Surprise Kiss

Posts Tagged ‘dating’

Last Friday I ask you to send me your favorite date night and you might see it in my blog. It has been very enjoyable reading how other couples spend their date nights. One reader, DeeDee, wrote to me and I thought you would like to try her favorite date too.

DeeDee said, “My favorite date night isn’t at night….we enjoy going for a breakfast burrito on weekend mornings. We drive to Avila Beach and split a breakfast burrito from Avila Grocery. We sit at a window seat overlooking the ocean and watch the world go by, after we go for a walk on the pier.”

You may not live by the beach like DeeDee does but there must be a restaurant you enjoy eating breakfast at and then you could go for a walk in the park or stroll through town together. You don’t always have to have a date in the evening; it could be breakfast or lunch too.

Send me your favorite date with your sweetheart and who knows you might see it in my blog. Thanks DeeDee for a great idea!

*Don’t forget to pickup the items I wrote about on Sept 29th called “Spice Up Your Holidays” for a very romantic Halloween and Christmas!

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

Ok it is Date Night and you ask your spouse “What do you want to do tonight?” They answer I don’t know. You are frustrated and want them to make a decision but they always leave it up to you. What is a person to do? You want them to plan and make the decision this time not you. Have you and you spouse ever gotten in the car and tried to decide where you want to eat at? You will both make suggestions but the other doesn’t want to go there.

We have done it many times and have found a solution to this issue. You both sit down and write the restaurants you each like to go to on separate little sheets of paper and fold it. Make sure you have expensive, moderate and inexpensive places to eat at. Put it in a small cloth pouch or envelop in the car and when neither of you can make up your mind one of you pulls a sheet from your pouch or envelop and that is where you will go to eat. No arguing, the decision is made.

From past experience it could save you 1/2 an hour of driving around and still not having a place to go to. The benefit of doing this like last weeks exercises is there will be an element of surprise; you will both be going to places you enjoy. After you know the place you will be eating at put the paper back in the envelope so it can be redrawn another time. Remember these are places where you enjoy their food. If you accidentally draw it again the next time, oh well that is the luck of the draw.

So whether you want your spouse to make the decision or neither of you can figure out where you want to have dinner let your little cloth pouch or envelope decide for you.

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

Want to go to a fancy restaurant and save money. If you make reservations with DinnerBroker.com you could save up to 30% off your bill and best of all it is free to join. You get rewarded for making reservations to eat during off-peak hours. Please read “How it works” before you decide this is something you might be interested in.

You book the reservations on-line through their website, DinnerBroker.com. In addition, you can earn points to purchase a gift certificate to the restaurants registered on their site. So when you are planning on traveling to a new city or want to go out to eat at a nice restaurant check out this website and see if there are any eateries you might be interested in trying out. You could have a nice romantic dinner at a discount.

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

The Oscars will be on Sunday, March 7th starting with the Oscars Red Carpet at 5:00 PM, PST, and the 82nd Academy Awards Show will start at 5:30 PM ,PST. on ABC. On February 5th I wrote a blog called “Movie Connection” and suggested you and your special someone set a goal to try and view as many of the films as you could that were nominated for an Oscar.

After you both researched the films online and read the opinions of the critics and viewed the movies on DVD or seen them at a movie theatre you were to decide separately which film you thought would win the Oscar for Best Picture. A prize was to be handed out to the winner. Check out Oscars.movies.yahoo.com and see what yahoo users picked to win.

Viewing the 82nd Academy Awards Show is a great date night. Since it will be on Sunday night you may not be able to go on a date or get a babysitter but you still can try to make it special for the two of you. Get dressed upped and sit next to each other. Have a special dinner or order pizza for the whole family and sit in front of the TV and eat it. Make or buy a special desert too. Hand out a ballot from moviefone.com for everyone to fill out and decide who will win for each category.

My husband and I have seen several of the movies nominated for Best Film and we will be watching also with our ballots in hand from moviefone.com. We will banter back and forth on who got the most right.

