Happy V.D.

That's Valentine's Day for those of you that need the help. Doug is so miserably sick with the flu. You know, it stinks to have a sick kid, but I think it's doubly worse to have a sick spouse. I have less help with the munchkin and it's the weekend, so I always look forward to the extra set of hands. Poor Doug. I do feel bad for him. Last night was Valentine's Day and we had tickets to The Taste of Asia at the officer's club. We were going to get all dressed up and have a date night. I even babysat the neighbor's kids Friday night, so we could have a babysitting swap. Well, I ended up going stag. Not as depressing as I imagined. Never once did I feel out of place for not having a date. It probably helped that our friends Melissa and Kaye were there too. I did have the daunting task of eating $130 worth of food (since Doug's ticket went to waste). Not an easy task since I drove myself and couldn't partake of the open bar. Boo, hoo. I did eat 2 person's worth of shrimp...grilled, boiled and chilled and of course, tempura style. Speaking of which, have you ever had tempura lettuce? Yep, a small leaf of lettuce dipped in tempura batter and deep fried. They can make anything delicious. How come the Japanese aren't larger? My initial thought was to not fill up on salad and rice, but after my 2nd plate of dumplings, Korean ribs, shrimp, tempura veggies, and little pork wraps, I could feel my arteries clogging up, so I got a plate of salad. The dressing was delicious. I did not go for the sashimi, but there was an enormous tuna on a slab of ice that the man was carving in front of us. At first, I thought it was fake. I'm still not a huge fan of raw fish, but I heard it was wonderful. So we ate and ate and ate, then came the show. The costumes were beautiful and the music was...hmmm..interesting. It was the typical Asian screeching. Sounded very similar to the Korean show we saw a few years ago. We had a quick break for dessert and then the drummers came out. Fantastic. It was amazing to see the athleticism. They beat these huge drums for what seemed like forever creating the most wonderful sounds and rhythms. And of course, a Japanese night cannot be complete without the Shisa dog. We had great seats about halfway from the stage and right on the aisle. Hopefully, he won't be sick next year. I have a feeling we'll be there next year. Happy Valentine's Day!