12/12: #.... i have no idea where we are

Okay, so its time to fess up.
This whole 12 Dates in a Year thing?
I think we're failing.

Turns out living away from family with no real regular go-to babysitter, having the few friends you do turn to for help in the childcare department have a brand new baby, travel a ton and have a wedding, plus jumping into your novice year of Foster Care and being stuck with not one, but two babies for the majority of the year so far...
Turns out all that does not make the ideal situation for suddenly deciding to be intentional and get out and "date" regularly.

Out of our eight envelopes so far, we had done all of exactly three.
January; date #1, check!
February; date #2, check!
March... uh, nope.
April... didn't get around to the box date, but we did get out to a dinner and a movie double date for a friends' birthday.
May... still nope, nope & nope.  But we did get to take our anniversary trip back home, so that's all good.
June... date #3, check! (whoops, guess I never blogged about that one)(Cirque du Soleil's Michael Jackson Immortal show, just for posterity's sake) Plus we got to run away for a quick weekend that month too.
July... was a dud as far as the box was concerned.  But we did finagle one night out to spend a gift certificate we had for dinner and yummy drinks here (thanks Heidi and Gabe!!  It was fabulous!).

So I guess, actually, all in all, we've done pretty good considering!
I guess it's just more our poor date box and all of it's pre-planned date goodness has been a bit neglected. :(

We did pull off a #4 for August last night though!
Our fabulous neighbor all but forced us to get out and go, so totally last minute we pulled from our box and went out on what might just be our funnest date yet.

I took Ryan down to Corsair Artisan Distillery...  I found them through a groupon last winter and I'm glad I took the chance on this tiny little distillery we'd never heard of!
They're in what used to be the Yazoo brewery in the historic Marathon Motorworks building downtown.  We hung out in their craft beer taproom for a bit and sipped a couple of beers before the owner offered to take us back for a "tour" of their quaint little distillery.  It's such a small operation that really the tour is just one big room, but it was amazing with all their barrels and hearing about how they [hand] make and label everything.  And I loved their big ol' circa 1920 copper pot still that survived prohibition and learning how they still use it today. 
After chatting with the guy for quite awhile in the distillery, Ryan and I both still had pints in our hands from the taproom, so the owner suggested we polish those off (can't take them into the spirits' tasting room) and we could get on with the spirits tasting.  So we downed the remainder of our beer quick, neither of us realizing we were still in for actually quite a bit more alcohol!
Since it was just us two he was a little generous... pouring us all seven of the spirits they had bottled... surpassing the "taste" he was supposed to pour more often than not.  ;)
Luckily, we were pleasantly surprised at almost everything we were handed... I'm not a big vanilla vodka fan, but theirs was really yummy.  And of course I loved the spiced rum.  I don't typically like gin, but I didn't mind their dark gin (which is made in the barrels that previously held the spiced rum, so maybe that's why!).  And I don't normally like whiskey, but I did like their triple barrel style.  And he also gave us a shot taste of the absinthe, which I'd never tried before.  You cut it with water (which opens up the flavors?) so it ended up being a good sized shot.  And it was yummy.  The taste of fennel really stands out in it and I hate that taste of licorice, but it was actually pretty good with all the flavors combined in there.  And it left a perfect after-taste in your mouth.  I was tempted to buy that one.

Anyway.  The guy was way cool, the place was awesome, and we'll definitely be bringing people back there!
We got a couple of keepsake glasses on our way out too.


When we were done, we actually hurried to the car because we hadn't had dinner yet (they don't have much for eats at the Corsair) and we had both commented to each other that we needed to skeedaddle and get to food as soon as possible before all those shots that tasting on an empty stomach hit us!! ;)

A quick decision on dinner led us to Five Guys Burgers... one of our favorite burger places we'd love to frequent more often, but can't ever take the kids because of this....

I don't know if it's simply the fact that we can't have peanuts in our own house, but these days I LOVE me some peanut cracking snacking. The past couple of years, I actually find myself craving roadhouses and restaurants with peanuts on the tables and shells crackling under your feet. :)
So this was a good choice.

We had a nice leisurely dinner with some good chatting and laughing and of course the good, greasy food and peanuts.

And for our final stop... Target.
Because as we all know, what parent's date night wouldn't be complete without a child-free trip through the red clearance stickered aisles??? 

Thanks again Kelly for taking our kids and puppy and kicking us out of the house!  We had a great night and owe you big time!!