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Community Corner

Dinner and a Movie: Traditional yet Relaxing

For those with a hectic lifestyle, this classic could provide for a well-deserved treat.

You're constantly on the go, with the job, with the kids—but just this once, one of your relatives leaps to the top of the favorites' list by offering to take the kids.

So, now what?

Powder Springs City Planner Tina Garver wishes she had that problem: "I have a 2-year-old, so for me, free time is, 'What's that?'  But if I had an opportunity to have some time away from the house and work, I'd want dinner out with my husband, and maybe a movie afterwards."

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Letting someone else do the cooking and cleanup and having a meal across from someone who doesn't make airplane noises is Garver's version of paradise.

"We like going out for Mexican or barbecue on those rare occasions," she said.

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Luis Robles, head waiter at  on Powder Springs Road in Powder Springs, said the restaurant has plenty of parents who come in that love its "world famous margaritas." He confided that most couples "margarita-out" while there.

Todd Harris, the assistant manager of on Thornton Road in Lithia Springs, said moms who relax at his place go for "pork sandwiches and yellow jacket hot dogs." Not all of them wait for Dad to tag along, either. 

"We have lots of female get togethers here," he said.

As for the movie after the meal, there are plenty of romantic comedies out this week for parents to enjoy at the on the East West Connector in Austell or at Movies 278 in Hiram. 

You could go for the hilarious animated garden gnome romance—"Gnomeo and Juliet" with James McAvoy and Emily Blunt—if your spouse needs to be prodded to approve a love story.

Then there are "Just Go With It," featuring Adam Sandler and TV sitcom graduate Jennifer Anniston, and "No Strings Attached" for the younger set, with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. 

Rom-com staple Cameron Diaz teams up with Seth Rogan in "The Green Hornet."

But if your significant other wants his romance with suspense instead of comedy, there's always "I Am Number Four" with Dianna Agron from "Glee" and Alex Pettyfer. However, be prepared to be swimming in teens at your theater. 

Near the end of the night, you may feel like going home to the 2-year-old a little early.

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