VALENTINE.

So my sweet husband decided to surprise me for Valentines Day this year. (Me and surprises are not always the best mixture.) We went to Fuel Cafe in Midtown for dinner - which was fun, yummy, and different from our norm - and then to the Rec Room!

First, Fuel Cafe is a little restaurant in an old, converted gas station. There were all kinds of vegan and natural options on the menu... again, different than our normal choices! Tony went with the bison burger and side salad and I got the hunter's chicken. As usual, he proved to be the master orderer. When Tony originally told me where we were going he mentioned that the Fuel Cafe has a food truck and I was like -WHAT. I am not going to eat at a food truck this late! (It was after we put the kids to bed - late, late meal - and it was freezing out!) He quickly backtracked to tell me that we were not eating at a truck but in a restaurant.

They had a couple carnations at the table - which is significant because it's my favorite flower! Tony said he had them set that up on purpose... funny guy!

This was my meal. The chicken was really chewy and 100% off-putting but the potatoes and the sauce were incredible!

Tony got an all natural soda... it also contained something like 46 grams of cane sugar in it! Holy moly.

Up next was the Rec Room, another Memphis place we had never been before. It's got a fun, dive bar type of atmosphere. In addition to having a bar you can also order pizza! Which we totally should have done! They've got free arcade games (including Super Mario Bros!!!! Ya!), a ping pong table, table games, AND you can rent what they refer to as "living rooms" in hour increments and you get to choose a gaming system to play during your hour rental!!! They had NES, SNES, N64, and several more but those are the main ones I care about! Tony graciously agreed we had to rent the SNES and it was so much fun! We played Yoshi's Island, Super Mario World, Mortal Kombat (probably the most fun of the night), and a TMNT game. The hour went by so fast! Oh and the entire time we played there was an awesome DJ who played so many great late 90s/early 00s jams - tons of Nsync, Britney, Missy Elliot, Gwen Stefani, and the rest of the greats. After our hour was up we played ping pong - aka Tony ended up chasing the ball around the room the entire time - and I think that was the most fun of all! We also played some weird arcade shooter game that was oddly very entertaining, too.

It was absolutely such a fun night! I laughed a lot and I felt a bit out of my comfort zone but having Tony there with me made it exciting rather than nerve-wracking. And who doesn't love playing video games? It definitely took me back to some of the best parts of my childhood... playing games with my dad, sisters, friends, and of course Tony.

So this year we had a great Valentine's Day thanks to my wonderful husband. Next year maybe I'll have to do the surprise planning for the day!