Saturday, January 31, 2015

Date 144 - Meow and Furever!

Date: Saturday, January 24, 2015
Type: Life Event
Cost: $$
Planned By: Both

Adam and I have a big announcement. Obi has become a big brother!! We would like to introduce you to our newest furbaby:
Nicodemus (Codi) Neubauer

Adam and I have been discussing adding a cat to our home for quite some time. We both work full time and travel a lot, and we were  worried that Obi was getting lonely without us. We decided it was time to get him a kitty friend.
We went to a PAWS (Public Animal Welfare Society) Adopt-A-Thon and met Codi. We had a lot of doubts about adopting a second cat, but almost two weeks later when he hadn't been adopted yet we decided to apply to adopt him. The PAWS volunteers were excited to get our application and fast-tracked it. Two days later we met up with Codi and took him home. 
You may be wondering about the name. His original name was Cody. He was already about 7 months old, we figured he has grown used to the name Cody. The name Cody doesn't go well with Obadiah so I had to find an alternative full name that Cody could be a nickname for. After finding terrible names like Codratus I finally stumbled upon the name Nicodemus. With the COD in the middle I knew it was perfect. We changed the y in Cody to an i to match Obi's ending. The names Nicodemus and Obadiah go together perfectly!!
The day we rescued Cody we brought him home to a brand new cat bed, litter box and toys. He got all set up in his own room for the day. Obi, being an only cat for over 2 years, was not exactly excited about the new creature in his home. After a couple of days of Obi hissing and Codi howling they have started to bond. Obi and Codi take turns chasing each other around the house and stealing from each other's food bowls. Codi really enjoys running up to Obi and nuzzling him. Overtime, we expect them to become best friends. 
Adopting another cat caused us both anxiety and worry, but it has been a week and we both think it was a good decision. We have a vacation coming up and I am very happy Obi will have a friend to play with while we are gone. 
If you are thinking about adopting a pet, go for it! Animals are the best. We have adopted through the Cleveland APL and now PAWS and both organizations are wonderful. Cats need a furever home, and I'm glad we were able to give one to Codi. We are a very happy family of four now! :)

Head over to the blog post where we adopted Obi.. here!

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Date 143 - United We Brunch!

Date: Saturday, January 24, 2015
Type: Out On The Town
Cost: $$
Planned By: Dani

Who loves Brunch? Everyone loves brunch...
Cleveland Scene Magazine put on a brunch event called United We Brunch in downtown Cleveland. After looking through the expected vendors I knew we had to go. There were so many restaurants participating in the event that we had heard great things about in the Cleveland area but hadn't had time to try yet. We told Sarah, Bryan and Lauren about the event and they also got tickets and met up with us.
United We Brunch was held in the 5th Street Arcade. We got to sample different brunch foods and drinks. Right after walking in we all tried a Bloody Mary. None of us had ever had one, and we all agreed we probably would never have one again. We all went for a Mimosa for our next drink which was much much better. We also tried a Buckeye Beer Engine Beer Mimosa which was surprisingly great. It was mostly beer with a little bit of orange juice on top. Adam and Bryan both tried a Portside Brewery Beer that had a slight taste of bacon. The girls opted for a Mimosa as our last drink.

The food samples were delicious. There were tons of options such as sausage gravy over biscuits, pizza (from Crust), chocolate truffles, breakfast burritos (from South Side), bagel bites, yogurt, tiny tuna sandwiches, scones, sushi bites (Sushi86), Pick Your Pie pie cups, mini pancakes, fancy mac n' cheese, Cajun potatoes, mini chicken and waffles, etc. Most of the booths had cards and other information to take home and we will definitely be trying some of these restaurants in the future.
The only down side to the event was the lack of space. It was sold out so there was a huge crowd. It was pretty difficult to eat, talk and drink while standing (this also made it very hard to take photos, so sorry for the few crappy photos I did end up getting). Overall, the event was awesome and definitely worth the price. We would go again in a heart beat.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Date 142 - Back To The '80s

Date: Friday, January 16, 2015
Type: Home & Away, Theme
Cost: $$
Planned By: Dani

Who remembers the 80s? I hardly do seeing as I was born in 1989, but hey I'm still considered an 80s baby. Anyway, this week for our date I chose an '80s theme. I tried to make sure everything we did had something to do with the '80s.

First, we went to dinner at Panini's in Mayfield. For those of you that don't know Panini's was founded in 1986 in Cleveland. We both ordered Great Lakes Brewing Company beers to start. I got a Dortmunder and Adam got a Christmas Ale. GLBC was founded in 1988! We both enjoyed our beers and delicious burgers (Baja and Outlaw). If you've never been to a Panini's there are many locations in the Northeast Ohio area so check one out!
Back at home we started out with Dessert. It may have just been candy, but who doesn't love candy? Runts and Nerds were both invented in the 80s! 
Guess what else was invented in the '80s... Bud Light! I was surprised to find that Bud Light wasn't discovered until 1982. 
The entertainment section of the night was the best part. First, we played some old school games including Super Mario Three (created in Japan in 1988), PacMan (1980) and Frogger (1981). We played Mario through the Wii and the other two were free apps on our phones. 
Next, for entertainment we listened to some totally awesome '80s music! I turned on the 80s dance party, 80s rock ballad, and 80s love song stations on Pandora. Adam and I had a good time dancing around the basement to these oldies but goodies!

The main event of the night was watching an '80s movie. I saw that Netflix streaming had Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) and I knew I had to plan a date to include it in.  I could not wait to watch it with Adam.  It took me many years to finally do so, but I finally had an excuse to make him watch it with me. He went in with a bad attitude so I'm not sure if he fell in love with it, but I still very much enjoyed it! We were also going to watch Pretty In Pink (1986) on Netflix, but decided against it. 
This date was like totally radical, tubular, awesome and rad to the max! The only thing that would have made it better is fun '80s outfits, but we were too lazy to find some. 

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Date 141 - Fire, Ice and Everything Nice!

Date: Saturday, January 10, 2015
Type: Home & Away, Family, Theme
Cost: $
Planned By: Debbie (ice) & Dani (fire)

Fire and Ice are a great combination. When Debbie gave us tickets to Disney On Ice I knew it would be our date night for the week. I had to come up with something to go along with it and I decided on fire.

First, we went to Disney On Ice at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. Debbie, Hayley, Madi and Jensen all joined us. The main event was Frozen, but a lot of other Disney characters made an appearance, too. They recreated most of the movie on ice, which was really fun to watch! I thought it was adorable how many kids in the Q were singing during Let It Go. The Q doesn't allow DSLR cameras so I had to use my phone (and took some photos from Debbie). We both really enjoyed the show and recommend it to children and adults.
For the second portion of the date we made some drinks. First, we made ice shot glasses in our new shot glass mold. They were awesome, but a little difficult to hold. We filled them with Fireball Whiskey and made a toast together. Second, we made a cocktail that included Fireball Whiskey, Ginger Ale, Grenadine and a couple hot tamales. It was pretty good - definitely better than straight Fireball. 
This date was fun especially since we got to hang out with our niece and nephew. Other things we thought about adding to the date include: ice cream, frozen yogurt, eating at Firehouse Subs, making a snowman. We were a little too lazy to add more activities, but it would be an easy date to recreate while watching Frozen!

Seeing Disney On Ice also got me super excited for our upcoming trip to Disney World!!! Check back in a couple months for a full trip recap. :)