Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday was a date-a-thon, making up for our busy school schedules this fall. We went to a comedy show at The Stress Factory in New Brunswick on Wednesday night. Apparently, ticket sales were hurting since most people don't make a pit stop at a comedy club on the busiest travel day of the year. So, we got a phone call alerting us that a comedian we like would be performing and got a good deal on tickets. All four comedians were funny, but there were a couple un-funny moments. First, a fact-check- one comedian did a bit on the countries at Epcot and mentioned places like Egypt that are NOT included in the world showcase. Harumph. Second, since the audience was small, I was singled out by one of the comics when I covered my mouth in reaction to a racial slur I found particularly shocking. He said, "why ya covering your mouth? Liberal! Sheesh, young girls..." Luckily, I was later vindicated when a comic of the race in question followed in the next set and reamed the previous comic out, saying "Liberal? She's just not RACIST!" Phew; it's nice to be appreciated. At any rate, we enjoyed our dinner since we got to catch up and laugh together. When we got home, we snacked on the last of the pumpkin pie I'd made that week and some pumpkin-pie-spiced Chex mix.
Thursday was a HAPPY THANKSGIVING. We slept in but had programmed the DVR so we could catch up to the Macy's parade without having to watch any commercials. We ate the customary holiday cinnamon buns (mmmm) and cheered for Santa (some of us more than others). We also watched a bit of the dog show after the parade until it was time for football and such. It was a lazy day of relaxing and quality time- but we both fit in workouts before leaving to gorge ourselves at our prix fixe dinner at Pheasants Landing. Our first course was butternut squash soup with pistachio creme fraiche (or salad), followed by a turkey dinner with apple-pecan stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans almondine, cranberry sauce, and gravy. We had glasses of local wine and finished the meal with apple pie strudel (me) and hot raspberries over ice cream (Matt). We wouldn't normally make those choices, but we'd just had pumpkin pie and wanted to branch out. The dinner was good but the turkey clearly had not been roasted and carved just for us. I can't say I blame them- it was a really good deal at $26 (not including wine). We then drove to the Bridgewater Commons Mall to see the new Muppet Movie, which made me really happy and appeared to agree with Matt well enough.
Friday began with errands and chores at burnt house, but we headed to Atlantic City in the afternoon. We listened to a funny audiobook along the way. We usually stay at a casino, but we were able to get a "free" room at the Sheraton and had a short walk to the boardwalk from there. The area was very crowded, probably because of the Black Friday specials at the outlets. It was warm and sunny, however, so we enjoyed our walk along the boardwalk to the Showboat. We fit in a quick game and got some free drinks while we waited for our reservation. Dinner was another prix fixe deal at what would normally be an out-of-our-league steakhouse. The first course, once again, was delicious butternut squash soup (or salad). For the second, I opted for the California roll (since it was a steak and sushi restaurant) and Matt had a fusilli pasta dish. We both selected the petit filet mignon for our main course with broccoli rabe and mashed potatoes on the side. The steak was steakhouse-worthy. Dessert was an apple-jack whiskey cake but barely fit in our bellies. Since we still had our plastic "free drink" cups from before, we were able to be extra classy and take the rest of our drinks from the restaurant "to-go." Not long after that, it was time for the concert at The House of Blues. The venue is fun and we had a great view in comfy seats. Although we aren't used to being away from the throng of skanking fans, it was nice to be able to see and have a seat to freely leave and return to without fear of it being nabbed. The opening bands were good and it was our favorite Streetlight Manifesto concert we've been to. Reel Big Fish was a lot of fun and now features a sax player. Our vantage point enabled us to watch wave after wave of ill-fated stage-diving attempts- including at least two by a fellow in a banana suit (although I suppose I wouldn't know if it had been multiple people in multiple banana suits). Afterwards, we lurked and pounced on one of our favorite video poker games (which was apparently in high demand) and then took a cab back to the hotel.
The Sheraton offered us a 4PM checkout, and this turned out to be fortunate since we slept past 11. We drove to Bally's and spent a couple hours on our other favorite video poker game since we had a gift-code for some credits. We had a good run and earned free parking and $6 toward lunch without having to lose a bunch of money in the process. We spent our voucher at a deli and then headed home. I immediately began decorating for Christmas while A Muppet Christmas Carol played in the background. I put up the tree and then hung our stockings and wreath on the various hooks still on our bare walls. It's nice when something with our home situation works out every once in a while- even if it's something as small as convenient decorating spots. We topped off the day by curling up by the tree, eating some pear pie a la mode I'd baked on Thanksgiving, and reading.
Today (Sunday) has been all-business, but we've gotten a lot accomplished. We chipped away at our doctoral applications, cleaned, did school work, and exercised. It's time for some more quality relaxation and pie. We're thankful to be able to do both of those things together in [one of] our happy home(s).
