Date Night!

We've had a wonderfully quiet weekend.  All week I've been tired, probably because I was trying to keep the kids too busy to notice the lack of stuff to do around the apartment. 

The weather this weekend was supposed to be overcast and rainy so I didn't feel too bad about not planning any trips.  Turns out you can't trust your weatherman.  Both days have been sunny! 

Lucas was great though, he took charge of the kids for the majority of the weekend letting me sleep in and rest.  It was a much needed break and it gave Lucas time to spend with the kids by himself, which I think despite the challenge the two of them present, he did enjoy. 

Saturday night, Elizabeth, a coworker's daughter babysat the kids for us so we could have a night out, our first since our move here.  We had planned to to see Titanic in 3D, not much else was playing with the anniversary of Titanic this month.  The movie theater is in the IFC Mall, which I've mentioned before.  It is all high end designers and strictly a window shopping mall for me, but it also has several nice restaurants.  Elizabeth and her mom Marie both recommended Simply Thai as a great place to try.  Unfortunately Thai food tends to be spicy and have a lot of sea food in it, two things that do not agree with me.  We did have beef and chicken satay for an appetizer, which was supper yummy, and we both had Pad Thai for dinner, also yummy.  I didn't think about asking for a mild version of the spicy dishes until later.  Many sounded good but had two peppers next to them.  Way out of my league! 

We had bought our tickets in advance with a little help form a coworker.  Luckily for us, Lucas' coworkers are very willing to help us learn our way around life here.  They are very understanding of the challenges the language provides and seem to always be happy to help us out. 

Here in China the movie seats are assigned, so we already had our seats picked out.  Kinda nice, no worrying about getting there late and not getting a good seat.  They sell popcorn, sweet or salty and drinks, but no candy.  I think Lucas was a bit disappointed about that.  The theater was very nice, with plush seats in a stadium style arrangement.  Another great thing, was once the movie was scheduled to start it actually started.  No previews or commercials.  They did play commercials before the movie started while people came in and found there seats but the movie wasn't delayed 10-15 minutes for commercials or previews.  My only complaint about the movie experience was the Chinese do not turn off their cell phones, they also talk during the movie.  Aside from those two things it was a great night.  Elizabeth said the kids were good for her and Lily seems to have enjoyed having someone new to play with.