My unexpected absence

I have unexpectedly disappeared for a few days and I am sorry! We had some issues with our electrical, resulting in all the outlets downstairs not working. Since I am the only person on the planet (it seems) without a laptop, this meant I was without computer. *gasp*!

But I'm back now! Woohoo!

And I had to tell you all about my crazy Saturday! My husband and I have not been out "on a date" since we had dinner the night we were on the way to the hospital for me to give birth to our son (who is now 14 months old). So we were overdue. I had been putting aside money here and there and grandma volunteered to watch the kids and we had a "plan". I use this term loosely, as you'll see what happened. LOL!

I apparently am now attracting coupons to me.

Our plan was to go see Avatar at the IMAX in 3D (my Mom had picked up tickets the day before, since they'd been sold out so much), then I had reservations at the Melting Pot. mmmm.

We left the kids with Grandma then booked it to the mall to see the movie. Luckily, we were about 45 minutes early. When we got there, we were informed that the IMAX was broken. Everyone with tickets could either get a refund, exchange the tickets for a later date, or for the regular movie theater (with a refund on the difference). But it was taking forever. Every person in line (and there were a lot of us) was asking the same questions, and taking ages to decide what they wanted to do. Finally the Manager came out and made an announcement, "Alright everyone, listen up! I want to get all of you into a movie, so here's what we're going to do, I am about to make you an offer you can't refuse. If you like out of town and want a refund, go over there {pointing to customer service} and get your money back. Otherwise, we're going to let you all into the regular 12:40 showing of Avatar, also in 3D, and then for each ticket you have, we'll give you TWO tickets for a later date. That's a $30 value."
So, we got to see the movie in the regular theater (a difference of about $4 a ticket, to our loss), and got four tickets that we can use to see an IMAX movie free at a later date. Any movie, no restrictions. Awesome.

Then, while in the movie, I got a call on my cell. (No, I wasn't rude, it was on vibrate and went to voicemail). I checked it as we were leaving and it was the Melting Pot. The message said something like "Hi this is John at the Melting Pot. You might have heard that a water main burst on 2nd Ave and many of the restaurants are closed, but we're not! So your reservations are good, and we'll see you at 4:45". Yay.
So we headed downtown. Took some maneuvering b/c apparently three water mains burst downtown and we had to go up and down a few random streets to get to the lot closest to the restaurant. We paid our $10 parking (outrageous!) and then walked in the frigid temps over to the restaurant. We were seated, ordered our yummy drinks (raspberry martini! mmmmm) and then placed our order, indulging in the four course dinner of a cheese fondue, salads, main fondue entree, and chocolate fondue.
As we're eating our first course, here comes the manager. Introducing herself, then saying "Unfortunately, I have bad news. The city just came in and told us they are going to have to dig up 2nd Ave all the way from one end to the other, so they're shutting us down. We have to close in about thirty minutes. Of course you won't have to pay for any food you've gotten. We're terribly sorry about this, as it's beyond our control".
So... we ate our first and second courses for free, paid for our drinks, tipped our server and then got a $20 off your next purchase coupon for the Melting Pot. (HA!) Since our drinks and (my really good tip, I felt bad for the server) cost $30, we were only in the hole $20 so far for drinks/parking. (And saved $48 on food!)

So as we left, we tried to decide where to get dinner, because we were still hungry. So we decided to head to PFChangs for some chinese. By the time we got there, they were pretty busty, so we snagged the last two seats at the bar, then got an appetizer and entree to split, Doug had a glass of wine, and after tip, we spent about $32.

All in all, after adding up what we spent and subtracting the value of our coupons we got in return, we are at $24. That's right. LOL!!! We spent $32 plus $32 plus $10 plus $30, and received back a $20 coupon and $60 in movie tickets.
So instead of spending the $140ish dollars I anticipated, we almost came out ahead. (which was a good thing, since I just sent $190 on an electrician!)

Always a couponer.

My husband got a big kick out of the entire evening's antics and we just rolled with it. But we did have a great time and we need to do it more often!