This past weekend my parents came up to watch M while Mark and I played tourists in our own town. We shacked up at the Beachwood Fairfield thanks again to those wondrous Marriott Rewards – the place was clean and nice enough but absolutely overrun with feral kids there to slide down the newly installed waterslide.  I don’t think we will ever use this place for a quick get-away again; it’d be more likely that we opt for one of the Marriott properties downtown.

Saturday afternoon we finally saw Slumdog Millionaire at the Cedar Lee Theater.  It was good movie but I’m not sure I saw what all the Oscar fuss was about.  We had considered going to the Film Festival, but decided not to since we were only in the game for one movie and 1) couldn’t decide which one to see and 2) didn’t want to pay for parking + the movie.  Next year we need to plan better so we can take in 2-3 films during the CIFF. 

Our plans took us down to Tremont to hit Lolita’s happy hour.  However, even at 5:30 the place was jam-packed and the snotty hostess told us nothing was available for the next 4 hours.  We wandered down the street towards the sign for 806, not knowing what it was.  What a great find!  It’s a darling martini bar that was in the midst of their happy hour – $3 for select cocktails and $2 for wine/beer plus free bar snacks.  We hung out there for over an hour with me drinking waaay too many mojitos.  We chatted with the owner and bartender explored the cute space.  They have a fantastic patio and will start serving food in a few short weeks – each week featuring a different local chef.  We spent mere pennies there and had a great time.  I’m kind of happy that Lolita kicked us to the curb (but I still really, really want to go there)!

Since we didn’t want to spend the kind of money that the menus at Lago, Parallax and Fahrenheit demand, and since we still had a gift card to Bar Cento – we headed down to Ohio City and snagged seats at the bar as the place filled up.  Happy with our frites and sunnyside pizza we headed back to the hotel for dessert (get your mind out of the gutter – we had picked up some cupcakes from A Cookie & A Cupcake while in Tremont).  We slept in until 9 and then lounged around for the rest of the morning, watching CBS Sunday Morning undisturbed.

We came home to a very excited and very worn-out little girl who adored having her grandparents all to herself for 24 hours.  The only downfall of the weekend is that my mom told her about our upcoming trip to the beach and now that’s all she can talk about.  It’s 2 weeks away and she’s asked “we go to the beach now, mama?” 5 times since grandma and grandpa left. 

Two short weeks to vacation, but there is a massive hurdle between now and then: Mark’s 4-day business trip.  I’ve NEVER EVER had to play the part of solo-parent for overnight, let alone 3 nights.  I’m a bit nervous (and very, very spoiled).