The whole idea is for you to connect as a couple with something you both enjoy and that is movies!

Don’t forget to get the items listed below for St Patrick’s Day. Couples will be green with envy when they find out about your romantic evening.

• St Patrick’s Day card or get some green paper and make your own card.
• Play money (Monopoly Money) $100, $1,000 bills etc
• Something sexy to wear in a green color if you have it

The big reveal on what to do with these items above will be next Friday, March 12th, 2010.

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

Are you looking for something different to do on date night? When you think of date night do you always think of a dinner, movie, live theatre or dancing? Do you ever think of doing something a little different? I am always looking for something a little different to do together. Were it makes it interesting for both of us. Sometimes we are already doing it but don’t think about it being a date.

My husband and I love to cook together and sometimes we will go on a Farmers Market Date. Living on the Central Coast in California gives us a bounty of fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables. We always find it fun to walk to each fruit and vegetable stand and access what they have, seeing if there is something we would like to purchase to bring home and enjoy for the week.

Farmers Markets are available almost everyday where we live. The one we enjoy the most is Farmers Market on Thursday nights in San Luis Obispo. The community closes down their main downtown street and lets the farmers put out their produce. The shops stay open later and there are street vendors selling food to eat. It is always fun to sit down on the curb and eat while watching the people walk by. There is entertainment sprinkled throughout, live music, a puppet show for the kids and sometimes kids dancing in the street. When you go there you feel like you are on vacation and you are at a country festival.

The other one we like is in Arroyo Grande which is about 15 min from where we live. Their Farmers Market is held Saturday at noon. It is a lot smaller than the one in San Luis Obispo but it is a good one too. There is usually live music and original art being sold. If we want to grab something to eat there are several good little restaurants in the same area.

Our daughter and her husband enjoy going to Farmers Market on Sunday. It is a nice walk from their home and they come back with fresh fruits and vegetables from the local farmers in the area. This is their quiet time together. They are not only eating healthier but because they walk to it they are exercising. Most importantly, they are keeping their marriage healthy by taking the time to be together, as they walk they talk and enjoy the scenery.

If you live where it snows and Farmers Market is only from spring through fall then go to a specialty grocery store together and buy a few fruits and vegetables you normally wouldn’t buy and bring it home to cook. Stop and have a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy the quiet time together.

Sometimes the simplest dates are the most enjoyable.

Don’t forget to pick up the items I told you to get on January 14th. 

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

I was having lunch with a good friend of mine last week and she was telling me about how a group of her friends get together every couple of months and have dinner at their favorite Chinese restaurant. After dinner they break open their fortune cookie and read it out loud to everyone. The difference is that they add a few words at the end. I thought this was a fun idea for you to do with your spouse so I asked her if I could share this idea and she said yes.

For date night go out to your favorite Chinese restaurant or order takeout. If you are eating at the restaurant ask for chopsticks. It may take longer to eat but you will have fun laughing at each other and yourself. The first time my husband and I used chopsticks it took us two hours to eat. We laughed at each other and refused to give up until we had mastered the art of eating with those chopsticks. Because we didn’t give up we now can eat with them and every so often we will reminisce about how funny it was when we were trying to learn to eat with those darn chopsticks.   If you order takeout you can have the same fun by making sure they put chopsticks in with your order.  And then when you get home put on a kimono rob and sit on the flour and eat off your coffee table while you try to eat with those chopsticks.

Enjoy your meal together and then after dinner has been devoured break open your fortune cookie and read it out loud but at the end add the words “between the sheets.” My friend said it can get quite funny and sometimes it is very sexy.What a simple idea to make a very ordinary Chinese dinner memorable.

Wishing you a very sexy fortune cookie “between the sheets” date.

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

On Wednesday, December 30, I told you what I would be doing with my husband on New Year’s Eve. Well we had a change of plans, my daughter and I had met at Starbucks in the morning to work on my website and while we were on the web a little add popped up talking about a New Year’s Eve dinner at  Creekside Brewing Co in San Luis Obispo. We decided to click on it and see what the menu was like and where it was located.

