A couple of friends have asked how the 10th Wedding Anniversary celebration went, so I guess I should post a little about it.

When Blog Girl awoke on Friday morning I had a nice card waiting for her, but that was all…for the moment.

At about 11am the dozen red premium (premium translates to about $30 added to the price) roses I had asked to be delivered at 9am finally arrived at her office, surprising her and making her the envy of the rest of the staff.

I have a gripe about florists (at least the last 2 I’ve used in the area where Blog Girl works) but this is not the place for that rant. Maybe some other time.

Blog Girl and I each got off work a little early to come back to the Blog Cave and get “freshened up”, as she likes to say, before heading out to a 5:50pm (that’s important) dinner at EPCOT.

Yes, EPCOT.

If you’re unfamiliar with EPCOT, that might seem like an odd choice of location for a 10th Wedding Anniversary dinner. But in the World Showcase section of EPCOT there is the French Pavilion (it even has a scaled-down version of the Eiffel Tower) and in the French Pavilion is a popular French restaurant named Les Chefs de France. Although 5 weeks after our anniversary we would be in the country of France itself (4 weeks now), we thought it would be fun to “visit” a little early by having dinner in a French restaurant.

We arrived a little early for our 5:50pm dinner (that’s important), so we went over to a little theater where they show an 18 minute film about France. Amazingly, in all the years I’ve been going to EPCOT, I’d never known the theater was even there, or what it showed. The semi-circle shape of the seats and screens gives you the impression you are flying through the sky over landmarks, castles, rivers and countryside. It only served to increase my desire to visit this beautiful country.

We arrived at the restaurant at approximately 5:45pm (that’s important) and as I stepped up to the podium where the Maitre’De was standing and greeted him with an excellent (if I DO say so myself) “bon jour”… he actually laughed and then stifled it. I asked him “What?” but he just kept looking down at the reservation book and, while smiling, told us it would be a few moments before our table was ready. I’m still not sure why he laughed. I used the proper form of greeting (if it had been after 6pm, and thus in the evening, the proper greeting would have been “bon soir”) and my pronunciation was decent, I thought. It’s not like I said “Bone Jore” or something like that.

Anyway, the meal was good, the service was excellent, the company was perfect and I discovered I don’t care for Creme Brulée.

After the meal we walked around the rest of the World Showcase, buying some things for Blog Girl at the Moroccan Pavilion and an Easter present for Mikey at the Japanese Pavilion before returning home around 8:30.

More about our Anniversary Celebration tomorrow.

April is Autism Awareness Month. The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimate the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders to be about one in every 150 children.

Man, here I’ve been busting my butt trying to learn to speak French so that I don’t order squid testicles for dinner some night and all I really need to do is learn how to cop the Parisian Attitude! Do I have to have a cigarette dangling out of the corner of my mouth, or would that be over the top?

Two months from tonight Blog Girl and I will be sleeping in “The City of Light”, Paris, France. I’m finally starting to get excited.

I don’t know why, but this is the way it always is…I don’t get completely involved in a trip or outing until it is relatively close to the departure time. We’ve been planning this trip since our return from Scotland last May, but it wasn’t until recently that I’ve begun to really get ebullient about the trip to one of two places I’ve always wanted to visit (I’ll take your guesses as to the other locale in the comment section; here’s a hint- it’s a large city) outside the U.S.

But, that’s why Blog Girl and I make such a good team. She takes the early lead on gathering information, making reservations, and all the really hard work, then I come in and handle the easy stuff, lol.

Anyway, we’re getting things prepared and nailed down and the excitement level is building for both of us. Like last year’s Scotland trip, there will be a blog posted for those who are interested. I’ll be sending details and the link out to family and friends before departure. I’m hoping this year to be able to add some video uploads as well as the usual photos.