Uhhh...Three and a half?

This sage answer is Max's response to his father's blurry-eyed query, "How many cups of sugar does it take to get to the moon?"

SPEAKING OF CUPS...

Ok, so it was a lame segue, but admit it, it caught your attention. There is a store called Color-Me-Mine in town, a relative hotspot for college dates as well as girly craft time, mommy/daughter date... oddly enough I didn't see any guy-only parties there... huh.

It's a pretty basic setup: go in, pick some blank ceramics off their walls, use their paint to decorate it in whatever design you wish, they bake it in a kiln and you pick it up a few days later. I had heard of this delightful place when my Mrs.-B-to-be just started dating, but we never managed to make it there.

Until now.

But first, some back story (I probably should have told this more chronologically but that Goofy segue was priceless). I am a firm believer in hobbies. Everyone should have an interest, something that they like, yet can never fully explain why. I have many, and am even audacious enough to try and push one of them into a career. Everyone should have something they compose or practice or sculpt or even collect.

Now I, being the sensitive caring attentive husband that I am, know something in particular that my wife loves to collect:

Teapots.

It didn't take long for me to put two and two together; why buy her a teapot when we can paint one? She likes teapots, I like painting, we can color-me-mine! ...er, color-us-ours... I even did a bit of online research to ensure that they not only had ceramic plates, cups, etc. They had teapots.

So for our date night I took her out to color-us-ours a teapot! Only problem is, no teapots. Whether they had simply run out or just didn't provide them to begin with, I never found out. All we could find on their shelves was an entire tea set - cups, saucers and all. Unfortunately this was a bit beyond our price range. And then came the moment I have come to dread most of all in my dating blunders. My darling wife turns to me and asks: Well, do you want to just go?

All my work, my planning, my connecting two and two, my noticing something that she likes and catering an activity to her interests, gone. As a new husband, desperate to impress the woman who holds my heart, it shattered me. I could not, would not let this evening fail. So we grabbed some cups and got to work, not having any idea what to paint.

She designed something to commemorate the date and slip in a few inside jokes.

Meanwhile, I eventually decided to honor one of our favorite movies with one of our favorite soundtracks.

Represent.

Was it the perfect evening? Did I sweep her off her feet? Did my insight and sensitivity leave her dewy-eyed with admiration and love? Of course not. We're newlyweds. Most of my date ideas before our marriage were blunders, but she's still here, so I must be doing something right. I'm certainly still going to keep trying.

Next time maybe I'll just buy her a pot.