Paper Anniversary

My wife and I will be celebrating our 1st Wedding Anniversary (the Paper Anniversary) on Monday (we beat Kim Kardashian a long shot.) and to celebrate we will be re-visiting the restaurant where we got engaged:  Spice Island Tea House, in Oakland.

We were initially going to go on Friday so we could celebrate without having to worry about getting up for work - but decided at the last minute to just stay in, order Angelia's (damn good with olives, banana peppers, green peppers, and tomato) exchange anniversary gifts, and drink the better part of a gigantic jug of our good friend Carlo Rossi.

Because she is awesome, and because she knows what a gigantic dork I am, my wife got me a 1976 printing of The Hobbit with Illustrations by J.R.R. Tolkien.  I totally geeked out.

It was the perfect gift for our paper Anniversary.  She also got me a sketch of Jack from Lord of the Flies inked onto a page from the novel.  Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Flies are at the top of my list of books that have impacted me the most, I'd say - for obviously different reasons.

I had considerable trouble deciding what to get her.  I initially wanted to get her this paper lantern that you write your hopes and dreams on and the light a small candle under which sends it drifting off into the night.  I really liked the imagery - but then, because I'm crazy, I could not shake the image of our drifting dreams landing on someones house, setting it on fire, and then burning down a neighborhood.

So I canned that one.

Instead I got her this:

It's a heart made out of paper - which sounds super lame, but actually ended up having the consistency of really tough cardboard - but with a glossy texture - probably sealed with a varnish of some kind.

She loved it!

So Monday will be Spice Island.

On the culinary front - we really haven't gone out too much.  We did go to The Pine wednesday evening for dinner.  I got the pasta dish where you create it yourself, Gina got the grilled cheese.  Truthfully, thats about the only two items on the menu that we can get - but they weren't bad.  I got penne, marinara, and broccoli.  Their sauce isn't bad - but no restaurant's is ever as good as Mom's.

Last note - I recently got very into (like, almost annoyingly so) Of Monsters and Men and am listening it to it as I write this.  Freaking great stuff.

I'll report on Spice Island after Monday.

I will leave you with a picture of the delicious Vegetarian Chimichanga I had for lunch from Petrone's in Wexford - I went there with my Dad for lunch this afternoon.