How We Met
Every year, the Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior Graduate Program at the University of Minnesota invites a small group of prospective students to a weekend-long event in hopes of convincing them to enroll. During a Welcome Weekend activity one cold winter day, Vinnie noticed a prospective student with long, dark, curly hair walk into the room and his body froze and his heart jumped. She was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen and he knew at that very moment that she was the woman he was going to marry. Several weeks later, the graduate program posted a list of students who would be enrolling in the fall. Vinnie nervously went into the front office to check the list for Pamela Something-with-lots-of-letters-and-German-sounding and right near the bottom of the list was “Pamela Weisenhorn.” Vinnie smiled. Pamela arrived in Minnesota the following fall but it took Vinnie quite some time to get up the nerve to ask her out.
First Date
Finally, on January 10, 2011, Vinnie summoned enough courage to knock on Pamela’s office door and ask her out. She agreed and on January 12 they went to the Red Stag Supper Club for dinner where the drink coasters had a fish (Vinnie studies fish) on one side and a dragonfly (one of Pamela’s favorite animals) on the other. The date went well.
Pamela was hosting a King Cake party the following week and had mentioned during their first date that she wasn’t sure how she was going to shape the cake without a large coffee can to make the center hole. The next day, Vinnie went out and bought a large can of coffee even though he doesn’t drink the stuff. He emptied and cleaned the can, carefully packaged the empty can in a box, wrote “Weisenhorn” on it, and placed it in the mailroom at school. Somehow Pamela knew it was from him. She successfully made a very nice King Cake and the party went well except for the part where her dog, Tadis, ate part of the cake. So, the first present Vinnie ever gave Pamela was an empty coffee can. The second present he ever gave her was a washtub but that’s a whole different story.
Proposal
Almost two years later…after spending months searching for the perfect ring and getting Mr. Weisenhorn’s blessing, Vinnie was ready to propose to Pamela. At first, Vinnie considered waiting until January 12 to propose but he couldn’t wait that long so, on Novemeber 12, 2012, he drove over to Pamela’s house to surprise her and propose. Unfortunately, she was not at home so he drove home somewhat sad. When he got there though, he saw her car in his parking lot. At this point he was about as nervous as he was when he first asked her out (which was a lot!) so he decided to walk in and ask her to marry him right then and there. When he walked in, she was doing dishes but he was committed to his plan so he dropped down on one knee right there in the kitchen, and asked her to marry him. She was caught a little off guard but said “yes” anyway.
