Sunday, June 17, 2012

Date 8: Interview Date

The note:  Let's capture some memories for future generations.  Use the attached list of suggested questions to video record interviews of each other.  SHMILY! Amy

The envelope:  A list of interview questions that was similar to those found here.

Spencer: We decided not to video tape this interview date.  This date was meant to make a record, but as we looked at the questions, it was apparent that the questions were meant for a young person to ask a much older person.  Most of the questions were along the veins of, "What was life like when you were a kid?"  Of course, Amy and grew up in the same decade, more or less.  However, some of the questions were good.  We ended up spending the night nostalgiaing (I now officially claim that this is a real word) with each other.

Amy:  This date wasn't one of the best we've ever had, but we had a good time reminiscing with each other for an hour or so.  This might be a more interesting date if we hadn't been together for so long and known the answers to most of the provided questions.  That's what I get for not really looking at the what the questions were ahead of time!

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Date 7: Spin the Wheel

The note: none

The envelope: Spin the Wheel - it landed on "her choice"

Amy:  This one is cheating a little bit.  My advisor had won an award and was giving a presentation at a banquet.  So we hired a babysitter and headed to the banquet.  Spencer doesn't know a whole lot about the technicalities of my research, but he at least got an overview of the type of work I do and got to meet some of my classmates.  Afterwards, we headed to a local frozen yogurt place for dessert.

Spencer: From what I remember, several of Amy's advisor's students attended the banquet to give him moral support and hear his speech.  I did not mind at all being there to support him, and although I am not earning a PhD in Environmental Engineering, I do have enough of a technical background to understand most of what he said... I think.  It was good learning about what my wife has been doing and will be doing, especially since I can now describe it better to people who ask (and, trust me, this happens fairly often).  

Monday, May 21, 2012

Date 6: Spin the Wheel

The note: none

The envelope: Spin the wheel - it landed on "YouTube Date"

Spencer: This week was the week of the big game, the SuperBowl.  However, not being big sports fans and having no actual TV, we were not able to see the game.  It was actually disappointing, because we DO like to watch the commercials!  So, we decided to watch the commercials on YouTube!  It was difficult to see which ones were actual commercials, because Doritos had some sweepstakes where people sent in their own amateur commercials, so YouTube was inundated with commercials that didn't quite make it.  There weren't as many truly impressive ones, but a few did stand out.  The most annoying commercial was one that had *gasp* a preview!  For weeks, they were running an ad on YouTube that showed Matthew Broderick as a middle-aged man repeating the same lines he spoke in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, making everyone believe that there was going to be a sequel!  But, as you can see from the FULL commercial... it is not quite so exciting.  





My favorite video was of a little kid in a Darth Vader costume trying to use the force, but there was a Pepsi commercial with Elton John that was cute, too!


Amy:  I would have loved to watch the SuperBowl if we had TV service, but watching the ads later as a date night was fun, too!  I have to admit, SuperBowl commercials aren't what they used to be.  We spent more than an hour on this date due to all of the "fake" ads Spencer mentioned above.  The Coca-Cola company also had a bunch of commercials that had been posted for every conceivable (or at least it seemed that way) turn in game play.  They were interesting to watch--not to mention interesting to think about how much time and money they spent on them--but I'm sure they were better if you were watching the SuperBowl.  It was kinda like being left out of an inside joke. 


I have to agree that the Volkswagon commercial with the Darth Vader kid was the best.  I think that's because I can see my cousin doing the exact same thing (and maybe even my daughter some day!).  Here it is, for your enjoyment:




Saturday, May 19, 2012

Date 5: Painting Pottery

The note:  Get fired up!  We're going to be kiln time painting pottery.  SHMILY!

The envelope:  In the envelope was a gift certificate to a Japanese restaurant next to the paint your own pottery studio.  In a perfect world, there would have also been a gift certificate to the pottery studio.

