Early anniversary presents

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DH brought me a dozen red roses today, before we decided whether or not we were going out tonight, and what exactly we would do. They're gorgeous.

About 4-ish he said, C'mon, lets drive over to the arena and see if we can get tickets to the game tonight. It was opening night of the Coyotes new arena in Glendale, and we had been looking online for tickets for a few weeks -- there was stuff available but for major $$$. I wasn't too hopeful about getting tickets, but as DH said, "Hey, it's nice drive out there." Since his folks are here, it was not a big deal to just take off -- they have been dying to babysit for us.

It was cooold tonight! I bundled up in about 5 layers and I have still been cold all night. I had my big scarf wrapped around me and even that didn't keep me warm as we walked around the stadium casually looking for people with tickets to sell. Finally we saw a guy who was obviously selling tickets, offered us upper level seats for 2x face value, when we said we wanted seats in the lower level, he said he could do them for face value, but he had to call someone to get them... then this nice guy comes over and says, "You want lower level, good seats? How good?" He had 2 club level seats ($100 each) that he was selling for face value... I wasn't sure DH would go for it, but he did! Good thing we stopped for cash on the way there, !

These were primo seats in the bar/restaurant end of the arena, and the tickets came with coupons for a free dinner entree at the "action station" and 1 free drink, too. We each had pan-seared sea scallops on this lovely salad. Unfortunately the pecans in the salad were glazed, and there was also roasted corn in it., too. Also, I must not forget the rosemary breadsticks which came with it that I thoroughly enjoyed because I am a complete sucker for rosemary.

So, the seats were great, the food was awesome, and the arena was spectacular... the game, however, was boring and the Yotes lost 3-1. sigh. They really have to pick it up if they expect to keep audience attention. But still, it was great being there for opening night. We've been to all the major openings since we arrived here -- the Yotes first game at AWA, and the Diamondback's first game at Bank One Ballpark... we lost both of those games, too, !

My first few dates with DH back when we first met were just "Come over to watch the Bruins" type things. The first time we met I remember the subject of hockey came up and he was so surprised: "You like hockey!?" Hehehe -- when you're growing up in a house with 1 TV and a Dad and 4 brothers who like sports, you pretty quickly learn to like sports if you want to hang out in the den with everyone else.

So, tomorrow is the actual anniversary, nine years. Wow. Definitely better than the 9 that preceded them, that's for sure! All in all, if my life continues on this trend, but the time I'm in my 70s, everything will be perfect. Then again if things just level off right here I'll be wildly happy. It's good to recognize when good things are happening. I'm grateful.

I should go climb into bed and warm up now... brrrrrr!