Gift certificates are good for ten years

Last night my husband surprised me with a dinner out.  This is always a tricky proposition (I say "always" as if this happens all the time, but in reality I mean "twice in the time I've known him") because I can never wait for him to come home to eat.  I need to have at least one dinner before he arrives, or I swear I'll practically have fainted from hunger on the doorstep before he even gets out of the car.  So, in order to surprise me, he needed to divert me with the promise of cold pizza left over from a meeting.  This would guarantee that I would snack moderately without eating an entire meal.

When he finally arrived home, I was all but running in circles, drooling and chasing my tail.  When I saw that he was NOT carrying a take-out bag, he must have caught the glint of fire in my eyes just in time, because he ducked before I could throttle him.  

"I'm taking you out to dinner!  Surprise!" he blurted in one breath, arm blocking his face.  This could mean only one thing.  He had a gift certificate.

"I found a gift certificate when I was cleaning the basement!"  See?  I'm not kidding.

I was tired, I was cranky, I'd been working in front of the computer all day while trying to distract a toddler with Curious George re-runs, I was wearing a t-shirt with Popsicle stains on it - I didn't think I felt like going anywhere.

"My mother's coming over to babysit in 10 minutes," he said, all smiles.  "It's all set.  Let's go!"

I changed, I looked presentable, we went to a restaurant on the waterfront, and for two hours we were real grown ups.  We even held hands as we strolled and he bought me an ice cream.  It was actually sort of cute.

"I get points for this, right?" he asked me.  Normally I wouldn't give him points for "Use of a Gift Certificate for Romantic Dinner", and I'll probably modify my future complaints from "You never take me out to dinner" to "You never take me out to dinner unless there's a gift certificate"... but yes.  He got points for this one.