Date #30 - Don't Rub Me the Wrong Way

For date #30, we went to have TH fitted for a casket. He's decided he wants to go out face down.

Just kidding, of course. I don't believe we'll be needing coffins anytime soon.
Or ever....since we plan to be cremated.

For date #30 we went not to the funeral parlor but to a massage parlour for a Couple's Massage.
Once again, we were cashing in a discount voucher before it expired. However, this non-descript place in the basement of an office building in Quincy would never be mistaken for a spa at the Four Season. It was reassuring to know we hadn't paid full price.

In the tiny waiting area, we were greeted by our masseuse and masseur who informed us they were preparing the room and would call us in shortly. When they walked away, TH looked at me and said, "Please don't tell me that I'm getting massaged by a man." Of course not, I assured him..."he's doing me."

Hmmm....I never saw TH change his mind so fast!!!

Once in the room, they left us alone to undress and climb on the tables. TH was still so squeemish about a man giving him a massage, that he left his boxer shorts on and completely buried himself under the sheets. LOL

But wait a minute....something's missing from this picture. 
Me.
Oh that's right, I'm taking the picture. But where's my table?

Now this is how we envisioned a couple's massage.

Or, if we couldn't be head-to-head, then side-by-side would do

But our couple's massage was way less romantic than it sounds. And the reason I don't have any similar photos of the two of us together is because....

WE WEREN'T EVEN IN THE SAME zipcode ROOM. 

Our tables were in two separate rooms, with the pocket doors between the rooms left wide open. We were about 8-10 feet apart...you could have parallel-parked an SUV between us. The only thing we shared during this massage was the same music system that was propped on a chair between the two rooms.

There were no flowers, no candles, no champagne, no chocolates, no ocean views, and no interaction of any kind. Most of the time we couldn't even see each other because our heads were face-down or the therapists were standing between us.

The only redeeming value of this date was that the hour-long massages were indeed fabulous. They were so relaxing that we each admitted to dozing off briefly not unlike many of our more recent romantic encounters.

We were briefly left alone again after the massages to dress, but with the therapists waiting just outside the door (for their tips) there was no opportunity or desire to get frisky.

Date over!

Date #29 - When the Moon Hits Your Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie...

While researching ideas for dates, we've learned of so many things we never knew existed in our wonderful city. And so many of them are free. One fun fact we discovered is that the Museum of Science on Friday nites, and Boston University on Wednesday nites, open their observatories to the public, weather permitting.

One night in November, we were leaving Cambridge and driving across the river when we couldn't help but notice a beautiful full moon with one bright star to its right. It happened to be a Wednesday evening, the sky was crystal clear, and Boston University was directly in front of us....so why not? Nothing like an impromptu date nite!

A college campus is a cool place to hang on a weeknight. There is just so much vibrant energy around young minds at work and play. And, surprisingly for a school night, there were also quite a few families with young children at the observatory. But who could miss the chance to see such a beautiful moon up close? As it turns out, that bright object we thought was a star...it was actually Jupiter.

And what this graphic doesn't show is that, with the powerful telescopes on the roof at BU, Jupiter's moons were clearly visible as well that evening. It was awesome!

Here's a photo taken with my cheap phone....where you can't see Jupiter or its moons, but our moon was still a sight to behold.

Thanks to the endless spring we have enjoyed this autumn, it was a beautiful nite to be up on that roof, looking up at the moon and down at the city. The views over the river were spectacular...I wish I had pictures that would do them justice. Here's the Hyatt Regency across the river.

"When the stars make you drool, just like a pasta fazool.....that's amore!"

Here's the late, great, Dean Martin sharing our sentiments for what turned out to be a very romantic date.

Date #28 - Love that Dirty Water

Well our 36th anniversary has come and gone....
YES we completed our 35 dates...
YES we are still married...
YES I will blog about the 8 remaining dates. And YES I know I am waaaay behind schedule, so for that I apologize, but thanks for hanging in there with us and sharing the journey.

Date #28 was the ONLY date we went on in the month of October. And it was now so long ago I can't remember why. The California branch of our family tree was here for a week in the middle of the month, and we had our first ever sleep-over with both grandsons....best night ever! We also learned we would welcome another grandchild on the west coast in May, and we had an early first birthday party for grandson M. Other than that, our only excuse for not dating is that work (and soccer) and life probably got in the way.

For Date #28, we went "Down by the River, Down by the banks of the River Charles."  Since our first grandson C was born, we have spent a lot of time on the Cambridge side of the river, walking our grandbaby and our grand-dog. Last spring Groupon was offering discount vouchers for a riverboat tour, and our son thought it would be a fun family outing, so we purchased four coupons and promptly forgot about them. Occasionally we would remember and try to coordinate our schedules during the summer, but there never seemed to be a good time.

