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Do you all ever let the partner go out without you? How do your nights go when that happens?

We go out separately allot. I like to drink and hang out with the girls...he likes to smoke cigs and play D and D. I usually get drunk and come home looking for nookie and he comes home reeking of smoke and heads straight to the shower...feeling superior to his 35 year old dork friend who goes to bed alone still.

In the end we have fun without each other and still manage to have a little fun with each other in the end...works well for us.

AG goes out all the time without us. Nothing new, nothing exciting, it just extends my day well into the nighttime hours.

I know he would answer this question very differently - for one, I'm sure he would take the kids out for dinner, because he barely knows where the plates and forks are in the kitchen. I don't think he knows how to work the oven, either.

Entertainment, on the other hand, is his strong suit. He's already teaching Little B card games. They started with War, but I suspect poker is not far behind.

I'm usually the one who ends up going out with "the girls." My husband and I are both homebodies, we would rather spend time with each other, boring I know. But every once in a while, my husband insists that since I am the SAHM, I need to get out with grown-ups. When I respond that we do play dates, he replies "without kids!" He loves staying home with himself all alone. They have a great time. More likely than not, the boyfriend/husband of whoever I am out with will end up at our place and they can talk about hockey, computers and the new iPhone.

Spouse and I go out without each other more often than we go out with each other. He plays hockey, once or more a week, and I try to get out with friends at night occasionally. We're both equally capable of feeding ourselves and the toddler, and both equally unlikely to make something so complicated as that dish sounds when flying solo.

In theory, we're all for going out solo. In practice, it rarely happens, probably because we've not stayed in one place long enough to make many friends. We both have ended up flying solo with child many times because of work and school schedules, though, and no one has starved yet. For the first year of GirlWho's life, my husband worked the night shift, 6 days a week. He SO owes me.

And baked salmon is usually nasty.

We almost never go out, with or without each other. We lead very boring lives.

On the evenings when I work, Mr. S gets the boys their dinner and baths and I get home in time to tuck them in. And then he has to work late some evenings (this usually goes in spurts, while mine are regularly Tuesday and Thursday evenings) during which he doesn't get home until well past midnight usually and I get the boys in bed and enjoy a few hours of blissful quiet.

But we don't go out socially much at all, unless we take the boys and everyone goes someplace. I really don't have any girlfriends around here--I don't make friends easily and the few close friends I do have and my sisters and cousins are scattered around the country, so I don't have anyone to go out with even if I were inclined to do so. His friends are mostly from work (he works in the physics department at the U as well), so he gets to play with them during the day.

LadyGeekBoy is a homebody and if I don't get out of the house every few days, I go crazy. She's fine letting me go because she knows that I will always return home and spend the next night or two nestled in with the family.

The one night she did go out without me, which was about six months ago, started with me getting the kid off to bed, opening a bottle of wine and cooking a great dinner for myself while watching BSG on DVD. It ended with the kid puking not once, but twice all over himself and his bed.

Sigh.

By the way, I've got a foolproof way to bake salmon.

We both go out solo every week. Lucky's got his band on Tuesdays, and I generally do something on Wed or Thurs night (sometimes a movie with Jen D, in fact). It's good for both of us, and the only fish Lucky goes near on my nights out is already-smoked salmon.

I think the only British cookbooks worth the conversions are Jane Grigson's, though Elizabeth David is sometimes worth it, too. My mother "slow-bakes" salmon which is agonizing torture all the way through, both baking and eating.

Though I have never seen this Dr. Gillian, I do use spinach and leeks all the time, and the avocado-miso dressing sounds pretty good, so I'm intrigued.

I'm telling you, the dressing would have made all the difference! Neal poo-pooed from the beginning on account of the salmon's fat gobules. (whatever!)

This show is great. It's basically just holistic nutrition, and since that's my secret professional desire, I'm all over it.

Ever Saturday mee and DaddyNeedsaMartini leave the kids overnight with their Aunt and same-age cousin so we can have date night. We usually go for sushi and end up at a little dive bar that we like. Sometimes we'll go dancing. We have a group of about 4 other couples, plus some singles, that we hang out with regularly, whether it's the above mentioned activities or BBQing and cocktails at our house.

We also go out seperately a few times a month. He usually goes to shoot pool and have few drinks with friends on Friday nights & I go to my best friend's house. We make dinner, drink some wine & let the kids all run around together while we sit and talk. When it's our turn to leave the kids with our hubbys, we usually have dinner and a few drinks, and on occasion have been known to go clubbing with my 23 year-old brother and his friends.

That would be 'Every Saturday me and. . .'

I haven't been out since Chicago. My sister watched the boys a couple times while I went into the city or saw a movie.

Sailor has night classes so I'm stuck at home. We went out last Saturday for lunch and an hour in a book store. This Saturday we're driving to Fredericksburg with some friends for lunch and a movie.

Seriously MNAM EVERY Saturday? I cannot imagine this world. Get this... this weekend my spouse and I are going out without each other at the same time. I'm going to a lake house to hang with my friends before they all go be professors across the country and spouse is taking the Smudge to a daycare parent's night out so he can play hockey. Some day we'll go on dates.

Regina, I've got Dr. Gillian on my list. And the salmon-plus-other-stuff sounds good.

By the way, I do go out with Lucky, too. We have a great friend who babysits pretty often, and other real babysitters who charge a fortune, and are thus less optimal.

mcGlory13~ Sooo late to reply & a little drunk (it's after 1 a.m. Thurs./Fri.), but yes every Saturday. We're spoiled; she lives less than 5 minutes away and we keep her kid most Fridays. It's a win-win situation.

Jimbo and I try to go out together a couple of times a month. We have a great babysitter/friend who will watch the boys for us. We love her! It's only been in the past year that we have actively tried to "date" each other..for the sake of our marriage cuz really it's so easy to fall into the trap of being "just friends/roommates" who share parenting duties.