The beginning

Our inspiration for this blog:
When we travel we're the kind of people who have to eat at "THE PLACE" that particular city is known for.  Hence the picture of us at the famous Arthur Bryant's BBQ in Kansas City, July '09.  We're working to check off restaurants before we die.

But at home we found ourselves eating at the same restaurants all the time.  We couldn't decide where we wanted to eat.  If it wasn't in the North Raleigh/Brier Creek area, we didn't go.  BORING!

We got iPhones for Christmas '09.  Well, I got a new iPhone 3GS 16G.  I had been wanting one since they came out but, I refuse to get the first generation of any technology as I believe the bugs haven't been worked out. (Before Apple's sleek iPod/iPhone days of compatability I took a '99 iMac to college and dealt with 4 years of headaches.)  Plus, we had a contract with Verizon.  

But, our contract was up, and Greyson being the wonderful husband he is, agreed to get rid of his Blackberry.  (He has one for work anyway.) He surprised me Christmas morning with a creative way to wrap my gift and we went and got the phone the next day.

Greyson's creative gift wrap

We were in the Apple Store and Greyson says.  "I'm not gonna lie.  I'm a little jealous."  I knew he too wanted the pretty little piece of smooth technology in his pocket that makes you feel cooler than you really are.  After a week of watching me Tweet, text, and app shop my fingers raw, we went back to the Apple Store.  I assured him that him getting a phone would make my Christmas gift no less special.  Just to make sure though, he got the older 3G 8G model for $99.  He is a dear!

So a week after we kept hearing the "Da-na-na Da-na-na" of the ESPN SportsCenter App constantly update on his phone we discovered the inspiration for our blog, UrbanSpoon.

www.urbanspoon.com has an iPhone app we love.  (A free one, Greyson is not big on the paid ones yet. I of course would easily drop five bucks for a Harry Potter games App.  But that's a different story for a different blog.) With the UrbanSpoon App you can find restaurants in your area and read reviews.  You can set a filter to the type of cuisine you want and price.  Then you shake your phone and it finds restaurants for you.  

We tend to make everything a game.  Seriously, everything.  So here goes....

Shaking it up, The Rules:

1.  When we're going to dinner we each get 3 shakes to find the right place.  Sometimes we may not be in the mood for Mexican, or Sushi, or whatever.  The 6 shakes at least give us some choice.  We'll pick a restaurant from there.

2. No repeats.  We're trying new places, at least for 6 months.  

3.  We review each restaurant on the UrbanSpoon App.

4.  We blog about our experiences here.

A few caveats.....

1.  We are in no way restaurant critics.  Our only qualifications are that we love to eat.  We love to eat out.  And we have spent countless hours watching both the British and American versions of Gordan Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.  

2.  Greyson is trying to lose weight.  So we have to EARN our dinners out.  We have to work out.  It's on the internet now so we are accountable.

3.  Only 1-2 nights out a week.  We cannot afford any more.  Maybe after our stellar critiques catch Ramsay's eye and we become part of his restaurant empire, we could do it every night.  But not now.

4. You will hear about our dinner conversations on this blog.  We plan to bring friends along on our dinners.  You'll have to hear about them too.

Here's to technology making dinner more entertaining!

-Amy