Creekside Brewing Co is a small microbrewery located on a side street in downtown San Luis Obispo. The New Year’s Eve dinner menu looked very interesting and unusual. It was a six course dinner with beer tasting. It is kind of like a wine tasting dinner but it was less expensive. They said dinner started at 7:00 PM and ended at 9:00 PM. Early enough for us to get home before the real partiers got started. It sounded like something the guys would enjoy, so we called and made reservations for dinner.

This spur of the moment decision turned out to be one of the nicest New Year’s evenings we have had in a long time. The gourmet dinner was absolutely delicious and we learned from the brew master so much about pairing your beer with your menu. It was so much fun to taste the beer before we tasted the dinner and then eating dinner and drinking the beer. Some of the beers were very strong but when you paired it with something like a spicy shrimp and pozole corn it was outstanding. One of the most unusual items on the menu was the homemade gelato made with coffee, chocolate and stout. They served the beer with the same stout used in the gelato. It was a very dark beer served in a brandy glass. Who would have thought gelato and beer would go together but it did.

Eric was our brew master and he made it a very interesting an enjoyable evening. We totally enjoyed learning about the beers and how they were made and what type of foods to eat with it. Our husbands are still talking about what a great evening they had and how good the food was. My daughter & I were the designated drivers so we would take a couple of sips of the beers and let the guys finish off what we didn’t drink. We kept it a safe and fun evening. I will never look at beer the same way again.

For those who are planning on visiting or who live on the Central Coast I would highly recommend the next time you plan on going out to make it a point to have dinner there and enjoy the beers they have to offer. Ask your waiter what will go well with your dinner. You won’t be sorry you asked. Check it out : www.creeksidebrewing.com.  And for those who don’t live on the Central Coast check to see if there is a microbrewery near you and have a memorable evening enjoying their wonderful beers and food.

I know of so many people who once they have made plans are not willing to change things. They are so regimented it is sad. If we hadn’t decided to change our plans we would not have found out how good this place is and would not have had such a memorable New Year’s Eve. So when you have an opportunity to change things out, as long as it doesn’t affect other people,  go ahead get a little crazy and have fun. Change your plans!

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2010, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.

This week I was talking to a friend from Colorado and she told me what she and her husband, Roger, do on their dates. It has become a tradition and they both look forward to their quite time together. Their dates are not what you typically think of doing. Most people after they are married assume when you are talking about a date it is in the evening. This is not always the case and because this couple thinks out of the box, they have a longer and more enjoyable date than most couples.

Karen is off every Friday, Saturday and Sunday and Roger has a 3 day weekend every other week. The Fridays he is off and the kids are in school they go to see the early bird show at their local theatre. When I say early I am talking the 10:00 AM showing and then they go out to their favorite little restaurant for lunch.  They finish the afternoon off by running some errands and getting a cup of coffee before the kids get home.

They get to see all the latest films and there are no crowds. The bonus is it is cheaper because they are going to the early show.  She told me they try to be fair by taking turns choosing the movies. One Friday they were in line and there was an older couple in their late sixties in front of them and they were going to see two movies. She heard the older guy say to his wife now I chose one it is your turn to choose the one you want to go to. She thought they were cute. When you look at these two couples they were both very considerate of the other.

She also told me that their friends are always a little envious because they see all the latest movies. Karen reminds them that the only way they could do this is because they go to the early bird shows.

This is such a great idea. You may not have Fridays off like Roger and Karen do but you could trade off on a Saturday or Sunday with another couple to watch the kids. Each couple benefits every other week with some alone time and the kids have fun at the other couples house.  The couple that is watching the kids could also host dinner for everyone. You get to see a movie, have lunch out and then go to dinner at the other’s house. This makes for a wonderful relaxing day every other week for each couple. If every other week is too much then try once a month.

Plan on having a date on a budget, it will become a tradition you and your husband will look forward to.

Keep those sparks flying!
JoJo

© 2009 – 2012, Surprise Kiss. All rights reserved.