Spencer:  To be honest, I misread the note and thought we would be both making AND painting pottery. While I would still love to make my own pottery, we definitely did not have the time to do both on this date.  The night started with dropping our daughter off with a babysitter.  Although we were rather worried about how she would behave, it turns out she had as good a time as we did!  Next, we went to a little shop that had a whole bunch of primed pottery just waiting for paint.  Choosing just one was a rather difficult decision, but eventually I settled on a ring holder; it looks much like a dish with a spire in the center.  Not only was it unique, but we've needed one for some time.  The store owner showed us some books to help get the ideas flowing, but in the end I settled on a design of my own. Around the spire of the holder I painted celtic trinity knots, and used all the colors of the knots to spiral up to to the tip.  It was very fun, and I actually would like to go back again, though next time I will try to come with an idea already in mind (and I probably won't try to do celtic knots).  It took longer than we thought, however, so we had to rush next door for our dinner before the restaurant closed.  I have to say, this was a very good date idea.






Amy:  We were almost afraid that this date wasn't going to happen, at least not on the night we had originally planned for.  Although we had a babysitter all lined up, I was summoned for jury duty that week and was chosen to serve on a jury.  The day of our date was deliberation day, so I though there was no way I would make it home in time for our date.  Thankfully, that wasn't the case, and our babysitter was still able to watch our daughter.  Good thing, because this was a great date!


I chose to paint a frog that sits by the kitchen sink and holds a scrubby.  The hard part for me was choosing the colors I wanted to use.  I remember going to a paint your own pottery store when I was growing up and having a pretty narrow selection.  The place we went to was very different.  In addition to many different colors and even many shades of each color, they had special paints that were multicolored or would "crackle" when fired to create a texture.  Who knew painting pottery was so advanced?!



Thursday, March 1, 2012

Date 4: Brewing Beer

The note: Hoppy New Year!  I know you've wanted to try to brew your own beer for some time now, so we're off to shop for homebrew supplies.  SHMILY!

The envelope:  In addition to the note, a gift certificate to Grape & Grains and a printed out issue of Zymurgy (the journal of the American Homebrewers Association). [Note: when you sign up to receive the American Homebrewers Association e-newsletter, they provide a link to a free download of Zymurgy]

Spencer: This was definitely a fun one!  The original plan was to go to purchase the equipment and then look up how to do the brewing itself in books and online.  But when Amy started to look at the company, we discovered that they have 2 classes on brewing beer (as well as a class on making wine): an extracts class and a grains class.  So we decided to take the classes first.  At first, we were supposed to be in an extracts class with other people, but the other part of the group had to change their date, so it ended up being just the two of us.  The couple that owns Grape & Grains is very nice and knowledgeable.  We learned about wort, gravity, extracts, equipment, and more!  Essentially, he took us to the back room, where they had some burners and things set up, took out a brewing kit (the hardware), and chose a holiday brew kit (the ingredients).  It had everything in it and even instructions on how to brew.  It was rather easy, and during the downtimes we got to talk with the owners, even try out some amazing home-made wine!  Afterwards, we learned how to experiment with different things in the brew, such as adding certain unique ingredients.  The beer was put in a fermenter and set aside, where it still waits to become full-fledged beer.  When it is done, we will get to try out our little libation and have a chance to purchase some brewing equipment for ourselves!  There is another class later where we learn how to make the extracts that we used from actual grains.  Can't wait!

Amy: I thought this was a really great date, especially since it wound up being a personal class.  I always thought of brewing beer as this big, complicated thing that was really easy to mess up.  Maybe that's because of the "Chemistry of Brewing" lectures I've attended.  But I digress.  Brewing beer is not hard at all, it just takes some time.  I only wish we had remembered our camera!  


If you're in the upstate of South Carolina, make sure to check out Grape & Grains.  We want to make sure this unique business stays in business!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Date 3: Word Date

The note: Let's be a little spontaneous!  This week's date will be planned around a word that you choose right now.  Make it a good one!  SHMILY!

The envelope:  Inside was another piece of paper with the following.

