Dinner and a Movie

But not in that order. . . .

We are in the week or so around my husband's birthday, and so it is time for treats. (His actual b-day is June 17.) Over the weekend, he told me he wanted to go and see the new Tom Cruise Mission Impossible movie at a Tuesday bargain matinee, then eat at Hoss's in State College. I said sure, I'll bite. (Did you see what I did there?) And then we did, my treat!

So today, we went to see the 12:10 showing of Mission Impossible at Cinema 9 by Lowe's. My UEC cinemas card got us each a free popcorn. The movie was in theatre 3, which has those overstuffed, reclining, luxury seats - Tuesday matinee admission is typically $6, but movies shown in that threatre cost a dollar more, and let me tell YOU, that dollar is money well spent! It embarrasses me to admit it, but I will: we do not have a single chair that comfortable in our entire house!

We sat down - me, in the third seat of the third row, which provided an excellent view - and messed with the seats: the footrest comes out, the chair reclines. The one chair's reclining mechanism did not work, so we ended up with a chair between us to watch the movie. Good. We put our stuff on the empty one. (Word to the wise: try the reclining mechanism FIRST when selecting your seat.) I was dressed for summer, but brought a light jacket along to drape over myself if I got chilly, which was a very good idea.

The movie was fantastic and nearly 3 hours long. At the beginning, there was a little message from a smiling Tom Cruise, thanking us for seeing his movie "the way it was meant to be seen," which is to say: on the BIG screen! It was action and excitement from start to finish. Some of the things they did, I have NO idea how they filmed them!

We laughed. We cried. They brought back characters from prior movies and wrapped up their story lines in ways that were satisfying. There were aerial maneuvers in small airplanes that made me gasp out loud. Some years, we only make it to one movie. If that's the case for this year, I'm glad this was the one! 

We heard thunder while we were in the theatre and came outdoors to discover it had stormed while we were inside. Pretty good timing! Oh, and by the way, there were probably only a half-dozen of us in the entire theatre!

Then we went to Hoss's, which was likewise deserted at that hour (which was around 3:30 p.m.). They have some new specials from 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays for $11.99 (a few dollars off their regular price) that lead me to believe they are trying to compete with Texas Roadhouse's popular 3 to 5 p.m. bargain specials, which we have enjoyed often. 

I said Yes to the sirloin tips meal with onion rings and a baked potato with butter and sour cream for $11.99. He had the all-you-can-eat salad bar for $8.99, and he let me try a bite of his chicken soup, which was absolutely delicious; I suspect those fat noodles were homemade. I have never watched a man enjoy garlic bread more than my husband. 

Everything I had was good to very good! I had leftovers for later, but not those big, crispy onion rings. Oh no, I ate every single bite of those suckers, dipped in ranch dressing I purloined from my husband. It might have been the best meal I've ever had there.

I took other photos on this day, but this is the one that made me smile the most. The food was quite good, the company was grand - happy birthday now and forever, lover boy! - and we'd just seen a wonderful movie. How much better can a summer's day get?

I wanted a song from the Dire Straits album Making Movies. :-) And here is an all-time favorite, a song for young lovers everywhere*: Dire Straits, with Romeo and Juliet.

*Are we still young? Why, yes, I hope so! Or at least, young at heart!