Our Engagement Anniversary!

On August 14, 2009, Justin and I got engaged.  We really wanted to celebrate that day, so this weekend we lived up to our usual shenanigans.

Friday, August 12: When Justin got off work at 5:30, we went to Bennett Pointe Grill, a little restaurant right behind our apartment.  We had seen it before several times, but never gone.  Last week, we gave it our first shot, and really liked it, so we went again.  I tried their house salad with grilled chicken and Justin had their grilled chicken and bacon sandwich with sweet potato fries.  We even shared a slice of Sweet Italian Creme cake!  Oh, it was all SO delicious.  Once we were through with dinner, we headed back home and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1.  About a month ago, Justin bought Harry Potter Years 1-7 on Blu-Ray, so the plan was for us to watch the first 7 movies throughout the week and then go see the newest one this weekend.  After the movie was over, Justin started giving me guidelines for MTG so that I could help him practice since stupid Cameron is moving away and he won't have anyone local to play with.  After that, we were both really beat, so we went to bed.

Saturday, August 13: Today was Elise's birthday!  We had an appointment for 10 a.m. at the Hyundai dealership to have the car inspected for our tag renewal.  North Carolina is really awesome that way, because the dealership sends in all the info from the inspection and we can go online and renew the tag that way.  Then the tag comes in the mail soon thereafter.  While we were waiting, we walked across the car lot to RoomStore and looked around in there.  I of course saw some things I wanted, a dragonfly print and a baker's rack for example.  We got a call from Hyundai about 20 minutes later saying our car was ready, which was great since the lady at the desk said it would be an hour!

Some really nice sun through the clouds at the dealership. :)

Once we got the car back and left the lot, we were looking for something else to do, and I remembered this awesome-looking antique shop across the street.  We had to go down the highway and make a U-turn to get back and on the way it started raining, which I welcomed.  We parked and went in the antique shop, and almost immediately I wanted to leave, because this older man (named "Vernon," as indicated by a notice once we stepped in) followed literally every step we took.  There was an additional floor to the shop, and we headed down there to try and get away from the man, but it didn't work.  I got very frustrated with that and asked Justin if we could leave.  Not to mention, even though Vern had a lot of nice things, they were all horrendously priced.  The whole sketchy setup reminded me of that season of Weeds where Nancy has that fake maternity shop.

Once we were finally out, we went one block down to TJ Maxx and I found this wonderful print there for $20 that had I heart U written inside the alphabet.  We also scored some nicely-scented fall potpourri on clearance for $3!  When we got back in the car from TJ Maxx, we were trying to figure out where to go for lunch, and decided on Chili's since neither one of us had ever been and it was right next to the store we just left.  I got the ranch chicken quesadilla, and Justin got the chili and salad lunch combo.  Lunch was pretty good, but the service wasn't, so it probably won't end up being one of our regular hangouts.

After lunch, we headed to Harry Potter.  The movie was excellent, and a wonderful end to the series, although I'm sure the books will be better.  After the  movie, we couldn't think of anything else we wanted to do, and it was already 4:00, so we just went back home.  We laid down and took a nap until 6 p.m., when we went out and got dinner.  Justin wanted a burger from Wendy's and I wanted one from Cook Out, so that's what we got.  We came home, ate, and then Justin was itching to play a computer game, so he played "The Witcher," and I watched "17 Kids and Counting" on Netflix.  We ended up staying up quite late and didn't head to bed until around 3 a.m.

Sunday, August 14:  Because we stayed up so late, we didn't even wake up until 1:30 p.m., which is a big deal for us!  After we laid in the bed for a little while, we both got up and took showers.  We got ready and headed to Brightleaf Square, a "fine shopping and dining" mall downtown.  It's on Main Street, and we pass it every time we go somewhere downtown.  We had seen Brightleaf several times, and really wanted to visit it.  So we decided to go today.

It's this really cute little square, which houses about 10 shops and 5 eateries.  The surrounding block of the city, which includes some additional places to eat and maybe another shop or two, make up the "square" part.  The doorway of a restaurant called Satisfaction faces the street, and it was the only place to eat there that I knew of, so I suggested we eat there.

Upon doing some research while Justin was in the shower, I discovered the other places to eat.  We saw them in person, but ultimately decided on Satisfaction anyway.  Their prices were fair and the food was really good, so maybe we have found another place for to eat!  Plus, it's close to the apartment and it's local.  Before we ate, we looked around in the already-few shops, of just two or three were open on Sunday.  What I saw in the window of one shop really excited me.  All over Durham, I have seen stickers on cars that say, "Durham Rocks" with a guitar.

I've been wondering where to get them with no luck for almost 2 years now.  So, as we were walking around Brightleaf, I saw shirts in a store window with Durham Rocks logo on them!

The store was called Offbeat Music, and it was really cool.  There was even a .45 record wall, which was my favorite part.

Here is a shot of the inside of the store.

After we shopped in Offbeat Music, we stopped inside this little bookstore next door, but it was a local and rare bookstore, and it wasn't really that exciting.  Next to it was an antique shop, and while it made up for our sketchy trip the day before, the store was also over-priced.  But it sure had some pretty stuff in it!

Satisfaction came next, because we were both starving.  Justin was afraid that because the restaurant was a part of the "fine shopping and dining" deal, that it would be expensive.  But once we got inside and looked at a menu, we were happy to see their yummy subs were only $7!

I loved the bugs in the wall!

This was my sandwich, called the Crash Davis.  Justin ate his too fast for me to get a picture of it!

After we ate, and since most of the places at Brightleaf were closed on Sunday, there wasn't much else to do there, so we snapped a few more shots and headed home.

It was a fantastic weekend, and I couldn't be happier that I said, "Yes" two years ago!