Tara made plans for us to spend an evening together on
Saturday, February 13th, but refused to let me in on her plans. The evening was
supposed to be a night out for the two of us/my birthday present/my college
graduation gift/a valentines day present (which we never exchange). After
begging for much of the week prior, I got her to cave on Wednesday... we were
going to see the Wizard of Oz play at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit and then
eating dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House afterwards. We had a little bit of a,
uh, discussion (yeah, that's it) about the dinner part before agreeing to eat
elsewhere.
When Saturday finally arrived, we got ourselves dressed up
(slightly) and took the kids to church (where me met up with Gail, who was going
to watch them for the night) before we headed off to dinner. Since we never
formally agreed on a new location, we settled for On The Border in Auburn Hills.
During dinner Tara gave me a card with two tickets to the Red Wings game inside.
I didn't really believe her at first, as they had somebody else's name on them
and I was misreading the date of the game (I looked at the issued date, which
obviously was earlier). She wasn't teasing me, however. She had even planned
ahead and brought along our Red Wings sweaters (jerseys to all of you non-hockey
fans) to wear to the game!
After dinner we drove to Detroit, arriving early to the
game (it didn't take us nearly as long to eat as we thought it would). We took
our seats - third row from the ice, right on the goal line in the corner! - and
just kind of let everything soak in for a while. Once the game began we quickly
got the word that we were quite visible on TV when the action was taking place
in our corner. Cool! The best part was that the Wings won the game, 4-1, and of
the five goals score, 4 were in our net.
I don't know that there is an appropriate way to express
it, but Thank You Tara for a wonderful evening. I don't know that I will ever be
able to top this one for you, but just know that I will try. Also, know that I
will be doing my best to repay you for such a wonderful evening. Thank you, and
I love you!
Detroit Red Wings vs. Ottawa Senators
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Rodney and Tara together at Joe Louis Arena prior to the start
of the game. The two old guys in the background were a pleasant duo,
to say the least.
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Detroit's own Karen Newman singing the national anthem.
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Some game action, as Henrik Zetterburg skates by.
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More game action, this time after a faceoff. Apparently we were
quite visible on TV from our seats when the action was in this
corner.
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Al Sobatka driving the Zamboni during an intermission.
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Jimmy Howard in goal. This was probably after he allowed his
only goal of the night.
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Kris Draper skating by.
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More game action...
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...and some more...
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...we were almost able to witness a fight right in front of us,
but unfortunately the refs broke it up and only words were
exchanged.
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Jimmy Howard got to spend a lot of time alone in his zone
tonight. The other goalie had some down time as well, as Tara & I
caught him talking to himself a lot in the third period.
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Niklas Lidstrom in position for a faceoff.
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