date night

we left the kids with mom last night and went on our first date in a long while. marc had brought it to my attention that we had both eaten korean food, but never together. we once had friends over for dinner and they made an amazing kim chi stew... but he didn't think that counted. so we had planned on dinner and a movie, a very typical type date night thing.

so, we headed off to the wilds of beaverton to drop the kids off with the grandparents. mom told me about a sale at old navy, so poor marc had to start our date off there. and while we were at the mall, i forced him to head over to alisha's work for a pre-dinner cocktail. that was really difficult (Ed. note: trying to talk Mr. McCool into a pre-dinner cocktail is as difficult as talking George Bush into invading Middle Eastern countries). they happened to be showing the u of o game in the bar...luckly we were there only for a quick drink. had we stayed much longer, it might have turned into several as marc would have sought to drown his sorrrows. as it was, we were able to slip away before the full extent of the damage was know to us, and it was lovely to see my sister, however briefly. we then headed for dinner over to a little restaurant in the fred meyer mall-beaverton town square- called hae rim.

we did a bit of research beforehand. we knew of all places in the metro area, beaverton does have a lot of gem little ethnic restaurants. the idea of a family run place in a strip mall has always scared me, but no longer surprises me. as a matter of fact, i think these type places are so much better than any of the major chains prevelant in the suburbs. so we checked out citysearch for reviews of a few good korean places, and this place had some of the better reviews...


it took us forever to decide what to eat. but it was so yummy, and the sides were delicious. it took us almost an hour and a half to process our way through our meal. the kimchi stew was so good that i almost didn't let marc eat any of it, and i don't like kim chi as a general rule. marc was so kind to listen to my post election decompression, and he was happy that i ordered a side of spare ribs for him. the food was so good, and the prices were so reasonable. to top it all off the owners were so nice and cute. i really hope this place sticks around long enough for us to visit again. this got me to thinking that maybe i should start up a second blog just focused around what i am cooking or eating, or maybe reading...

we then went to this place-i won't name it as i refuse to give them any free press- that i had read a review about in the oregonian. the review had said that they were trying to conjure up a late night dessert networking crowd by bringing in music and that it had a great ambiance. somehow in my mind i had envisioned sleek suburbanites sitting around listening to a dj enjoying some fantastic drinks. of course, as always my imagination got ahead of myself. this place was actually kind of bizarre. we ordered an irish coffee and she put baileys in it with the whiskey, there were obviously grown men regulars who were hitting on the servers who were barely 21. we ordered a cherry cheesecake that sounded interesting, but was really awful. it didn't matter though, because marc and i were having a fantastic time together. yes, he did make fun of me taking the camera along for our date. i had a great time making the place a little nervous with the pictures.

it was a great date night. we never made it to a movie. we were having too much fun hanging out together.