A post in which Jason is the one coming to dinner*

We were up early, excited to start the day.  I had planned breakfast, and made winter squash pancakes.  They weren't as good as the last ones I made, but they were still pretty good, and Jason enjoyed them.  Jason told me he has never had another man make him breakfast - really.  Wow.

After breakfast I wanted to go to the flea market, and we went down to Anderson to the jockey lot.  I had scored last weekend, but still wanted to find a piece of glass today.  But despite getting there pretty early the pickings were slim for glass.  I didn't even find any fruit I wanted (I am appled-out at the moment).  I ended up buying only two plantains.  But they place was packed.  The weather was beautiful, and there were tons of people down there buying and selling.  It was a mornings entertainment, although I think Jason was a little tired of it by the time we left.

By the time we got back to the house, we were both fairly wiped.  I took a shower and we lay down for a while for a nap (we really had been up early).  By the time we woke up, it was time that we had to go to lunch.  Dinner tonight was at 6pm.  We went to Carolina Ale House downtown, and once again, Nicole was not there.  But the Carolina game was on, and we watched the Gamecocks trouncing Arkansas, which was most satisfying.  I had another of their lovely veggie burgers for lunch, and some fries.  I have been craving french fries.  I hadn't had any in a while, and theirs are excellent.

After lunch, we wandered around downtown a little.  I'm trying to get inspired about Christmas presents, but I'm still freaking out about being back in debt from the heater, so it's difficult.  I didn't see anything today I felt I couldn't live without.

We left there and drove around to look at neighborhoods in the Congaree Road area for Jason to stop and get some information from the Greenville Racquet Club, and doing some preliminary house hunting.  They are building some nice houses and town homes over there, but they are pretty far out of our price range.

By the time we finished that, it was time to go for supper.  I had been really nervous about this this week,  despite knowing that there was really nothing to worry about.  That was absolutely the case.  Everyone was on their best behavior.  Eve had made a delicious meal, and the table was beautiful.  We had crab-stuffed tilapia, white and green asparagus with hollandaise, rice pilaf, homemade cole slaw (which Jason loved, and raved about), and rolls.  Jason was (of course) charming, and Eve gave me the word in the kitchen before we'd even sat down at the table that she approved.

The meal went fine.  I noticed only one small mistake that Jason made, and I don't think it was a huge deal.  He didn't put his bread on his bread plate, he had it on his dinner plate.  Now I know that Eve noticed it immediately.   I thought about trying to give him some sort of signal, but I didn't want to draw attention to it, and I didn't want to make him nervous.  He was doing so well. Then I noticed that Dad had his bread on his dinner plate also.  I doubt seriously that Dad noticed what Jason did, and purposely did the same thing (that would be WAY detail-oriented and over-the-top deft for my dad), but at least if it was mentioned later, I could call that out. 

After dinner, we adjourned to the den for conversation, and when I couldn't take much more, I called for dessert.  We had a chocolate layered cream cake with ice cream and raspberry drizzle.  After a decently polite interval, I got us the heck out of there.  Everything had gone well, and they seemed to like him just fine, but my nerves were shot, and it was Saturday night.  I just wasn't going to spend Saturday night at my parents' house. 

We talked on the way home, and I kind of decompressed.  By the time we got back to the house, I was ready for bed.  We put a movie in the DVD player and snuggled in.  It had been a great day, and the evening had gone well, but I was heartily glad it was OVER.