Woman Sets out to Locate Estranged Husband, Finds Him in Midst of Three-Week Dance Dance Revolution Binge

I found out I had last night off of work (not sure why? Mental note: follow up on that to make sure am not fired) so I decided to investigate the Eau Claire situation. Specifically, Shad informed me that he would be spending another week there, which would be the third week in a row. It’s only an hour-and-a-half drive, and I thought there was a possibility I could get my mid-term written while I was there, so I put some air in my tires and the little Kia and I went on a quest to discover what is so great about west central Wisconsin.

I arrived at Action City and was immediately swept up into a tour. Action City rocks. There is mini-bowling, a climbing wall, go-carts, bumper cars, laser tag, and a huge arcade. There are all kinds of little party rooms with different themes, e.g. princess castle, jail, tiki-room, etc. Super fun place. We played bumper cars and lots of DDR. The laser tag is super awesome. Conclusion: building a family amusement park is a super fun thing to do, and if I could play bumper cars whenever I wanted to, I would probably stay in Eau Claire, too.

We spent the evening with Amy’s parents, and had a blast. They took us out to Stella Blues, a swank little restaurant, where Julie (Amy’s mom) and I matched each other drink-for-drink on Sapphire gimlets and Smyth & Kearnses. We got delicious appetizers, and my entrée was a super tasty NY Strip crusted in espresso & cocoa and covered with a snappy chipotle sauce. We had so much fun, and needless to say, there was no writing on my mid-term exam that night.

I worked on the mid-term this morning in the hotel while Shad ran some errands. I was getting a little irritated because he was supposed to come back at 12:00 so that I could be on my way back to Mpls (had to meet my group for the exam—it was a group test—I loathe working on exams in groups) and it was 12:03 so I was starting to get peeved because all in all I am not the most patient person sometimes. Plus, I was hungry. When he returned, he carried my stuff to the car for me and I saw that he had set up a whole smorgasbord of wacky snacks for me to enjoy during my drive back, and had picked up a big mocha from Starbucks for me too. What a sweetie. I adore my husband.

The wacky snacks tradition started when we lived in Uptown. Every now and then we’d decide to have wacky snacks. One of us would head down to Nicollet and get some wacky foods from the ethnic eateries there, and the other would go to Lunds and pick up cheeses, sushi, and other stuff from the deli, then we’d rendezvous and enjoy our meal. I’m not sure where he got today’s wacky snacks, but they were awesome.

I called Angela on the road and talked to her most of the way back. Good times.