Monstro and I celebrated our six-year wedding anniversary this weekend by leaving our children for the night. It's the first night we've been gone since well before BK's birth, and only our second night gone since Lex was born. I'd hoped it would be a surprise jaunt to Mohegan Sun, but when MS turned up sold out I told Monstro we'd be going out of town the following weekend.

“Where do you want to go?” I asked him.

“Without the kids? Anywhere,” he said.

He suggested a bed & breakfast so I googled some places in Vermont and we chose the Hickory Ridge House in Putney. The place looked nice; they had a cottage that reminded me of my cabins during our courtship phase; the cottage had a king-sized bed. The true icing on the cake was that the proprietors were hosting a dinner on Saturday night, which would be a freebie on top of the price of the room. I reserved our room and then Monstro and I spent the better part of the week giggling.

After a quick drive through Brattleboro into NH for some tax-free booze (including a ten-dollar case of Shipyard microbrews), we made it to Putney in less time than expected. Upon arrival, Dennis showed us the rooms in the main house — nobody else was booked to stay over so he let us poke around. We decided to stick with our cottage room — the Garden Room — and then we got busy with the doin' of it.

Dinner was excellent and before we sat down to eat, another couple arrived. Pat and Angie were from northern Vermont but moved there from California nearly two years ago. We four had a great time hashing out the differences between California and New England.

“We're so glad you were here to give us a reality check!” Pat said when it was time for us to check out. Hilarious.

We drove a little north and then back through Putney and on into Brattleboro, where we had yummy Thai lunch. Then Monstro purchased mood-music for our upcoming D & D adventure while I bought an exciting undergarment. Then we drove down to Agawam where we had one very long battle and one that lasted 20 minutes thanks to Monstro's “halve the monsters' hit points but double the damage they deal” strategy. We made it home before 10:00, took the sitter ( sitter #3 of the weekend; thanks Mary, Emily, and Renee!) home, and came back home and celebrated some more. I think because Monstro's so close to graduating, we're feeling extra celebratory this year.