6. Boyz II Men
After we slept the whole day away recovering from our long session of board games., Alex and I went to Casino Rama in Orillia to watch Boyz II Men. Music is one area that we very rarely agree on. He grew up liking alternative rock and I, R&B/oldies. Boyz II Men is one of the few that we both admire for their talent. So when we heard they were going to be performing, we bought tickets back in August. It was sooo AWESOME!! I don't care if you think they're old skool or not, they were not only great performers but also great entertainers. They kept the crowd going so well and it's was great to watch these 40 year old men doing dances Motown-style. The audience ages varied from ppl in the 20's to some 50/60's. They were totally relaxed about people going up to the front and it felt like it was an intimate concert. A few couples were slow dancing by their seats or in the aisles. The best was when I saw people grab a few of the ushers to dance to one of the Motown numbers. Ever see random strangers dancing in casino uniforms? So good! They even handed out roses to a ton of women when they sang "I'll make love to you" - these guys are smoother than Usher! They also had audience members call their moms and personally serenaded them over the phone with "Song for Mama". It was by far, the most intimately entertaining concert I've ever been to. Totally recommend it when they come back next year. BTW, apparently Mike (the guy who sings with the deep voice), he had to retire early because of his scoliosis, he may be back to tour with the group next year as part of their 20th anniversary. Dude, we are so there if it happens!
7. Sunday Dinner
We went to dinner at Joseph and Emily's home on that Sunday (it was a jam-packed weekend). It was our first time hanging out with another couple (actually, I guess our second time cuz we've had lunch with some other ppl before) We just ate dinner at played Agricola (another board game). It was nice to do something in a foursome, although it really didn't seem all that different from hanging out with anyone else. I think the bigger idea was that we were getting to know people that didn't just know us individually (ie. my friends or his friends). Like I had previously posted, we don't actually have too many mutual friends that are close to both of us equally. Any way, I only mention this because I watched an episode of "How I Met Your Mother" recently where Lily and Marshal fail miserable at dating other couples. It was called the Sexless Innkeeper if you want to find it online.
8. Pre-Marriage Retreat
This past weekend, we joined a pre-marriage retreat. Weird I know, because we've been married over 2 years now. But we never did pre-marital counseling and we always said we wanted to. It was pretty good, $75/couple and it included 3 books, drinks, snacks and a lunch for one and half days. There were a lot of great things to take away from the course and I highly recommend people to do it regardless of relationship length or faith. If you can't do a course, at least pick up the book "Saving your Marriage before it starts". It also has 2 workbooks, one for the guys and one of the girls. Each exercise takes 5 mins to complete and then you spend 20-30 mins discussing your answers with each other. Maybe I'll spend another blog going into detail about different things the book brought up and how we're learning and working through our differences.
9. Football in HD
I've stated it before but I love football. This is the first year where I've started to follow it starting in the pre-season and although I don't know all the storylines or stats, it's still an exciting game to watch and I get really into it. Maybe one day I'll get good enough to to join a fantasy football league. Is that what they're called? Any way, since we don't have cable, we've been watching the streaming online, which really is not bad at all. Although I'm sure once we get to the Superbowl, the time will lag quite a bit. But this Sunday, we watched the Vikings vs. Packers game at Alex's parents place. Now, my dad-in-law bought this huge flat screen last year with all the bells and whistles but we never discovered the HD aspect until this year. And only this week did he buy the right cable so that when we watched HD, the faces were not all streched out funny. Football on his screen is amazingly clear now. I have a feeling we're going to be heading over to their place for dinners on Sunday a lot more often - at least until the beginning of February! =P Alex has tried to convince me to get a nice entertainment system purely for sports and when it's Football season, I'm almost inclined to agree with him. But now that we have his parents, who needs it. Plus we get to see them more often too...so who says you can't have your cake and eat it?
10. Books
I'm currently reading the "Left Behind" series. It's about the end of the world and I think was suppose to be for teenagers, although as I read it, I feel as though perhaps it was meant for ppl in the 20's. I've always heard other people talking about it but I've never actually read it myself. I'm only in book 5 (had to skip book 4 cuz it wasn't available) but so far the storyline's pretty interesting because it follows what the Bible says about the end of times. It's follows 7 years of bad things, from earthquakes to meteor strikes, to drought and famine, and plagues. The only I don't like so far is that there are too many characters to follow. I guess it's probably cuz they need to keep killing them off with the different disasters. I like how they portrayed the Anti-christ, how he was able to fool everyone in the beginning with his talks about peace and unity. It sounds good and it makes me wonder if I would fall for it myself. And whether or not I would still be around for the end or whether I would be taken to heaven before it all starts. So guess this series has caused me to reflect more on where my walk is with God but doesn't really challenge me to do more than that. We'll see if that changes...