Z is for Zoom In

Z isn't the hardest letter in the alphabet, for sure, but it's not really the easiest either. See, Z suffers from the stigma of having the obvious date of going to the zoo. Ed wanted to be a little bit more creative than that (especially since I volunteer at the zoo every Saturday). Soooooo...he chose Zoom In. In Birmingham, each year the Birmingham News sponsors a scavenger hunt at a location around the city. It's called the Itty Bitty Magic City Scavenger Hunt. Since you have to "zoom in" on different objects to complete the scavenger hunt, it was the perfect challenge for the end of our alphabet date! This year, it was at Railroad Park, a new park downtown that's really nice! We found all but one of the 20 clues. The one we didn't find, we were told by the security guard that no one could find it. So, we're hoping that maybe we'll be in the running for a prize!! If you're in the Ham, I definitely recommend Railroad Park, and you should certainly try the scavenger hunt next year too!!

Y is for Yellow and Green

Y is for sure the sixth vowel! It was a little tough. I came up with a couple of words, but couldn't find an appropriate date to plan for those words: yell, yehaw, yellowhammer, yard...that's about it. Ed's been mentioning over the past few weeks/months that we need to go to some UAB athletic events, and well, they're only really good at basketball. Since UAB's colors are green and gold (errrr, yellow), I figured we could take this as an opportunity to go to a game! There just so happened to be a men's basketball game during my Y week. I even packed some UAB tshirts, and Ed's yellow hair so we could be for real fans! It was really a great time. Ed got in free since he's a student, and I got a student ticket for onlly $12. We had great seats and UAB won, so that made it even better!! We're definitely going to go back for another game!! After the game, we went to a new dessert bar nearby called YOLO (you only live once). I bought a $20 groupon for YOLO a couple weeks ago for only $5. We tried their version of a banana split, 3 different kinds of cupcakes and their organic coffee. It was awesome!! Next time I feel like I need a $3 cupcake, I'll be back!

X is for XOXO

I have to say that I think Ed really lucked up that he had X on the very week of Valentine's Day! Our anniversary is also in February, so we take turns being responsible for planning the date for such occassions. He had Valentine's Day and I had our anniversary. X being the tough letter it is, I think he hit the jackpot with having our X date as our Valentine's XOXO Day date. We decided on a good steak place, that also had yummy margaritas. And, that day, he delivered a basket to my office full of goodies. My favorite? Definitely, the dancing gorilla (who I have appropriately named George) who also sings "Can't Get Enough of Your Love"! We had a wonderful dinner...I have the greatest boyfriend eveeeeer!

W is for Wet Your Whistle

I found this wonderful charity event that I wanted to attend called Tapped, which benefitted the Autism Society of Alabama. It was partially sponsored by Free the Hops, which is a fabulous organization that's trying to improve our outdated beer laws here in the Heartland. Anyway, it was the very weekend that I was due to have a W date, and I thought it would be fun. So, along with some friends, we managed to come up with a W word (or phrase, as it may be) to attend this even for our W date. Since it was a Beer Tasting event, and sponsored by Free the Hops, we decided the best way to go was "W is for Wet Your Whistle". I thought it was very clever! It was held at Ted's Garage downtown. This is a huge warehouse where people really store their really awesome cars. We forgot the camera :( so we weren't able to take pictures of them. It was great!! There were lots of restaurants there serving food--Blackwell's, Jackson's, Mafiaoza's, The J Clyde, and Maki Fresh. All the food was yummy, and the beer was great, of course. The best thing was that you could walk around and drool over all the expensive and/or old vehicles that were stored there. Including one fine Mercedes that I think Batman may own!

V is for Vaulting

I am a huge fan of anything Alabama. So, Ed's choice for V was a great one in my opinion. He got tickets to an Alabama gymnastice meet for us. He'd never been to a gymnastics meet anywhere, so it was a great experience for him too! We had a great time. We even joined the Rewards Program so that everytime we got to a sporting event on campus, we get a point. After each 10 points, you get a prize!! Very exciting! The meet we went to for this date was Alabama vs. Boise State. We had great seats. Buuuut, we never caught a tshirt which was a real bummer--I'm going to need them to throw more of those next time! Lol. Alabama won by over a point, and we both really enjoyed ourselves, so it was a win all the way around!

U is for Up

Ok ok. I've been told that my choice for U could possibly be considered a stretch. But, this was all I could come up with. Well, sort of. I thought of up, underwater, and underground. If you have an aquarium in your town, underwater is easy. If you have better timing, you can visit a cave or cavern (they're closed in the winter). So, up it is! Birmingham is home to the Southern Museum of Flight, and they have a flight simulator. I figured we could go tour the museum and fly "up" on the flight simulator. I have never been to the museum, and I don't think Ed even knew it existed. It's near the airport, but it's not something that you'll just pass by on your way home or anything. And, most of the signs are faded and worn, so you'd be hard-pressed to notice them. Annnnnyway, it was a pretty cool way to spend the afternoon. First, we stopped by this awesome Homewood restaurant called Urban Cookhouse. They specialize in foods prepared from sustainable ingredients and sources. We'll definitely be back there--it is delicious! On to the Southern Museum of Flight. We spent a couple of hours wandering around. It's a pretty large place, with lots of history. There are lots of planes and helicopters on display indoors, and then outside there are planes and helicopters for a couple of blocks. They even have a scavenger hunt. For a small fee, you get a list of questions to answer, and when you're finished, correct answers will earn you a really neat patch from the museum. Oh, and yeah, we did the flight simulator--Ed did well, I crashed EVERY time (see the frustration in the picture?)! It was a really great afternoon, and something we probably wouldn't have done if it wasn't for our fun alphabet dating!

T is for Thompson

As in....Josh Thompson. After a couple month hiatus due to the holidays, we got back into our alphabet dating. Ed planned for our T date to be a Josh Thompson concert. If you've never heard of him, check him out--he's great (http://www.joshthompsonofficial.com/). Anyway, he was the headliner for the BBVA Compass Bowl Pep Rally and Street Party. It was really awesome. I mean, yes, it was outside in January, but it was manageable--it being Alabama and all. We got some free coffee, hot chocolate, and some free swag. Then, there was some good street food, and of course great music! The best part--it was a free concert sponsored by a local radio station--thank you 102.5 the bull! My new favorite song may very well be "Way Out Here".