Valentines Day

Valentine’s Day has come and passed. Now, something to know is that Dad Bot tries to embody the idea of valentine's day every day of the year as I know I married up way up, to be exact. However, this year I wanted to take both Mom Bot and Mini Bot on a true-to-life, fancier than our regular dinner date. Things went just as expected, which is to say not nearly as expected.

Dad Bot 3000 Loading Valentine's Day Idea generator….

Ideas generated…. Assessing quality and feasibility of ideas…probability of a great date very high

So, it all began on 3 February. That is the day Dad Bot started to set up all the day's activities. It started with finding a nicer than a typical restaurant. After extensive googling and reading reviews, I settled on an upscale Italian restaurant called Osteria Marzano. It serves quality true-to-life Italian meals and wine, which is substantially marked up from the actual cost of a bottle. We have dined here before, so I thought Mom Bot and Mini Bot would love this idea!

I seize the idea, get on the restaurant's website, and click the reserve a table button for 13 February! Yes, I realize that was not Valentine's Day. But, you see, being Dad Bot has its perks. Like access to historical data for the family and their general moods and energy levels based on days. You could call it my emotional stability matrix or my likelihood of Mini Bot being in a suitable mood matrix. Anyway, I selected that day as actual Valentine's Day was on a Monday where Mom Bot and Mini Bot Both had work and school respectfully. So that day was out, and dinner probably would have gone very poorly. Mini Bot would not want to sit at a restaurant after a full day of school, and Mom Bot would probably be working later than usual since it is not officially a federal holiday.

Reservation was confirmed for three at a table in the kitchen! Boom, major win! Mom and Mini Bot would love this! Watching the chefs work and make their masterpieces while smelling all the flavors and food. As my teenage Bot would say, "No cap Dad Bot they will love this."

Dad Bot running translation on teenage Bot word choices……unknown Dad Bot does not have teenage vernacular installed….

I then jump on google and find a highly rated beauty salon to get Mom, and Mini Bot's hair spiffed up. An appointment was made for 1300 on 13 February. Little did I know things were about to come crashing down. Plans were about to freeze, like watching a video on YouTube and losing internet connection.

ERROR 404 loading….

The first error came from Mom Bot guessing I made a reservation at the local Voltaggio Brothers Steakhouse in the MGM Casino. She discovered the restaurant and was convinced that I had made the reservations. I wish I could have shown you the look on Mom Bot's face when she said Voltaggio brothers. It was full of anticipation and realization that Dad Bot paid attention and found the best in the area. And it is a restaurant chain where we ate before while living in another state.

Dad Bot Loading panic.exe…

To be honest, I think I hid my extreme panic well from her, and I believe It told her something along the lines of "ya how did you know! I can never hide anything from you, Love!"

Panic.exe. loaded…. Dad Bot is in full-blown panic mode….

I quickly left the area and jumped on the Voltaggio Brother's website. After browsing the menu and seeing most things had no prices or triple-digit numbers for things, I decided to go ahead and make a reservation. What else I was supposed to do. Mom Bot's face and excitement for this restaurant was something I do not see every day. So, I bit the bullet and made a reservation for three on 13 February

Dad Bot 3000 Loading financial assessment matrix…. cost expected to be very high

Situation solved. I will chalk this up to making a backup plan first…then discreetly extract the information I need from Mom Bot for the actual dinner plan. Yaa, let's say that.

Dad Bot 3000 recalling 13 February memory files…. loading complete.

Jumping forward two weeks to the big day. Dad Bot took Mom and Mini Bot to the nail salon as a surprise and then to the hair appointment. Once they were there, I quietly escaped to grab the roses for my dates and went back home. Dad Bot was about to get all cleaned up when Mom Bot Called and informed me of a bit of a problem.

ERROR 404 loading….

The beauty salon I made the appointment with on 3 February did not put that into their reservation system. So, the three hours I had "reserved" for Mom and Mini Bot was up in the air.

Dad Bot 3000 loading frustration.exe.

Dad Bot 3000 Loading panic.exe.

Luckily Mom Bot has a way with people, and I had the exact times and dates I called. So Mom And Mini Bot were taken care of at the beauty salon even though the appointment was not ever registered. Lesson learned here: when making a beauty salon appointment, make sure you have the names of the people the reservation is with. Also, make sure they double-check the reservation in both the appointment book and their computer system.

With all the crisis avoided and everyone dressed to the nine's, we arrived at Voltaggio Brothers Steakhouse. Our amiable waiter, named Igor, seated us and provided us with the menu for the night. Mini Bot laughed a bit at his name; Igor is a funny name to a Mini Bot. Mom and Dad Bot immediately felt a bit embarrassed about that. While glancing over the menu, we decided on our meals and placed the orders.

Now to be clear, this place is a lovely establishment. The restaurant tries to spruce everything up and put on a show along with food service. For example, when the staff brought out a salad for Mom Bot, it was in a smoothed-out steel-like serving dish sitting in ice with some smoke from underneath. Mom Bot's dressing was also served in a container like this, with dry ice smoke rising around. Very fancy-like.

Dad/Mom/Mini Bot loading wow/ooaa/ahhh sound effects….

As the meal went on, the showmanship with our food never failed to generate some impressive sound from one or all of us. We were treated amazingly well by all the staff, and it was fantastic, although a bit long, evening.

Mini Bot loading I_am_bored.exe….

Most of us, if not all of us, have had this happen at more prolonged than usual dinners with our Mini-Bot's. Even the best-behaved can sometimes get bored when the dinners take a bit to make as it is all fresh. Our Mini Bot is no exception. At one point, Mini Bot was done eating while Mom and Dad Bot were still waiting for the main entrée. Mini Bot even said, "this is taking so long I feel like my heart is slowing down."

*For the record Mini Bot is entirely healthy, and her heart was fine. It is her new way of saying, "I am bored."

Mom and Dad Bot tried to play some games with her to keep her engaged. We tried paper, rock, scissors: We tried eye spy: We spoke about school, her friends, and her upcoming birthday party.

Mini Bot initiating bored.exe.

Mini Bot initiating grumpy.exe

Mini Bot running probability of cellular phone games matrix-probability high!

Yes. We caved and gave Mini Bot a phone to play some Khan Academy games while eating our entrée. We ran out of ideas to keep Mini Bot engaged, as, at this point, we had been sitting down for just over an hour and a half. And she had been done eating for a solid hour. And here comes the slightly judging looks from the more upper-class patrons of the restaurant. It's all good, though. We won't see them again, and we know our Mini Bot needs a distraction so we can finish our dinner date peacefully. I sat there waiting for the check thinking how fantastic everything turned out and how happy we were as a family on this date. Despite the slight setbacks. Then the check came:

Dad Bot 3000 scanning bill…. unexpected total numbers found….40% higher than expected

Dad Bot 3000 initiated internal financial assessment…. failure to initiate.

Dad Bot 3000 cannot process financial assessment due to installing smoked whiskey drinks…

Dad Bot 300 loading fake external confidence and calmness not to tip off Mom Bot…. successful!

The point of this story, you may ask? Well, just really a telling of my valentine's day. The good and the bad of the day. So know out there, life is not perfect, and if you think it is, you may be lying to yourself a bit much. Mini Bots get cranky; Mini Bots get moody. Plans will fail when you think they are solid. When it happens, readjust your expectations and goals. And don't forget to load the internal panic instead of the external panic. Most importantly, make sure to love and appreciate every Moment with who you have. Thank you for reading

Dad Bot 3000 logging off……