Word:
What will we...
...wear?
...eat?
...do?
...talk about?
Where will we go?
What about a treat?

Spencer: The basis of this one was to pick a word and use the letters in it to determine what our date was going to be like!  Amy and I have always had a word that, if you haven't noticed yet, we use with each other regularly.  SHMILY!  It is an acronym that means See How Much I Love You.  So, since this is a date night of ours, I chose SHMILY for the word!  It just happened to fit perfectly for the date!


What will we...
...wear?  Scarves
...eat?   Hotdogs
...do?  Music games
...talk about?  I spy
Where will we go?  A nearby town that starts with "L"
What about a treat?  Yogurt, frozen.


There were essentially two parts of this date.  For the first, we went out to a restaurant that we had never been to in a nearby town.  It was a small family-owned diner.  There were enough pictures and objects in the place that we had fun playing I Spy with each other, trying to stump each other!  We must have looked a little silly with the scarves on, but that's alright.  Afterwards, we went to 3 Spoons to get some frozen yogurt, then headed home and played SingStar (Queen edition), a karaoke game for the Playstation.  It was actually a rather fun date, and we could take our daughter with us, so that made it easier on us, too!

Amy:  To be honest, I don't remember where I got the idea of this date from, but I think it turned out really well!  It was a little hard to come up with each of the categories at first, but it wound up being a good combination of activities.  Wearing scarves was a little weird, especially since it wasn't that cold outside, but the family-owned restaurant we went to was one we'd never been to before.  The food wasn't anything special, but was good enough.  I have to admit that Spencer's hamburger was probably better than my chili dog.  Playing "I Spy" really put us in touch with our inner child and I think both of us are looking forward to when our daughter is old enough to play.  It worked out that we were able to make 3 Spoons, our favorite fro-yo place, a part of this date.  We like being able to pick our own combinations of frozen yogurt and toppings.  We also enjoyed playing SingStar: Queen after we put our daughter to bed.  I did all of the singing while Spencer played the guitar.  I think we even earned some trophies!




Thursday, February 9, 2012

Date 2: Spin the Wheel

The note:  none

The envelope:  Spin the wheel - it landed on "Video Games"

Spencer: This week was simple.  I spun the little wheel Amy made for me, and it landed on "video games."  Now, I have a decent number of video games to chose from.  Amy likes to watch me play sometimes, so finding one that she would play with me narrowed down the possibilities quite a bit.  On alternate Sunday nights we have been hosting a get-together with friends, and last Sunday we played a bunch of music games (Beatles Rock Band, etc.), so this week we decided to try a game we hadn't played in a while - Little Big Planet


Little Big Planet is a "platformer," a game where you control a little dude (a "sackboy") and make him jump onto different platforms to solve a puzzle.  You can also customize how he looks... or flirt with your wife by attaching cute buttons to her character. :D  We decided to try some levels that other players made, something we'd never tried before.  It was pretty fun, but certain levels can be either very easy (and boring) or impossibly hard (and... frustrating).  I think if we land on video games again, I would like to try a music-related or story-based game.

Amy:  I really enjoy Little Big Planet, but I have very little patience with it sometimes.  Spencer really likes to earn all of the trophies for each of his games, and we were able to earn some new trophies by completing sections that are meant for two players.  Some of the user-created levels were interesting (and some were not).


The wheel itself is from The Dating Divas and they have a printable so you can make your own, too.  Their version is prepared with velcro so that you trade activities in and out.  For us, I chose six activities to remain permanently.  Apparently, Spencer has been plotting what to do when we land on "his choice."

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Date 1: Bucket list banner

The note: Remember that bucket list you haven't looked at in forever?  On this week's date, we're going to pick 12 of them to accomplish this year.  SHMILY!  Amy

The envelope: length of twine, mini clothespins, banner triangles ready to be written on.

Our first date was to pick 12 items off our bucket list(s) that we want to accomplish this year.  The only problem was we couldn't find our bucket lists, so we just came up with twelve new things we want to do this year.  What's on the list?