The vouchers were set to expire October 15th so, rather than have them go to waste, we turned them into a last-minute date. While we were in line for our tickets, we gave the two remaining vouchers to a pair of women waiting in front of us. Turns out they weren't tourists either, just two women from Cambridge who had nothing better to do on a lovely autumn day. LOL.

The one-hour cruise left from the Cambridgeside Galleria Mall. Our tour narrator was a lovely lady from Dorchester with quite an accent.
No...not a Boston accent.
She was from Dorchester, England and had a lovely British lilt.
But really?!? There are no local born-and-bred college students they could have hired? I am sure that visiting tourists would much prefer to hear an authentic Bostonian like TH mangle the local language, rather than a proper Brit speaking the king's English.

Nonetheless, it was a beautiful and clear fall day, and the views of the Boston skyline were spectacular from the river.

We did learn a lot of fun facts from our tour guide (none of which I remember at the moment), but many we already knew (the Smoot measurements on Mass Av Bridge). I do remember that she messed up the poem that explains the weather light atop the old John Hancock building. She also made a disparaging remark about Charlestown, calling it one of the poorer parts of town. I guess she hasn't priced the real estate there lately! LOL

One of the highlights of the voyage was riding under the BU bridge, one of only three bridges in the world that spans water above a railroad bridge.

Did you know that Portland, Oregon and Lisbon, Portugal are the two only other places in the world where a boat can sail under a train, that's traveling under a car, that's driving under an airplane? That's a pretty astonishing piece of trivia when you think about it. And who actually did the research to confirm that?

This date was probably the most uneventful of all our dates so far. There was no alcohol or food involved; just the two of us floating down the river, pointing out shapes in the puffy clouds, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine...and each other. And sometimes, that's all you need!

Date #27 - The Oompa Loompa Tour

The eating portion of our date project continued with a visit to the Taza Chocolate Factory in Somerville. TH was all on board for this date. He considers himself a chocolate connoisseur, although his taste for chocolate doesn't extend much beyond his Oreo Cookies. I wasn't sure this would qualify as an original date because we have been to Chocolate World in Hershey about 20 times (my brother lives nearby).

However, the Hershey tour is nothing but a disneyesque ride where you never actually see the inside of the factory. At the end of that ride, they give you ONE tiny snack size portion of a Hershey Bar. We are guilty of riding the tour numerous times on one visit, just to get that tease of chocolate at the end. But I can now honestely say that, until our visit to Taza, we had never visited a chocolate factory.

This tour is amazing, and only costs $5. The tour starts and ends of course in the factory store where, amazingly, they provide free samples of all their chocolate. Free UNLIMITED samples. Whoa boy, talk about entering the danger zone:

Because we had arrived about 20 minutes early, we had nothing to do but taste every sample... several times. And then we washed it down with their heavenly hot chocolate. Oh lordy....talk about decadence. And this is nothing like the sweet American or European chocolate we've all grown up on. This is pure organic Mexican style chocolate...heavenly. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet, and we were instantly addicted and unable to stop.

Finally, it was time to don our hair nets for the tour. Here's TH holding a cocoa pod.

And it was an amazing tour. Taza is one of the few bean-to-bar operations, and they do it in this amazingly tiny space with just a handful of employees. We were able to visit all areas of the production:

Here are the beans imported from Dominican Republic where they are harvested as part of a fair trade agreement with farms that do no employ child or slave labor.

Then they are winnowed and made into chocolate liquid. It's really an amazing process. The name Taza comes from the Spanish word for ''cup'. One of the cofounders lived in Mexico and was taken by the custom of having a cup of hot cocoa every day. It's a great story and you can read all about it on their website.

And along the tour, they continue to offer you chocolate as they explain the different flavors and processes. However, our taste buds were pretty shot at that point and I actually had to refuse several of the samples.

We couldn't enter the actual chocolate making room because it was in production. Here are the real life oompa-loompas at work:

And even the wrapping, packaging, and shipping process is all done by hand with less than a half dozen employees.

When ready to ship, all local deliveries are made by bicycle or vendors can pick the product up at the factory. And shipping is done via eco-friendly methods only. They are serious about sustainability.

Our date ended early on this evening because, once again, we had eaten dessert first and ruined our appetite. All plans to continue on to dinner and drinks were quickly abandoned as we rolled out of the factory, like Augustus Gloop and Violet Beauregard...Shame on us!