Dan and I are in the same fantasy football league, although this is my first year having my own team. Each time our teams play, we’ve set up side bets to make things more interesting. For the first matchup, if I had won, Dan would have had to take me to a restaurant I’ve always loved but he had no interest in, but if he won, I would have to not eat cheese for a whole week. He won, and I was not happy. But the second time we played each other (and by this point my team had established itself as pretty solid, thanks to Aaron Rodgers), we raised the stakes. Or, I did. If Dan won, I would have had to take him to see the Immortals. But if I won, he would have to go with me to a paint your own pottery place for an afternoon of craftiness. I wouldn’t be writing a whole post about it if he won, so clearly I won. Dan fought tooth and nail, and I twisted the knife by giving him the impression that it’d be HOURS of painting (as opposed to one, since you pay by the hour).

We went a few weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon, and going during the Christmas season was the best thing, just because owning crappily painted Christmas decorations somehow makes more sense than attempting to paint something you’d actually use. (Although I do still use the toothbrush holder that I painted back in 2002.) Dan was pretty obviously unhappy when we got there, and the clerk at the store could totally tell that he’d been dragged there. He made sure to tell her that he lost a bet. I had a hard time, as usual, deciding what to paint, knowing I wanted to paint stripes, but also knowing how much imperfectly painted stripes would annoy me.

Dan picked a wizard-ish Santa figurine after I pointed out that it would be awfully funny to bring it out every year and remember how he had to paint it because he lost a bet. I went with a giant mug, since I somehow only own one Christmas mug.

It was so much fun, and although he’d never admit it, I’m pretty sure Dan didn’t hate it anywhere near as much as he expected he would. Not that he’s clamoring to go again anytime soon, or, you know, EVER… but it was really fun and different and if winning a bet is the only way I’d get him to go with me, I’ll totally take it.