falls for some photo ops.
For the most part I was the model and hubby was the photographer. It’s so funny how we have our different styles, yet they are similar too.
I had to wade through the water, and silly me didn’t wear my water shoes but instead boots so off came the boots & socks and up went the jeans. I was a trooper. ha! The rocks were painful on my feet.
Then we headed off to lunch & the grocery store. We finally made it back to the house to relax and eventually start dinner. We invited my parents over for PW’s Prime Rib & PW’s Twice Baked Potatoes. The TBP allowed me to knock another thing off my 101 list so that was exciting! By the way I haven’t done much with that lately…
Saturday my Mother In Law dropped Tbug off and Tbug and I made sugar cookies. Then we went out delivering them to friends & family. Our last delivery was to grandma & grandpa (my parents). She really wasn’t dressed to ride horses (shorts & flipflops), but she really wanted to. So I ran into the house and grabbed a pair of my mom’s old boots & socks and said, you can ride in shorts. So we spent a couple hours riding horses and working on how to show a horse in Western Pleasure & Halter classes.
That evening we decided to head to the drive-in where we watched The Diary of a Wimpy Kid & The Dark Knight Rises.
Sunday we were all tuckered out so much that we woke up late. For 2 days I had been dreaming about Biscuits & Gravy so I got up and started working on that. Tbug came in asking what I was doing and she finished making the biscuits, then helped her daddy work on the gravy.
Then we all settled in and watched Gilmore Girls on DVD. We planned on being lazy Sunday, but my mom called and asked if we’d like to go to lunch with them. So we got dressed and headed to their house. Finally after lunch (which that was a whole ordeal in itself) we made it back to my parents house around 4. Tbug goes home at 5 but she really wanted to ride so I told her she had time. She and Grandpa went out to ride for about 30 minutes and then it was time to put the horses up, get her changed and head to meet her momma.
We finished off with heading to Sunday Night Dinner. Earl finally got her bathroom fixed and she was so excited for everyone to come see the new bathroom. After Sunday night dinner we headed to our house and crashed.
Anyone who is friends with me on facebook may or may not have seen this post on Saturday night. As you can see Lourie/CA Girl wants an explanation :).
Back when hubby & I were dating I found an old notebook from high school. Most of the notes were between my friend T and me, however there were a couple between M & S and me as well.
April 16, 1999 T: Did he ask u out? Me: Ask me out how? T: Girlfriend? Me: No T: Date? Me: Well kind of in a way T: How? & Where? Me: He asked if I’d go to the movies
She had me freaked out. Later in that note:
Me: Before he told me that, he said he was going to the drive in either tonight or tomorrow night. Then after we got through that (I’m sure my face was as red as my Tommy Shirt) he asked me. T: His car is really big inside so that would be interesting. Would be something to think about! Me: He isn’t that way and he never said movie/me/drive-in. He just said movie T: & you said what? Or did you change the subject? Me: I told you, I said maybe? Then I said when? T: & he said what…? Me: email me your digits. Then he said he’d call T: That what he said “Your digits” & did he call? Me: Yes and no because I didn’t email them til about 7 last night T: So if he calls you tonight, call me!
And he never called.
April 21, 1999 there was a note between him & me where he asked me out on a date. Or more or less asked if we should hook up. I was scared to ask my parents because my dad had always said I couldn’t go on a date until I was 16. I was 3 months away from 16.
I would like to speculate what would have happened had I had the nerve to ask my parents, but truthfully, we never know what would have happened one way or the other. We could have gone on a date and wound up not liking each other. We could have gone our separate ways and met back up 10 years later. Or we could have fallen madly in love and been a high school romance turned marriage romance. No one knows.
Yes, I tease him but truthfully, we both had to make our mark in the world. His is on a wall in Afghanistan. Mine was on a beach in the Pacific ocean down around the equator. That’s what we had to do…
But… I’m please to announce, that 14 years after he asked me out to the drive in…
He made good on his promise to take me! 14 years later I got my date to the drive in. And, I shouldn’t have been worried, we watched the movie… LOL :).
Both were excellent movies. Although after the Colorado happenings I was a bit on edge when The Dark Knight Rises started.
Don’t worry, we had chaperones too 🙂
You may not realize this but we both have on sweatshirts! I LOVE Hoodies and after this hot summer I’m so ready for fall! And truthfully I LOVE summer!
By the end of the movie we had blankets on too!
Poor Tbug fell asleep during the second movie. Boy I wish I had a photo of how she was sleeping in her chair, but this was pretty great too! On the way home she had her head in my lap on blankets as a pillow with the green blanket over her head.
So as Paul Harvey used to say, Now you know, the rest of the story.
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