8 years ago tonight.....

Ms. Amanda and I had our first ever date! Its kind of a funny story about how it happened, but I won't bore you with the details (though, based on the comments, it appears no one is reading this anymore anyway). But, basically, I asked Amanda to go see "The Samples," one of our favorite bands, play in Portland. She excitedly said yes....and then, an hour before we were supposed to leave, cancelled on me, since she "forgot" that she was playing in her own concert that evening with the UNH Symphony Orchestra--a TOTALLY exciting 18th century French opera written for King Louis the something-teenth on the completion of his palace Versailles! YEAY!!!! Who would want to go see a rock concert when you could see this:
And it DID look very much like this. But, as you probably could guess, I cancelled my own plans and surprised Amanda at her opera, where she played 1st oboe. After the opera, we really needed some downtime to decompress (what, with all the excitement of the opera and all!), so we went to Breaking New Grounds for hot cider, walked around campus, played some music at the PCAC (The UNH center for the arts), and then went back to my house, where one of my roommates, Brian, a lumberjack on the UNH woodsmen's team, was hosting a bunch of other drunk lumberjacks who were down from New Brunswick for the big woodsmen's show. So we watched them and ate homemade chicken soup. And, as they say, the rest is history.

So tonight I surprised Amanda by getting Cindy to come over to "preside" while Callum slept, and I took Amanda out for dinner. It was great to celebrate our unofficial "anniversary" with just the two of us...not that we dont adore Callum....

Please take a look at this (click to blow it up if you need to):This is the box in which Amanda put her dinner leftovers. Pretty unassuming Styrofoam box, right? What's with the design on the box? Furthermore, why does there NEED to BE a design on this box? Its a simple leftover hamburger holder....there's no need for art here. Just a plain box will do. What a sad, unfortunate waste of time and resources that someone had to decorate this styrofoam box, no? But if you're going to do art, do it all-the-way. Why not a nice engraving of a mountain scene, or a kitty cat, or a restaurant logo, or SOMETHING. The design on this box either looks like a) the DOS version of "Marble Madness," or b) the pattern of one of Bill Cosby's sweaters during that lame show he had for 20 years or something....

What is even more concerning is that this was someone's JOB to do. Picture it: The struggling graphic artist sits at his cubicle, awaiting his "big break." The boss walks up to the nervous recent college grad. "Johnson," he says, "I've got a job for you...gonna need some thinking....gonna need some real good right brain thinking to spruce up the decorations on our take-out container boxes....get me your three best ideas by 5pm."

And, after hours of painstaking work, the artist gets his inspiration, and the result is what you see above.

Q: What do you do??

A: Actually, I design engraved decorations to go on take-out styrofoam containers!

Anyway....

We got home, and Amanda got right to work on making some of her broccoli and leek souffle for an office pot-luck dinner tomorrow. This souffle thing is the BEST thing Amanda makes. Hands down! LOVE IT

While we cleaned up, we listened to a "Prairie Home Companion" podcast.

A great night!!