Anniversary Weekend
July 23rd was my fourth anniversary with Danny. It's when we had our first date, rather than when we married -- we celebrate both days! Our three-year wedding anniversary will be coming up in March. Because the 23rd was a Thursday and we both had to work, we celebrated on Saturday.
We started the day by taking Ranni to the dog park so she could get plenty of exercise before we left. It was beautiful, only in the low-70s Fahrenheit, much cooler than July has been for the most part, so we were able to stay at the park for a while playing fetch with Ranni. She lets us know when she's tired out and ready to go home by going over to the gate and waiting for us to put her leash on.
She's rarely ever at home by herself because I work from home, but when we do go out without her, she gets the run of the apartment. We have two cameras set up, one in my office and one in the bedroom, so we can see her through the corresponding app on our phones. Most of the time, she stays on the futon in my office and just naps, and that's what she was doing when I checked on her a few times while we were out on Saturday.
We drove downtown into the heart of the city and had lunch at one of our favorite spots that serves boba tea and jianbing. I got a roasted chicken crepe and a strawberry milk tea with boba, while Danny opted for crab and a mango fruit tea.
After that, we walked around the city for a couple of hours playing Pokémon Go and stopping in a few shops. We checked out a fishing shop and a local bookstore, and I stopped by a coffee shop later on to grab an iced mocha. It was lovely to move around and enjoy the cooler weather.
Yes, we've gotten back into playing Pokémon Go! I played it for a short time back in the summer of 2016 when it was first released, and I have great memories of catching rare Pokémon with crowds of people. At the time, it felt like a great community event that got people outside and interacting with each other. Recently, we were at our local mall and saw a bunch of people playing, and I guess it lit a match to those good memories in us because we reactivated our old accounts and are now playing regularly again.
After getting home and playing a couple of games of Magic the Gathering, we decided to go back out to enjoy both the weather and catching Pokémon a little more. Ranni was antsy as well, so we all went on an hour-long walk together at the park.
Sunday was spent lazily, aside from Ranni's daily park adventure and walk. We made a veggie stir-fry together and I baked a simple yellow cake with chocolate frosting, and we just hung around playing video games. Danny was mostly doing some fishing in Final Fantasy XIV, and I got hooked on The Seance of Blake Manor, a deductive game by the Irish development team behind the Darkside Detective series. I may do a write-up on it later because it completely captured my attention, and it's one of those games that will stick with me for a while.
Here's to four fantastic years with my best friend! 🥂