Surprise Date Night

Friday night, the manfriend had a surprise date planned for us. He told me we'd be doing something after work, but didn't give any details. 

After a short and sweaty Lifeforce class (where I discovered I can almost do several underhand pull ups with no assist), I raced home, showered and got ready. 

The manfriend really planned out all the details for this one - he picked up Subway sandwiches for dinner, selected my outfit for the night! and packed snacks for us. 

Soon enough, we arrived at Sweet Cheeks Winery. It was one of the fifty things I guessed we might be doing.

Sweet Cheeks has been one of our favorite places to stop at on a warm weekend afternoon. On Friday nights, they stay open late for Twilight Tastings and have live entertainment. The guy singing and playing guitar on Friday was pretty amazing. 

They recently added nice garage doors to their outside patio to make it much more cozy for guests to hang out when it's colder.

We opted to taste the red wine flight, which i was pretty impressed with. I ordered a glass of the Pinot Noir 2009 for sipping and chatting. 

As for Saturday and Sunday morning, most of it was spent hanging out with my friend Jessica and her daughter Evie. Let me tell you, I realized I have no idea of activities to do with a 2 year old (nor do I own toys or books for kids) so we walked around the Saturday market, went to the playground and went to run group.

Luckily, kids like good food and I have plenty of that. Rice crackers and cheese kept her happy as a clam.

After the run, Jess and Evie headed home, I went grocery shopping and then shocker of shockers, I finally stretched. Must do it more often.

And behold, we have a crockpot dinner!

Surprisingly enough, this was a recipe I found this morning in my latest Real Simple - baked spinach and mushroom rigatoni. Ingredients were pretty simple and I just had to grab a few things from Trader Joe's to make it happen.

It turned out to be sort of a pasta lasagna, but I wish it had a bit more flavor. Next time I'd add some jarred marinara and/or more spices (recipe called for only salt & pepper).

We had dinner and watched Les Miserables. Have to say, 2.5 hours of pure singing with minimal conversations was pretty torturous. Not that it wasn't impressive, just not my style.

How was your weekend? I think after last week's events around the country, we all really needed the weekend.

Do you like surprises or hate them? I'm a big fan of good surprises, both giving and receiving them. It's one of the few times I'm okay with not knowing all the details. ;)

I still remember my friend Teresa walking into the back room of a Chinese restaurant on her 16th birthday and bursting into tears because she was so surprised we had all gathered there just for her.