With four little ones, we recently have been taking the approach of getting them to bed early and then picking up dinner from a nice restaurant and watching a rented movie.

This year, at the last minute we were able to get a babysitter. The plan was for her to get there at 5pm, we'd go to an early movie (Juno) and then to dinner after, assuming perhaps the waits would die down. But the babysitter arrived at 5:45 and so with the timing of the movies that meant we had to either grab a snack and go, or forgo the movies altogether. We called a few restaurants in the area and they all had 2 hour waits!

I recalled a little Italian restaurant we went to about 5 years ago that was always quiet and empty. I honestly didn't even know if it was still open but we stopped in the parking lot and I ran to see if it was still there. Turns out it was (well, it was still an Italian restaurant, but not the same one) and there was actually a decent crowd. But there were a few tables left with no wait. Turned out to be absolutely delicious- stuffed artichokes for appetizers, and buttery chicken Marsala for me for dinner and some seafood dish for my wife. And there was live music as well. We loved it and can't wait to go back! By the time we left there was a huge wait, so it really worked out well for us.

As far as gifts go, here's where the gadget geek shines through- I bought my wife a new printer and 2GB of RAM for her PC. I'm usually far more romantic, but she has been suffering with a 256MB of RAM for way too long- you can't do anything on her computer without hearing the hard drive chug! Not anymore!! Oh, and I also bought her a dozen roses lest you think I have totally lost it!

Hope you had a great Valentines.