Can I just say that I have THE BEST husband? Why, you ask? I am blogging you from a VIP executive suite in a swanky North Dallas hotel that my husband sent me to for the weekend.
(I started out booked in a regular queen room, but after my tired-mother-escaping-toddler discourse with the lovely guest services girl here, I magically ended up on the executive floor with the free cocktail lounge and free magnificent breakfast complete with Starbucks coffee no less). See what happens when you tell people you haven't slept in two years? Doesn't hurt that I look like I haven't slept in two years too. But, anyway, my husband, plagued by guilt of having sired our little Hurricane, gave me this weekend as a birthday present. He figures it's his fault for having knocked me up, thus producing the lovely and talented Hurricane Luka who, um, keeps me on my toes, shall we say. Mommy hasn't slept thru the night for 2 and a half years. SO, here I am, alone, in my pjs, with a bottle of Spanish Red and all the Law & Order on USA and TNT that I can possibly stand. Alone. Did I mention I was alone?
No one is asking me, make that demanding me, to "make me a milk!". No one is throwing Batman action figures at me, or making me play Hulk Smash for the 100th time. No one is dumping all the puzzles into one big pile in the middle of the livingroom floor. And, most of all, no one is wandering around my house from 1:30am to 3:30am lookin' for someone to play with. I actually slept thru the night last night until...wait for it...7:30am. Woot! I know that doesn't seem like alot to some of you, but if you have a child who roams the house during the wee hours and still wakes up at 5:00am with a "Daddy! Stand UP!" then you're feelin' me.
What I wanted to tell you about tonight is that finding a deal anywhere never ceases to amaze me. You can find a deal at any level of restaurant, any level of retailer, any level of hotel. How? Be nice. Tell them why you're really there. (I'm escaping my 2-yr-old whom we call Hurricane. Guess why.) One deal I found tonight was at swell restaurant The Oceanaire. The Oceanaire is located in North Dallas inside the Westin Galleria Hotel. Their seafood is flown in every single day. They have, get this, like 7 different kinds of East Coast oysters. And they serve those oysters with this delectable and decidedly different red wine mignonette (minced shallots in red wine). How do I know? Um, I just ate 6 different oysters. And there was no one throwing croutons at me. And I did not have to draw on the tabletop with crayons.
Now I certainly don't eat often at swell places that play 30s swing music and switch out your silverware every course. But, I figured that since I only paid $1.19 for all my groceries for the entire week, I could swing it. (Thank you Walgreens for all those Huggies RRs last week, and thank you Tom Thumb for that prescription gift card). My whole philosophy, in case you haven't discovered, is figure out how NOT to pay for alot of stuff I HAVE to buy, so I have some money to buy a few neato things that I really like.
One of my readers recently wrote me to tell me her family had saved so much money this year they were able to redo the porch on their house! Now that's what I'm talkin' about! What are you spending you grocery money on instead of groceries? Me? Oysters.
What's the deal for today? Well, Brandon at The Oceanaire (whom you must ask for if you go) says these amazing oysters (try the Barcat) are half-price when you eat them at the bar Monday thru Friday. And, that happy hour is any old hour you show up Monday-Friday. Gotta love a bar that has happy hour all dang day, right?
All this to say that you never know where a deal is gonna show up. The deals are not just at Walgreens or Target, TGIFridays or Bob Evans. They are everywhere. Look. Ask. Get. The world is your oyster.
Find your nearest Oceanaire
here. The Oceanaire is located in CA, CO, DC, FL, GA, IN, MA, MD, MN, NC, OH, PA, TX and WA.
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