December 12th, 2014

Aristotle: "Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies."

Five years ago today, Damon popped the question.  Sorry folks, no mystery bag challenge tonight!  For those of you who don't know, he did it at The Christmas Train in Dry Gulch.  Damon apparently had more than a train ride up his sleeve!!  On the way there we stopped and grabbed some dinner, then we stopped to get gas. Damon called my mom and asked her permission for my hand. Thinking back, I think my mom was like "who the hell is this???" lol.  Not that she didn't know Damon, she could just barely hear him.  Anyway, from there we went on to Dry Gulch.  We rode the train, sipped hot chocolate, and then we went to the Schantz & Co. General Merchandise store (inside Dry Gulch).  Damon was looking around kinda crazy and I was just looking for some type of souvenir.  I finally found a pretty red bulb, I got one for his mom, my mom, and one for us.  Meanwhile, Damon is still casing the joint, seriously, he was twitchy and looking around like he was about to rob the place.  Then all of a sudden, I hear him say, "Can I have your attention everyone" and then I got nervous.  It was hot as hell in that store with all the Christmas lights so I thought Damon was announcing that building was on fire.  I'm startled and looking around and then next thing I know is Damon is down on one knee and the rest is history!  

 

It was super special and I love that Damon cared so much to put so much thought into it.  He knows how much I love Christmas so he picked the perfect place.  After I said yes, we got lots of applauding and on our way out of the building one old man even asked Damon what he would have done if she said no.  Ah, what treasured memories!  

So, we have so many anniversaries now, there starting to run together!  Anyway, no plans to go out or anything like that.  Just a nice dinner and a quiet evening at home!  We're still on our process of watching every movie that has ever won an Oscars for best picture.  Before dinner, we watched On the Waterfront (1954) and it was probably one of the best, if not the best movie we've seen so far.  It had a very young Marlon Brando and he was really good in it. 

After that we poured ourselves a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon and I started making jo jo's.  For those of you are not familiar, they aren't potatoes, they aren't wedges, they are jo jo's.  I found a recipe online from someone who is from Oregon (where I first had jo jo's and because it appears people in Oklahoma/Arkansas don't know what the hell a jo jo is).  I'm hoping her recipe is similar to what I remember eating as kids in Oregon.  I think jo jo's should typically be deep fried but that often can make a mess in our fryer and we thought baking them would make them a little healthier. 

I cut the potatoes and then Damon helped me coat them in the flour/cheese/seasoning mixture and we got them in the oven.  We figured they'd take close to an hour so we just chatted a bit before getting our steaks on.  After just hanging out in the kitchen listening to Dean Martin for a bit, Damon went ahead and started to get the steaks trimmed and ready to fire.  We really enjoy cooking and who doesn't love steak and potatoes, a perfect way to spend our engagement anniversary night!

Damon likes his steaks medium rare and was pleased that he was able to cook his steak to just the right temperature for that, but I like mine a little more done, and Damon did a great job of getting my steak cooked to a good medium well, just the way I like mine!

Damon's steak...

My steak....

Dinner turned out delicious and we had a great "5 year engagement anniversary!", and it was a perfect excuse to have a nice steak dinner!

Next week is Damon's turn to cook, I can't wait to think up something crazy for his bag!