  1. Learn how to knit/crochet; finish a cross-stitch pattern.
  2. Buy a DSLR camera and learn how to use it.
  3. Brew our own beer.
  4. Visit a state we've never been to.
  5. Complete the Cooper River Bridge Run.
  6. Learn how to surf or water ski.
  7. Can food grown in our own garden.
  8. Take our daughter on a bike ride.
  9. Grill a steak; make bagels from scratch.
  10. Take our daughter camping.
  11. Write a novel.
  12. Read 12 books (each).
Spencer: We decided to look at a month's wort of dates at a time so we could plan things out better.  This was the first one we chose because some of the dates we will be going on may work towards this one as well.  I was very disappointed when I realized we couldn't find the old bucket lists we had made years ago.  I put a lot of work into it!  So we came up with a full bucket list to go through and started to eliminate things according to how difficult they would be to do this year.  I was hoping to be able to do one of the more interesting things on the list, but logic prevailed.  Alas! we will not be able to afford sky diving this year.


Some of you may be wondering if "learn how to knit/crochet; finish a cross-stitching pattern" was Amy's idea.  It actually was mine.  When I was young, my mother taught me how to cross-stitch, but I never had the patience to FINISH, or even get close to finishing.  And some of them can look very nice.  The Cooper River Bridge Run is Amy's goal, but I went with it because it would let me see Charleston, which is something I've wanted to do since I moved here.  Grill a steak is not as simple as that - I want a grill a good steak.  In the past, I've always had very bad luck in my steaks; there have been only 2 or 3 that I would call "good."  Writing a novel is cheating just a little.  I am half-way through a novel right now, but it does give me a good incentive to finish it in a timely manner.  Finally, we will be taking a class on brewing beer later this month, so it was a good one to add to the 12 items.

Amy: Apparently, a lot of people create bucket lists for each season.  That's where the idea for this date came from.  I just adapted the concept to be more realistic for our lives.  I think visiting a state we've never been to will be the hardest.  Since both of us have been to most of the neighboring states, it's going to require a little more planning.  And of course, we've both ridden a bike and been camping, but we haven't done those things with our daughter yet.  That will be fun for all of us.  Canning our own harvest is now a reality since my grandmother gave me one of her old pressure canners and a bunch of mason jars.  Now we just have to keep all our plants alive!


Look for future posts updating you on our progress.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

The Gift

Sometimes, the longer you know someone, the harder it is to surprise them.  Birthday gifts have to be hidden with extreme secrecy, a surprise party has to be planned with the skill of an FBI sting, and Christmas is akin to breaking out of high-security prison.  By the time we're on our 25th anniversary, we're going to have to hire professionals.

This Christmas, however, my wife, Amy, was able to surprise me.  Since Halloween, she has been holed up under the guise of "work" in the office of our house.  I've been dragged into town blindfolded while she ran errands and forced to keep out of the office for two months.  There were times when she thought I might "figure it out," but I don't think I would have been right if I HAD seen what she was buying.

We've been trying to go on regular dates ever since we had our baby, but it has been, to say the least, difficult.  For Christmas, Amy prepared one date a week for the next year, some of them prepaid and all of them creative.  Once a month, I will spin an arrow on a board that will determine that week's date (between video games, not your ordinary movie, my idea, her idea, etc).  Other than that, though, I will be opening manilla envelopes each week to see what the date will be!

I got the idea for Spencer's gift from Shannon, who gave a year of dates to her husband in 2011.  However, instead of one date a month, I decided to attempt one date a week.  What was I thinking?!  I wanted to plan activities that we had never done together (for the most part) and that were prepaid, so that sometimes all we have to do is find a babysitter.  In the end, I wound up running out of time to finish driving around town buying gift cards and knick-knacks, so not everything is as polished as I had envisioned.

Regardless, Spencer still loves his gift, and we hope you will, too!  Each week, we'll post a short synopsis of the date, some photos, and a review.  Please feel free to contact us if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions; our contact information is on the right sidebar.